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The Future of Nordstrom, Real Estate and Internet Shopping
Before I jump into a discussion on real estate and internet shopping, let me tell you a secret. A sales clerk working in the Eileen Fisher department at Nordstrom at the Westfield Galleria in Roseville told me that Nordstrom sits on rollers and is not attached to a concrete foundation, a tidbit I did not know. She said the whole building is constructed on top of rollers. I discovered this because in the midst of shopping recently, I suddenly felt the earth move beneath me, and it wasn’t due to Eileen Fisher price tags. The floor was actually moving where I stood. It’s to protect the integrity of the building during an earthquake; it’s a seismic safety provision. It’s not a comfortable feeling, though.
Shopping in Sacramento can be an unpleasant experience as well, as I was warned by our friends in Davis, just before we settled here in 2002. She wasn’t talking about real estate and internet. She was talking about actual shopping. We had moved from Mall of America-land in Minneapolis to the Central Valley. Before that, I had previously lived in Newport Beach, with access to Fashion Island and South Coast Plaza, so you can probably sense that moving to Sacramento was a bit of a shopping shock for me.
We don’t have tons of name-brand stores featuring huge selections in Sacramento. Almost any major purchase of furniture, for example, requires a waiting period to ship. Whenever possible I try to buy from a local merchant, but I am turning more to the Internet now than ever. In fact, it’s common practice today for a product to be available only through Internet shopping. What is this? Hawaii?
A few weeks back I received a catalog from Nordstrom. It doesn’t matter that I thew it away because I can still access the catalog online, yet much of the fall fashion-line stuff is not available in any of the stores within a 100-mile radius of Sacramento. I found a two-piece blue tweed outfit I liked and thought, hey, why should I order it, find out it’s the wrong size and have to ship it back? I could wear any of 3 sizes in that particular garment. I called Nordstrom to ask if they would order the ensemble for me in 3 sizes so I could, gasp, actually go into the store and try it on, just like the good old days.
Nordstorm is known for customer service, above and beyond, exceptional customer service, just like I am known as a Sacramento real estate agent. I will move heaven and earth for my clients, and so will Nordstrom. The solution first offered by the clerk at Nordstrom was I should spend a few thousand and order all 3 sizes delivered to the store. That was a not a good idea. She needed to be more creative than that.
Turns out a size 6 is a very popular size, so the only way to order it is online. The store will transfer the 4 and 8 sizes and let me exchange the items there if the size 6 does not fit properly. I tell you, it’s coming. Soon we will not be able to buy anything in a store ever again. We will be forced to order supplies online. Brick-and-mortar stores will disappear. Real estate and internet will change. The futuristic stuff they warned about when Bulletin Boards first emerged in 1991 and we all pooh-poohed is coming true. Those early predictions seem to be right on the mark. Commercial retailers have already outsourced much of its customer service overseas or elsewhere in the country. Retail stores as we know it will probably vanish shortly, and it’s upsetting, don’t you think? It’s bad enough the milkman doesn’t come anymore, dangnabit.
I shudder to imagine what will happen to real estate and internet in 20 years. Because I already conduct much of my Sacramento real estate business online, and by phone or text. It’s rare that I actually get to meet a client anymore. I’m a bit of an anomaly and not your common-place Sacramento real estate agent. But just wait. Enjoy the human interaction when you can — because it’s moving the way of the dinosaurs.
Trade Secrets for Listing Photos of Sacramento Homes
I didn’t believe it myself when I heard it, but a seller recently asked me to list his home yet insisted that I use photos he shot with his cellphone. Stuff like the back of his sofa. A shot of the pool with the garden hose lying tangled in mud on the sidewalk. A half-cocked angle of a dark hallway. They were dreadful photos, but apparently some sellers think a crooked roof-line is an acceptable practice when it is obviously not. The guy wouldn’t listen. I threw a few of those awful photos on MLS, his home in Elk Grove withered on the market for a few months, and then he asked me to cancel because “nobody wants to buy it.”
For crying out loud, nobody wants to go see that mess. That’s the problem. You’re not trying to sell the home online; the object is to entice buyers to view the home in person.
Another seller in Elk Grove first couldn’t sell her home before she came to me. She had it listed with another agent, and after looking at the photos, I could see why. I told her I didn’t want to bad-mouth another agent but those photographs were hideous and why didn’t she see that in Trulia or Zillow? You’ve got to wonder about some sellers and why they don’t complain, or at least I do. Then she hit me with the fact they were HER photos — again, shot with her cellphone. What the? I invested my time to take professional photos with my Nikon, color-correct, brighten, and her home sold.
