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Elizabeth Weintraub
Why Elizabeth Weintraub Writes a Sacramento Real Estate Blog
Elizabeth Weintraub writes a daily Sacramento real estate blog.
When I share the fact that I’ve been writing a Sacramento real estate blog every day for going on 12 years now, it shocks people. They cannot believe that I would do it. Every day, I write a blog. Why? Because I believe I have something to say. Further, I’m opinionated as all hell. You ask me what I think and I’ll tell you. I might volunteer if you don’t ask. I have a ton of opinions. Who are those people who answer surveys without an opinion? When it’s yes, no, or I don’t know, they choose I don’t know. Why is that?
Some agents tell me they can’t write a Sacramento real estate blog because they don’t know what to write. I write about what I do. For better or worse, I work every day. Stuff happens every day. There are ways to talk about the inner workings of real estate transactions without disclosing confidential information. Even after 43 years in the business, I still learn stuff I didn’t know. How can an agent have nothing to write about?
Of course, my Sacramento real estate blog is not always about real estate. It could be political, especially in today’s world, lots of shit there. Odds are it could be extremely personal about myself. On the other hand, my blog could be about exotic places I travel, a restaurant, a movie, a musical, a concert, life, death, love, happiness, sorrow or, like most of my posts from my house in Hawaii, it might feature a gecko. I write whatever I want because it’s my freakin’ blog. There is really nothing off limits except anything that could potentially upset a client. I would never do that. I will upset other people. In a heartbeat. Just not my clients.
Finding inspiration for my blog comes from what happens during the day. For example, it rained all day yesterday in Hawaii on the Big Island. But I was happy as a clam out on my lanai, working, occasionally glancing up at the fog creeping across the ocean. I put another listing into escrow, third time is a charm. Too many flakey buyers out there right now. We’ve had two cancellations on this listing already and for no reason. Put it back in MLS to reset the days on market and bam, sold.
Knock, knock. My scheduled quarterly pest control company showed up at the door to ask if I wanted them to spray the exterior of the premises. Hmmm . . . it was raining. Seemed like a waste of money to give them the go-ahead. “It’s mostly under the eaves,” the worker offered. Spoken like a worker who doesn’t want to reschedule. Like rain water doesn’t hit the house and travel. I think a drier day is better.
About Buyers Who Suddenly Cancel Escrow
Then, earlier in the week, I talked with an agent who said her buyers want to submit an offer on a listing. I asked if it was possible for her to have a long conversation with the prospective buyers, to inquire if they really and truly intend to buy a home. Because I’m increasingly growing tired of buyers who say they do and then change their minds.
I hate what a cancellation does to my sellers. It tears them apart. I’m not that concerned if I have to sell a home twice or three times and get paid once because I’ll eventually get paid. I’ll sell it again. My listings all close. I’m loyal to my clients. But watching my sellers’ world turn upside down because some idiot buyer walked away, though, that’s what I find most bothersome.
I’m wondering now if that agent took my advice and talked to her buyers because I don’t have an offer from her. Ha, ha.
Oh, well, checked on my closings, and two escrows are rolling into January. Even with those gone from my production, I’ve still got $37 million closing this year. Best year ever. It just keeps getting better. And that’s why I just keep writing my Sacramento real estate blog. It brings business. It saves my sanity.
How to Reset the Days on Market for Sacramento Listings
We reset the days on market as many times as it takes to get a full price offer.
Agents in Sacramento tend to ask a lot of questions about why I reset the days on market for my listings. My listings confuse them. But that’s because it can be complicated to ensure the seller receives the highest price, and I do whatever it takes to make it happen. I realize it looks screwy to them, but Sacramento agents are not my target. My target is homebuyers who receive listings from MLS.
Homebuyers put a lot of credence into how long a property has been for sale. Much more than that aspect probably deserves, but they don’t know how else to analyze a listing. The perception homebuyers latch onto is a home must be worth less if it’s been on the market for a while. Sometimes it is true and sometimes it is not. It is not a true statement in all cases.
But when we reset the days on market, all of a sudden a home the buyer might have passed by otherwise, is now all brand new and sparkly. Buyers love brand new listings. I see it all the time, and I see it in my own real estate practice. For instance, I might examine days on market when I am listing a home that has sold at some point in the past.
