Austin Texas Real Estate Blog

This is probably not enough material for a post, but let's see where it heads.  I have found that some of my better posts start off pretty much unformed when I first sit down to write.

I realized this past week that there are a couple of phrases I use (and maybe you do, too) that are very odd.  When taken at face value, they are really kinda gross.

The first one: I WOULD LIKE TO PICK YOUR BRAIN ABOUT ________.  Have you ever thought about this saying?  I wonder how visitors to our country would feel about this one, if they have limited English skills.  When taken at face value, this is actually somewhat frightening, no? 

Yesterday, while we were swimming, I asked my nine-year-old son what he thought this phrase might mean.  He had two possibilities:

• "Worse than picking your nose"
• "Being dumb?"

I know that "I would really like to pick your nose about this issue" will never become common parlance.  If it does, I will be out of the loop.

The other phrase that struck me this week was "I WANT TO PUT A BUG IN YOUR EAR ABOUT ________."  Yuck!  Really?  Why?  Couldn't you just bring up an idea with me instead?  Yikes! 

I asked my son about this one, too, and he said simply, "Sounds like someone wants to put a roach in your hearer!"  And yes, he made up the word "hearer" as he pointed to his left ear.

As I mentioned above, I use these phrases pretty often myself, and I never really considered them carefully until this week.  Maybe I heard them both on the same day, and the juxtaposition was more striking.

I would like to suggest that we begin a new trend today.  From now on, I am going to use the following instead:

• I would like to put a bug in your brain about (this new marketing idea, this issue, etc.).   

AND

• I wanted to pick your ear about (something that has been bothering me, your opinion on what I should do). 

The first one sounds very much like something from "Total Recall", which was a movie in 1990 with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone.  The second one just sounds unhygenic.

On second thought, I think I might even add in, "Could I pick your nose about this sometime?" for good measure. 

While I was quietly lamenting the fact that I had just purchased $118.00 worth of groceries that I probably could have carried out of the store with my hands if I were feeling ambitious, I had a few thoughts that I wanted to share.  Additionally, I have a few questions.

Could someone explain to me how so many Mattress Superstores manage to stay afloat?  Mattress warehouses are becoming as ubiquitous as Starbucks, at least here in the Austin area.  Every time I turn around, there is another one.  Every new shopping area includes one, sometimes two. 

Perhaps I not changing my mattress often enough?  I looked it up tonight, and I found this answer: "The best rule of thumb is to change your mattress when you are having trouble getting a good night's rest."   I have a two-year old child, which means that I should be replacing my mattress at least twice a week using this particular guideline.

Another answer stated that a decent mattress should come with a 10-year warranty minimum.  It also said that good name brands (which ours is) come with a 20-year warranty. 

With that in mind, I have decided the time might be right for launching my newest franchise idea: roof superstores.  It sounds like the lifespan for a good mattress is about the same as a roof, so my idea seems sound, right?

On a semi-related note, I have a clock radio made by GE that my grandmother bought for me when I was visiting her.  I was 11 years old when this purchase was made, which makes my clock radio about 26 years of age.  Is that normal?  I guess that might explain why there aren't any Clock Radio Superstores or Clock Radio Warehouses.  They make those babies to last.  Sure, it has an early 80's font on it, but it's digital and the speaker is fine.  Why replace it?

For a long time, my wife and I joked about the proliferation of nail salons and liquor stores in our area, which of course are the hallmark of good taste the world round.  Simply add a pawn shop and a check cashing service and it screams "This is a ritzy area of town."

But seriously, every strip center that I have seen in and around Austin seems to contain a nail salon.  I am clearly in the wrong business. 

Thanks for reading!

  

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My wife and I developed a theory about movies back when we were dating, and it has held true over the years that we have been together.  Many, many movies have what we call a "getting better" scene.  If you are not familiar with a "getting better" scene in a movie, this is how it works:

• A person, couple, or team of people is faced with a challenge (or a new relationship is forming)
• An upbeat, lively song begins to play
• A montage of rapid-fire happy (or hard-working) scenes are shown during the song
• The scene resolves with the project completed or improvement done or relationship stronger

This is a device that has been around for a long time.  At one point, we thought that it started in the 80's with some of John Cusack's early work, but I know that the original "Rocky" movie included multiple getting better scenes.  We also have seen early evidence of this in older movies, but I honestly can't remember which ones and I guess I am too lazy to research it right now.  The point is still a valid one.

One of the funniest spoofs that I have seen for this type of scene appears in "Naked Gun": Montage Scene

These scenes are typically used to move the story along a bit faster, to get us from Point A to Point B without dragging things out unduly.  I remember another scene from "The Breakfast Club" where they used a getting better scene to bond the characters together a bit more, and it only took a minute and a half: Classic Scene 

80's movies are simply filled with these scenes - "Flashdance", "Can't Buy Me Love", "Dirty Dancing", "Top Gun", "Splash", "Wall Street", "Big", pretty much any movie that was mainstream.  They didn't stop using these in the 80's, but I can more readily access these in my memory banks.  At any rate, you get the picture (no pun intended).

So, back to my original title and idea for this post (which my wife assisted with).  Wouldn't it be great if we could use the "getting better" scene with our clients?  Imagine this:

You receive a phone call about a listing.  After speaking with the potential buyer for about 25 seconds, a song begins to play (this song would do nicely perhaps).  Cut away to a lender meeting with the client, then a brisk series of shots at various homes, with you laughing and having a great time with your clients, perhaps a quick lunch with them, then 10 seconds of writing the contract, and 10 seconds of light-hearted negotiations.  A few seconds of inspection footage, then it's you and the buyer enjoying each other's company at the closing table.  THAT's how real estate should be done, right?

