Kind of Quiet out there

[mznb1u]

Well, our Governor announced the "Stay Home, Stay Safe" at 11AM this morning to go into effect at midnight tonight.  I have a home office so my routine is not too different other than I can't go see my customers.  A lot of them are freaking out because it is still pretty hard to hold a real estate closing online or remotely; however, some are being very creative.  We are deemed essential to the financial industry because title insurance is needed to close any real estate transactions.  The next three weeks should be interesting.

Everyone Stay Safe and Stay Well!

  Tim

[cohammer]

Holding up here in Georgia but scary times , I think the worst thing I am afraid of are our politicians. Would just love to turn on the tv one day and see we are one nation under God again . Really miss the country I grew up in .

[Larry]

Illinois is locked down where I am.  After the governor saw that all the youngsters were still hanging out at bars on St. Patricks day, after he suggested that everyone stay inside or have social distancing, he closed the bars and restaurants shortly afterwards.  St. Patty's day is huge in Chicago.  No dying of the river this year.  They also cancelled the Chicagoland Jukebox and Advertising show and any venue with a large amount of people.  It seems that all the same rules have been laid out in every state and the hoarding of odd items are the same state to state.

I work maintenance at a school and they decided to lock down until April 25th.  I'm in today for a construction project.  Today we had scheduled to replace all the original domestic water lines feeding the school.  After this, five weeks off.  The nice thing is that all the staff is still going to get paid.  I started to work on all my half done projects.  This week is plastering the front room and dinning room, and painting the ceiling and walls.  Then I can either paint the second floor or work on some games.  I have a sick shuffle that's been ticking me off for three years now.  Time to strip it all the way down again.  Then I have a neat pinball and other projects.

How about them stocks and 401's??  I lost 1/3 of my savings.  Pretty typical I guess.  The funny thing is, I was going to switch everything over to bonds when the virus left China and went to two other countries.  That happened on a Friday after the market was closed.  My transactions, through work, happens at the close of the next day which would have been the Monday when everything hit the fan.  If it happened on Thursday, I would have moved everything to bonds and bought everything back later on.  As Maxwell Smart would say "Missed it by that much!"  Oh well, at least I'm buying low and have ten more years to recover.

I hope this craziness will end soon.  Stay healthy.

[Eric]

Still no mandatory stay at home yet here in my county in Missouri though there are a few that have started that... Restaurants are take out or delivery... many small businesses are closed.. Walmart is only open till 8:30 (usually a 24 hour store) in the evening so employees can help restock shelves as they are still bare for the most part...
wife works in a doctor's building... they started this morning to check every employees temperature at the door before entering... if you have a temp you go home.
kids are doing schoolwork on line I guess like most are... not sure when they go back now... this is my son's senior year so this really sucks for him...
Be safe folks.

[Creighton]

Indeed "Hang On" is the best advice. Majority of our income is derived from trade shows this time of year. All cancelled or rescheduled. Will not be able to make all rescheduled shows because conflict with preexisting shows.Not fun times but the house/collection is better organized than has been in many years :-).
Creighton     

[flippa]

Hope you guys are all doing well and getting some projects done around the house.

Massachusetts required all non essential business and employees that do not provide “COVID-19 Essential Services” to close as of March 24th for a two week period.  The kid's school initially said the same, but have extended it through May 4th.  I believe that their school is essentially over for the year.   

I thankfully work out of the house so having them home hasn't been a problem, aside from the fact that having an 8 & 11 year old home all day is somewhat distracting.  We live far enough outside Boston that we have plenty of places to go for long hikes in the Middlesex Fells and Town Forest.  I feel terrible that the kids aren't able to see their friends; the older one gets it much better than the younger one does. 

Stay safe gentlemen

[mznb1u]

Into week two of the Stay Home Stay Safe and my grayer that I remembered beard is coming along quite nicely.  We will be here till at least 4/13 but I expect Governor Whitmer to extend it to 4/30. I suspect she doesn't want to jump on that train right away because she would appear to be agreeing with the President and they have been at odds with each other ever since Gov Whitmer made the short list for VP in the Biden camp.  Very childish and unproductive on both sides and that is as political as I will get.

The Detroit area is the hardest hit with some hospitals at capacity and others getting close.  My bro-in-law is on staff at one of the large hospitals and they have 500 COVID-19 patients there alone.  The National Guard is setting up a 900 bed makeshift hospital in Cobo Hall where the International Auto Show should be setting up if times were normal. My wife is a project manager for a large health system and has been setting up the drive through testing tents at the clinics as well as converting all available space to potential treatment areas.  Her world is incredibly crazy right now.

Our biz is still plugging along so we are still working trying to assist our title insurance agents remotely as best as we can. Refinance applications are up so that will keep the title insurance industry busy for the time being.  Realtors are obviously not showing homes at present so the resale market is taking a hit and I think that will be the slowest part of the housing market to recover as people are not going to want strangers coming into their homes. If there is a silver lining, there has been a lot of technology on the table to improve the entire real estate viewing, buying and closing experience and people are now finally getting on board.  I won't say that will replace the old fashioned process of buying a home but it will allow the real estate economy to continue to operate through times like this when it would otherwise have to shut down.  In MI real estate (residential and commercial) accounted for almost 20% of the total economy last year so that is kind of important.

In any event, thought I would check in.  Have a lot of yard work and garage organizing on the list for the weekend if the weather cooperates.  Stay safe and stay well everyone!

  Tim