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Sacramento Real Estate and Sonoma Square Portals
Our cats received their Thanksgiving treats in the comfort of their home in Land Park, being tended to by our in-home care sitters, while we’re in Sonoma, enjoying a somewhat brief vacation with our electronic devices in tow. This gave me the opportunity, after pigging out at the Sante Restaurant with my husband, to engage in blowing up portals after dinner. Other people have dessert or maybe an after-dinner drink, but no, we grab out cellphones and head out to Sonoma Square.
What good is a Mophie juice box if you don’t take it along? It’s smaller than a cellphone, even smaller than the old flipper phones, which I read are back in vogue because they do such a good job of, gasp, making a phone call.
Besides, we bumped into Thanksgiving dinners twice yesterday. Once at Sante, where we couldn’t pass by the miniature dessert spread — because you know there are no calories in any delightful thing that small and tiny — without grabbing 5 or 6 items, and again at the El Dorado Kitchen in Sonoma Square. Too many meals for one day.
Too many portals in Sonoma Square, too. But we established 3 km links and so many control fields that my points zoomed to their highest level ever. The Google gods are smiling down on our stupid little frozen bodies. Did I mention it was cold in Sonoma yesterday? Cold enough to have to wear my husband’s jacket over my own.
The guy is a saint.
Through all of this, my clients managed to sign on to DocuSign, sometime between bedtime last night and this morning to sign final counters offers and / or purchase offers. Although, I do believe the title companies are closed today due to Thanksgiving weekend.
The Laws of the Universe
Nobody would ever accuse me of being superstitious but there seems to be some sort of ritual in the world — laws of the universe — that say the minute I leave for vacation, my Sacramento real estate business will explode. Just like when you wash your car it will rain, even if the sky has been bright and sunny for months on end. Or, when you buy four cases of cat food, your cat will suddenly decide she is no longer interested in dining on that brand, thank you, very much.
We haven’t even unpacked the giant boxes from Chewy.com that are sitting in our living room before Tessa has decided she is much more interested in the new wet cat food being laid out like a smorgasbord for Pica than she is in devouring her existing brand. The problem is us, actually. We spoil her to no end and then we complain about it. She shows a preference for a certain flavor, and what do we do? We buy her tons of roasted chicken and shredded beef, even if we have to special-order the food. It’s the laws of the universe.
All I can add in our defense is thank goodness we don’t have children. I hate to think how we would undoubtedly ruin their lives and turn them into ungrateful, sniveling little jerks, who think the world revolves around them. And it would be all our fault.
At least our household members know who runs the house around here. It’s the animal kingdom. They have taken over our lives. It’s not a coincidence when you smooth a cat’s face back with both hands that you find an alien grinning back at you. That’s because unpredictable cat behavior is an oxymoron, part of laws of the universe.
If I could only get them to take listings and negotiate purchase offers, they’d earn their keep around here. As it is, I suspect they keep my blood pressure down, no matter how stressful the situations during the day, I can always stop what I’m doing to pet the cats and interact. To counteract the laws of the universe, I suppose I could knock on wood or throw salt around the room or spit 3 times, but the cats wouldn’t appreciate it. It’s best just to pet them and utter soothing words to put a smile on their little alien faces.
I challenge you. Take your cat and put the cat in your lap facing you. Place your palms over your cat’s ears and push the skin toward the back of your cat’s head, like maybe you wanted to see what a face lift would look like on your cat and voila. Alien.
P.S. The insulin injection I had to give to Pica this morning went smoothly and without incident.
Taking Along Sacramento Real Estate Clients on a Winter Vacation
Lots of people do their spring cleaning at springtime but this Sacramento REALTOR does hers in the fall, primarily because I need to be ready to hit the street running when I return from my winter vacation. I need a fresh slate in January, and to be ready to handle new listings and new sales. Every spring market is explosive. You might ask what happens to my existing business, the clients I am working with in November and will acquire in December? I’ll tell you what has worked for me over the years, and how I handle it.
First, not everybody knows (nor agrees with this practice), but I take my clients on vacation with me. Wherever I go, whether it’s French Polynesia, the Florida Keys or Viet Nam, I stay on top of my business. Nobody gets neglected nor forgotten. I still respond to email and take care of purchase offers and closings. In fact, one year on Christmas Day via spotty satellite from a remote Atoll in the Tuamotus at Rangiroa, I listed a home in Sacramento. By the time I flew to Bora Bora, I had sold the home and opened escrow.
I can always find an hour or two in every day no matter what to take care of my Sacramento clients. It doesn’t matter where in the world I am. Further, I enjoy the luxury of leading a dedicated team who support me. They are my rock and right hand.
Maybe it’s the way I was raised, but I feel a personal responsibility when I make a promise to clients that I will be their fiduciary and sell their home. It helps that I truly enjoy my job as well or I couldn’t do it while I’m on vacation. I know people think that is nuts, but it works for me. There is a stretch of solitude during the week of Christmas and a few days after that things are very quiet, and I unwind completely.
