Well, Jewell Real Estate Agency was a success right away.  The combination of the local vacation home real estate market taking off in 2001 and people really appreciating the personal service of a mom-and-pop realty company was a hit.  We doubled our anticipated sales earnings the first year and by 2005 City Girl herself sold $27 million worth of real estate properties. 

Our laid back demeanor and knowledge of the market, land use, zoning, and latest trends gave us a very loyal client base.  Because we so enjoy meeting people and establishing lasting relationships, we lived up to our motto “…Where you’re more than a customer, you’re a friend”.

Then the hard times hit.  In 2006, it was like turning off a water spicket.  Our entire vacation home market went from very busy to totally dead.  The phones stopped ringing at our agency and every agency in the Wildwoods.  What just happened?

While local real estate agencies began to go out of business, close satellite offices, or shrink their staffs, we adopted a business plan to keep our advertising at the 2005 levels.  Perception is everything in our business and we had to maintain our presence.  Our plan was sound and we survived the devastating years of 2006 through 2009.  Additional  keys were undoubtably our continuing to answer our phones 6am to 9pm, 365 days a year and our popular newsletter, composed by Mountain Man (a retired writer) and published six times a year.  We mail out about 5,000 a month, plus over 900 are sent free by email to subscribers.

In 2010, the real estate market turned around.  Folks who had been sitting on the sidelines the past four years seemed to lose their apprehension, much of it induced and prolonged by the media.  They figured that they had survived the recession and now it was time to live out their dream to own a second home.  Prices were about 40% less than the highs of 2005 and interest rates were under 5%, giving added incentive.

Now, in 2011, with buyer traffic like we haven’t seen since 2001, we are expanding our Wildwood Crest office.  We are currently hiring sales agents, enlarging our rental department, and have opened a cleaning company – all housed in the building next door that we’ve purchased.

With 10 years under our belts, we look forward to the next 10 years.  We’re excited.  That’s living the American dream!

- Mountain Man 

That’s a bit profound, but definitely true. 

That’s why depressed people are depressed and chronically sick people are chronically sick.  It’s also why lively people are lively and upbeat people are upbeat.  It’s mind over matter.  It’s the vibes you put out to the universe that steer your mindset.

The same holds true for the recession of the late 2000 decade.  People who go around moping about how bad things are typically find that things remain bad for them longer.  While they whine about the economy, jobs, real estate, the stock market, etc, others are going out and making a good living and seizing the opportunities at hand.  Insightful folks, those with vision, aren’t complaining about the present but instead are setting themselves up for a prosperous future.  It’s that simple.

Since City Girl and I are realtors, let me run through the real estate gauntlet.  When the Cape May County, New Jersey shore vacation home  real estate market went south in 2006, many realtors went into a funk.  Not all, but many.  They were all doom and gloom and that attitude prevailed in their offices.  They sat around and played cards all day, bemoaning the fact that the phones weren’t ringing and no prospective customers were walking through the door.  In the next four years, many offices closed up shop and the ranks of licensed realtors in the county board shrunk by one-third.

Meanwhile, Jewell Real Estate Agency took a different approach.  We saw it as a break from doing so many real estate deals and an opportunity to focus on the future and to tweak our operation.  In the boom years of 2002 through 2005, we didn’t have a chance to step back and analyze our business.  The money was flowing so we were content.  Our inward look began by us realizing that we couldn’t cut back on advertising.  In the hard times you have to maintain your presence.  The offices that cut back or even cut out advertising were amongst the first to go belly-up.

By mid-2008, we decided to expand by adding a second floor to our Wildwood Crest office.  We were positioning ourselves to be ready for the next boom.  It wasn’t until the final day of 2009 that we received our final approvals to go forward with the construction.  The winter of 2010 delayed us further and it wasn’t until late in the summer that the complicated concrete footing and block work was completed.  A busy autumn, with a renewed flush of real estate sales and prospective buyers gave us the same feeling we got in 2001 – the local real estate market was coming back.

Buoyed by the surge in activity and our own optimistic outlook on real estate and life, we decided to undergo a full-fledged business expansion.  The time was right.  We would catch the real estate wave while it was still far from shore rather than wait for the wave to nearly break at the beach.  Too many folks jumped into real estate near the end of the 2002-2005 boom and missed the ride to the top.  They crashed and burned.  

We would take our philosophy of personal attention and unbridled integrity and select a few top-notch local agents to join our real estate family.  We would offer four desks for sales agents, two for rental agents, plus house our new Timber Lane Cleaning Service and its 10 employees.

So how are we expanding without completing the construction of our second floor?  Stay tuned.  The answer comes in a couple days.

- Mountain Man

Not so fast, my friend.

