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East Sacramento Home and Josh Amolsch on FOX 40 News
And to think that some agents pooh-pooh open houses in Sacramento, yet my open house at an East Sacramento home got a little bit more exposure than expected. The FOX 40 news reporter Doug Johnson asked me yesterday what time we hold open houses in Sacramento. It sorta depends. I held open four of my listings yesterday, and the customary time for me is typically 2 to 4 PM. But sometimes we’ll throw in an extra hour and do a time slot of 1 to 4 PM, especially during Lyon Real Estate’s Extravaganza Open House weekend, which is company-wide once a month and yesterday.
Too late, the reporter said. He needed footage for the 4 PM broadcast and into the night. Oh, wait, we have an early open house at the affordable remodeled home in East Sacramento at 1732 51st Street. That home is $330,000, and it was open from 11 AM to 1 PM. My team member Josh Amolsch was scheduled to host that open house. I quickly called Josh.
Yeah, he got 20 minutes’ notice. But that’s how it goes in this business. I often get interviewed by the media due to my reputation and exposure in Sacramento. Sound bites, Josh, think about sound bites. We discussed a few things he could say. Short, sweet, informational, pithy, that’s what news reporters want. I figured they were probably piggybacking off the Sacramento Bee’s article yesterday on the front page about how first-time home buyers are getting squeezed out of the marketplace.
It’s true, if you’re thinking about buying a home in Sacramento, you better hurry up. Once interest rates start to rise, it will be much more difficult to find an affordable home due to our higher prices achieved during recovery.
Very important, try to stand near our For Sale sign in the yard, I suggested to Josh. If people are interested in buying that home in East Sacramento, we need to make sure they know how to get in touch with us. Well, they weren’t filming near the sign but Josh did ask them to capture the sign with their cameras, and sure enough, that For Sale sign with the phone numbers for Elizabeth Weintraub and Josh Amolsch in front of the East Sacramento home is what starts off the video: Owning a Home is Becoming More Difficult in Sacramento.
We also captured a few interested home buyers for that East Sacramento home. Gosh, I hope one of them makes an offer today!!
Prevention is Better Than Cure in Sacramento Real Estate
Everybody knows that prevention is better than cure but few do anything about it. For example, one of the horrid side effects of growing older, I have discovered, is the fact you can’t just do any old thing you want to do. I don’t want to scare you younger guys, but did you realize that a simple action such as reaching across the kitchen table to push the cat off can cause a back injury? Bowling on the Wii can pull a muscle in your gut. Dropping to the floor to attempt a push-up can tear a rotator cuff. Whatever you used to do in the way of physical activity from 30 years ago you probably should not suddenly undertake in your 60s.
That’s kind of a hard realization to come to for me. On the one hand, I don’t want to walk around being paranoid that any little new action on my part will cause an injury, but on the other hand, I do want to be cautious. So, that’s why I’m enrolling in a physical therapy program out in Folsom, which is a good 30 minutes from my home in Land Park. I think it’s better to be proactive and take care of your health than be surprised when a random body part goes haywire. I try to live by the motto that prevention is better than cure.
Today’s Sacramento Bee says sitting will kill you. Not only will sitting kill you, but Diet Coke will kill you, too. All those mice can’t be wrong.
There are some things you can fix and prevent and some things you can’t do anything about. I can’t get buyer’s lenders to produce loan documents when they say they will, for example, but I can intervene and help them out when there are delays. We have an escrow that was supposed to close a week ago but the lender had difficulties. The first problem was deposit of funds — he didn’t advise the buyer on how to do it, so there was a check involved, which required clearing. The second problem was the lender could not get a document from the HOA, although he had requested.
The way some people deal with these things is they let them work themselves out. If you wait long enough, eventually most things will find resolution. That’s a lazy-ass solution. That’s not how I operate. I prefer to make things happen and not wait for things to happen. If you tell me that the entire situation is out of your hands because you are waiting for another person to perform, I will stare at you in disbelief. I will think you landed on this planet from Mars. There is almost always a way to get action.
I contacted my preferred mortgage lender to give the HOA a push. Sure enough, an hour later, we had the document. I’m just the Sacramento listing agent, I should not have to be involved in such matters. There is no money in this transaction for my lender but he helps out anyway because he’s a great guy who also gets stuff done. He told me if we didn’t receive the document shortly, he would go over to the guy’s office himself to get it. That’s my method of operation as well. Get it done. But I much prefer to manage the situation so that we don’t need to fix it in the first place.
If you need a referral to an excellent mortgage broker, let me know. And before you begin a new exercise program when you’re heading into senior-hood, obtain professional medical guidance. Remember, prevention is better than cure.
The Sacramento Bee Masters Club Edition Arrives
The Sacramento Bee Masters Club edition came out today, but I know this primarily because I belong to that old fart’s group of individuals who still pick up the newspaper off the front porch. Our Sac Bee home subscriber numbers are dwindling, and it’s kind of sad to me to see an old institution like our daily newspaper in print slowly lose its life.
Crap, it was sad for me to see Ladies’ Home Journal bite the dust for home subscribers, and I would never read that magazine even if I was bored to tears at my doctor’s office reception, sitting there without cellphone reception. Watching time-honored institutions die is like watching little bits of my flesh get chipped away by the hammer and chisel of technology.
Print has its purpose. One of the problems with looking at the Sacramento Bee Masters Club edition online instead of holding the paper in your hands is you can’t draw devil horns on those grinning agents with the eye teeth exposed. You can’t put a mustache on that blonde grandma baring cleavage or draw horned-rimmed glasses on Mr. Surfer Dude. Who wants to look at photographs of a bunch of real estate agents in Sacramento online? I mean, outside of the ad department of the Sacramento Bee. Which didn’t do such a hot job with my online photo which, for some reason, is different from the print version.
