Email ElizabethWho Texted a Google Verification Code From Craigslist?
All right, are you wondering who texted a Google Verification Code from Craigslist to you? I know, I know, Craigslist is a hot bed of illegal activity, and you have to be doubly careful every time you go there to make sure you don’t get snookered or scammed. Still, there are times you need to use Craigslist. If this is one of those times for you, then listen up to what can happen if somebody texted a Google Verification Code from Craigslist to you.
First, don’t reply to such a person. I received a couple of those text messages all at once, the minute I posted an ad on Craigslist. I receive Google Verification Codes all the time but have never been asked to provide such a code in a text message from a stranger. What they both said was they wanted to verify that I was a real person. I know better, yes, I do. But it was over so fast I didn’t blink.
Then I had to immediately close out my existing account on Craigslist, change my email and password, and also go over to Google to change my information there. After I sent the Google Verification Code and the first supposed buyer told me it was “wrong” and to hurry up and send the correct code, I became suspicious. There is no reason to get a Google Verification Code from Craigslist advertising unless the sender is a scammer.
What they try to do is pair your phone number with your Google account and open other accounts with that information. So word to the wise is don’t ever respond to a Google Verification Code from Craigslist “buyers.” If you do, then immediately change your account information, including all passwords on both Craigslist and Google.
I reported the two phone numbers I received this request from to the FBI. The VoIP phone numbers, just fyi, were 859-287-4725 and 786-588-2845.
Should Part-Time Realtors Represent Family Members?
Should part-time Realtors represent family members? You know what I’m gonna say. Probably not. In fact, even full-time Realtors might want to think twice about representing family members if they want to keep harmony in the family.
However, the real dynamics of such a notion could be devastating to such agents because family often makes up the major portion of their business. Without family members to serve, they wouldn’t be an agent, because nobody else would hire them. And if that’s the case, maybe they shouldn’t be an agent at all.
But there are always those who will say something stupid like “blood is thicker than water.” Which means nothing, really. Is stupidity thicker than water? Who cares? What’s important is that well meaning intentions backed by inexperience is a recipe for disaster. It doesn’t help anybody. You’re better off hiring an experienced and compassionate agent to represent your family than trying to string together bits of delusions based on insecurities. The answer to should part-time realtors represent family members is almost always a nada.
I talked with a part-time Realtor a few days ago about her family members who expressed an interest in one of my listings. In fact, I let her know that one of the family members had called me earlier to ask questions about the home. This set her off. She was not happy about that disclosure, and when I tried to explain it was all right, buyers just get excited when they spot a new listing and don’t always think about calling their own agent, she pooh-poohed that notion.
They’re always going around me, she complained. Sometimes, they are a no-show. I make an appointment to show homes and they don’t show up or call. She ended with, “I’m not even taking a commission.”
What? All the more reason to refer these people to a full-time agent and collect a referral fee. Her comments made me think she now harbors a bit of animosity toward her family members. It’s not worth the ill feelings to try to help them in a professional situation. I don’t know if she’s giving them the commission or deducting it from the sales price or what this is about, but she probably should not be representing them. I mean, what do you want? A close knit family or kids who show no respect?
Should part-time Realtors represent family members if they know what they are doing? All depends on experience. Since agents learn to sell on the job, the more transactions they close, the more knowledge they should acquire. Wouldn’t family members be better served by a professional with loads of experience? Who doesn’t want the best for their family?
The Waterboy is a Great Spot for Steak
One of my favorite restaurants in Sacramento is The Waterboy. I’m not alone in that opinion. Many Sacramentans love The Waterboy. What’s not to love? Creative yet traditional cuisine, local ingredients, great wine selection, excellent service and convenient location in Midtown. I’m also a big fan of plush seats, and not every restaurant offers comfy bench seating like The Waterboy.
The abundance of glass windows provide a superb view of 20th Street and Capitol Avenue. Lights from other buildings and traffic twinkle. People mill about in the streets after dark. Midtown Sacramento comes alive when the sun goes down. I should mention that Chef / Owner Rick Mahan also does an excellent job over at OneSpeed Pizza in East Sac, but The Waterboy was here first.
Whenever we are seated at The Waterboy, the waitress asks if we are celebrating a special occasion. I’m not so sure a waitress should ask that question because it implies that The Waterboy is not a place to have dinner on a regular basis. And it is. It’s a fabulous local hang out. When my husband asked if I felt like a steak and offered up The Waterboy as an excellent choice for dinner, I agreed with him. But then I realized I had a gift certificate to The Waterboy.
I had forgotten that a client had given me a gift certificate. Just like my client had forgotten to mail it, LOL. I think he remembered that he bought it when he received a holiday card from me, which must have jolted his memory. Shortly after I mailed out my holiday cards, I received the gift certificate in the mail from him. The gift certificate was dated last August, right after we closed on his Midtown condo.
