Spotted a Red Shafted Northern Flicker in Sacramento

When I showed my photo of a Northern Flicker in Sacramento to a friend yesterday, she asked accusingly: how do you the name of that bird? Like I’ve been holding out on her. Um. Because I know the names of birds. Cannot help it; I make it a point to be aware of the wildlife around me. It’s the same fascination I have with most products of nature: the trees, flowers, rocks and certainly the tropical fish in Hawaii waters. But it’s birds that got me started. Both my husband and I became obsessed about the same time. It just happened. One day we were normal people just like anybody else, until one day we realized nope, we are not normal. We are birders.

This would have been a better photo if I wasn’t on the phone talking with a new client about selling her home. She had asked me if she couldn’t simply raise the price a little bit so she could make more money. This is not the first time a seller has asked that particular question. It seems like an odd question to me, but it can’t be that odd if many sellers ask the same thing. Sellers are really asking whether they could inadvertently leave money on the table — that is the underlying fear. The fear of pricing it too low.

So the natural instinct seems to be to raise the price over market value. Which is a bad idea. There isn’t much chance of a home selling too low. Reason is it’s on the market at a particular price based on comparable sales. That price may or may not be the price at which it will sell. That price should be the price it needs to be to attract an offer. To make buyers interested in buying the home. Raising the price above market only increases the possibility that buyers won’t make any offer at all.

Maybe if we held a Fukuburkuro sale. Yeah, I’m just kidding.

I’m explaining these concepts while I’m standing in my family room staring out the window at the red shafted Northern Flicker in our back yard. He’s foraging and singing. Not enough time to grab a camera with a zoom lenses, and let’s face it, my conversation with the client was more important. Still, I can’t really say, hey, would you mind holding on for a moment while I snap a photo of a Northern Flicker? Well, I suppose I could say that. But it wouldn’t be appreciated.

As a result, I snapped a few pictures through the glass window with my cellphone. Multi-tasking. Above is about the best photo of the Northern Flicker. How do you like the black phoebe to the right that I shot a while back in my front yard? Big difference when one uses a zoom lenses and a quality camera that is not a cellphone.