Commercial Real Estate Frontline

It seems there’s been a rash of suicides and other violent acts in the news lately and a number of them have been connected to real estate. David Kellerman was found dead, from hanging, this morning in his basement. A couple of months ago Steve Good of Sheldon Good & Company was found dead (by self inflicted gunshot) in his car. A German real estate Billionaire recently stepped in front of a train. I heard today that there have been more than a hundred thousand suicides in India recently, mostly over debt.What is going on?

No matter how bad things get I want to encourage anyone reading this blog to avoid suicide. There is nothing real estate related that should ever cause a person to take his own life. A little perspective I think is what we all need during times like these. Yes, the market is difficult. Yes, people are losing a fortune. Yes, this is going to go on for a while. None of this is reason enough to take one’s own life. Spend some time with a toddler (a quiet one). Take a walk in the woods. Go out and golf. Whatever it is you’ve got to do, get away from business for a spell and breath a little bit.

I was thinking about Kellermann this morning – what causes one to take his own life? Generally speaking despair is what does it I think. The idea that things are irreversibly bad and getting worse. Another reason might be shame, the idea that you’ve done something so awful that you cannot be forgiven and you have been rendered worthless. As we look at Freddie Mac and its present condition it would seem the shame part is over, that was last fall. Kellerman was just recently appointed in September this past year so it wouldn’t seem that mortification is an explanation. So if despair is what did Kellermann in, the idea that things are about to get worse and not better, I ask what did he know that we don’t?
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