Sacramentan Tim Collom is 31, a young guy.

But when it comes to his job, the Windermere Dunnigan real estate agent is decidedly "old school."

A rarity among local real estate pros, Collom looks for business the old-fashioned way: walking neighborhoods five days a week, knocking on doors and introducing himself.

"I like to get face to face with people," says Collom, who has a boyish face and boundless energy. "It's still the best way to build relationships."

He hits about 100 houses each weekday morning, mostly in east Sacramento. When someone answers the door, he shares information about new home listings and recent sales in the neighborhood and offers his referrals for plumbers, painters and other home improvement contractors.

Collom's game plan: Offer a service – and gain a customer when that homeowner needs to buy or sell.

On a recent morning, he's knocking on a door on 57th Street. A woman answers, recognizes him, even remembers his name. They exchange pleasantries before he moves on to the next house.

Not everyone is so nice. He's had doors slammed in his face.

"I had one man tell me if I didn't leave, he'd turn a hose on me," Collom says, adding with a laugh: "I haven't gone back there."

Although rare, that kind of experience can make a guy nervous. Collom says he psyches himself up every morning before his hour of house calls.

It's like a workout, he says. Hard to go and do, but "it feels great when you're done."

And Collom says the system he's followed during an eight-year real estate career pays off.

Collom says he completed more than 20 sales in 2007 – most of them a direct result of his door-to-door work. His numbers were down a little in 2008 but still ahead of most agents in his American River Drive office, says the firm's owner-broker Geoff Zimmerman.

Even so, she's ambivalent about Collom's approach.

"It's not the way I teach (sales)," she says of door-to-door marketing. Zimmerman thinks other methods – weekend open houses and online marketing, for example – are a better use of an agent's time and don't risk offending people who dislike unexpected visitors on their doorstep.

But she concedes Collom gets results. "With his personality and his enthusiasm," she says, "it works."

Big winner?

Sacramento exec Becky Johnson Sabin may be a new millionaire. Or not.

Sabin, communications director with a division of Siemens AG, was picked last year to compete on the syndicated TV game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"

Her two-day appearance was taped in New York last September. It airs Wednesday and Thursday at 3 p.m. on News 10.

Did she win a million bucks?

"I'm not allowed to say. You'll have to watch to find out," says Sabin, who also is president of the Junior League of Sacramento and active with the Sacramento Metro Chamber.

She tried out for the show at the Jackson Rancheria casino last June and found out two months later she would be a contestant.

Without giving away any details, Sabin confides she "froze" on one question. But ultimately did OK. The entire experience? "It was a blast," she says.

Leaning tower

We're continuing to get reader input on our item about Walter Horsting's proposal for a "golden spike"shaped office tower at downtown Sacramento's railyard project.

Opinions are mixed on the building's aesthetics and its symbolism.

Now we're getting reaction from a certified engineering geologist about the proposed building's seismic qualities.

Fair Oaks resident Robert Sydnor says the "inverted pendulum" design would make the structure highly vulnerable to an earthquake, even a distant one. Especially given the soft soil at the railyard site near I-5 and the Sacramento River.

"It's simply a horrible design, the worst of the worst," says the longtime geologist.

We'd say that puts him squarely in the "anti"-golden spike camp.

Reach Bob Shallit at (916) 321-1049. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/shallit.