Reflections on Moving to North Carolina (4)

Nancy and I haven’t house-hunted in over 20 years – since I accepted a new job here in Columbus with Huntington National Bank, and moved from northern Indiana.  Now, as we end the lengthy process of deciding to where our final move will be, we sometimes reflect on how house hunting has changed in the past two decades, along with the roles and duties of real estate agents.

For starters, the breadth of knowledge of RE agents, and their attention to detail, seems much diminished.  Perhaps the industry has seen too much litigation based on agents’ recommendations of non-core services (house inspections, etc.), or perhaps there is no longer a need to maintain knowledge because the necessary information is widely researched on the internet.  But, we have found it necessary to chase down many suppliers ourselves, and be much more proactive in nagging agents to perform a necessary action, than in any of our previous three house purchases.

On the positive side, researching and filtering the plethora of available houses in a given locale is certainly much easier using the internet instead of manually paging through MLS books in an agent’s office.  Here, we are surprised in the vast difference in the usefulness of a given realtor’s web site.  Some allow moderately sophisticated filters based on distance from downtown, neighborhood type, or accessibility beyond the standard filters of size, bedrooms, and price.  Other sites, however, employ few filters and force the viewer to look at too many houses that are not appropriate.  Given the number of real estate site templates available for reasonable prices, it is hard to understand why any realtor would tolerate such a substandard approach.

Speaking of substandard approaches, the disparity in the quality and usefulness of photos for different houses was astounding.  While some gave a wide variety of views and presented the house in a flattering light, others were obviously taken by an amateur with a cell phone and showed few positive attributes.  Again, why would any realtor allow such bad photos to be used on their site?  

As a result, I suspect that most buyers now physically look at fewer houses than in the past.  In our move to Columbus in 1993, I looked at approximately 110 houses, and brought Nancy in to look at perhaps 30 of those.  In our pending move to Hendersonville, we have looked intensively at only two houses, and only lightly looked at about 15 because we needed to compromise on some important attributes.  It was quite a saving when one is using one’s own time and money to look for housing 400 miles away.

Finally, the biggest change in house hunting might well be the availability of Google Maps.  We physically drove to nearly twenty cities in our search and looked at a smattering of houses in each.  I cannot tell you the number of times I have been driving down a street in a new town and Nancy has told me what the next store will be, or what is around the next corner.  Thanks to Maps, it is almost as if one need not ever be a stranger in a new town.  A most impressive age

Reflections on Moving to North Carolina (3)

During our hunt for a house in a new locale and state, and for the associated services that any newcomer needs, we encountered a wide variety of web sites.  At the risk of seeming to be a grumpy old curmudgeon, here are business classifications in which it seems to be illegal to have a web site that gives useful or complete information:

-        Self-service storage facilities

-        Banks.  There is very little online differentiation, and it often seems the only difference is the name on the online masthead.  As an industry veteran, I also cannot fathom why there is not one bank in each market that attempts to educate consumers about financial matters online. 

-        Cable companies, in particular Morris Broadband of Hendersonville.  Unlike our cable service in Hilliard (3 options), Hendersonville’s is a monopoly.  Nobody to whom we spoke in town was at all pleased with the service or broadband quality.  When we stopped in one afternoon to obtain pricing, the CSR had to write the various prices on a piece of scrap paper.  The reason?  The reprint of their pricing brochures was late in being finished at the printer’s.  This is borderline scary – a cable company that does not understand the concepts of internet and print-on-demand.  We may be sorely disappointed in our so-called internet “service” for years.

We are rapidly finding that this area is a relative wasteland when it comes to website availability or usefulness.  Even sites such as Emily’s List have a major paucity of participation and useful information.

Reflections on Moving to North Carolina (2)

In the middle of June, we left Columbus with a fully-loaded van for the 440 mile trip to Hendersonville, NC.  The purposes of the trip were to (1) buy a house for Nancy and me, (2) transport a load of china and books to a self-storage unit to avoid paying an arm and a leg to movers for these specific items, and (3) visit possible assisted living facilities for my mother, who accompanied us on this trip.

Southbound, just over the Kentucky/Virginia border on Route 23 (in the town of Pound), we had a blowout on a front tire.  (While the load factor certainly didn’t help, we found later that this stretch of road was notorious for having lane reflectors shred car tires).  I unloaded half of the van to get at the lowering mechanism for the spare tire but, being of the spare type that hangs underneath the rear of the van, fifteen years of rust and grime made it impossible to retrieve.  We would have to call AAA for roadside assistance.

