I'm sorry - I am still laughing as I write this blog! Everyone (including native Californians) admits that California beats to a little bit different drummer, and an article I just read is just one more reason to believe it!

The headline for the article was a bit of a surprise in itself - "Food becomes big factor in California home tours" - because ever REALTOR knows the only reason to go on home tours IS for the food, not to preview the homes! But as I continued reading the article, it became clear that the reporter wasn't talking about food being served, but rather the KIND of food being served, and that's where I began chuckling. Her article describes what it now takes to get a California REALTOR to attend one of these tours, and my mind began comparing that to what it takes to get a Texas REALTOR to the same type event.......................

You see, I know a little about what it takes to get an Austin, Texas, REALTOR to attend a sponsored event like this. Many years ago I worked for a local Builder as an on-site sales agent, and about once a month I was required to hold a "REALTOR OPEN HOUSE", the purpose of which was to invite as many REALTORS as possible to come out to the neighborhood and preview your model home and available inventory.

It didn't take long to recognize the better the food being offered, the better the turnout. So, instead of cheese and crackers and tea, I served beef fajitas and beans and beer; instead of tofu and salad and bottled water, I served hamburgers and hot dogs and beer; and instead of turkey sandwiches and chips and green tea- if I REALLY wanted to impress! - I had either Gumbo's (a local seafood restaurant favorite) cater their delicious shrimp and sausage gumbo with a cold beer - OR - Rudy's BBQ brisket and potato salad and of course, an ice-cold Miller Lite - now that brought 'em out in herds!

Now here's where it gets interesting - you'll notice from the above that the best attended parties had something to do with BEEF and BEER - and below I will compare that to the Californians' taste.

The article reads: 

Food becomes big factor in California home tours

By Ann Brenoff
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Sunday, September 14, 2008

LOS ANGELES - Apparently, the way to a real estate agent's heart is through his or her stomach.

With buyers continuing to hide in the weeds and the price of gas still stinging, brokers have had to improve the curb appeal of a principal marketing strategy. The so-called agents caravan - in which, on a designated day, agents tour one another's new listings - has upped the ante. No longer is the mere thrill of previewing a new listing enough to bring out the troops. Now they must be fed, and fed well. Alan Mark and Tony Mark of Prudential Malibu Realty recently provided omelets - cooked to order by a private chef- to those agents who made the trek to their new $36 million Broadbeach Road listing. With a salad and pastry bar on the side, agents could order their omelets prepared with 20 different fresh fillings. Spinach with feta cheese, anyone? Champagne? (Austin REALTORS might get migas and breakfast tacos, and an orange juice!)

Addictively good delectables also play a role. Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies by Coldwell Banker Malibu East agent Susan Monus - are a huge draw in this coastal community, according to area agents. She makes the cookies from scratch and, because presentation matters when it comes to both real estate and baked goods, displays them in a fancy silver bowl. For agents on the run, Monus also offers them in personalized cookie tins with her logo - to go. (Austin REALTORS are lucky to get Oreos without the white stuff already gone, served in the package! The only "personalized logo" item I ever got at an "open house"  were these little candies "personalized" with M&M stamped on them!)

 Wailani O'Herlihy, who sells with her husband, Cormac, out of Sotheby's International Realty, Malibu, says that in the summer, mocha frappés blended on-site are a crowd-pleaser. (Are you kidding me - mocha frappes? I don't even know what that is - our Texas summer specialties are frozen margaritas served from a machine!)

Drew Fenton of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, always hires a professional caterer who sets out a buffet. It's part of his marketing budget and the cost of doing business, he said, and most of the open houses he visits are professionally catered. (Drew, most of the open houses I visit I notice the local REALTOR "catering" the food himself - from the back of his SUV to the kitchen!)

And last-but-not-least, the Texas vs. California winner is:

Not far away on the same day, the agent for a home leasing for $41,500 a month was seeing far less traffic with a plate of vanilla cookies, two liter-sized bottles of water and a stack of cups. Michael Libow, Coldwell Banker Beverly Hills South, says of open houses with more ample spreads, "One of the problems is that you draw in agents not looking to do business but who are looking to do lunch". Fully catered lunches, he believes, are a distraction. (Michael, not in my town..... in Texas, a home leasing for $41,500 a month is generally on about 250 acres and is called a ranch. For this "open house' we would invite the President, Willie Nelson, and every REALTOR in Austin would be there! And for food? We're talkin' T-bone steak, BBQ brisket & ribs, smoked venison, stuffed quail, Miller Lite, and Wild Turkey - and I don't mean the kind you eat!)

Now I know why California is the only state in the Union that has a Terminator for a Governor...........!