A Year to Put in the Past

Earlier this year Jonathan Brown interviewed me for the series "A Year of Hard Choices". It was an entire year of hard choices as I rely, almost solely, on real estate sales to support myself. The real estate market continues to improve, but it's still depressed in the vacation home market in which I specialize.

During the third quarter I finally had a few sales. Very tight expense control allowed me to survive on savings for the first 9 months of the year. I did more appraisals (or what we call Broker's Price Opinions) of homes in pre-foreclosure status. Doing this sort of work is mind numbingly dull, but I did more appraisals this year than any other previous year. They provided some cash flow.

So...my year of hard choices was constant reevaluation of my chosen profession and the location in which I work. It was further complicated by the fact that some of my volunteer work may have cost me some listings. I stepped up to the position of President of the Johnsburg Emergency Squad. The squad had encountered some internal turmoil and when the going got tough, several leaders "got going" and just outright quit. As the President, I led the squad through a period of rebuilding.

As a trained public speaker and spokesman I'm trained in working with the media. I did numerous interviews to maintain the image and reputation of this critical community service. My name was featured prominently addressing some of the squad's issues. During this rebuilding I watched numerous homes get listed by my competition. I'm confident that as a reward for my selfless volunteer work, a number of local residents punished me by not even giving me a chance to make a listing presentation when they were ready to list their homes for sale. The saying that "no good deed goes unpunished" never felt more true.

I'm finishing 2009 in the black. I covered all of my expenses and never made a late payment. I ate home more this year than in a very long time. I'm someone who enjoys dining out and socializing. I'm fortunate that several friends helped out generously picking up the check once in a while. I'm more fortunate than many, but on the other hand I made absolutely no progress toward retirement. I'll finish the year with about as much money in the bank as when I began. I've taken no pay. I merely repayed the money that I loaned my business.

I'll celebrate New Year's eve. I'll celebrate that the year is over, but my year of hard choices will continue into 2010. I'm guardedly (very guardedly) optimistic that 2010 will be better. Somehow I will make the choices to make it better.