Email ElizabethHow to Catch a Pig in Kona
Never imagined I would need to learn how to catch a pig in Kona, but that monumental occasion has now presented itself. It is part of living in “the country,” even though our new house is only a couple of miles from our previously very urban house in Hawaii. Instead of a .05 acre lot in The Pines, we now own a house on a half acre up Hualalai. And it abuts to private agricultural land, which supports horses, cows and, unfortunately, the wild boars of Hawaii.
When I first noticed a pig had torn up on the lawn on the south side of our property, I shored up the hog wire fence and hoped for the best. The pigs still managed to squeeze on through, albeit a smaller hole. Naturally, I shored it up again, with tighter spacing on the stakes. So, they found a new place. Now I know why my neighbor installed expensive wrought iron fencing around his property.
Also, in my quest for figuring out how to catch a pig in Kona, I turned to the internet for answers. Eureka, but then I found a former Council Member had access to a list he maintained of pig trappers in Kona. I contacted the office of our new Council Member Valerie T. Poindexter, and Sunshine emailed me the list. There are 29 pig trappers on that list but not all of them are located in Kailua-Kona.
I also watched a few videos. There is one YouTube video of a guy in Cambodia making a snare out of a Y-shaped piece of wood and rope. Watched it several times. Seemed simple enough to make a snare, but I do not excel at rope tying. Sacramento real estate, yes, but not rope tying. No sailor bones in me. No knots, no roping.
Fortunately, a person whose name I cannot give you stepped in to help, only under the circumstances of identity protection and that I do not tell anybody that he installed a pig trap in my yard. It a mutual gratification situation. I want to catch a pig in Kona and get rid of it. He wants the pig because Kailua pigmeat is darn tasty!
Which means as long as his freezer is not full, he is game to catch a pig in Kona for me.
Last night, I woke at 12:30 AM. Our cats were at the bedroom jalousie window. This is about 6 feet from my bed and I’ve never had the pigs wake me up before. Slept right through the munching from earlier times. I peeked out the window and spied 3 black humps in the yard, just standing there. Wanted to say, hey, go eat all of the corn and molasses I bought for you. Couldn’t turn on the lights to take a photo because they’d run away.
So I just went back to bed. They did not enter the trap last night. But tonight could very well be another story. Aloha.
More About Getting the Edge When Buying Homes in Sacramento
A tip for getting the edge when buying homes in Sacramento. The italics below feature an excerpt from a blog Elizabeth wrote several years ago. It is the same thing happening today. Agents call and ask if we have offers. We say not yet, but expecting offers any moment. Offers are often sent in poorly written, missing information and without proof of funds. Why would an agent ever send in anything less than picture-perfect offers?
Sometimes the offers never even make it in to us. We follow up with every agent and help in any way we can. Make sure you have discussions about your offers before they are sent to the listing agent. This will help with some of the smaller issues. Enjoy.
In this Sacramento real estate market, it doesn’t matter how many offers the seller has received. Yet, agents continue to call and ask that question. Why doesn’t it matter? Because any well priced home will be sold within hours if not within days of hitting the market. If a listing agent doesn’t have an offer when the buyer’s agent calls, you can bet an offer is on its way. Maybe 10 or 20 offers are in the works. It just doesn’t matter.
What does matter is how strong is your purchase offer? How well written is your offer? Have you included any special conditions to make your offer stand out among other offers?
I have empathy for buyer’s agents in this market. It’s very tough. A buyer’s agent is but one of many pigeons in the park scrambling for tossed bread crumbs. Sacramento is a seller’s market. Limited inventory. — Elizabeth Weintraub
If you want to hire a professional real estate team that always looks for the edge, call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors, with RE/MAX Gold. We can be reached at 916-233-6759.
— JaCi Wallace
Looking For a Dream Home Can Be Like Finding A Lost Hearing Aid
Looking for a dream home can be like finding a lost hearing aid. My mom is here in Wilton with me for a few days every other week. She helps so much with all the animals, she does my laundry, cleans cat boxes. She loves her children so much. At 83, she is a machine. I often have to say, “Mom, it’s 2 AM, let’s go to sleep as I have to work tomorrow,” lol, it is true. She will be moping the floor and I say: “Mom, it’s midnight, why are you moping?” The answer is so she has a head start tomorrow. I hope at 83 I’m half as tough as she.
So, you’re maybe thinking, OK, what does this have to do with a hearing aid? Well, Mom wears a hearing aid. She set it next to the bed and not in the case I gave her. So last night she tells me, “Oh, no, it’s gone.” I asked what is gone? “My hearing aid,” she exclaimed. She heard one of my menagerie of cats playing with something while she was changing the bed (yes, she changes the sheets, too; I’m so spoiled).
