This virus or should I say situation that we are in, is bringing out the absolute best and the absolute worst in people. It has us all in a fight or flight mode. Some people are literally running around in snorkel masks and clearing shelves of toilet paper and bumping elbows with each other. Good God somebody please wake me up and make sure I'm not dreaming.

It kind of makes sense to me now why we constantly see on the site landlords who are absolutely getting plowed over like a deer on the train tracks when it comes to tenants. They're paranoid and paralyzed. They don't know what the he// to do in a time of crisis regardless of the details of that particular situation. They don't know how to Calm their minds long enough to assess the situation and take control over it without running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

I've also learned that from here on out, there's a good chance that I will be able to win every negotiation that decide to fully enter into if my ultimate goal is to win. Because this has taught me that you can get anybody to believe anything. And it also taught me to find out what a persons fear is and do what I can to magnify it. We can move mountains with the leverage of fear and panic.

So learning those things from this situation is going to help me be a better landlord and investor overall when this ends.

NE: You have this weird disconnect from this situation still, I think. It is very odd to me that you group the "snorkel mask" and "TP hoarding" people right along with the "bumping elbows" people.

We SHOULD be doing the "bumping elbows" thing. In this environment, that was a good replacement for hand shakes. People "bumping elbows" instead of hand shaking are doing what they should be doing -- they are not crazies in snorkel masks.

The fact that you group all of those together into one group of loonies shows that you still really aren't getting the extent of the problem going on in the world today.

It does indeed define you. And it is defining you in a fairly poor way based on some of what you've said in this forum over the past couple of weeks. You still seem to be sticking your head in the sand and calling everyone else crazy.

I'm calm. I'm not freaking out over this crisis. I'm not a chicken with my head cut off. But I totally understand why NORMAL, CALM, REASONABLE people are "bumping elbows" instead of shaking hands. And if you don't see that, you're part of the problem, sorry.

- John...

Unless this gets wrapped up very soon the economic fallout is something we will ALL be dealing with, for months or maybe even years. NE I generally like your posts but I agree with John, you seem to be ignoring this situation because you don't like the implications.

NE: It has nothing to do with voting and that is part of your problem. You still see this as political and are sticking to your guns regardless. It's sad. And dangerous.

- John...

John... politics plays a huge part.

J, I worry more about the politicians than I do the virus. But once again, odd man out on this forum.

John… It's interesting that you say that "I am part of the problem."

One of the contractors that works for us is a relatively smart dude. I asked him the other day how he was making out in all this chaos. He said oh my gosh NE, I went to Walmart the other day and there's people running around and masks all over the place. He said I just felt like screaming, "You people are the problem!"

So who is right? People like you or people like him?

Most of the people that I work with on these houses are on the right. I'm not looking to take the this THING as thing political, but as far as it defining you, but part of it absolutely is.

Our electrician has a niece and her husband who are huge lefts.

Everybody's been working on this house, nothing out of the ordinary. The other day, the niece and her husband stop to give the electrician some on site chiropractic care with a portable bench. (Never a dull moment on our jobsites). :)

These 2 show up geared up with masks and gloves on. Out in the middle of the country with nobody around except us on site. All the people that were working, the rights were looking at these two like What the ____ are these guys doing?

So yes, this is a very divided situation. Across many different lines.

It's all talk until it is happening to you personally. It's been one thing or another for thousands of years. Some will succeed and some will fail.

Like the boy scouts say, be prepared.

You should already have a plan B and a plan C.

Who knows, exactly, what will happen?

We must evaluate what happens where we are, adapt and overcome our problems where we are. Worrying about what is happening far away or what distant people are doing should, imho, be just one input we consider. Far more important, I think, is what is happening locally.

Again, as we see on the news, the situation likely will get worse so if you're not prepared, take steps you feel necessary today.

"And it also taught me to find out what a persons fear is and do what I can to magnify it."

Dodge, at times like these don't be so sensitive.

Ed, I get it. I am fully aware that on this forum regarding this particular topic that I am throwing myself into the lions den.

Dodge, when I buy a property and that is what I'm talking about in the situation. I want to win. I value winning.

JKJ I am speechless...

NE is on to something. Research (Why is Coronavirus Fear So Low in Sweden?)

Lisa Fl, good article. From Forbes also.

The paragraph about the psychologist saying that they are not surprised in regards to the fear and the perception of a threat not matching up to reality is exactly what I'm getting at.

I just physically spent two days inside a hospital for another situation and there was nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing they did was when we went in they took our temperatures and if we were fever, we couldn't go in.

NE: You wrote: "Or maybe we both are a little right and both a little wrong?"

That sounds good except YOU don't appear to see it that way. The "little right and a little wrong" compromise would be seeing something REASONABLE in the MIDDLE.

So, for example, if you don't think this is a big problem and I do, then a nice compromise in the middle would be for us to not shake hands "just in case". Maybe do a stupid "elbow bump" instead.

THAT is the "middle" here where both sides go "Ok, let's assume that we're both a little right and a little wrong and compromise."

