It Will All Be Over Soon

T-Minus 37 Hours and Counting

Within the next 37 hours or so, we’ll know who the next President of the United States is going to be. I’ve reached the point where I’m less concerned with who it is than simply knowing which one it will be so we can return to our lives as normal (or as normal as they tend to get.) Two years of campaigning is a bit much for an office with a four-year term. Or maybe it’s just me.

With the final pronouncement, the stock markets either will strengthen or decline or maybe a little bit of both. Housing prices could stabilize or continue to slide, though there are times I think the actual plans of the candidates mean far less than the public’s perception of those plans. And that’s what I’m relying on to some degree – an increase in confidence, regardless of the outcome.

It’s a nebulous concept at best, but when you’re watching markets where fear is the dominant factor, it stands to reason that an alleviation of that fear might thaw what in many places are frozen real estate markets. Contrary to popular belief, financing is available for those with legit credit and income, and prices – at least across large swaths of the Phoenix market – are at affordable levels.

Relief would be welcome … but it’s not entirely necessary.

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Drinking the Kool-Aid

Not necessary, I say, because a few months ago I decided once and for all that my business was not going to be dependent on market conditions. Like you, I had heard Russell Shaw talk about not letting the state of the market determine your success. Maybe like you, I didn’t necessarily believe it was possible. I’d say the words but lacked the conviction.

There’s not one single moment I can point to where the change happened and I finally drank the Kool Aid, but change it did. And so now, as I begin putting together my business plan for 2009, I’m less concerned with who’s going to be in the White House and the overall direction of the economy than I am with the actions I can take on a daily basis to build my business.

Worrying about who’s going to be in office and whether we’re officially in a recession or simply doing a fabulous imitation of it were draining the energy I needed to succeed.

The economy remains a question mark, in as much as Wall Street can’t seem to decide whether we’re in a recession, are facing a recession or simply whether we should go screaming into the streets at the mention of the “r” word.

But it doesn’t have to be the defining factor in your business. Neither, for that matter, does the result of tomorrow’s election. Focus your energy on the positive, on the niches in your particular real estate market where activity still happens, and you’ll succeed.

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It sounds oversimplistic. But I’m living proof that it’s not.