If you work with sellers primarily, then it would be you getting the same initial phone call, but the montage scene would primarily involve getting the property ready to show.  Painting, cleaning, supervising, all in a minute or two, then happily closing, with the sellers receiving a briefcase of actual cash.  Why not?

As we all know, real estate is not easy most of the time, but it can be fun.  Inject some humor into your day and have fun with your clients.  They will thank you and they will send you more business.  I promise!

Disclaimer: This post is in no way meant to be taken seriously.  It is not a judgement of others or their methods of writing or commenting.  It is just for fun.  If you are offended by it, then you are probably too uptight.  Please do not worry about what others think of you, and don't bother to change anything that you are doing.  Life is too short.  

For years, I have watched various abbreviations for laughing out loud evolve, including LOL, ROTFL, ROTFLMAO.  It's funny to me how long this last one is, since it actually seems harder to type than just saying "you made me laugh".  I am guessing that there are others that I don't know, since I am 37 years old and I don't ever really text message anyone.

I have never been comfortable using these abbreviations myself, since I am rarely actually laughing out loud when I am reading here.  Maybe I should write "ISC", for "I slightly chuckled", which is more likely for me.  Occasionally, I do actually laugh really hard at something I see, and I make a point to say so, but typically without the abbreviations.  I have used "HA!" and the smiley sideways face :) to convey that I am making a joke if it is not obvious.  Text is not a perfect method of communication.

I suppose I just feel like a liar if I use (or overuse) the standard LOL notation, especially if I am sitting stone-faced at my computer screen.  I guess what I am saying is that you can be sure that if I use this, I really mean it.

There are some new laughter abbreviations that I would like to suggest such as:

 

IALSHTICBRN, which is "I am laughing so hard that I can't breathe right now." 

LVYN-MFAHFTEL - "Laughing very hard now - my face actually hurts from this extreme laughter."

MSH,SMML,INAB - "My stomach hurts, stop making me laugh, I need a break."

NYDI-IWMP - "Now you've done it - I wet my pants."

 

 

Here is some suggested shorthand in case you happen to get angry with someone here at Active Rain, but you don't want to go to the trouble of getting into a full-blown debate with them:

ICBYST - "I can't believe you said that."

YSRBAOYFTLCYM - "You should really be ashamed of yourself for that last comment you made."

D,TWRUF - "Dude, that was really uncalled for." (this one is for men only - you can substitute W for Wow or L for Lady if you like)

IHY - Figure this one out.

 

Last, this is something that will help us all, especially when you are commenting on the same general group of blogs over and over again:

IAICAWTBGOYBP.ICHSIBM.GJ - "I am in complete agreement with the basic gist of your blog post.  I couldn't have said it better myself. Good job."

So, I think we can all agree that these new symbols will make life much easier for everyone.  I look forward to seeing them on the boards soon!

Thanks for reading this post.  I welcome your congratulatory comments below!

     

My RSS feed is http://activerain.com/jasoncrouch/rss  

I had posted this topic on another blog awhile back, and I had it on my mind today while we were out shopping. 

Once, about a year ago, I was riding with my son in the car, and he suddenly said, "Dad - I am carsick." 

Uh oh.  Obviously, I hit the brakes and began to slow in anticipation of stopping the car.  I said, "Do you feel sick to your stomach?"

He said, "No, I meant I'm homesick."  He meant that he was sick of being in the car. 

I thought it was interested how different the definitions are for these two words.  "Homesick" means you really want to go home, but "carsick" means you might soon throw up. 

Speaking of which....

Not too long ago, we were travelling back to Austin after visiting my mom in Dallas.  We stopped at one of those combination Subway-Burger King-Shell station places to use the restroom and get a snack.  As I was getting my kids out of the van, my son was climbing out.  He looked behind me and said:

"Uh oh.  It looks like somebody lost their lunch."  I was worried that I might have stepped in something, so I turned to look, and just behind me and to my left, there was a brown paper lunch bag with a soda can sitting next to it.  He LITERALLY meant that someone may have set their lunch there on the parking lot and forgot it.  Obviously, I had something different in mind altogether. 

It's funny how literal kids' minds are sometimes, and how we as adults have so many unusual phrases and sayings that we use without a second thought. 

Copyright 2007   Austin Texas Real Estate

When I first started in real estate, I met a fellow Realtor who gave me his card, only the photo was so old that I almost laughed in his face.  I was licensed in 1997, and the photo had a 1970's nature background.  The man was probably 60 or so, and he was mostly bald with some gray hair.  The business card photo showed a man in the full bloom of youth with a thick head of dark hair. 

Although I secretly thought this was ridiculous, I realized recently just how long it has been since I had a professional photo taken.  I think my business card photo is from 1998 or so, and I guess I have aged reasonably well, but it would still be a good idea to update it soon.  The photo on my blog was taken outside our offices with a digital camera.  This is about as dressed up as I get anymore.

When I was first licensed, I was 26 and I used to wear a business suit to listing appointments and even to meet with buyers.  Now, I can't remember the last time I wore a tie to work.  I am usually found in a polo shirt with khakis or jeans, no matter who the client is.  You have to understand that Austin is VERY casual.  There is a top-producing agent who specializes in ranches and I have never seen him wearing long pants. 

At any rate, what is the oldest (or funniest or oddest) business card photo or theme that you have seen?

 

Copyright 2007    Austin Texas Real Estate

I found this on YouTube under the heading "worst commercial ever made". If it isn't, then I would be interested to see what beats it. By the way, this one is for roach traps (thankfully not for day care or a restaurant). The music is scary and the film is grainy early 80's vintage. Overall, it kinda feels like a bad drug trip. Has anyone seen a worse ad that they would like to post here? If not, maybe you could describe the worst one you can remember seeing.