Sure, the national unemployment numbers are still tough to swallow.  And yes, we are still seeing more vacant store fronts popping up.  Discretionary spending is off, too, though you have to wonder when you see folks descend on a mall and drop hundreds of dollars on trivial junk for Christmas.

But here in Cape May County, New Jersey at the shore, the tide has turned in the real estate market.  Pun intended.  With interest rates hovering around 4% and prices nearly half of what they were in 2005, sales have been brisk.  We’re also seeing that folks are tired of sitting on the sidelines and after five years they ackowledge the opportunity is there to finally purchase and own a vacation home at the Jersey Shore.  If they were 55 years old back in 2005, they’re now 60 and not getting any younger.  I call it the “now or never” syndrome.  If they waited much longer to buy a second home, some would probably just say forget it.

Back in 2004, we began telling our clients that the days of buying pre-construction condos, then flipping them a year later the day after closing, were over.  We saw an overabundance of new construction and sensed that the market was shifting.  Unfortunately, we were right.  We are getting that same feeling again, except this time it’s a turn in the other direction. 

We believe that the vacation home market leads the way.  Our real estate market was the first to fall apart, and it is the first to recover.  And why not?  Folks who can afford second homes usually own their own business or they are high enough up on the corporate ladder to have a solid income.  When the national media began their gloom and doom predictions, the frugal upper and upper-middle class folks pulled back and stopped spending.  Now that they’ve endured five years of a recession and the sky hasn’t fallen in, they’re back.

Here at Jewell Real Estate Agency, we have sold 2.5 times more properties this year than in 2009.  We’re not bleeding greenbacks anymore.  Not only are we relieved, we’re very optimistic.  No doubt, it will take the primary home market another two years to catch fire.  But when it does, all will be well in Whoville.

- Mountain Man

I feel qualified to have an opinion about the Jersey Shore (the place, not the show) because, heck, I live here.  Our real estate office is located in Wildwood Crest, Cape May County.  We’re just four blocks from the beach and the beginning of the 39 city block long Boardwalk.  From Memorial Day to Labor Day, the population on our island swells from 14,000 yearround to over 250,000.

Our closest metropolitan area is Philadelphia.  It’s predominantly Italian and Irish heritage.  And it’s a rite of passage for families and their kids to vacation here.  It’s also an unofficial “tradition” that kids in their late teens and twenties come here in the summer to party.  Party hard!  Party hard away from their elders, out of sight of those who might inflict family repercussions.

I have a little more insight than most because I also owned a bar here from 2002 through 2004.  Though my tavern was off the beaten track and it attracted an older (30 to 75) crowd, I did become acquainted with many other bar owners and I did make the late night rounds more than once.

Long story short, I recently did catch two episodes of Jersey Shore.  It’s about these eight Italian-American young twenty-somethings who come to the shore town of Seaside Heights, NJ, about 50 miles north of us.  They have an assortment of MTV-generation names like Snooki, JWoWW, and The Situation.  The Situation?  Give me a break.

Anyway, they primp and argue at their rented beach house, then go out and drink and carouse, and inevitably come home and be promiscious with a newfound partner.  They call it “hooking up”.  You can call it what you like.

They also get into fights and do other immature, egotistical things.  They are an extreme example of typical summertime behavior.  Tone it down a little bit and they’re just like the others who go “Animal House” at the shore.

The Italian-American groups call Jersey Shore demeaning and not reality.  “That’s not how our kids act,” is their general feeling. 

Bottom line: 

Is this behavior the norm at the shore in the summertime?  Yes.  It’s called “sowing your oats” before settling down to a lifetime of responsibility and 2.3 kids and a soccer-mom vehicle and a mortgage.

Should Italian-American groups be offended?  No.  Get over it.  It’s also Irish-American kids and CEO’s kids and teachers’ kids and mayors’ kids.  And your kids!

- Mountain Man and City Girl    http://www.MountainManandCityGirl.com 

The blogsite of Jewell Real Estate Agency, Wildwood Crest, NJ    http://www.JewellRealEstateAgency.com

I’ve had a cell phone for 10 years, and now 85% of Americans do too, according to statistics.  Judging from my older friends, I think I personally know many of the 15% who don’t.

I bought my first computer in 1993, just months before launching my own weekly all-sports newspaper.  I didn’t know how to do much, other than type articles into Microsoft Word that I would later cut and paste.  By cut and paste, I mean scissors and wax onto camera-ready full newspaper-size sheets.

I got my first email address in 1999, just prior to opening the main office of Jewell Real Estate Agency.  A year later we purchased three more computers for our new branch office, run by my broker wife Joyce.  While my wife jumped into the computer age with vigor, I still hung around on the outskirts.  She was busy inputting data on our website, local MLS, and many other websites used to sell real estate.  I stuck to writing material and articles into Word, then letting her cut and paste them (yes, computer cut and paste this time) into our various advertising venues.

