Senator Richard Burr – Sampson county, NC

A good visit…cordial with a nice group intent on hearing the ins and outs of our political woes.  The Senator gave the insider’s twist on economical situations – brief, informative, enlightening.  He reminds us of the power of leverage as it relates to the ‘Bridge’ over troubled waters.  In this scenario, the Bridge being the Loans made to corporate America, Troubled Waters being the financial times we are in.  In his perspective, this Bridge needs to take us to Sustainable Income that maintains itself after we have gotten to the ‘other side’ rather than a bridge that gets  us over but in two years, there’s nothing there to keep us going.  (Now, in this illustration, please keep in mind that I have put my elementary twist to it and these aren’t necessarily his exact words but you get the gist… )

Senator Burr touched on Consumer Confidence and made the analogy of the confidence level shrinking in relation to the equity you may have in your home.  As your property should depreciate, the less likely you are to be spending on non essential items.  This is a reasonable response and we are feeling this somewhat in our area; however, what has been a disadvantage in the past of our property values not appreciating as they have in other nearby areas, we now are for the most part, holding our values.  I have had more than one fight with an appraiser that wasn’t giving a value that I thought was justified – you see, I work in several other market areas and knowing what other areas do, I wanted Sampson county to get some of that same pie…but now, while some of those areas had farther to fall, we are hanging on.  Of course, there are some areas of exception… (oh yeah – maybe I should apologize to all the appraisers I have had fights with??)

And now, I am trying to remember what he was relating to when he said the lady was in the grocery store at Thanksgiving – as she searched in the frozen department for a large turkey, she asked the young man working nearby if the turkeys got any bigger.  He replied, “No ma’am. They’re dead.”

With that, I am signing off – Have a Great Weekend!

Keep Smiling!

Ann E. Naylor GRI, ePro