One of the nasty surprises in store for women when we age is our arms turn into crepe paper overnight. I suspect that's why a lot of older women don't wear sleeveless garments. Well, unless you're Madonna. But her arms are spooky. They look manufactured. I could probably achieve that model of perfection if I were willing to pump iron and do push-ups, but reality says otherwise. There are too many other things to do, like get my listings sold.
I say, if a person doesn't like the way my arms look, a person can stop staring at them. It's too hot in Sacramento in the summer to wear long sleeves.
I look at a photo of Sandra Bullock, for example, and I spy that little flab where her underarms meet her body. Those little rolls of fat. And I bet that imperfection drives her insane. I think to myself, well, you just wait, Sandra Bullock. Wait until you see what happens when you get to be my age. And then I don't feel so awful about crepe paper arms.
I spend a lot of time looking at photos. Primarily photos of my listings. Because it's the photos that get buyers in the door. Buyers aren't likely to write a check without looking at a home in person. The trick is to get them into that home. And that is accomplished through photography. Through emotional appeal. Because almost all of the buyers today start out looking online for listings. So, those photos of homes for sale have to pop and pull.
When I take a new listing, I try to schedule my staged homes to go into MLS on a Friday. Especially in Sacramento with Furlough Fridays. When a buyer gets up in the morning, I want my listing to be fresh and in that buyer's face. That means all of the photos are attached to the listing, and the virtual tour is in place. I would have a heart attack if one of my listings hit MLS without photos or with incredibly bad photos, and I don't understand why some agents do it.
There is a feature in MLS that lets me set the time my listings goes live. Some agents don't know that. My listings are dialed and ready to go at midnight on Thursday. I work on those listings offline on Thursday. My sellers are prepared for showings on Friday and Saturday and, if the location is conducive to traffic, we generally hold an open house on Sunday. I might have spent weeks preparing the home for sale, polishing my photos in Photoshop and putting together my marketing strategy. All for that first weekend on the market. Because that's when buyer interest will be the highest.
Doing online marketing for Sacramento listings is a bit like casting out a fishing line and watching your bobber float merrily along the water. You feel a little nibble. Suddenly, the bobber swirls and takes a nose dive. That is the greatest feeling in the world. You've got about 2 seconds to yank on the line and reel in that fish. And that's how I hope my open houses go today. I hope buyers will be so excited that they'll write an offer at the kitchen table and nobody will be startled by my crepe paper arms. If they are, I'll divert their attention back to the task at hand. But I might also be tempted to bite them. Hard to say.
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Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.
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The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.
Disclaimer: If this post contains a listing, information is deemed reliable as of the date it was written. After that date, the listing may be sold, listed by another brokerage, canceled, pending or taken temporarily off the market, and the price could change without notice. It could blow up, explode or vanish. To find out the present status of any listing, please go to elizabethweintraub.com.
Yeah Elizabeth - What's up with that crepe paper arm thing? I began to develop a little of it this summer. And you're right, it happened nearly overnight! As you know, I am an avid swimmer, so I use sunscreen. Turns out, the sunscreen (especially the spray on kind) was accentuating the problem. I switched to the kind that you need to rub on, and things have began to get better.
Now let me tell you a couple of other little tricks about skin and arms. Put a little more citrus in your diet, because it aids in the manufacturer of your body's natural collagen. I also spend a good 10 - 15 minutes in the hot tub, after my swims. The jacuzzi jets actually polish the skin and make it feel like silk.
Buy a loofah to exfoliate. . .A woman's power comes from being able to accessorize and especially exfoliate. At least that is what Olympia Dukakis said in the movie, "Steel Magnolias."
And last but not least - make sure you put body lotion on your skin immediately after you step out of the shower, before you are fully towel dried. If this all sounds "high maintenance," it is. . .It's the price we pay for being women:-(
I'm sure about the crepe paper thing but 2 things I know for sure;
1. Sandra Bullock is still a looker
2. I am glad there are a lot of lazy agents it makes our business easier!
Elizabeth, In our case big brother is always watching. Our MLS requires a photo of or from the property when it is submitted or yes we get fined. The sad part is that lazy agents then only take and use one photo...
Exfoliate, Myrl. You crack me up. Like I have time to exfoliate. My husband practically stands over me and spoon feeds me lunch as it is.
Michael: And Sandra Bullock will only get more beautiful as she grows older.
Hi Paul: Our MLS takes photos by default, unless we specify the agent will take them. But MLS takes only one photo, and generally it's not very good.
Elizabeth,
What a neat feature to be able to have them download at a set time! I love that! We have a temporary feature where we can get all the information and pictures in.....I too can't stand it when there is no picture... :(
Hey Elizabeth - That "exfoliate" thing doesn't take time. You simply trade out the washcloth for a loofah:-) And you need to take time out for yourself! I know you don't believe this, but life is not all work and no play!
Elizabeth: Photos are so very important. With so many agents doing not even one shot of the home, we dare not even get into the debate about pics vs. virtual tours. Five pics would be considered an abundance of shots from some of the listing agents in my market.