It gives me a clue as to how long it might take me. Or, take a home that was on the market for 500 days, and when it came back as a brand new listing — because the agent reset the days on market — it sells in one day. Sometimes, homes are located in small pockets of isolated subdivisions, in a spot that totally is residential and nobody knows exactly where it is. Those can take longer to sell.
To reset the days on market, you need a Modification of Terms to withdraw the existing listing from the market, and a new listing signed by the seller. It won’t reset all of the days on market because the cumulative still remain. Fortunately, nobody pays much attention to the COM because it could have been overpriced, listed with another agent and now the right agent has the listing.
I always prepare my sellers, too, for the aftermath. Because once a listing is withdrawn, the ambulance chasers don’t always look to see if home has been relisted. They just pick up the phone to call the seller. It’s good practice to let the seller know she will receive calls from agents begging for the listing and trashing her lazy, no-good-for-nothing agent who couldn’t sell her home. That always gets a chuckle.
Further, I should say that agents can be a suspicious sort. Constantly thinking somebody is pulling a fast one or doing something against the law. They just come out and blatantly lob accusations. I’ll give you an example. A listing in Elk Grove goes on the market a bit below market. The seller receives a full-price offer and decides she does not want to sell to the buyers because we didn’t receive multiple offers.
So, to avoid an MLS notation of the sort, we pull the listing from MLS, raise the price, and put it back as a new listing. Same buyers offer new list price again. This time the seller accepts the offer. No sooner do we get into escrow but the buyers decide to cancel. Why? Dunno. Means we pull the listing again from the market and reset the days on market.
Right away, we get a new buyer. We get down to closing and the buyer decides to cancel. I manage to get my hands on the appraisal and discover the home appraised for $1,000 more. We raise the price to match the appraisal and put it back on the market. Before we received another offer, the buyers who canceled decide to revoke the cancellation and close after all. At the new price.
See? Nothing hokey going on. I’m just doing my job as a top Sacramento listing agent. We have thousands of stories to share about Sacramento real estate.
How to Revoke a Cancellation When Buying a Home
Sellers are not always eager to revoke a cancellation when a buyer asks.
Rarely does a buyer decide to revoke a cancellation when buying a home but it seems to happen enough lately. Makes me wonder if there is something in the water. One day the buyer is madly in love with the house; the next day, cold feet. They find some peculiar aspect of the situation to focus on, blow out of proportion, and the next thing you know, they execute a cancellation.
Always for silly insignificant things it seems. Then, for no known reason, they suddenly change their minds. Nope, they really DO want to buy the house, and they regret signing the cancellation. Fortunately, there are several ways to revoke a cancellation. The easiest solution is to sign an addendum agreeing to revoke the cancellation and pick up where the parties left off.
Usually, it is also wise to offer some kind of an incentive to the seller. Buyers need to look at the situation from the seller’s point of view to understand how upset, angry and annoyed sellers can get when buyers flip out and cancel a contract. Few sellers that I know have hearts so big they will overlook the irritation and agree to go back into contract. Especially if other buyers start to sniff around the home and make buying noises.
Sellers think: go with the devil I know, which irritated the hell outta me and whom I no longer trust? Or, go with new buyers who seem more promising?
Another way to revoke the cancellation is to write a new offer, clean and straight forward, perhaps with more favorable terms. That could restart the clock, most likely, with the loan. Whereas, with an addendum, if the cancellation was still wet, the closing period is generally shorter.
Either way, buyers may find they will need to sweeten the deal. Buyers need to persuade the seller to grant them another chance. Some of the things buyers can offer is to release the earnest money deposit to the seller. Little speaks louder than handing over non-refundable money. They can offer a higher sales price. They can release all contingencies.
Sometimes you have to make the seller an offer the seller cannot refuse.
Are You Prepared to Sell Your Home in Sacramento?
Knowing that you are prepared to sell your home in Sacramento involves letting go emotionally.