Now as the “ought decade” comes to a close, I write a blog regularly and I do my research on many topics on the Internet.  Wikipedia is great, and I can read online the newspapers from the many places I’ve lived.  I’ve even abandoned the Weather Channel on TV for Weather Underground on the Internet.  And I can get instant sports scores.  Yee-haa!

But that’s where I draw the line.

I don’t even know what a BlackBerry is, nor an iPod.  I don’t own a DVD player or DVR, and in fact don’t know the difference, if there is one.  I don’t Facebook or Twitter or YouTube or Wii.  Heck, the last video game I played was Pacman on a Commodore 64, circa 1984.

And don’t even think of sending me a text message.  I don’t know how to read one or write one.  The only thing I can do is delete the one you sent me, unopened.  If you have something important to tell me, pick up the phone.  I do answer the phone.

I don’t have a GPS.  I’m a guy.  I use a map, or else I’ll Mapquest first and compare it to my real live map.  Okay, I do have a radar detector in my vehicle.  That baby has saved me a lot of bucks, not to mention points on my license.

While I’m ranting, I don’t have tattoos and I think they’re degrading (spelled S-T-U-P-I-D).  Same with piercings.  I don’t watch reality shows – never.  My TV is never tuned to ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox.  I watch nature shows, movies, and occasionally college sports.  Don’t even think I’d watch the Simpsons or Beavis & Butthead.  I don’t do Pay-Per-View and I don’t download movies or music. 

Also, I’ve never been in a Starbucks.  I don’t have (or need) a life coach.  I think cougars are desperate.  And what’s this thing all the “under 30s” are doing with holding up different fingers?  Does that mean something?

One last thing.  You’ll never see me going around with one of those Mr. Spock things in my ear.  What’s with that?  I own three businesses and I’m a successful author, yet I hardly think I’m so important as to walk around needing 24/7 instant access to my phone. 

Okay, I’m done.  I feel better now. 

You can perhaps see why they call me the Mountain Man.

- Mountain Man

http://www.MountainManandCityGirl.com

But should their job be iffy, it’s better to sit this one out.  Why buy a vacation home if in the next year it becomes too much of a financial burden and they end up in foreclosure.  Not only will their credit be ruined, but their shore experience will leave a lasting negative impression and they may never enter the second home market again, even in good times.

Their are currently 15.4 million unemployed Americans and the jobless rate is hovering around 10%.  As always, these numbers do not include folks who have literally given up on ever getting a job and dropped out of the work force.  A record 5.9 million Americans have been out of work at least a half year as 7 million jobs have disappeared since the recession began.

The normal unemployment rate is about 5.5%.  Experts expect that the rate won’t return to that range until 2015 or so.  Job creation is the key.  In the last 10 years, from 1999 to 2009, the net gain in jobs is only about a half million, thanks to the loss of those 7 million jobs.  The previous 10 years, 1989 to 1999, saw 21 million jobs created.

Another factor in the job market is that many Baby Boomers are not retiring, but instead are staying in the work force in order to afford to live more comfortably.  This leaves the younger and less-skilled workers on the short end of the stick.

So what to do? 

The federal government needs to create jobs.  The recent infusion of money into infrastructure, mostly highways, really didn’t employ that many people.  Material costs – asphalt, concrete, steel, heavy equipment, etc. – ate up much of that cash infusion. 

Roosevelt had his Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which pulled many through the depression by creating labor-intensive jobs (meaning more people than machines).  Why not get something like that rolling, where people of all skill levels can clean up roadsides, do much-needed maintenance work at state and national parks, thin underbrush in the forest fire-prone West.

Let’s prioritize solar, wind, and water power, offering generous subsidies and tax breaks to companies that manufacture and install these alternative power sources.  And let’s clean up urban blight, by demolishing abandoned buildings and clearing vacant lots.  That could be followed by building urban housing – but not “housing projects” – that would not only create jobs but upgrade people’s living standards.

When the government coordinates with private enterprises to create jobs, our economy will turn around in a heartbeat.  It’s that simple.  Are we asking for too much?

- Mountain Man and City Girl

http://www.MountainManandCityGirl.com

Being a second home market, our yearly calendar of sales activity is fairly predictable.  By that I mean that just like a school year starts and ends around the same time each year and school vacations are scheduled about the same weeks each year, our business also has regular busy and quiet times.

Our real estate market usually cools off each year about 10 days before Thanksgiving and that semi-hibernation lasts through New Years Day.  That’s a time when local realtors takes cruises and warm weather vacations or work shorter days and cut to a minimum of floor time.  In the past, some real estate agencies even closed from Christmas Eve through January 1st, though not us.