As experience would have it, our T-Mobile phones had no reception in that area.  We have found this to be a constant problem outside of metropolitan areas, so at the end of our current TM contract we will swallow our distaste for Verizon customer disservice and switch to them. 

From here, the afternoon changed totally for the positive.  I hiked forward on the highway over a knoll a few hundred yards away, and came upon a Valero gas station/convenience store.  For once, I had change for the pay phone outside, but the operator at AAA couldn’t hear anything I was saying.  Inside, the clerk immediately deduced I was not a local, and offered me the use of her cell phone to call for road assistance.  This took about ten minutes, and I started the hike back to Nancy and my mother. 

Immediately upon leaving the store, a Virginia state trooper pulled into the lot looking for me – he had seen the disabled car, stopped there, called Dispatch for a service truck to be sent, then set out on a hunt for me.  He drove me back to the van, called Dispatch again to make sure they knew that my assistance call was the same as his, and continued on his duties.

During the twenty minutes until the service truck arrived, three local men stopped to see if we needed additional assistance.  Two just happened to be driving by, while the third was a regular customer at the Valero outlet and was sent by that store clerk to check on us.

The AAA truck arrived in due course.  As the driver struggled to release our spare tire, the VA trooper return to make sure our assistance had arrived.  He also informed us that there was a tire repair place no more than a mile from our location, and that he had driven by to make sure they were open and aware that new business would be coming their way.  Thanking him for his assistance, he again departed.

By this time, the AAA driver had freed the spare and mounted it, only to find that it was no longer fully inflated.  But, he was also aware of the tire repair store nearby, and told us to drive slowly on I-23 while he followed to warn and ward off other drivers.  Replacing the cartons in the back of the van, we set off on the 5-minute drive for repairs.  For most of this drive it felt as if the tire rim was grinding right into the road, and we were trying to make enough noise to wake the dead. 

The tire dealer, Les Stallard of Roberts Brothers, Inc., was expecting us and set right to fixing everything.  He had a new tire in the exact size we needed, and even threw in another fully-inflated and mounted temporary spare just in case we had another tire problem.  While he was doing this, the state trooper drove by yet another time, undoubtedly checking on us again.  The total bill for all of this, accomplished in less than 30 minutes, was under $100. 

In all, we lost less than 90 minutes out of our day to fix the unexpected problem and found a small rural town filled with people ready to drop everything to help someone in need.  While we will probably never have reason to stop there again, I have no doubt that their memory will remain with us for years. 

Reflections on Moving to North Carolina (1)

Miscellaneous and Random Thoughts re: Moving from OH to NC

The summer day length in Hendersonville is actually about 30 minutes shorter than it is in Columbus.  We expected the shift in sunrise/sunset, having lived in both extremes of this Eastern time zone.  But, this is the first time we have moved sufficiently south or north to notice the impact on day length.

Changes to Make or Consider:

-        Change our college football favorite team from “Whoever is playing Ohio State this weekend” to a “local” team such as Clemson or Tennessee.

-        Consider finding a new pro football team to replace the Buffalo Bills…especially if Trump becomes their new owner.

-        Since there is only one option for cable TV providers in Hendersonville, consider cutting the cord and relying on Netflix, Roku, and the like to fulfill our needs.

-        Find a new cell phone provider, since T-Mobile is effectively a non-player in and around the Carolina mountains.  Despite their abysmal customer service, we may have to return to Verizon.

The Sharing Economy?

The Economist (magazine) recently had an article addressing what may be an emerging trend in developed economies:  the sharing or renting of purchased objects instead of expecting that every person or household will purchase and own one.

This article brought back memories of my childhood.  Most families had "only" one car, and it was not at all unusual to borrow a neighbor's auto in an emergency situation.  Now, we have more autos than licensed drivers in the U.S., and I cannot remember the last time a household auto was driven by a non-family member.

The magazine article cited the obvious example of Zipcar, a car sharing service where a member pays only for the time they actually use a car.  If you think about the money an auto costs you in insurance, depreciation, and loan interest versus the limited amount of time you spend driving, it is easy to imagine how cheap Zipcar can be if you don't need an auto to get to work.

Even beyond autos, the article cited emerging examples of sharing large-ticket items such as housing (renting out unused bedrooms or couches), and ride sharing.  One can easily think of other examples:  a street of homeowners chipping in to buy a rising lawnmower, communal vacation homes or RVs, or practically anything that requires a relatively large capital outlay but is used very little.