Are you wondering if you’re prepared to sell your home in Sacramento? If so, you’ve come to the right place. We prepare for everything in life, don’t we? For example, right now, the state of Hawaii is preparing to be bombed by North Korea. I’m not kidding. Even in Kailua-Kona the authorities are sounding the sirens and testing them, just in case. The advice they give residents is: stay inside. Like, how is that gonna help?
People are complaining to the newspaper that they can’t hear the testing of the sirens. Seriously? If North Korea bombs us, it doesn’t much matter where you are or what you are doing, you’re a goner. We can prepare for other things like vog, which is volcanic air pollution drifting through the air or, worse, an erupting volcano. It’s not like Vesuvius and we’ll be covered in lava like statues as we’re pulling bread out of the oven. There is time, usually, to get out of the way of molten lava flows.
By comparison, getting prepared to sell your home in Sacramento is far easier. To cut to the chase, you can follow these basic steps:
- Call your Sacramento Realtor to inspect your home.
- Review the comparative market analysis and discuss the market with your Realtor.
- Clean the house and remove furniture or call in a home stager.
- Your Realtor, if she’s on top of her game, will hire a professional photographer and schedule a photo shoot.
- You will sign paperwork, hand over a key for the Supra lockbox.
But are you prepared to sell your home in Sacramento? That’s the key. You can go through the motions, but you also need to be mentally prepared to sell. You need a place to move to because, believe it or not, the buyer will want to move in, and the buyer doesn’t want a roommate.
Here are some questions to ask yourself to find out if you are prepared to sell your home in Sacramento:
- Have you said goodbye, in person, to each of your rooms?
- Are you looking at your home as a commodity and not with sadness or fondness?
- Are you ready to move within 30 days of an offer, which could mean over the next 5 to 6 weeks? It can take a week or two to sell your home.
- Have you come to terms with leaving fixtures behind or removing fixtures prior to sale? Some people are very attached to their light fixtures or dishwashers, both of which are fixtures.
- What kind of plans do you have for removing pets during showings?
- Are you able to leave the house on Sundays for an open house?
- How many people have you shared the news with that you are moving, or is it a secret still?
Many people who want to sell a home in Sacramento struggle with some of these questions, which is why I bring them up. If you’re not ready to sell, there is no rush. We work within your schedule. It’s not a crime to tell your Realtor you are not ready. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759 and put 43 years of experience to work for you.
GOP Tax Bill Retains Exemption of Gain on Sale of a Personal Residence
GOP Tax Bill retains law regarding gain on sale of a personal residence.
Lawmakers make it almost impossible to find updates about the gain on sale of a personal residence. But oh, my lanta, the good news is the law remains unchanged. The Republican Conference Committee released the final draft of the GOP Tax Bill last night at 5:30, Eastern Standard Time. Friday night, when everybody’s headed off to Christmas parties, sounds like an excellent time to release a substantial overhaul of our current tax system. It ensures every American citizen will find the time to read the 1,100 page document, ha, ha.
Out of all the disagreements between the Senate and House versions, there was one particular inclusion in both bills causing the most trauma for my home sellers in Sacramento. The exemption of gain on sale of a personal residence. A CPA from Roseville called, almost in tears over it. She cried: why isn’t this front page news? I found one article from NAR that explored the proposed changes in depth. Based on NAR statistics, the report concluded that changing the law would affect 620,000 transactions.
Present law that exempts gain on sale of a personal residence allows sellers to flip a home every two years. Up to $250,000 of profit for an individual or $500,000 of profit for a married couple is exempt from taxation when selling a personal residence. The other qualification is a homeowner must live in the home for 2 out of the last 5 years. A taxpayer can take this exemption once every 2 years. Welcome news for flippers and sellers who want to move up to a bigger home.
For some reason, both the Senate and House bills changed that law to apply to only sales of a personal residence every 5 years. Those proposals would limit the occupancy to 5 years out of the last 8 years. And a person could exercise this exemption only once in every 5 years.
Fortunately, the Republican Conference Committee retained the original law and made no provisions for changing it. You can find it on page 108 of the PDF download from this link to the Conference Report of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Just search for “residence” and go to page 633.
If you’re considering selling a home in Sacramento, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 43 years of experience to work for you.
A personal thank you to my husband Adam Weintraub for his expert reporting assistance.
