A Movie at the Tower, Victorinox Spinners and Sacramento Home Buyers

Sunday was 3 things for me. Going to the movies, buying new luggage and answering calls from Sacramento home buyers. If you're looking for an interesting movie that will captivate and transport you to another time, I recommend Beasts of the Southern Wild, presently showing at the Tower Theatre in Land Park. It's a story about a community in Louisiana struggling for survival against odds -- hanging on to your home, your family and friends, your desires and dreams, despite perception and opposition and reality. The movie brings new meaning to the term underwater homes. It grabs your heart.

Roger Ebert interviewed the main character and narrator, through whose eyes the story unfolds, a fiercly brave 6-year-old girl with the name of Hushpuppy. She, Quvenzhane Wallis, and mostly everybody else in the movie are untrained actors but you wouldn't know it. You can watch Ebert's video of the interview on his website. This is a magical movie.

I also decided it was time to buy new luggage. Especially after my trip last week to Nederland, Colorado. You might think luggage lasts forever but it never does. In fact, it often doesn't last more than 5 years, if that. That's why manufacturers often give you a 5-year warranty. Whatever happened to the days of a gorilla beating up your luggage and nothing happens to it? Remember those commercials? Most luggage is crap these days, constructed cheaply and meant to fall apart so you'll buy new luggage. It's sort of the American way to do things, even if it's not made in America. Zippers break, wheels fall apart. Plastic deteriorates.

The sales clerk at Macy's listened to me yammer on that I was only interested in the Victorinox. Especially the spinners. I am so sick and tired of dragging a rolling bag into an elevator or onto an escalator and the stinkin' bag doesn't cooperate. I'm going left and it's falling over backwards. Makes you wanna kick it. Spinners. That's the answer. Four wheels. And not the Avolves but the line with a 10-year warranty. It's hard to beat a 60% close-out sale at Macy's.

While all of this was going on yesterday, I was holding an open house in Carmichael. OK, an agent was holding it open for me but it was still happening. Good exposure with about 15 groups coming through this pool home in Carmichael. Also, quite a few first-time home buyers called. I know some agents get irritated when buyers call them. They think: Why don't these people go online and look at homes instead of calling from signs in the yard. Or, why don't they hire an agent? They don't think they are serious buyers. But I know most people buy on emotion and impulse. Especially home buyers.

There is one thing that all real estate agents know for certain but sometimes take for granted or conveniently forget. These buyers are calling because they have an interest in buying a home. Hey, I'm a Sacramento real estate agent who sells homes. I represent sellers throughout Sacramento. Sounds like a perfect marriage to me.