What We Can Learn From The Super Bowl

For many people it was a boring game. Well into the third quarter the game was tied at one field goal each. No team had managed an offensive run of more than five possessions of the ball. It was a game dominated by defence.  Games that involve lots of scoring, passes and receptions that defy physics make for an exciting game. Watching a game that is dominated by offence is so much fun. As real estate investors, those are the days of acquiring new properties, and of growing the portfolio. They’re exciting times. Everything is appreciating in value. The game of offence in real estate is fun too. Tom Brady was in his 9th Superbowl. He’s by no means a rookie to the championship game. Anyone who watched the game would acknowledge that Tom Brady didn’t play his best game. He had some weak passes. He looked slow and tired in the first quarter. Offensively, the New England Patriots didn’t look like the tight disciplined dominant machine we’re accustomed to seeing.  He won his 6th Super Bowl on Sunday night, tying the record for most number of championships in Super Bowl history. Playing defence is boring. But playing defence won the Super Bowl. There’s no doubt that we are in a phase of the market cycle that shows lots of signs of weakness. This is not the time to play offence. It’s a time to play defence. Prices are high. That means that we will likely see lower prices in our future. The days of playing offence will return. But you need to survive this next down cycle and be positioned to take advantage of the next wave of market growth when it returns.  As real estate investors, the time to buy is when the market is falling, when investor sentiment is negative. We may not want a repeat of 2008, but we do want to see good buying opportunities in our future.