Agenda - 06-15-2010 - 4a - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

25 1 It's clear that now is the time for our county to re-invest some of its resources in itself---to 2 improve its own long term economic well being. We are asking you, as the stewards of our 3 county, 4 5 • To fund improvements in the infrastructure of our existing raw assets–the Economic 6 Development Districts --to improve their desirability in the marketplace; 7 8 • To provide resources to retain existing businesses and recruit complementary ones, and 9 10 • To fund research that will allow us to make strategic, targeted decisions. 11 12 These are things that businesses do every day to ensure their long term economic vitality and 13 survival, and implementing these same strategies will achieve the same goals for our county. 14 15 I'd like to close by telling you a personal story that I think illustrates in a very simple way what I 16 am talking about. I recently sold a home I owned. I first listed it "as is" for what had been the 17 appraised value only a year earlier. Much to my surprise and amazement, nobody bought it. 18 My realtor said, "Honey the market is telling you something. This house isn't as valuable to 19 possible buyers as you think it is. Now do you want to sell it or not? " 20 21 So I lowered the price---still "as is." Still no takers. The realtor said: well, obviously "as is" is 22 not "as buyers want" in this market, even at a cheaper price. So, do you want my advice on 23 how to sell this house? 24 25 Well, obviously I did, so I had to take the next step, which meant putting some cash on the 26 table. That was tough to swallow. I didn't have a lot of cash, and it was very hard for me to put 27 some of it into improving a house that had no buyers and had already cost me a lot in carrying 28 costs. However, I pulled together about 20,000 to fix the house up; doing those things that 29 potential buyers who had seen the house had said should be done if they were going to buy it. 30 The 20K wound up helping the house sell for 40K more than the lowered "as is" price. 31 32 Now somebody could have bought the house "as is," spent 20K and saved themselves 20K. 33 ThaYs what I would have done if I had been buying, it is certainly what I would consider most 34 logical, but I wasn't buying the house; I was trying to sell it. So I had to listen to the buyers, 35 not to myself, and do what they suggested it would take to get them to buy the house. 36 37 What the buyers for this product wanted was something that was already fixed up, and they 38 were willing to spend more money to save themselves time and hassle and walk into a 39 predictable, turnkey situation. And it worked for me too---I made 20K more than I expected 40 because I put some of my own money in up front. But I first had to take the risk, and I didn't do 41 that until I had been unsuccessful doing it my way. 42 43 I think it's clear that Orange County has tried over the past years to conduct economic 44 development "our way." We see the results, which haven't been very good by all the statistical 45 measures comparing us to our neighbors—an increasing reliance on residential property taxes 46 and missed opportunities to fully participate in the robust growth of the Research Triangle Park. 47 48 But that was yesterday. This is today. Today we have the opportunity to learn from the past, � 49 but move forward into the future. Today we have 2450 acres of contiguous undeveloped land 50 in the Economic Development Districts. We have a diverse labor force that spans the skills