I started looking around and I found the battery, then a piece of the ear cover. Finally, I’m about to move my book cabinet out and, lo and behold, here is her hearing aid. It was smack in a pile of dust under the cabinet. Well, she was thrilled. We had been on our hands and knees with flashlights looking at every inch of floorspace wondering: will we ever find it? Cats love to knock stuff off counters and play bat-mitten, it should be called cat-mitten.
I was thinking about how a Zillow buyer called today and wanted a new home in Elk Grove, California. Must be less than 10 years new. Also 3 bedrooms and a two-story, plus a decent back yard for $350k. Well, in all three zip codes, not one house. We looked everywhere. nothing in resale so now checking one new subdivision, This hunting for a house with very low odds reminded me of our hearing aid hunt. Elk Grove has become a very high demand area.
Looking for a dream home under $350,000 in Elk Grove can be like finding a lost hearing aid. You just have to take a systematic approach in your search and not give up. If you want to find your dream home, call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors with RE/MAX Gold. We can be reached at 916-233-6759.
JaCi Wallace
What You Might Not Know About Do Not Call Registration
Are all of your phone numbers registered on the do not call list? This was a blog written by Elizabeth many years ago. I wondered, how true is this today? It is absolutely very relevant today. You can click the link above in the first sentence and read the entire post. Yes, Zillow solicitors still call. Companies even pretend to be clients on Zillow to get through to us, and we agents pick up the phone as we think it is a new client.
So you know how much we love that.
— JaCi Wallace
There are many things I did not know about do not call registration. But I do know this: Talking on the phone is such an antiquated thing!
Yet, that doesn’t stop people from calling and leaving messages. Often, it’s spammers, advertisers and other types of people I don’t want to talk to. This is why I have my phone number registered at the Do Not Call List. I discovered something a few days ago that didn’t initially dawn on me. I run campaigns on Trulia and Zillow. When I get calls from Zillow, for example, my phone notifies me the caller is from Zillow. That’s because Trulia and Zillow use tracking phone numbers.
I get a lot of calls from Zillow, especially, who are telemarketers. Makes me wonder if Zillow is selling their list of real estate agents who advertise or if callers comb Zillow for those phone numbers. The only way to stop some of those calls is to register the tracking phone numbers on the Do Not Call List. And then report the callers. There is a reason for the Do Not Call registration. So, if you have other phone numbers out there, make sure you register them on the Do Not Call List. You can register 3 numbers at a time. If your phone number is on the Do Not Call Registry for 31 days, you can file a complain.
The team phone we call our batphone; many of the calls are spam. It complies with the Do Not Call registration. I block them, but they call back with another number. I constantly mark the callers as spam and use TrueCaller, too. Today we had a great call, it was a call for a listing referral. The motto is you have to kiss a lot of toads before a charming honest caller calls your number.
If you want your calls answered or returned, please call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors, with Re/MAX Gold. We can be reached at 916-233-6759.
Elizabeth Weintraub
How To Have A New Smile In One Day
How to have a new smile in one day? Well, when we sell a house in Sacramento, the seller has a huge smile, but that’s not the smile I’m referring to. While watching a TV show on botched cosmetic surgery, I saw a segment on cosmetic dentistry. What was mind-blowing was a gentleman featured who had been through several dental surgeries gone wrong. One of several issues, his dental implants were not screwed into the bone; he sought answers in the UK.
The amazing surgeons, doctors Anthony and Michael Zabutz of the Smile In A Day Dental Centers, are brothers. They are located in Petersborough and Folkstone, UK. The first surgeon did the demolition of the patient’s existing teeth and the other installed the new teeth. In under 12 hours, this patient had a new smile in one day. It was amazing to watch. I can’t imagine what it costs, but the patient walked out with a new set of uppers and lowers set in permanently using titanium screws.
Pretty slick to have two brothers specializing in cosmetic dentistry to be able to accomplish all this one day. One of the surgeons was trained in the US. Dental procedures have come along way. I have talked to many people who have had dental implants, but it was a long and grueling process.
I googled this fantastic dental team. It appears they put in temporary teeth in one sitting and have the implants inserted into the bone and later screw in the final permanent implants in a second office visit. This show shared a pretty slick way to obtain answers as to how to have a new smile in one day.
As RE/MAX Realtors, we also work in numerous counties as our brokerage has 60 offices in the following California counties:
- Sacramento
- Placer
- Yolo
- Nevada
- Amador
- San Joaquin
If you are interested in more information, you can Google these dental surgeons in the UK. However, if you are in California and want to have a smile on your face because we just sold your home for an amazing price, call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors. We work with RE/MAX Gold in Sacramento, including Elk Grove and Wilton.
– JaCi Wallace
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