Saturday, September 15, 2007

Seems as though a few more of the real estate folk have found Bendbubble2, and the Bend Oregon Economy Board. Will be interesting to see how that develops. Interesting that they've noticed, even more interesting that they are engaging in discussion.

I hope they don't get completely shouted down, because that doesn't do anyone any good. But based on some of the comments so far, I'm wondering if there is much of a middle ground.

One thing I always hated about what happened in the sports card market is how long and how strongly the 'think positive' elements held sway. They weren't willing to acknowledge problems, much less help solve them. The solution, eventually, was they all went out of business.

Anyone left was well aware of the problems.
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2 comments:

Jason said...

"One thing I always hated about what happened in the sports card market is how long and how strongly the 'think positive' elements held sway. They weren't willing to acknowledge problems, much less help solve them. The solution, eventually, was they all went out of business."

How many of them saw a problem, I wonder? Were they too stubborn to admit problems, or did they really think things were going to be fine?

September 15, 2007 at 11:29:00 PM PDT
Anonymous said...

Bend Real Estate is very much like Sports Cards.

Nobody really needed them, but they bought them and traded them, and hoped that a sucker would pay more.

Eventually they ran out of suckers, as the greatest fool had bought.

Today folks are trying to reinvigorate the Bend 'sports card' RE economy, where everyone bought 2 or 3 spec homes and let the sit and appreciate.

Year to date this summer was supposed to come back, many happy optimistic realtor's are running out of cash to hold them over.

Like cards Bend has an incredible inventory. Like cards Bend is 99% marketing and 1% substance. Building took place all over the country during the recent boom, but the best marketing&PR folks in the country marketed Prescott, & Bend. Huge appreciation for 2-4 years.

Today in Bend you have Brasada, Tetherown, Pronghorn, all trying to sell their Sport-Cards in shops that cost a fortune with no apparent foot traffic.

*

With regards to the newbies, I don't really think so, most of these boards whether you call them bendbb, bendbubble2, or bmwjmageh, there are really only 2-3 people at a given time using six aliases, always been that way. Its real hard to know what the trends are. WRT your comment there have a been a few anonymous posters saying that Bend is just going through what the rest of the country is, that somehow Bend is NOT over-built or over-marketed.

The whole gig of Bend was to spend money, city money on marketing & PR, and sell the product. Now that there are no customers, with no cash, the only tool is more marketing and more PR. Trouble is people have no money. The little money we have left in the city will go to the PR people, which is why you see the positive statements coming out, that things are looking up.

Our little Bend bubble implosion was certain, we knew that years ago, the national recession simply makes it easier to suggest that all are feeling pain.

Bend Real Estate is very much like Sports Cards, everyone that could buy, did buy, and many bought 2, 3, or more. Now there are no new buyers coming to Bend. Thus in time homes will sit empty and Realty/Card shops will sit empty.

September 16, 2007 at 8:11:00 AM PDT

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