muck Posted May 26, 2010 Share Posted May 26, 2010 My friend is a home builder. He has three projects in Mississippi. He's pre-sold about half of one of the three developments to investors who are buying the houses and duplexes in blocks of five or six. With the oil spill, these investors know that tourism will be down, restaurants and other tourist-y spots won't need as many employees, and as a result, there won't be enough demand to have decent rents. They are cancelling their pre-sales daily. His two other projects are actually on the beach. With the spill, there is environmental damage to the property, meaning that even if he was able to sell them for enough to pay off the banks, he couldn't due to the contamination. He estimates that it'll be 5-10yrs before anything can be built on either of these. He has a fourth business he's trying to get funded ... and unless this business gets going, he told me today that he's going to have to file a BK. ***************** Which made me think that the Icelandic volcano must be doing similar things to entrepreneurs over in Europe. And, no doubt, my friend's not alone in what this means to entrepreneurs in the Gulf states. Through all of this economic malaise, there are going to be a TON of smart, able-bodied, talented, hard-working, honest, ethical, creative and bottom-line-oriented people who will have to file BKs and/or lose their business and/or lose their job ... for anyone that sails through all of this relatively unscathed, (i) be thankful, because it could have been you and (ii) try to get these people hired into your company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted May 26, 2010 Share Posted May 26, 2010 (edited) Very sorry to hear this, but I'm wondering if the spill is being used as an excuse. The housing market here has been extremely sluggish even before the spill. I see houses and condos for sale everywhere I go, but I don't think there are a lot being sold. As for the tourist industry, with the casinos here I think we'll be ok. The oil hasn't made it to our islands yet & hopefully will be stopped before it does. If anything I think it was a bit premature for the investors to be pulling out. What's the other business he is opening & where? Also, where are the current projects located? Edited May 26, 2010 by rajncajn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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