Choose to win in this market

Choosing failure. Everyone is tired of the bad news in our industry and understanding the regulatory and technical happenings in our industry is my job. And I spend quite a bit of time on it. But it is NOT my client’s job.

So rather than talking about Ben Bernanke or Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or any of that uninteresting blather, what I want to discuss with you is an old cliche that came to mind: Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail.

First, let’s remember that a cliche became a cliche because its meaning was so powerful that it became overused and lost its original meaning. Huge lessons can be gleaned from a cliche.

What are a few common cliches?

1. Don’t give up your day job.
2. “Penny wise and pound foolish”
3. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
4. “A bull in a china shop”
5. Don’t trip over dollars to pick up pennies.
6. Make hay while the sun shines.
7. I felt bad that I had no shoes until I met a man with no feet.
8. “Walk a mile in their shoes”

We’ve all heard the cliche, “Failing to Plan is planning to fail.” Right?

That’s what I want to talk about today.

Our nation and industry is crippled by fear. People are hearing and seeing some terrible things happen all around them and they are worrying themselves into paralysis. Emotion is a very powerful force and it makes us act in some very strange ways.

Here’s another cliche – The shoemaker’s children have holes in their shoes. Why? Because the shoemaker was busy fixing everyone else’s shoes. What this cliche means to me is that we all lack the ability to focus objectively on our own situation because we are distracted by our emotions.

A husband and wife and their children have growing frustration in their life because “the walls are closing in around them” (another cliche). They are parking in the driveway because their garage is filled with stuff that won’t fit in the house anymore. They would love nothing more than to move to a home with more space, but they hear the news, they have a bit of financial stress so they decide to ignore their need and their frustration and try to put it out of their mind. What does that do to their daily life? How does that affect the way they treat their kids? Are they less likely to entertain friends and family? What does that do to their overall quality of life? This is an example of failing to plan being a plan to fail.

Unless they find a genie in a bottle and wish to be in a new home, it is going to take some time, some advice and some planning.

1. What can we sell our home for?
2. What needs to be done to get the home ready to sell?
3. How much will that cost?
4. Should we finish the basement, replace the windows, carpet, furnace, roof, countertops or paint before listing?
5. Will I get my money out of those projects?
6. Who can we contact to do that?
7. When should we list to get the best sale price?
8. How much space do we need for our next home?
9. What will that cost?
10. How much can we afford?
11. What can be done to out income, savings and credit to have the best options available to us?
12. How do we do that?
13. How long will it take?
14. What are rates doing?
15. Will we be able to get financing when we are ready to go?

These are just 15 questions I rattled off the top of my head as fast as I could type. There are a thousand more that people like us think about every single day.

Why would anyone try to do it themselves? To save a buck? Studies show how costly a mistake that can be in the long run. Another cliche: don’t trip over dollars to pick up pennies.

Think of the garage door project that you thought you could do yourself. The box said it would take an afternoon. But after a weekend of mis-drilled holes and crossed wires, you are still parking in the driveway and wishing you had help. You go and hire someone who finished it in an hour for $50 and think of the time you wasted.

Another cliche – “You get what you pay for.”

Get some advice and have some help chunking down your goal into small, bite sized pieces and a timeline to get there. Anything you want can be yours.

Don’t choose failure. Choose to win.

By Ronny Loew – Ronny is the Next Home Specialist with MN Home Loan Partners. Whether you are moving up, downsizing, relocating or keeping your home as an investment and buying a new primary residence, Ronny has specific strategies to make it easy and a financial win. He can be reached at 952-808-2815 or rloew@houseloan.com