Pi Day

Greetings everyone,

I'm a few days behind on my post, but I took the weekend to ponder how I can tie Pi day to real estate in Sioux Falls.  After giving it some thoughts, there are a few connections that I'd like to discuss and get thoughts on.

My wife is a graduate student at SDSU in Brookings.  She's gaining her masters in Mathematics and is excited to graduate this Spring, and to find a job at a local Community College or school in town.  Pi day is a big deal in her department.  They celebrate it like a holiday with good food (pies of course), fun t-shirts, and a variety of activities.  National Public Radio even did a bit that she had to end a phone conversation so she could listen in on more Pi day information.

 After hearing about all the fun they had, and all the new information they had learned on Pi day about 3.1415 etc.  I had to sit down and think about what this had to do with Real Estate.  My thought led me to evaluate passion in our lives.  Listening to the stories of Pi day from my wife made me realize that mathematicians are very passionate about finding exact definitions and exact values for variables.  They cannot rest until they had found the "right" answer.  My wife told me that even though Pi goes on forever, the need for the infinite value is unnecessary.  But mathematicians have this internal need to find exactness.

We in the real estate profession probably should look in our own heart and find out if we have the same passion for people and their real estate needs.  Are we always looking at their needs before our own?  Obviously, there were a many individuals purchasing houses that shouldn't have been with their current economical situations.  Just because we/they can, doesnt' mean we/they should, right? 

The other side of the coin is this.  They are adults, and can make decisions on their own.  They don't need another parent telling them that they shouldn't.  That is correct.  We're not being paid to make decisions for people.  We're here to assist in finding the home, and negotiate the best contract for them.  But does that limit us to finding appropriate houses?  Shouldn't we be honest at all times?  Shouldn't we be loyal at all times.  To me, those terms go beyond to negotiating.  It means to me that we look at the whole picture and maybe we suggest to them that they rent for another half year and save for an emergency fund.  Maybe for an afternoon, we look at some houses that are more moderately priced, just to gauge the values.  I believe if we care for our clients totally, we need to be concerned for their future. 

This isn't necessary in every situation either.  There are many instances were clients are aware of their financial situations and have full capacity to make educated decisions.  But we all know the situations where clients get caught up in the emotions of purchasing a home.  Either they peek into a house that is over their head in price, or they get caught up in a bidding war for a home (we know that doesn't happen enough for our sellers!).  These are situation where you would suggest to the buyers that they sleep on it and discuss it with a financial coach.

I hope that this blog entry isn't' too preachy or long winded.  But it's time we as professionals stepped up to the plate and came back to our industry standards.