I hesitate to make a list
of all the countless deals I've missed;
Bonanzas that were in my grip
I watched them through my fingers slip;
the windfalls which I should have bought
were lost because I over thought;
I thought of this, I thought of that;
I could have sworn I smelled a rat,
and while I thought things over twice,
another grabbed them at that price.

It seems I always hesitate,
and make my mind up much too late.
A very cautious man am I,
and that is why I never buy.
How Nassau and Suffolk grew!
New Jersey! Staten Island too!
When others culled those sprawling farms
and welcomed deals with open arms -
a corner here, ten acres there,
compounding values year by year,
I chose to think and as I thought,
they bought the deal I should have bought.

The golden chances I had then
are lost and will not come again
Today I cannot be enticed
for everything is so overpriced.
The deals of yesteryear are dead;
The market is soft - and so's my head.

Last night I had a fearful dream
I know I wakened with a scream;
Some Indians approached my bed
for trinkets on the barrelhead
(in dollar bills worth twenty-four
and nothing less and nothing more)
They'd sell Manhattan Isle to me,
the most I'd go was twenty-three.
The native scowled: "Not on a bet."
and sold to Peter Minuit.

At Times a teardrop drowns my eye
for deals I had, but did not buy;
And now life's saddest words I pen,
"If only I'd invested then!"

From: Land Realtor Magazine
October 1917
Author: unknown