So, I feel like I'm already in that group. But you seem to see "just lying down in the fetal position" and "dumping elbows" as the same thing!

Sorry, but I stand by my initial statement. If you can't see that "bumping elbows" is just doing the reasonable thing to be safe "just in case", then you are indeed part of the problem.

You say that you want us to both see that maybe we're both a little right and a little wrong -- but yet have no interest in doing the compromise that would line up to that (which would be taking some reasonable safety precautions just in case).

- John...

Also, to clarify, that article mentioned above is not "from Forbes" in the traditional sense. They allow "contributors" to have pages on their site with articles of pretty much whatever they want. Heck, the article under this one is about which BEARD OIL is best.

It says right at the top that "Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own." It's just an opinion piece by some guy that has a bunch of fairly click-bait articles on his Forbes page.

People need to learn to not give much credence to an article just because of the web site it is on -- when that website allows pretty much ANYONE to post their own content unchecked.

- John...

Today I received a threatening message from a neighbor who wants to rent a 2 bedroom unit in an apartment property. He thinks his status is that of an "applicant", although the unit is under construction and I've never shown it to anyone. He was a drinking buddy of the previous tenant. He is attempting to file a complaint with the City for discrimination.

NE you know what your remind me of? A scene from Good Will Hunting. "Will" just trashed Williams art showing a man in a row boat in a wicked storm-- rowing and rowing for his life. Black and bleak clouds all around.

The scene played out with Robin Williams taking Matt for a good talking too. He explained, as should be your guide, that you haven't experienced anything-- everything you learned has been from books. People, even strangers here, are trying to explain to you and a few others that having life threatening experiences should be taken seriously. Try to gain knowledge here if at all possible.

actually I'm not stressed at all. What makes your opinion insignificant, in my opinion, is you haven't thought it out nor have you had much experience. It's pretty evident to me at least.

I've read enough and heard many many opinions-- one of which is the let it run its course. Translated-- let it kill the older people or sick. Rather than you say WOW this person improvised to protect his people and to service his clients who are locked in.

I'm not sure what you mean by "not much experience". No one here has experienced this before and by default has no experience to draw from on how to deal with it.

18 or 80 years old. All we have are the history books.

I'm not a 20 something kid, nor am I an idiot. And I do read a lot.

You remind of the part in Good Will Hunting where they are discussing the painting you referred to and the books in the office. Will is telling Robin williams that he is reading are all the wrong Books. So myob, I ask you what are the right books?

Like I said, Covid defines us.

Your solution is goggles, mine is open the greatest economy in the history of the world BACK UP!

I don't know how one opinion of wearing goggles and a snorkel outweighs the other opinion of letting it run its course.

Am I the only one hearing what NE is saying? Where did he say it was foolish to take reasonable precautions?

Sounds like the opinion was more so finding it a bit over the top to run around wearing a snorkel and mask and hoarding toilet paper. And elbow bumps? Seriously? Just don’t touch strangers at all.

Is it being over dramatized? Could be. The thing is we don’t really know. The government (which I’m not fond of regardless of which party is in charge) is in a darned if they do darned if they don’t situation,

NE, I sort of feel the same way in that people are taking things a little to far. I believe there is a new virus around and that it is a problem but people are panicking. I also agree with fear being a huge motivator to get people to do or buy things. It is exactly how they market things like health insurance.

Thank you 6x6. If you would like to do a little bit of your own facts checking, go online and YouTube and search around for individuals researching the hashtag called #

film your hospital. Ya know, for the fun of it! :)

In the past few days, I have seen more and more of these videos popping up all over the place. People are going around, even in the larger cities now and filming hospitals that are supposedly overrun on the news and they are uploading the videos of these places being actually EMPTY.

Check it out.

I spoke with a friend of mine tonight that I've been friends with for almost 20 years. He lives about 2 1/2 hours south of me. His wife works in a large hospital there and he said that they are so slow right now that they are actually laying people off. This guy is no nonsense straight forward. Always has been.

So I encourage people to not be afraid and dig down this rabbit hole a little bit and see what else is really going on.

Here's the problem with letting Covid run its course: nobody knows what its "course" is.

I see and hear all sorts of people speaking with authority about what it is, is not, will do, will not do, and on and on and they are simply making it up. It is their wish, or their opinion, or their parroting urban myth. Nobody knows what it is going to do until after it has done it.

Perhaps the end results will be fine. Perhaps the end results, if it is simply turned loose to do whatever it wants, will not be fine at all.

Nobody knows.

"And it also taught me to find out what a persons fear is and do what I can to magnify it."

Ride the storm out dont remember

Paranio may may destroy ya kinks late 70s

Try a little music therapy and a ice cold beer if allowable

Ned, a lot of deals have fear as a part of the scenario.

Very basically here:

I fear if I don't sell it the bank will foreclose.

I fear if I don't sell my parents house my dirtbag brother is going to want to move in.

NE, we are defined by our geography as much as the virus these days.

