Look forward, not straight down

Learning to fly was not easy.  

It was frustrating, it took patience (from my instructors, too), and I never thought I'd get the hang of it.  

Then-I had an AHA moment!  My Dad, who just happened to be my first flight instructor, was teaching me how to land.  It was probably something he said before, but this particular day I was ready to hear it.  Just before we touched down, he told me to look all the way down the runway.  It went against all the cells in my body to change my gaze from looking directly in front of the airplane, where we were about to land, all the way to the end of that runway.   You can guess what happened?  I had the best landing I had ever had up to that point.  

This was in a small Piper Cub, on a grass strip close to Canyon, Texas where I grew up.  Believe you me, I took that all the way to the airlines.  When I was learning how to fly a big jet for Continental Express, guess what?  I had to force myself again to look down the runway and my landings were a million times better.

Here's the parallel with current situation:

In this new world of bad news everyday, the immediate future looks bleak.  It doesn't sound like we are going to be getting out of this situation anytime soon.  That's where I am looking down the "runway", and really the future looks pretty great. 

I had a discussion with a buyer client of mine this afternoon, he was ready to give up and just rent for another year.  Says this is a bad time to buy.   By the end of the call, I had him turned around and we are going to go look at houses this weekend.  Why?

• His rent is $1200/month.  That's $14,400/year.  Let's say he stays around the average length in this house, instead of renting (7 years).  That's $100,800!  Just in money that he didn't throw away renting!
• Sellers are seeing this too.  And, some are ready to make deals.  So, I convinced him to let me go find a house that I can get him a great deal on.
• Interest rates are so low right now, and they will be for quite some time probably.  If you can buy a house, you should.

All in all, looking past this situation is how I know we are all going to be just fine.  Maybe even better than fine.  So, when are you buying a house?  :)