Just when I think I can’t stand another headline that wants to dash all hope about a housing recovery in the forseeable future (and I wake up every day a pretty optimistic guy), something good happens that restores my faith in my fellow man, and this wonderful industry I’ve labored in for thirty years. This story goes back to Ash Wednesday…
…A friend and fellow builder invited me to the ODU men’s basketball game. I hadn’t been to a game this year and even though it was on a Wednesday night, I figured I could make at least the second half and perhaps grab a cold one after the game. Now I wish I had gotten there earlier!
Aside from it being a great game (ODU pulled out an exciting 1-point victory over the Tribe) that only seeing the second half didn’t do justice to, I missed a pre-game presentation that I would have liked to have seen. Jeff and Ruby Ainslie, part of the ownership of The Ainslie Group, friends and the kind of quality builders you like to compete against, came onto the floor to present a personal check for $1,000,000 to Old Dominion, Jeff’s alma mater. Wow!
I look every day for expressions of optimism about housing. At a time when most of us are hunkering down, succumbing to yet another plunge on Wall Street and watching AIG lose the most money ever in a quarter in the history of US Corporations, here’s a builder opening his personal checkbook and giving back to the institution that I’m guessing he believes played a role in his development and success.
I watch Jeff’s numbers. He’s probably not having a great year either. He could have pretty easily kept the money in his pocket for the rainy day that’s already here. But he didn’t. And that’s what makes Jeff and Ruby some great people. The kind who restore your faith. The kind who remind you that while housing goes down, and always goes back up, the people in our industry quietly, without any publicity (I still haven’t seen an article on this in the Pilot and I know The Ted was filled with reporters that night) keep giving back to the community that gives us so much. Housing is interwined in the very fabric of what we do and who we are as a society.
With so much bad news out there I, for one, am grateful to Jeff and the many, many builders and REALTORS like him who continue to give back, good times or bad. Jeff – I’ll be rooting for The Ainslie Group, right along with my company, to come out of this stronger, smarter and even more in tune with our buyers. You deserve it.
