When we say, Happy New Year, capitalization required or at least inferred, we’re not so much wishing as we are demanding. Better make it a Happy New Year, or else! But for all these declarative wishes, it might be best instead to ask about the old year. Maybe the greeting should be something like, “How was this year?”. Seems more appropriate to wonder, even if rhetorically, how someone fared this year rather than asking them to have a happy new year. At least then we’d verbally acknowledge that not every year, for every person, is a happy one.
So how was this year, this 2012, this year that we have all but run out of? I would say that for me and my house, it was an unprecedented success. There was no illness this year, none detected (yet) in me, none for my children nor my wife nor my brothers nor my parents. My grandmother is approximately 182 years old and there is no sign of quit in her. In fact, I’d argue she’s stronger today than she was a year or two ago, a medical fact that should have that old guy in Japan worried about holding onto his title. My family was healthy, very much so, my children strong and smart, the roof over my head entirely leak free and my bed comfortable enough. It was a wonderful year, and I was blessed to be me.
Business this year represented a remarkable success, with $23MM in sales and a keen eye that never wavered for even a moment off of my prized Lake Geneva vacation home market. I think that sales volume should make me #2 in the county for total volume this year, but we’ll see. This blog site, the site that I try my very best to keep alive and growing, swelled with over 125k page views and 23k unique, return visitors. That’s not so bad, even if I’ll never challenge Wikipedia for interweb domination, and unless I turn to writing about mason jars and twice baked potatoes I won’t have a chance to touch that Pioneer Woman (Look everyone, here’s a picture of my daughter with a butterfly! A butterfly!).
The Lake Geneva vacation home market thrived during 2012, and lakefront sales will break all sorts of records by the time today turns to tomorrow. The benefit for you, and for me, and for all of us here is that the market has rebounded in terms of volume but there is no indication that prices are going anywhere. So while competition for inventory is more fierce than it has been since 2006, there will be plenty of value propositions for my clients in 2013. The benefit of a solid year such as this one is that the conversation surrounding real estate has turned from one of complete and utter confusion to one that reeks of promise swirled with dizzying optimism.
There are pledges to make now, and resolutions to write and attempt to keep. I’m going to lose some weight this year, which is something that I pretend to do better than almost anyone. You should see me at the gym! I walk around, thinking about lifting something or walking on something or stretching, and then once all that thinking is over I have a nice hot shower and return to my office. The mental exercise of pretending to actually exercise is exhausting. I’ll try harder this year, and perhaps if I try hard enough I may lose some weight early in this next year that I’ll inevitably find later. Oh, there you are!
I documented well how many sunny days I missed this year. It wasn’t a summer of summers for me, it was a summer where I had glimpses of what my summer should have been, but then I worked too much and tried too hard to excel at other things. This year, this 2013, it will be different. I’m going to work to find my summer, and unlike some confused people out there who think their summer can be had during some week long, or month long summer “vacation”, I know it can only be found on a boat on that blue water, and it can only be found and maintained with regular, systematic doses. The medicine only works if the dosage is correct, and the dosage is only correct when the IV drip is constant.
For all the blessed trappings of this year, I know that my success is dependent upon those who I work for and with. I don’t need a million clients. I don’t need to sell a hundred homes. I simply need my friends and customers and readers to keep me in mind should they need any real estate help, or should they know anyone who might. A few referrals here and a few there is all I need to keep this business alive, and I’m grateful for every lead and every helping hand that extends my way. This next year, I hope you have an absolutely incredible year. I also hope your 2012 was a shining success, which is more than can be said for all those other people who will go about today and tomorrow simply wishing you a happy tomorrow.