The timed release feature you have sounds great. I haven't seen that in our system, but I'll make sure to put in a feature request for the next release. I share your belief in the importance of photos, both quality and quantity. I think it's almost impossible to have too many pictures...as long as they're good.
Hello Elizabeth -
I visited your About.com page and thanks for leaving some constructive comments on my Video post this morning too. I went to your About.com page and it had given me some awesome ideas on how to lay out my pages.
As far as the virtual tour, I think it's a great idea that someone can pan the room at 360 degrees.
While I'm not saying a Video Tour trumps a virtual tour, my personal opinion that a buyer can "walk through" the house and see how the house flows along with how the space relate to one another. Could a virtual tour give you movement beyond a 360 degree spin from one point in the room?
Interesting about the MLS delay feature...I'll have to check into that. Now I'm off to go check in the mirror if my under arm flab is that noticeable! Ha!
Elizabeth - it was hard enough having to wear reading glasses in front of my clients, let alone worrying about other age factors. I actually like working with seniors where I'm the younger one, now how's that for being vain - LOL.
Myrl: My work is my play, and you know that. It's not really work to me. It happens to be play that pays really well.
Hi Loreena: You can't really get movement beyond the 360 with a virtual tour, but I find that videos are a little shaky. Not to mention, it depends on your height. Obviously, you get a totally different view from a person who is, say, 5-feet tall than a 6-foot tall person, LOL.
Hi Terri: I hope I haven't contributed to under-arm flab paranoia. It's not really under-arm flab, though. It's that fatty spot in the triangle under your shoulders where the arms meet your torso. Butterfly exercise machines are supposed to take care of that but they don't. Hey, take a look at your knees, that area just above your knees. I used to have 2 or 3 lines there, now it's closer to 20. When I went to my 30th high school reunion, I noticed them. I made everybody in the car wait when I ran into 7-11 to buy pantyhose because I thought the pantyhose I was wearing was defective, ha! Not so. Ya just gotta give it up and say that's what life is.
Photos are the most important part of the listing, in my opinion, that would make a buyer (or their agent) want to see the property.
Elizabeth - LOL at Cynthia's working with seniors to be the youngest. I feel like the Mommy LO with my little 20-something first timers. Oh well, such is life.
As for MLS photos, around here agents have 24hrs to get at least one photo up and quite frankly, that's pathetic. There are so many listings on our MLS that have exactly the one requisite MLS photo of the front of the house from across the street. Kind of makes you wonder if the lazy agent even got out of their car.
Elizabeth-
I say, if a person doesn't like the way my arms look, a person can stop staring at them. It's too hot in Sacramento in the summer to wear long sleeves.
I love this saying, and heartly agree!
I remember my grandmother being in her 90's and not wearing sleeveless clothes because "my arms aren't so pretty anymore"!!!! Believe me, she was still an amazing looking woman, and none of the men at the senior center would have worried about flabby arms.
Great blog, as usual. I agree totally about the pictures. I use this whole theory as part of my listing presentation- showing my pictures, then bad pictures that I've "borrowed" from MLS listings. People are amazed what some agents will put in the MLS.
Myrl: What a treat reading your comment is. I need to print it... and start doing that stuff. You are one clever woman.
By the way... I had a massage once... hoping it would help. I quit going, though. She just rubbed me the wrong way, I guess... LOL.
Elizabeth: Ok... this is all about photos. Lots of great ideas. Thanks for sharing. And so on, and so forth.
OK... now that that part is over with... I can get to the real meat of this comment ! Just who IS this women in the upper right hand corner of this page, and your profile page ? The one in the green sweater, the short hair, and the pretty smile. Who is this ? I recognize your avatar... rocking back and forth. And your penguin. But... who IS this woman ? <silly grin>
Elizabeth,
I love your new hair cut! Maybe I will get brave enough to do it. Our MLS requires pictures ,but I think you have 72 hours to do it. I always put mine up right away though.
Marcy
Good grief Elizabeth, what is it with those arm things. You wave and something under there keep moving long after the wave is over HAHA!! Well, I like the way you think about listing photos and getting everything together on Friday. I wish agents would not post a listing without photos- it seems ridiculous. Get the photos, then post the listing and who cares about the arm thing ...really.
Hey Marcy: Go for it. Just chop it all off. It's such a freedom.
You know, true story. When I was a kid, I had bangs. I must have been all of 7 or 8. Decided to try cutting my bangs because I can't stand it when hair gets in my eyes. I couldn't cut them evenly. So I kept cutting and cutting. Finally, they were about 1/2 long. That looked really stupid, so I took a straight-cut razor blade and shaved them off. I instantly realized they would grow back and I would have to wear a scarf for months. That incident helped me to figure out a young age that I should try to think one step ahead of myself, preferrably more. There are always consequences to actions.
It drives me crazy when I only see one photo. What's even worse is if the only photo still shows snow on the property and it's now June, or if the photo was taken from the car and it shows part of the rear view mirror in a corner. It's all out there on the MLS.