It’s not just the professional photography that sells homes in Sacramento. It’s the type of photographs, how they are tweaked in Photoshop and the order in which they are uploaded to MLS. Some Sacramento real estate agents get it and some do not.
I ran across an article this morning by an agent in Atlanta who gets it. She mentioned that emotion is a quality she injects into her listing photos, and that is absolutely an essential ingredient. It’s something that can’t be taught. It’s a connection to the property. Now, I know that sounds squirrelly and maybe woo-woo but it’s precisely how I shoot photos of homes. I want to take the internet buyer by the hand and gently lead her through the home, showcasing all of its special features and views.
For example, I listed a lakefront home in Elk Grove, and shot a photo of the lake as viewed from sitting at the dining room table and also while rinsing dishes at the kitchen sink. I walk the buyer through the home, into the entry, the view of the clerestory windows, through the living room and into the kitchen. Photos are interspersed throughout with views of the lake because the entire reason to buy this home is to live on the lake.
I want the first photograph in MLS to entice, and I try to arrange the order so the buyer will feel inclined to click through all of the photographs and be left with a lasting final impression of arousal — which doesn’t mean inserting a photo of the trash cans. It’s just like writing. If you don’t capture the reader in the first sentence, she won’t read the next paragraph or even your entire article. If you’re looking for a Sacramento real estate agent who cares deeply about her photos of Sacramento homes, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
When Will Apple Ship the iPhone 6 to Sacramento?
Most people I know would not call T-Mobile to find out when Apple will ship the iPhone 6 to Sacramento because text, chat, and email is much more convenient. People don’t seem to use phones for phone calls very much. I freak out people, too, when I answer my phone as a Sacramento real estate agent. People are shocked when I answer. I, I, I, expected to get voice mail, they stammer. If they want, I could hang up and they could call back. How do you pronounce your name, they ask and then mangle an attempt. It’s OK, I didn’t know how to pronounce it when I first saw it, either.
When I have a brief moment during my day as a bustling Sacramento real estate agent, I will even call T-Mobile. Despite my contract negotiation demands, my reeling in of purchase offers when a big fish bites and working diligently on scheduling new listing appointments, beneath all of that is the driving force that keeps an agent energized:
Me: Hey, I’m sitting here stroking my new red leather case for my iPhone 6 Plus, and I’m very sad because there is nothing in it.
T-Mobile: What is the nature of your phone call?
Me: Where is my iPhone 6 Plus?
T-Mobile: They are on back order due to a large demand.
Me: How can it be on back order when I preordered it two weeks ago? Doesn’t a preorder trump a backorder? I stood in line with all of the sweaty kids on the playground waiting my turn just so I could be one of the first to get my phone, and now you’re sending me to the back of the line? I don’t get it. I think I’m gonna cry.
T-Mobile: Silence.
Me: I preordered way before September 19th.
T-Mobile: We blah, blah, blah, blah, you are a great customer, blah, blah, blah.
Me: Where is the phone that fits in my red leather case for an iPhone 6 Plus?
T-Mobile: Wait, here is a message from Apple. I am reading, I am reading. I apologize. I am reading.
Me: No problem, I am patient, which I developed selling short sales, I’ll have you know.
T-Mobile: That is . . . I don’t know what you just said, Ms. Weintraub, we are expecting the phones by Thursday.
Me: When will I get my phone then?
T-Mobile: blah, blah, blah, customer is always right, blah, blah, blah.
Me: Will my phone ship on Thursday?
T-Mobile: We cannot predict blah, blah, blah, Apple, Apple, blah, blah, blah.
Me: So, would you say by the end of the month? You would make an empty iPhone case so grateful?
T-Mobile: You should have your phone by the end of the month.
I suspect she just got tired of talking to me. Call me silly, I was hoping the Apple ship date would be delayed a bit longer because but I don’t know if another week is enough time to work out the problems with iOS8.
Asking for a Nose Job When Your Leg is Broken
Can you imagine a client telling her agent she is so frustrated and angry with the buyer and his agent that if they nitpick over one more home inspection repair, cause one more problem, produce any further grief, she will buy a gun and shoot them? I like to think of myself as a problem solver, even better, a problem predictor and fixer of future issues before they sprout, but the thing is we never know what each day might bring to us. There’s always a fresh new hell in real estate. That’s partly what makes working in Sacramento real estate so fascinating.
