Yesterday I surprised Deena with tickets to see her first love . . . Bruce Springsteen (I’ve always known I was second). Deena grew up in Philadelphia and has been a die-hard Bruce fan her whole life. She starts screaming in the restaurant like a 13 year old uh . . . just being told she’s going to the concert of her favorite band.
An hour later, we were downtown when Bruce and the E-street band took the stage. They played non-stop for 3 hours. It was an amazing show. The guy is almost 60 and pours out passion, energy, and power that kept a packed arena on their feet singing along with every song. And while I didn’t grow up a fan, after 13 year of marriage to someone who did – I can say that this time – it was our third Bruce concert – I knew the words to most of the songs and rocked along with the rest of the crowd who all seemed to be from Freehold, NJ.
Perhaps more than ever before, Bruce’s music is relevant to the times we live in. He sings about and for the heart and soul of this country – about real people and real lives and real struggles. The entire E-Street Band came to the front of the stage for the soulful “Hard Times Come Again No More”, their rock/gospel interpretation of
Stephen C. Foster’s 1854 work. The room was totally dark except the drum kit under lit in red for “The Rising” – Bruce’s invitation to recover and rebuild after 9/11. In response to a fan’s sign that he pulled up on stage, he dedicated “Jungleland” to Atlanta teens.
They played some new tunes from the new Working on a Dream album – we listened mesmerized to “Outlaw Pete” – a dark story in a minor key of a kid who struggled to overcome the rough lot he was born into. The title track “Working on a Dream” speaks to anyone still in progress, who sees can see hope, and is willing to see a brighter day before us. Bruce’s mid song narrative challenged us to “build a house here tonight . . . a house built on hope, on love, on dreams, and noise!”
And that’s where his music hit me the way I imagine it has affected my wife and millions of other life long fans. Whether it’s Lou Brown’s Millionaire Maker event or my own seminars, or any other room I am honored to teach – nobody enters an investment real estate training venue unless they too are working on a dream. You are not likely to be reading a blog about Short Sales unless you too are a work in progress. We don’t buy that first book, say ‘yes’ to an infomercial, or walk into a training seminar unless we too see Hope for something better, unless we are willing to pursue a brighter day, and unless we are have a dream of building a house built on hope, love a little noise.
Sure, when I teach the focus is largely on the mechanics and techniques of real estate investment strategies, but nobody comes to see me because they have a deep burning fascination with the nuanced distinctions between lien releases versus satisfactions. That may be the practical question they need answered, but behind every questioning mind of a real estate investor is a work in progress, the hope for a better life, and the willingness for something for the better.
The same is true of homeowners and sellers on the other side of Short Sale transactions. Look, facing foreclosure is not a good thing, but given that owners finds themselves in this situation because of past decisions, market conditions and/or hardship events that just happened to fall on them, pursuing a Short Sale requires a homeowner who also hopes for something better. A Short Sale is not an easy thing to pull off – it is a long hard journey to successfully find a negotiated settlement with a lender to avoid foreclosure.
Many sellers just give up – why bother, just let the house go to foreclosure – they reason. But some sellers are willing to fight for a better day, that day when they can say they sold their house as a regular seller at a settlement agent’s office like anyone else, that they do not have a foreclosure or bankruptcy stamped on their credit to haunt them for 7 or 10 years, that they moved on their terms and did not face an eviction. Without a foreclosure, and without a Bankruptcy, the Short Sale affords a seller an opportunity for a new day, a fresh start and their own Rising.
Short Sales are the transaction for those Working on a Dream – for a homeowner down on their luck, facing a rough spot in life but who is willing to build a house of Hope for a better day, and for an investor who is willing to work hard, add value, and be part of the healing of this nation’s economic mess one house, one family, one mortgage at a time.
Many artists believe that their role is to elevate the audience away from the drudgery of their lives for the time they are on stage. To the contrary, Bruce shines the spotlight right into the heart and soul of life’s struggles to sing for a brighter day. And in that music there is the inspiration to keep Working on a Dream.
