Yeah.

You hear a lot about the economy and people without jobs. Then you have the independent contractor types. People like me who depend on other people to hire us for short term projects like selling a house or buying one. But, since jobs are scarce and the economy sucks, there isn’t too much of that kind of work going around.

Unless there is.

I hear all the time about how busy people are. “Oh my God”, they say. “It’s crazy busy out there.” I wonder, silently, where is the busy-ness business for me? What the hell an I doing wrong.  Even worse, I wonder why some of my marketing efforts aren’t paying off.  I send the postcards. I answer the e-mails begging for free advice. I talk to people on the phone and sponsor the groups that ask for money (but not so much any more).

Yet, the interlopers come in and get the job. People who don’t live in the area (they used to…a long time ago), they don’t “market” to the area. They just get a lucky phone call from someone they used to know three decades ago.

Then there are the short sales and the foreclosures scooped up by those that think, “What the hell. I’m just sitting around with my thumb up my ass anyway. I might as well wait while a bank fucks around with this seller and buyer.” The foreclosures aren’t so bad. The short sales suck and buyers don’t understand why they take so long. They’re called short sales, aren’t they. The buyers don’t understand the processes of the banks. Who does? Real estate agents surely don’t. At least, not many of them.

The thing I don’t do right is the phone calling thing. I don’t call all the people I previously worked with to shoot the shit with them and then, oh by the way, do they know someone buying or selling a house. I don’t really know what to talk to them about? Their kids?  Their jobs? The gardening?  Who knows?

Meanwhile, nothing seems to be happening and it feeds on itself. Nothing begets nothing.