I opted for an appetizer of house smoked salmon and ahi tartare, adorned with watercress, thinly sliced avocado, tiny olives and salsa verde. I realize raw fish isn’t everybody’s choice, but for those of us who love it, it melted in my mouth. The salmon was remarkably fresh and delicious.
When the waitress asked how I wanted my steak, I hesitated. My hesitation is because I prefer steak medium rare. But I rarely get it medium rare. In fact, I’m almost afraid to order a medium rare steak when I dine out because it often arrives overcooked and medium. Inedible. Sometimes, I order steak rare, and then it either arrives all bloody and barely seared or it’s perfectly medium rare. I figure I’ve got a 50/50 chance. But, because we were at The Waterboy, I had faith in the chef.
Sure enough, I ordered medium rare and I got medium rare. The steak was unforgettable. You can’t go wrong at The Waterboy.
Which Do You Prefer: Apple or Google Maps?
Not really sure what kind of mapping system I have in my Mercedes C300, but it is not Apple nor Google maps. It is something else, and it pretty much sucks. It is a clunky system to enter a destination, some maps won’t let you change back to your original view, and it doesn’t deserve to be installed in Mercedes, yet is is. I simply despise it, so I rarely use it, instead I rely on my iPhone maps, which comes down to Apple or Google maps.
In fact, I didn’t even realize this was an issue, to have to decide between Apple or Google maps, until yesterday. Before I took off for lunch, I verified an address on my computer in Google maps. Never before have I ever checked the box that lets Google maps send the directions to my cellphone, but for some reason, I decided to do exactly that. And then I forgot about it.
So when I picked up my bag to leave the house, my phone began giving me directions to the restaurant we were all meeting at for lunch. Well, that was weird. How did it know I was going there?
Got into my car, put in the name of the restaurant in my Apple maps app and took off. By the time I reached Broadway, I realized I had dualing apps going. One with a female British voice and another with an American voice. They were competing with each other.
Everything was OK until I got on Business 80 freeway. My Apple Maps GPS told me to go down 99 and get off on Power Inn, which presumably I would then head north on all the way to Arden Park. My Google Maps GPS told me to get on Business 80 and slide over to Highway 50. This is when I began to feel a bit frustrated and confused because both directions were so completely different from each other.
Since I had not yet realized which GPS was taking over my phone and directing me, I decided to drive by my own common sense and ignore those two voices demanding opposite actions. As a result, both GPS systems yakked at each other until I got there and could put an end to the madness.
Although I will admit that Apple Maps has better sounding voices than Google. To change my Google Maps to a British voice, I had to delete the app, change the language under general on my iPhone and then reinstall the app. Because in the war between Apple or Google Maps, I think Google wins.
The Best Days of an Elliptical
Funny, but I do not really recall the best days of an elliptical, except that when we bought the Precor EFX 523, it seemed the best model available. Exciting time. If I recall correctly, we bought it from one of my clients who worked at a store that sells exercise equipment. You would think I would have learned from a previous purchase of the treadmill coatrack but no, I thought an elliptical would be different.
At first, I used the elliptical almost religiously, for at least a month or two. Then something interfered and changed that schedule. Maybe work, I’m guessing, because I was working on 75+ escrows at a time when we bought the elliptical. The best days of an elliptical were probably right after the second market crash of 2008. Short sales consumed my life back then, and almost all of my transactions were short sales.
Because I personally sold and negotiated so many short sales, I was putting in days from 5 AM to 9 PM at night, sometimes later. With butt planted in chair, I hardly moved or left my desk. Exercising on an elliptical in the next room seemed the answer. If I could get to it.
That was about the time I wrote a book. The publisher demanded 60,000 words, so I figured if I wrote 1,000 words a day, I would be finished in two months. And I was. But it left no time for the elliptical. I was also still creating homebuying content for About.com, which is now The Balance. Further, by 2011, I was selling more than 150 homes a year.
At one point, the best days of an elliptical for me were the spring and early summer of 2014 when I decided to drop 20 pounds. I worked out on the elliptical for an hour and then hopped on my bicycle to zoom around the Land Park golf course. In mid-June, my team member Barbara Dow and I took off for 10 glorious days in Maui, living high on the hog on the top floor of the Fairmont Kea Lani in Wailea.
It is with a bit of sadness that I part with the elliptical now, but I have not touched it for 5 years. Time to find a new home. I have discovered the best exercise program for me is the one I will actually do, which involves driving to the gym or to my yoga class.
We hauled it out of the house on Sunday and it departed in a big red pickup truck for its new home at a friend’s house. Recouped only about 10% of what I paid for it, but that is OK. The best days of an elliptical are when you first buy it, and when you sell it. Kinda like a boat, I guess.
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