I live in an isolated rural area. We have had 5 known cases of the virus, up from 2 last week, none were hospitalized. Good thing, we only have 19 beds in our small hospital and no ICU beds at all.

My son lives up near DC. They have friends who have had the virus already. Recently one of his friends died - he had diabetes so one of the co-morbidity issues. Not sure if he died from the virus yet, but he died in hospital. They are staying home and social distancing because it's such an an affluent melting pot area: people traveled. They know people who were in Italy when it hit, in Spain, in the UK, in NYC.

I get NE's point, Nothing outrageous as far as I can see. I live in city and nothing crazy as far as I know. Yes, the infected number is climbing and people are dying. People still go shopping and do stuff with more caution. Sometimes I worry about my neighbor's wife who works in Boston's Covid ICU. How does she interact with her husband and 2 young kids after a day's work in concentrated virus filled environment.

Survival of the fittest comes to mind. From the fact and rumor I gathered, it kills young and old, whoever has underlying health problem. So, take good care of your health or else, the odds may be against you or me.

I go to homedepot and grocery store every other day. I practice common sense caution. In these days, I am more worried about the effect of broad shutdown than how many people dying every day. I am more worried about where the food come from if disease is eradicated/eliminated and everyone lives to 120.. There just is not enough stuff to go around for everyone. Life and death, that is a fact of life. We are not built/designed to live forever. Breathe the fresh air, enjoy the moment that you are granted, when it comes, go with peace.

On a side note, I am also worried about that certain percentage of covid carriers who do not show symptoms for long time, how is shutting down going to figure that out unless you test everyone. Covid John/Jane ? equivalent to Typhoid Mary

Long term.......C-19 might slow the tide of folks who have watched HGTV and seen a rehab get done in 30 minutes and think that they can do it in 20 since there are not any commercials.

There are 5 hospitals near me, and they have one patient in it currently that has tested positive. C-19 does have the ability to cause a great deal of harm.

240,000 lives lost is a huge number....

On a typical year over a million are lost to heart attacks.

Ray in PA, I would imagine heart attacks, suicide, and divorce rates go up. My wife and I are shifting our normal routine here at home to keep everything on course. We are trying to change our menu so we have a new and exciting things to look forward during the week, more walks, different activities with the kids. Just until this madness passes.

We can't really allow the medical systems to systematically collapse.

240,000 is a large number

But if heart attacks are up 10%, that is 110,000 lives lost.

I have put on a couple of pounds........that isn't healthy and I know I am not alone. Diabetes probably isn't a positive feature in health

Suicide rate rate along with depression have to be up....

Maybe the cure might not be good - but what other options do you have? I really don't know how world leaders do what they do?

I just saw on the news, a short while ago, where Washington State University is now saying that the anticipated death rate and number of hospital beds needed is much lower then previously expected due to new methodology. So in other words, WSU has mis-spoken and has cost tax payers trillions of dollars and sent everyone into a panic to make hospital beds and mask because there previous studies and methodology were wrong. Go figure.

My wife said that the hospitals have been emptying out to get prepared for the rush of COVID-19 cases. Now that WSU has new methodology I guess that has been a mis-step?

You have to realize that there is going to be some of that. All they can do is try to predict a growth rate that is very hard to define. Also, the BETTER we do at quarantining, the less people that get infected -- and the less beds we need to help. In other words, the better we get at this, the less it will look like it was an issue at all!

It's a situation that will be easy for anyone to complain about in the years to come. If things don't get as bad as they COULD have -- because we did a good job of slowing things down -- then lots of people are going to be able to go "See! It wasn't a big deal after all!"

The real answer is that we need to hope for that and keep doing our best to get to that point. And then just live with it when lots of politicians ride that train later if things happen to not kill quite as many people as it could have...

Places like WSU are not making rash decisions for political reasons. They are trying to make predictions based on the information that they have. As that information changes and/or they develop better ways to predict based on what we already know, then they will have newly adjusted numbers. It went down -- that is GREAT NEWS. It doesn't mean that they should be faulted for earlier predictions as long as it was scientifically based on the data that they had (which it was).

- John...

Oh, and note that we STILL see lots of needs for masks, ventilators, and other equipment! This doesn't mean that we're suddenly wrong about the number dying in NYC. And it doesn't mean that we still have an accurate view of where we're going in the next couple of weeks as things are expected to peak in most areas.

- John...

Cuomo has been insisting that he needs 40,000 ventilators. Trump says not so much. That one will be really easy to figure out in the end. Did they use 40,000 ventilators or not?

The UW (University of Washington, NOT WSU Washington State University) study is continually evolving, taking into account new data from Italy, Spain and the East Coast that is helping to refine the modeling.

Mainly, they concluded that the projected fatalities for WA state should be less than predicted earlier, mainly because Governor Inslee ordered stay-at-home, closed schools and nonessential businesses and other social distancing methods. Local major employers Amazon and Microsoft ordered mandatory work-from-home even earlier, months before.

So UW is improving their modeling, mostly based on better or more updated data and coming out with newer numbers (in the good direction). You sure you want to sue them for that?

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