Through my years interacting with different groups on the internet I’ve found that politics infects everything. Even the real estate sites I’ve visited lately are more about the participant’s politics than about taking an objective look at the real estate market.
It doesn’t take long to see the dividing lines between left and right. In the 70s and 80s, the phrase “perception is reality” was bandied about as a hip dismissal of what’s real and objective. Now it seems “Politics is reality” is the controlling mindset.
Many people, it seems, try to create reality, regardless of facts, according to their political views. Not that there is anything wrong with holding a political view, but it seems that nowadays politics is bereft of reason, logic and a search for and acceptance of what is true. Truth is relative, right? And facts are inconvenient when you have an agenda that must be established at all costs.
I know real estate is not as important as the great concerns of our times: war, hunger, terrorism, environment, etc, but here I’m talking about how politics has even infected a mundane subject like housing and financing. It adds a special irony when you consider the topic is REAL estate.
From the conversations in which I’ve been involved, the bent of politics is quickly revealed – the left states, unequivocably, the economy is imploding, home values will fall 50%, the credit crisis will squeeze the country dry and Bush is the evil moron who caused it all.
The right says it is all doom and gloom created by wild-eyed tree huggers wearing Birkenstocks and sipping lattes.
The truth is that it is what it is. If you bother to search the facts, they speak for themselves. In parts of the country home values are falling, in other parts they are flat and in other parts they are rising. Financing is tightening somewhat but people with good credit can still get loans. Some financial institutions who were reckless suffered for their recklessness. Some borrowers who borrowed more than they can pay are going bankrupt. It is neither the end of world nor is it the best times for real estate. It is what it is, no more and no less.
I won’t spout off statistics, they can be found. My point is that the RE professional’s job is to find the facts and be objective in the midst of the political battle that seems to ignore facts and propagate whatever message supports the warring political mindsets
My job is to be the Sweden of the real estate world, to remain neutral and objective. I’m not sure how much more of the group discussions I can take. Social networking around a specific interest is a great idea, but our political climate of division makes it non-productive at this point. One thing I will say for Relib is that I haven’t seen political division among this group. There’s a lot of truth in the old adage that politics, religion and sex don’t make for polite discourse.
Of course, there’s a place for everything and these subjects have their place, but in real estate it doesn’t matter if I’m liberal or conservative, it doesn’t change what is and is not. If I see a major flaw in these online ventures to create social networking around a specific interest like real estate, it’s the modern tendency to create reality from donkeys and elephants, thereby creating warring camps and sacrificing objectivity and true learning opportunities.
That’s my rant and I’m sticking with it.