Who will you trust — a pro, or a greenhorn with no skin in the game?
A few years ago I decided to stop watching the news. Turned out to be one of the smartest things I’ve done in a while.
I’m less worried, my mind seems to work better, I get more done, etc.
I highly recommend it.
And don’t worry about being “uninformed.” The way we’re constantly bombarded by media, you can’t really avoid it altogether. I’ve found that if something is big and important enough to actually matter, it will find its way to you.
So all you really miss is the noise. Give it a try for a month and see how you feel.
It’s easy to go back to the old way if you don’t like it.
One exception is that I still look at the Dallas Morning News website a few times a week. I enjoy their sports coverage and also want to see if anything’s happening locally I need to know about.
But if I’m not careful, I start reading headlines and get pulled down the rabbit hole of thinking the paper is nowhere near what it once was in terms of being a balanced source.
And then I spend time writing about it.
More often than I probably should.
It can be entertaining though. Pretty often you’ll see what I think of as the “two papers in one” effect.
One day you’ll read about the “housing shortage” in DFW.
The next, you’ll see headlines saying builders are slowing down because inventory’s piling up and nothing’s moving.
So which is it?
To be fair, it’s more complicated than that.
DFW isn’t one market — it’s dozens of sub-markets layered on top of each other. Some areas are on fire. Others are cooling. And sometimes they trade places within a few months.
In some areas, local regulations and land costs can make it nearly impossible to build housing at a price that fits the budget of a middle-class family. So there’s a “shortage.”
In others, the relative affordability and better schools make it where houses almost can’t be built fast enough — at least until interest rates rise and put the brakes on it. So there’s a “slowdown.”
In other words, market reality can be very different just a few miles away.
That’s why broad headlines are almost useless when you’re trying to make a real decision. They can give you a general sense of the climate, but they can’t tell you what’s happening on your street, your corner, or your tract.
If you own land, a lot, or a development site, your situation could be totally different than what the media portrays.
That’s where talking with someone who works these deals every day actually helps — because “the market” isn’t one big story.
It’s a bunch of small ones playing out at the same time. Written by increasingly young reporters who lack the context to really report on the market. Anyone old enough to have seen a Cowboys Super Bowl Championship can tell you today’s rates aren’t particularly high by historical standards. And that what passes for a slow market today would be a roaring success 15-20 years ago.
Is it ever a bad time to talk to a real expert who shoots straight and knows the local dirt?
You know what to do:
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