Several years ago, when most of the real estate sales in Sacramento were short sales, there were no home inspection repairs but, today, it’s a different story. Depending on the attractiveness of the home, its price point and location, there are situations in which the seller can deliver to the buyer a flat-out NO when she asks for a repair after a home inspection. In fact, that’s precisely what a client reminded me yesterday that I had advised her to do when she instead decided to complete the requested repairs. She now must deal with the consequences, and it’s rough. She is joking about the gun, though.
I don’t make decisions for my clients. I advise them as to what I believe is best and, fortunately, I am generally correct. But I’m paid to be correct, and my decades in real estate have added up to enough experience that I should possess some kind of wisdom in the matters of home inspections.
A buyer asked for a series of trivial repairs in another transaction, and I advised the seller to reject that request for repairs. However, I added it was not my decision to make. Her selections in that particular event were to:
- do the repairs
- reject the repairs
- do some and not others
- throw some money at the buyer, or
- any combination thereof.
She decided to give the buyer a little break and credit dollars toward the buyer’s closing costs. It’s not my home, so I can’t make those decisions.
Then, there are the buyers who want beaucoup bucks for imaginary updates who, unfortunately, may overlook necessary repairs because they’re fixated on how they want to remodel the home. They believe the seller should pay for their future remodel. These types of buyers may not understand the home is already priced for its condition. Further, they think if they ask the seller to give them money for a nose job, they can also get more money to fix a broken leg.
Sellers may be sympathetic to fixing a broken leg. They aren’t going to pay for cosmetic surgery. In some ways, they think like an insurance company. In other words, don’t ask for a 50-year warranty tile roof when the roof does’t need to be replaced but subterranean termites are swarming in the basement. The bottom line is buyers should make sure to obtain competent advice before asking a seller to make repairs after a home inspection, because they won’t get it in all cases. Homes are sold AS IS. If they love the home, it won’t much matter.
A Funeral in Midtown and My Back-Story to Harold and Maude
Some people might call it a Harold-and-Maude-syndrome because that’s where I initially got the idea that I should start going to funerals. I first saw that movie in a renovated theater in Minneapolis as an advance screening premiere. This was back in the early 1970s when movie theaters didn’t tell you the name of the movie you were going to see as a premiere. You just hoped you got a good movie. People are much more demanding today.
The velvet drapes slowly parted, the lights went out, and the music of Cat Stevens filled the theater as we watched the lead actor hang himself. What’s not to love about this movie? It became my favorite movie and for just about everybody else I knew, too. Harold and Maude played at the France Avenue Drive-in in the Minneapolis area consecutively for years because every time I would call my mother after moving to California she would throw into our conversation, “Did you know that Harold and Maude is still playing at the France Avenue Drive-in?”
My first funeral was for a person I did not know. I had no idea that you could just pluck a dead person’s name out of the newspaper, go to his funeral and nobody would ask any questions. You didn’t need an affidavit of death. I asked my girlfriend what to wear, whether black was necessary, and she assured me it was not but I should dress conservatively over respect for the deceased. We engaged in long conversations about the length of my skirt, what was too short, too revealing, too bright? Should I wear mascara — because if I cried my tears would mess up my face. What kind of Kleenex should I carry? Important questions.
After my first funeral, I began to notice that some of the people whose death notices I read in the paper were people I knew. That was unnerving. I didn’t think I was old enough to know any dead people. One was a guy I had dated a few times. Naturally, I attended his funeral and much to my delight it was an open casket. Whoa, a new experience for me! Except he looked very bloated and not at all like I remembered him when I was on top.
I say all of this because I attended a funeral yesterday for a person whose name I won’t associate with this blog because I’d hate for people to get upset, and not everybody shares my sense of humor. It was very hot. The funeral home was packed, overflowing. We arrived 15 minutes early and had to sit in the third-tier room so we couldn’t view the videos. That funeral home on Capitol Avenue is moving, I hear. My dentist in Midtown told me. Who needs a Sacramento real estate agent when you’ve got a dentist?
I feel indebted to the person who passed away. He was always very generous with me. When I first posted a blog about Fairytale Town in Land Park and expressed my utter dismay and shock that I was not allowed inside without a kid in tow, he wrote to me personally and said I could take his kids. He was serious, he said he lived a few blocks away: yeah, come over and get ’em. But then they had that free day when anybody could go, so my husband and I went to Fairytale Town by ourselves, and I didn’t need to take his kids. He also told me how to get a bigger battery for my phone to extend its life. He had an enormous heart.
He was only 37. So young. Too young. We’re always too young when we go, unless we’re like my 88-year-old Hungarian grandmother who had so many things wrong with her health it was a relief to let go and she actually prayed for death every morning, but I’m nothing like her, thank goodness. She never saw Harold and Maude.
