I attended the Central Missouri Development Council meeting today at lunch and looked around me to see so many friends that have been through so much in the last few years. We heard from several good local candidates and all expressed how important it was to get involved and how critical the upcoming elections are for our city’s future. One friend asked me to rally a bunch of REALTORS to help a candidate because we “weren’t tainted with the Developer label” and were seen as more friendly to the public. While that was flattering (I guess), I wonder if the public really stopped to think about it, would they change their opinions of Developers? Wouldn’t they love to return to the good old days when things were booming, people had jobs and the sales tax revenue was pouring in? Now we all see the effects of NOT building and NOT Developing. Remember the days when we had to defend development? Now we recognize that everyone is effected by the downturn in our economy. During that time, one of our members came up with the following:
Who Benefits from Development
The farmer/landowner that is able to retire to Florida on the proceeds of the sale of their land, and their children and grandchildren who will benefit.
The car dealer who will sell that farmer/landowner’s children a new car….and the college that will benefit when that grandchild’s education is paid for…
The banker that provides the financing for the development
The title company that helps convey clear title
The Realtor that handles the transaction
The surveyor who surveys the land, the draftsman who draws up the plat of the new subdivision.
The person who runs the machine that moves the earth in order to install the water, sewer, electric, cable and telephone lines.
The employees of the companies installing the water, sewer, electric, cable and telephone lines.
The employees of the concrete company that delivers the concrete for the streets.
The city employee that issues the building permit
The employees at the city that work in the water & light dept.
The inspectors who monitor the work as the construction progresses.
The attorney that draws up the covenants and restrictions for the subdivision.
The person who does the dirt work to level the slab/basement and does the excavation The person building the forms to pour the concrete
The plumber who installs the plumbing
The electrician wiring the home
The heating and air conditioning companies installing the HVAC systems
The architect that designs the home
The carpenters framing the home
The painters painting the home.
The sheet rock crew
The insulation crew
The roofing crew
The carpet/tile & other flooring professional
The supply company that furnishes the materials for the home and all of their employees The cleaning crew hired by the builder to clean up the construction debris
The landscaping crew
The staging business hired to get the home ready for market
The Realtor who sells the home…sometimes two of them, and all the staff who earn a paycheck in each of their offices..
The local newspapers and homes magazines who derive income as a result of the advertisement of the home
The home inspector who inspects the home
The termite extermination company
The appraiser who appraises the home
The lender who makes the loan to purchase the home
The title company and all their employees
It seems kind of crazy that we had to spell it out. If you redid the list today and changed the title to “Who is hurting as a result of no new developments and building” everybody in the country would be on it! Sometime, somewhere, we probably had just the right amount of building and expansion, just the right number of people employed, just the right amount of goods being purchased and everyone felt pretty good about everyone else. Even though hindsight is 20-20, I’m not sure when that moment was. I missed it!
CVG