All of the Sacramento region print publications have this racket going on with real estate agents and Masters Club. Let’s see, they ponder, who can we hit up for advertising dollars and make all of them pay for a wonderful opportunity? Because if an agent is in Masters Club and her photo isn’t there, the public will think she is not a member, so we’ve got ’em all by the balls, um, lady parts. You don’t get your photograph in any Masters Club edition of any newspaper or magazine unless you pay for that privilege. This is not a charity nor public service.
The Sacramento Bee “supports” Masters Club because agents pay the Sacramento Bee to do so.
Who’s got the money? It’s always who’s got the money. The people with the money are Sacramento real estate agents who sell at least 8 homes a year at $3.5 mil, say the advertising departments, and so they run after real estate agents and thrust their grubby little paws into agent pockets. I pay for most publications except for one that nobody else reads. Soon, though, this nonsense can stop. When the newspapers stop printing all together and the magazines shrivel up and die.
And that will be a time of sorrow.
So, even though I yipe about it, I pay for Masters Club print editions year after year.
Rock and Roll Never Dies and The Music Doesn’t Fade Away
An older, and by older I mean over-60 Sacramento real estate agent gets far more respect from younger people nowadays than an aging rock-and-roll star. Thank goodness I am in the right profession. The motto far back as I can remember was you’re not getting older, you’re getting better. And wiser, hopefully. Nobody tells me that I am too old to sell real estate and lives. But there seems to be a backlash against entertainers who aren’t as spry as they used to be simply because they’re older. It’s enough to make an older person want to whack these little punks across the noggin with a cane.
Some reporter who probably used to have a hard-on for Bruce Springsteen complained that The Boss wasn’t performing like he did at the peak of his career which, according to that guy, was at age 26. LOL. When I read that editorial, I could only imagine the shrieking outrage from fans and even suspected that perhaps the reason for such drivel was to spark an uproar and bump up online hits for the Sacramento Bee. On the other hand, it’s a silly opinion of a person who probably secretly jacks off to Thunder Road. Everybody except that guy apparently is mad for a live Bruce Springsteen concert. Springsteen puts his all into every show. Pure adrenaline.
It’s a big thing now — for Baby Boomers especially, and we are targeted like no tomorrow — to attend concerts headlined by rockstars of our youth. It also provides retirement income to some whose managers ripped them off over the years. It’s not like reliving youth but some memories do return that were long ago buried, and that’s kind of sweet. The Happy Together Tour comes to mind. It’s also a yardstick to use so you can laugh at your goofy self as a teenager / college student and then understand how far you have come. (I don’t have yardsticks known as kids.)
What bothers me somewhat about these shows is how snooty I have become about concerts. It’s almost 50 years later. I still want front row seats. Only now, instead of camping out in front of the theater for hours beforehand or squeezing my way to the front by-hook-or-by-crook through throngs of stoned-out freaks, now I am willing to pay for that privilege. I am not standing in the hot sun (OMG, melanoma) or sleeping on the sidewalk (my aching back), no way, Jose. And, I expect a comfy chair. If I could enjoy concierge, valet and cocktail service, all the better. I wonder what my younger self would have said about this attitude?
Don’t answer that.
Check Out Devine Gelateria in Midtown Sacramento
I guess while the *Sacramento Bee was pulling together a story about the sale of the Washington Post to a guy who amassed a fortune selling books on the Internet, the reporter ran across the Washington Post story about the guy in London who, financed by another Internet giant, has produced the world’s first stem cell hamburger. My first reaction was ewww, but then, what the hell; we have fake food in our freezer and I eat it for lunch. That stuff is made from chemicals and sold as Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice. Stem cell burgers don’t sound so bad.
You know what really tastes great, though? Gelato. It’s every bit as good as ice cream and some people might say, better. One taste and you’ll be addicted. If you like ice cream or frozen yogurt, you will adore gelato. I especially like Sea Salt Caramel. My favorite flavor used to be mint chocolate chip. Even though I would be presented with 31 flavors, didn’t matter, I would always choose the sure thing: mint chocolate chip. I figured I liked it so why not order it. Can’t go wrong. Unless, of course, you figure that you’re missing out on dozens of other flavors that could be a “favorite.” Who says a favorite has to be only one thing? You can have lots of favorites.
If you’re in Sacramento and live near Midtown, one of the best gelato stores in the city, and they are up for a vote in Sacramento News and Review as Best Sweet Treat, is Devine Gelateria on 19th Street just south of Mulvaney’s, between L and Capitol. They make dozens of flavors; the gelato is hand crafted. I asked the clerk behind the counter if she had a loyalty card, because we’ve been to Devine Gelateria 3 times in the past couple of weeks, but they were out of print. That’s how popular this place is, and you’re missing a fabulous treat if you don’t go there.
Although we live in Land Park, we walk to Devine Gelateria. Yes, we actually put on shoes and walk down the street instead of driving. Last Sunday, I know this will shock some of you, we walked downtown to the Sacramento Public Library, then over to Devine Gelateria in Midtown. On our way back to Land Park, we made a fortitude pitstop against the Sacramento heat at Shady Lady for a summer cocktail and a snack: tator tots stuffed with duck. We sampled a Gin Daisy and a Rita Hayworth. Our bill with tip came to $34. Remember when $34 would buy you groceries for a week? Our round-trip walk was a little over 5 miles. I figure we at least burned up the calorie intake from Devine Gelateria. Don’t know about the tator tots with duck.
*Note: See, there are stories you get in the print edition of the Sacramento Bee that you will not find at its online website.
