Work From Home — Day 72
My Lens Sees a Bright Future
5:15AM PST
Team –
The Time Magazine article about the Class of 2020 was an intense read. A truly sober graduation. The trajectory of the writing was alarming. We all have experienced setbacks in life. For some early in life and some late in life. Adversity breeds opportunity and life is a challenge worth living to its fullest.
My eldest daughter, Whitney, class of 2020, graduates June 12, 2020 from University of Denver. Whitney’s graduation is a pay raise for me – no more tuition!
Scanning the Time Magazine writing for gold nuggets, I find myself going from the end of the writing to the beginning. Charlotte Alter, the writer, states “The pandemic has marked the end of one phase for this unlucky cohort. The recovery could mark the beginning of another.”
Is this not true in any aspect of life?
Charlotte opens her writing as follows “They call it commencement because it’s supposed to be a new beginning.” Commencement being graduation for the Class of 2020.
The loss for the Class of 2020 is not academics, it’s the loss of education and the launch pad the graduation celebration provides in life! Pre-school, grade school, middle school, high school, and college are all launch pads for individual growth. Inspiration for the next adventure.
This class of 2020 embarks on their next chapter without the broad recognition of a recent accomplishment, graduation and the related celebration, to inspire greatness in their next chapter. Generally, jobs, travel, and off-campus living situations would be inspiring next steps.
What can we do?
Hire them! Get your friends to hire them. This could be pivotable in our lives as much as theirs.
They are influenced by Trump’s election in their freshman year and COVID-19 in their senior year. They are resilient, motivated and talented.
They finished their senior year of college “online.” Our world is now online. They are experts in every media type on the planet – no training required – and their older siblings are millennials. Are we not trying to attract millennials to our practices?
They did not get proper goodbyes to those they loved at school, but they are starving for relationships and rewards that a life work balance brings. Every generation is defined in a certain way – the Class of 2020 will be different. Like in our business, the good will become great.
Today’s Closing Bell will update our May & June closings report. We will also share the line up for Tuesday’s Path Forward at 2 PM PT.
Both updates are awesome, plus there is a clean crisp dollar bill in your future.
This is Where We Are Now.
Thanks!
Mark
Mark A McLaughlin
Work From Home — Day 72 — Closing Bell
My Lens Sees a Bright Future
6:30PM PST
Team –
Why is our future so bright through my lens? Two reasons.
Last night I shared an amazing evening of homemade pizza and beverages with my amazing friends Paul Cayard, Karen Moyer, and Boyd Fellows. We got to talking about “what’s up tomorrow?” With a certain sense of pride, I said I was going to clean all my windows at lunch and after 5PM when I “clock-out” for the day.
They laughed, and said why? My response was they are dirty, and I can save $372. They laughed even harder.
Today, I cleaned all windows looking south and west at my home – our future looks amazingly bright!
May closing outlook has softened somewhat. We will experience fewer closings at just under 500 and shy of our April performance at just over 500 units. We will still well above our original SIP expectations of 350 units – think about the Curves.
June new escrows in NorCal, SoCal, and at Chartwell Escrow are rockin’. Our benchmark for new escrows to close in June as of today was 420 units. As you see below, we have nearly 700 June closing units in escrow [gray bars and left index]. The rate of new escrows is bright, just like the light through my windows [orange line and right index]. You have all been busy!
Here are May closing and cancellation details. Our game is clearly in front of us.
Please be smart, safe and respectful of others.
This is Where We Are Now.
Thanks!
Mark
Mark A McLaughlin