Now, the marketing question is what impact might this trend have on various sectors?  If it were to become widespread, the need for manufactured goods might well decline as more families share a given purchase.  But there might also be a need for better-made goods that are able to last under varied and increased use, and manufacturing those might require more labor and carry higher margins.  And one can readily see potential for this in many service areas; in fact, it may already be here with such offerings as cloud computing and VirtualpcConnect.

In the long run, this trend may reduce employment in raw manufacturing and duplicative service entities.  But this should be offset by an equally huge increased need for repair personnel, logistics experts, and the like.  As with many possible trends, the question is not so much predicting what will happen as making sure you and your company are flexible enough to not get trampled in whatever changes come.      

Airlines

For whatever reason (perhaps because 100+ college basketball teams have been flying all over the country this week so we can collectively be glued to our TVs), I have been thinking about air travel recently.

We will all probably admit that flying has become less and less fun as the ancillary fees, reduced service levels, packed planes, and less-than-competent TSA personnel and policies infest the industry.  Despite that, airlines have reacted differently to these varied pressures and created divergent experiences for passengers.  United is generally my preferred airline, primarily because of the rewards they gave me as I piled up miles shuttling between Ohio and Azerbaijan several years ago.  But, those tidbits aside, I have come to admire Lufthansa for their operational efficiency, cleanliness, and dedication to duty.

Which brings me to Turkish Airlines, which I had never flown before using them recently to fly round trip between Washington, D.C. and Dhaka, Bangladesh.  Each direction required a stopover in Istanbul to change planes (sidebar - if you ever have a layover at the Istanbul airport, bring plenty of cash and do not count on finding a functioning wifi).  And there were enough nuances overall to help me form a love-hate relationship with the airline.

Taking the negative side first, their planes were some of the dirtiest I have ever encountered.  Even beyond that, they were desperately in need of ventilation even before leaving the gate, and the stagnant air only got worse during the flights (two of my legs were about 6 hours each, and the other two about 13 hours each).  And, none of the four long-hauls had movie options for passengers, making entertainment problematic in an era when there is no longer sufficient room between seat rows to comfortably accommodate firing up a laptop.  

But Turkish Airlines did score spectacularly on one factor.  International passengers transiting through Istanbul have to re-book their boarding passes and clear Turkish customs regardless of where they originated.  On my trip to Dhaka this was accomplished professionally at the airline transit desk, leaving me with over 5 hours to kill before departure.  On my return flight, landing in Istanbul about 3 a.m., the clerk at the transit desk remembered me from the first flight two weeks earlier (he probably didn't, but at the very least the airline's data systems flagged him accordingly as I was standing at his counter).  Because this layover was over 11 hours, he offered me a hotel room in Istanbul, courtesy of the airline, and all it would cost me was $25 for a visa to get into Turkey.

Everything worked like clockwork - it took 2 minutes to purchase the visa, and there was about a 20-minute wait for the airport shuttle to take us into downtown Istanbul.  We were each given a single room in the 3-star hotel, free breakfast, and transportation back to the airport at 10 the next morning.  The hotel was clean, the breakfast delicious, and early-morning views of Istanbul on the (Friday) sabbath made me wish I had a couple of days to spare.

So thank you, Turkish Airlines, for making a not-so-simple gesture that totally distinguished you from any other airline on which I have flown.  In the marketing game that I play, that makes all of the difference.     

Asia-Bound

Well, tomorrow morning is my next phone call with Bankworld, Inc., to semi-finalize scheduling for my upcoming trips.

Vietnam should be the first trip.  We have a 1-year project there, working with Vietin Bank to develop a plan and tools to help them become the preeminent Vietnamese bank in the SME market.  Previous experience tells me that an absolute minimum of 3 trips will be required, although 4 or 5 would be ideal.  Time has to be left between trips to allow ideas to ferment, conduct research, draft and write implementation plans, and (most importantly) send locals out to execute tactics so that the approach can be analyzed and tweaked when initial results are known.  Although the multi-trip approach does rachet-up the travel costs, it is the only way to accomplish the real objective of leaving an effective marketing team in place.

So, I'll look to trips probably in late Sept. and again in early November.  After that, nothing until February....I want to be home for the U.S. holidays, and I'm told it is almost impossible to get anything done in Vietnam in January, during Tet.

Complicating things is Bankworld's desire to have me run a training session in Yerevan this autumn on Customer Service.  While this is needed at the client bank, and I want to pitch their chairman about authorizing training for a new marketing department there, fitting it in this fall would be difficult.  Neither Nancy nor I want me to be overseas for 7 or 8 weeks....I've done that before, and it gets old.