Because that six week period is fairly predictable, any decrease or increase in potential buyer volume is a good barometer of the condition of our local real estate market.  We can gauge fairly accurately what type of year we are about to have by how many email and phone inquiries, plus walk-in traffic, we get during that time period.  It’s sorta like the Groundhog predicting more winter or not, if you get my drift.

Which brings us to this year’s prognostication. 

We were busier than usual leading right up to Thanksgiving Day, then the trend continued right up through Christmas Eve.  The day after Christmas (yesterday), the phone and email inquiries were brisk.  We’ll be juggling property showings all week long.  Hurray!

While perhaps not very scientific, our real estate business indicator is predicting a good 2010.  What more can we ask?

- Mountain Man and City Girl

http://www.MountainManandCityGirl.com

Dave is hired by White House bigwigs as a one-time only stand-in for President Bill Mitchell, who has identical looks.  When the President has a paralyzing stroke, the White House chief of staff retains Dave to impersonate the President to keep the political power in his court.

As Dave assumes the role of the President, he increasingly realizes that he can do much good for America and his humor and vitality energizes the country.  After Dave and Mrs. Mitchell, played by Weaver, visit a homeless shelter that has a surprising number of kids as clients, Dave is touched.  He is soon shocked to learn that the chief of staff removed a $650 million  portion of the federal budget that was designated to fund homeless shelters.  Mrs. Mitchell, who already hates her husband, is really upset.

Long story short, Dave rolls up his sleeves and really assumes the position of President instead of being a puppet stand-in.  He eliminates fluff from the budget in restoring the $650 million homeless shelter funds.  Now Mrs. Mitchell realizes that Dave is not her real husband, and together they conspire to change America for the better.  Dave announces a plan to “give a job to every American who wants one.”

And that’s why I would like to be Dave for a month or so, just like in the movie.  A common man got a chance to make a difference, to cut through the government bureaucracy of patronage and waste.  To restore American’s faith in America, to bring common sense and doing what is right back to Washington, DC.

The movie was pure fantasy.  But the dream of giving back our country to the everyday person and being led by someone with compassion and common sense is too much to ignore.  It’s the way things should be.

Don’t you agree?

- Mountain Man

http://www.MountainManandCityGirl.com

I’m a perfect example.  I’m not a Christian.  I don’t buy Christmas gifts or have a Christmas tree.  Bah humbug.  The materialism of Christmas turned me off nearly a half century ago.  And a lifelong examination of my religious beliefs and the religious philosophies of the world has pretty much made me conclude that I’m perhaps an atheist.

But I am blessed with a great wife, who happens to be my best friend and business partner.  Her unbridled enthusiasm for Christmas makes that a time of year that I especially appreciate all she’s done for me and all that she means to me.

I recall a quote, “Love is the soul’s recognition of its counterpoint in another.”  That wraps up my feelings toward our special relationship.

So I ask on this Christmas day that you not dwell on what things you did or didn’t find under your Christmas tree.  Instead, think longingly of the ones you love.  For it is that love that carries you through the other 364 days of the year.

- Mountain Man

http://www.MountainmanandCityGirl.com

Fannie CEO Michael Williams and Freddie CEO Ed Haldeman each received $900,000 in salary and another $3.1 million in salary with payments deferred to 2010.  That’s $4 million apiece.  Each also is eligible for another $2 million in performance incentives.  Considering that Fannie and Freddie needed a combined $111 billion, yes billion, in federal bailout money, one wonders exactly what their performance bonus was contingent upon.  Perfect attendance?  Turning their homework in on time?  Spelling their names correctly?

The argument by their cheerleaders is that the former CEO’s of the two companies, who were both fired in September, 2008 when the bailout money was proposed, made a lot more money.  The Fannie CEO received $10.2 million in 2008 and the Freddie guy nailed $13.1 million.  It practically took an act of Congress to stop them from awarding themselves another combined $24 million in termination pay.

The case for Williams and Haldeman continues that each would command up to $10 million in yearly pay in the private sector.  The argument typically concludes with, “No one else would do the job for less money.”

Bullfeathers!

I’ll do the job for one year for a measly $500,000.  I’ll move to Washington, DC for one year, rent a condo, and work 365 straight days.  A lot of qualified people would do the same thing.  And I’ll donate $100,000 of that money to DC soup kitchens for the homeless.  That would make my take home pay about $250,000.  Not extravagant, but fair!

I really get tired of hearing how top company management and all government workers – federal, state, and municipal – feel justified in making a lot more money than their small business and working stiff counterparts because, “No one else would take this job.”  And the benefits they receive, including health insurance and retirement packages, are way beyond reasonable and equitable.

Is anybody mad yet?

- Mountain Man

http://www.MountainManandCityGirl.com