"I want a Bomb Shelter for Christmas!" - Real Estate News from Kitsap County WA

Growing up in the shadow of the 'Bay of Pigs' and the Cuban Missile crisis, I remember that there was a somewhat short-lived spurt in the sale of bomb shelters. We lived in Livermore, California, a quickly growing suburb just west of the San Francisco Bay Area, and home to Lawrence Radiation Laboratory. I guess at the time, with all the research and testing going on at LRL and the adjoining Sandia Corporation, having a bomb shelter wasn't such a bad idea!

One of my Dad's co-workers at Sandia was the 1st in the neighborhood to have a bomb shelter. As a kid, I used to think it was SOcool! It offered the perfect guys hang-out or secret club location. We used to play Army, and pretend that the Russians were going to drop the Bomb (we were much too sophisticated to play with Tonka trucks or Matchbox cars!).

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With all the negative spin circulating about the real estate market, literally 'bombarding' us from all sides, there are times when some of us feel like retreating to a Bomb Shelter! Either that or join a monastery and live in some remote cave high up in the mountains!

Some market forecasting soothsayers make it sound as if the world financial collapse, 2nd Coming of Christ, and Judgement Day are just around the corner.

One of my more interesting/entertaining reads here in the Rain is Don Scott out of Ellicott City, Maryland. You can't mistake his profile picture when it pops up on the Blogging Dashboard. And after reading some of his posts, you definitely feel like you've had a Close Encounter of the Third Kind!

He reminds me of some of the Bubble Bloggers here in the Seattle WA area. They go around acting like Mel Gibson's character in the movie "Conspiracy Theory," thinking that there's a world-wide Holocaust behind every market indicator.

Well, I guess you just have a choice. You can live in fear. Hoard up in some isolated cave, eating a steady diet of SPAM, and waiting for the world to blow up.

Or, you can go out and embrace the challenges that each new day brings. As real estate professionals, we can continue the relentless representation of our client's best interests, and help Buyers and Sellers to successfully achieve their relocation goals!

 

17 Comments on "I want a Bomb Shelter for Christmas!" - Real Estate News from Kitsap County WA

No kidding.. let's be optimists.  Besides...isn't it true that if we think negative...negative will come back? So why not give out a bunch of postive stuff...and get a bunch of positive back?

12/12/2007 02:28 PM by Celeste "SALLY" Cheeseman (RA), HAWAII Real Estate & HAWAII Relocation (Century 21 Liberty Homes -Mililani, Hawaii)

Great blog. I looked at Don's blogs, nice picture.

12/12/2007 02:34 PM by Zen Ziejewski (Prudential California Realty)

Rich - While I don't mind SPAM per se, I'll continue to be a part of the solution and nothing else.

12/12/2007 02:35 PM by Jason Sardi, Pennsylvania Mortgage Broker (First Choice Equity Group Inc.)

Jason - actually, I enjoy SPAM, especially over a campfire with freshly caught trout and eggs for breakfast!

12/12/2007 02:49 PM by Rich Jacobson ~ ActiveRain Community Builder (ActiveRain Corporation)

Well said, Rich. I vote for embrace the challenges each new day brings - Spam in a bomb shelter just doesn't cut it for this Sunshine girl!

12/12/2007 02:51 PM by Karen Cooper - Quality Home Loans, Inc.

Rich, nice post. I do remember air-raid drills and my Grandfather had a bomb shelter in Spokane. I am so over all the negativity. Can we all just say "the spin stops here"!! OH, what is a "sugarbug" :)

12/12/2007 03:24 PM by Jo Soss | Bremerton WA Real Estate (Skyline Properties, Inc.)

Rich,

Our first floor family room often looks like a bomb shelter...does that count??? Thanks,   Fran

12/12/2007 04:26 PM by Fran 'The Title Man' Gaspari Title Insurance-PA & NJ (Patriot Land Transfer, Inc.)

Rich,

I remember the drills in elementary school where we had to crawl under our desks, as if that would do much good, but it was a nice diversion from the school day.  Thanks for keeping it positive and reminding others to do so as well.

12/12/2007 06:03 PM by Fran Gatti - Crescent City CA Real Estate (RE/MAX Coastal Redwoods)

Great take, Rich.  I wouldn't call myself an optimist or a pessimist.  I just put one foot in front of the other and do my job.  I try not to spin anything to either a positive or negative slant, but simply analyze what needs to be done to take advantage of the current scenario.  The way I look at it, regardless of what goes on in the market at large, there is no reason that I can't find the 20-30 transactions out there that I need for a successful year.  You can't tell me that I can't find 25 people to sell a house to even if the earth were struck by a meteor.  Plenty of folks would need new caves.  Shoot, we lost a planet this past year.  When the eggheads decomissioned Pluto, I still managed to hit my target numbers despite the total crumbling of my belief structure regarding the basic tenets of our solar system.  So whether the market is "good" or "bad" really doesn't matter much to my mindset.  I've got to sell "x" properties, period.

12/12/2007 09:17 PM by Paul Slaybaugh, Scottsdale AZ Real Estate (Realty Executives)

I keep dreaming of herding goats. It has to pay more consistently right?

12/12/2007 11:32 PM by Sarah Nopp, REALTOR(R), CRS. RE/MAX Four Seasons, Olympia WA (RE/MAX Four Seasons)

Oh so true, I just wrote a post about the myriad recent headlines in our Charlotte Observer.  Hey, you know I graduated from Berkeley...I knew we had a connection somewhere!  Between living in Pasadena near Caltech and JPL and Berkeley I have been around areas that were possible targets much of my life.  A bomb shelter would have been cool.  Today I guess we just hang on for the crazy ride we are on!

12/13/2007 04:09 PM by Lake Norman Real Estate ~ Diane Aurit (RE/MAX at the Lake)

Cool, a bomb shelter!  That was so much better than hiding under the willow tree in my grandmother's yard....  I personally have rarely been more busy than I am now.  You just have think and work differently than you did two years ago, that's all.  Right?

12/13/2007 04:40 PM by Marlene Scheffer, Realtor to Kitsap County, WA (Realty Station)

We were thinking that ducking under our school desks would do the trick. Until the mushroom media cloud dissipates. Think that would work now?

Great title.

 

12/13/2007 08:50 PM by Gary Bolen (CRS) Lake Tahoe Real Estate Information (Dickson Realty - South Lake Tahoe)

I bet you have a crab shelter in your backyard...just in case armageddon hits, you can breed the Dungeness crab back into existence!  LOL!  Did you know that the state of Hawaii has the highest consumption rate of SPAM in the country?  If it hits the fan, I am going to Hawaii!

12/13/2007 09:51 PM by Classic Property Management of the Antelope Valley - Jonathan Mitchell (Classic Property Management)

lol, I saw that picture and the first thing I thought of was the fort that I made as a kid out of my Grandfather's secret room for making alcohol!

12/15/2007 12:32 AM by Todd Clark (Realtor), GRI (Washington Co, Beaverton, Oregon) (Kastings & Associates, Oregon)

When I was a kid, I wanted the bomb for Christmas, not the bomb shelter.

:)

 

12/15/2007 12:45 AM by Wayzata Lakes Realty: Eric Kodner Sells Luxury Homes

I remember a few years ago showing a house in the far suburbs of DC that had an old 50's era bomb shelter.  We went down the funny stairs, and it's hard to imagine spending any amount of time down there!  

12/15/2007 08:04 PM by Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company)

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Real Estate Agent: Rich Jacobson ~ ActiveRain Community Builder (ActiveRain Corporation)
Rich Jacobson ~ ActiveRain Community Builder
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