I recently sold the house I grew up in, but I didn’t sell the home. I was about 8 years old when we moved into the house. It was a mansion!!! My two sisters and I all shared the same bedroom in our previous home, but now got to spread out a little bit. We had two whole bathrooms in the house!! And what a front yard. It was flat with no trees—a ball field right there! My father must have thrown a thousand pitches to me in that front yard, and I bet I kicked a hundred winning field goals. Then we would sit on the front porch and rest. My father spent a lot of time rocking on the front porch after work. He never said much, but would just sit and rock. He would play a name that car game with me. He knew a lot about cars—or so I thought.
On our first Christmas, my mother and I wrapped red ribbon around the columns on the porch. They were beautiful—looked just like candy canes. Especially with the tree glowing right behind them in the front window. My sisters were older, but Santa kept coming for many years. I started riding horses when I was about 12, and one year I got a real saddle of my own for Christmas!! My mother and sisters pulled a trick on me and I didn’t even know that the big present was for me until Christmas morning.
I really liked egg sandwiches for breakfast. It’s funny. I’m sure we all had problems getting dressed in the morning, but I don’t remember it. I do remember breakfast, though. My mother liked butter, and put plenty on the bread before the eggs. I wish she could make me one now.
The Russians were a big threat back then. They set up missiles in Cuba, and my father was concerned. I don’t really remember being scared, but my father wanted to be safe so he built a bomb shelter under the patio of the house. It was really dark in there, though, since he never quite finished it to his plan. The Russians didn’t really scare me, but that dark place did. It’s still there—almost cost us a sale because it had some water in it.
I had my first date while I lived there. I fell in love there, and got my first broken heart there. I remember them both. I brought me Senior Prom date to that house to see my Mother before the big event. She was pretty. She still is. You see, we got married and bought the house from my parents when they wanted to move further from the city. We had our kids in that house, and it became their home, just like it is my home. You see, homes don’t get bought and sold, houses do.
I’ve been building houses for over 30 years. I’ve sold most of them—thousands of them. I hope that everyone became a home, because that’s what is neat about my business. We’re in a tough economy right now, and it’s hard to sell houses. I wonder if it would be as hard to sell homes? Our minds are cluttered with all the talk about the value of houses, and what we should offer and what we should take and where is the bottom. It must not be much fun these days to buy a house—to imagine where the bed will fit, to listen to strange birds on the deck early in the morning, to taste the cookies that could be cooked in that magnificent kitchen, to hear the laughter when our favorite show comes on, to help a young man tie a tie, to pick the perfect fabric for curtains, to make the house a home. And that’s the real tragedy in the housing world.
So what can I do? All anybody wants to talk about is price. Except me, and maybe you. And then maybe someone else. And then maybe someone else. And then maybe the word gets around. The path out of the wilderness starts with one step, and I think I’ll take it. We’re not in the house selling business, we’re in the home selling business. And home is where the heart is, if we put the heart back in it. Sure it’s a lot of money and it’s scary and risky, but let’s take on the burden of the business so the customers can get back to creating homes. How can we make it more fun, with more heart and less head? We’re not investors in pork futures, we’re creating homes for families of all types and descriptions. This is the place where they will make egg sandwiches. They will cry here, and laugh here, and love here. Their hearts will sing here, and hurt here. It will be beautiful, it will be a home. Will they make some money on it? They might—always have over time. But, very few buy houses to make money, they buy houses to create homes. I’m not hearing much about that in the news these days, nor is anyone else. I’m sure folks are a bit confused. I would be if I didn’t have my home in my heart. I’ll never sell it, not for any price to any body. Houses go up in price and go down in price, get bigger and get smaller, but homes never lose value. What a great investment!!!
(Written by Rick Porter, President, Richport Properties, Inc.)