A winter vacation is the reason I work so hard like a well oiled machine in Sacramento real estate. To go away for a month. Yup, I work 11 months and go on vacation for another month. I am very selective of my clients but even more so come the fall months. Because the people I choose to work with are the individuals I will communicate with during my vacation. They have to be special. I have learned to take along only the people I like. That’s my secret for a happy and fun career.
The only thing I regret about this year’s vacation is the fact my husband has to stay home in Sacramento. He has a new job now and can’t yet take off 30 days for a winter vacation.
Flashback to 1970s Real Estate and Sincerity
In retrospect, it seems like selling real estate in the 1970s was a lot more carefree than it is today, but that’s probably just twisted perception. Part of that feeling could stem from I was in my 20’s then and just didn’t know any better, even though I thought I knew everything. It takes a while for people to mature to the point where one realizes she will never know everything and there is a ton of stuff she will never in a million years know, even if she turned into a vampire and was granted eternal life.
In my younger days when I worked in 1970s real estate, I recall making training videos for other real estate agents in Orange County with Tucker T. Watkins and Scott C. Strohbehn. They were such a blast. It was odd to make a video of anything back then because nobody had video cameras. We had to hire a production company. It was my idea to incorporate a glass-framed poster of the Monopoly Game to use as an illustration for our topic about investment real estate, or at least that’s how I recall the episode. Somehow the glass broke when we started to film.
My motto has always been to make do with what’s presented. I say if it rains on your parade, then parade in the rain — because the alternatives don’t always solve the issue at hand. It’s easier to change perception than to move a roadblock or change nature. Everybody was crushed because we couldn’t use the poster in the broken glass frame. So I suggested to Scott that he use a pointer and poke it at the poster, saying something like, “The Monopoly Game is not exactly what it’s cracked up to be.”
That simply set us into fits of uncontrollable laughter and we could not film the sequence. We rolled off the sofa with tears streaming down our faces, clutching our guts. And it wasn’t just the drugs from the 1970s real estate lifestyle. When out touring homes for sale, it was common for an agent to do a U-turn in the middle of Pacific Coast Highway and explain it away by saying, “It’s OK, officer, I am a real estate agent.” Because being a real estate agent somehow gave us permission to do things that other people could not do. That’s how screwed up we were, because we believed that. At least we were sincere.
I’m still sincere today, mostly because it’s easier than being insincere. I’ll share an example. I went to Nordstrom in Arden Fair this weekend to exchange a top that didn’t quite fit right. Imagine my delight when I zipped into the parking lot to discover a parking place right along Arden. I didn’t mind walking that distance to the store. When I came back to my car, I heard some dude screaming. I was certain it wasn’t directed at me.
I began to back up my car and almost ran over this screaming guy. He approached my driver’s side window and knocked on it with his knuckles. Yes, what can I do for you? He was very angry and still yelling about a fat yellow line, and didn’t I notice all the other cars parked in backwards, and if I do it again it will be a $5 fine. I said I was very sorry that I did not notice this was valet parking. Yeah, I was on my cellphone talking about real estate when I pulled into the parking spot, so I was a bit oblivious to my surroundings.
I get that way when I’m focused on a conversation. Hey, I’m a Sacramento real estate agent. I honestly did not notice that I parked in valet parking, Sir, I’m sorry. I was about to reach into my bag and hand him a $20, relieved that he didn’t want to fine me five bucks — $5? Seriously? But then he said he didn’t believe me. How could I have NOT noticed? Well, obviously, he’s not in Sacramento real estate. Attacking my integrity and sincerity? He’s also not getting any money, and I drove away. I’ll gladly give him five bucks the next time I park in valet parking, though, at least I know where it is.
Some Sacramento Home Buyers Should Not Buy a Home
A good reason not to buy a home in Sacramento is a buyer might not be able to afford it. Looking at the situation purely from a financial point of view, it should not be that difficult for some Sacramento home buyers to understand why a seller would refuse to make a home “affordable” for them by discounting the sales price below market value. Especially an investor who looks at his investment the same way one might consider shares of stock: it’s impersonal, and the only thing that matters is whether the price has gone up or down.
Non-affordability is not an argument nor a negotiation tactic. If you’re standing by the entrance to a freeway with a sign that says Will Work for Food, it’s possible a passerby might offer you a job or a good-hearted driver might flip you a twenty, but asking for charity when you’re buying a home is not quite the same thing. Yet, that doesn’t stop buyers from requesting it. Further, a refusal does not mean the seller is a meanie and big ol’ grouch, either.
An agent asked my seller yesterday to “have mercy” for his buyers, because they are young, with a small family, struggling and pregnant. These stories have a time and a place, we encounter them every day, but do they pertain to housing, to Sacramento real estate? Are sellers heartless, cruel and without compassion if they don’t reduce a sales price so cash-strapped buyers can purchase a home that is outside the boundaries of their financial reach?
I wonder if buyer’s agents should push a product that people can’t afford to buy? Not every buyer needs to own a home. Not every buyer should own a home. Maybe, just maybe, the buyers should not buy a home. There is no shame in renting a home, and millions of people are tenants. If people did not want to rent a home, there would be little reason for investors to buy single-family homes or condos as a long-term hold investment.
Yes, I realize just about every Sacramento real estate agent you run into will say you should buy a home. But maybe you should not.
