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Elizabeth Weintraub
Should You Hire a Property Manager to Sell Your Home?
A property manager can evict a tenant but generally lacks skills to sell a home.
A potential seller with a rental property wondered if she should hire a property manager to sell, and of course I told her that’s a bad idea. Hiring a property manager to sell your home is little bit like asking a mid-wife to perform brain surgery on you. Does she know how to cut into your skull? Maybe. Would you want her to? Or, how about asking a plumber to build your house? A plumber certainly knows how to install a toilet and fix leaky pipes, but there’s more to building a house than that. Or, let’s take a burger flipper from McDonald’s and let the guy cater your wedding while we’re at it. Sure, he can fry hamburger. But can he create a 7-tier chocolate chiffon with Chantilly and a lemon-based filling, topped by buttercream frosting and dusted with macadamia nuts?
All of these professions share something in common with each other but the degrees of separation are too great. Don’t you deserve a specialist? Now, to be fair, there are a few people in Sacramento who are real estate brokers and as a “favor” to a few clients, might engage in property management. Are they an excellent property manager? Perhaps, but maybe not. If they don’t specialize in property management and simply dabble on the sidelines, the person that suffers could be the client. They might not be up-to-date on all the new tenant / landlord laws. They might not be able to handle potential tenant conflicts that end up in court. Maybe they’re just lucky. For now.
Seriously, if I had a choice to manage my rental by hiring a property management company that is engaged full-time in the business of managing rentals or some guy down the street with a broker’s license, I know which I’d surely choose. The property management company. And vice versa, when it comes to deciding whether to hire a property manager to list that rental home or a full-time listing specialist whose focus is listing and selling Sacramento homes, again, I know which I’d surely choose. The listing specialist every time.
Hiring a pro means you don’t have to settle for less. You know a listing agent can negotiate because she routinely sells homes week after week. She has a track record and top reviews. Take a Sacramento Realtor like me, with 43 years of experience, and you can imagine how many problems and challenges I have resolved over the years. You can easily see how this base of knowledge is a huge benefit to my clients. I am still learning new things every day; adding more to my arsenal of polished skills. I would not dare to claim I could manage rental properties. My license allows it but I’m not a specialist in that area.
Yet, there are agents who will try to sell your home as a property manager. I see the listings in MLS. Terrible photographs, the wrong price, lousy descriptions, clear evidence of little to none sales experience. Yet, these property managers tend to do such a bad job that eventually the client fires them, goes looking for a top agent in Sacramento, and that’s how the client ends up with me. It would be so much easier for sellers to bypass all of that nonsense and just call me directly. But they don’t know until they go through it. They believe the guy who claims sure, I can sell the house and then can’t manage to keep his thumb out of the property photos.
Don’t count on using the guy who evicts tenants for a living to help stage your home for sale and guide you through negotiations. The answer is no, do NOT hire a property manager to sell your home. Hire a full-time Sacramento Realtor who specializes in listings.
Rising California Homes Prices to Break 2007 Record High
It is only a matter of time before our rising California home prices will reach our record high set in 2007, says C.A.R. Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. In fact, Appleton-Young says our homes prices will surpass that pinnacle during the next 3 to 5 years. We are still sitting with low inventory and fewer numbers of buyers who can afford to buy a home. According to C.A.R., almost 3 out 4 buyers cannot afford to buy a home in California. That’s staggering to think about. Not to mention, any little jump in interest rates could further dampen enthusiasm to buy a home in Sacramento.
I was thinking about this news last night when a client who moved to Colorado called me. I had recently sold her mother’s condo at Riva on the River, followed a few years later by selling her own home in West Sacramento. This seller wasn’t planning to buy a home in Colorado right away. But like most people who make the transition from buying to renting, buying another home was never far from her mind. You get that bug. She admitted to tapping into Zillow and Realtor.com to view homes for sale. Then one day, out riding bikes with her husband, they stumbled upon a neighborhood and said, hey, we could live here.
Sure enough, they found a home for sale, very similar to the home she left behind in West Sacramento. Except this is their house on steroids. More than twice the square footage. The market in Colorado is still crazy, bidding wars, multiple offers, says my Realtor friend in Denver, Joan Cox. My fingers are crossed that their offer gets accepted. My former client and her family should be in their new home by Thanksgiving.
All of this might lead you to wondering if rising California homes prices will keep you out of the marketplace. Not if you don’t let it. Not if you act within the next year or so. This is a great time to buy as rates are still super low, hovering around 3.875% to 4%, depending on the type of loan you get. The market won’t crash because too many buyers pay cash and others who finance are extremely well qualified with strong down payments. I had hoped we were headed toward stabilization. That would be a calming influence in Sacramento real estate. But not predicted to happen.
In Sacramento County, our highest median price for single-family homes was $395,000 in August of 2005. That was also the month I recall the phones had stopped ringing. The merry-go-round was over. As of September, 2017, our median price for single-family homes in Sacramento is $348,000. Sacramento was among the first affected in California. Our rock bottom was the summer of 2011. Hopefully, we will be among the first to taper off.
The prediction for California overall is 3 to 5 years. However, I predict at the rate we are moving, we’ll see Sacramento meet our high of 2005 in only 1 to 3 years.
We still have a lot of buyers who deserve to own a home in Sacramento. If you’d like more information or help with Sacramento real estate, please call top Sacramento Realtor Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. I answer my phone. Put 43 years of experience to work for you.
Lava Flow Into the Ocean on Big Island Hawaii
Lava flow into the ocean on Big Island by Josh Amolsch, 2017.
When I first saw the lava flow into the ocean on Big Island, I was a bit disappointed. That’s because you see all of these wonderful photographs of enormous amounts of hot, molten lava spewing forth and rolling down the side of a volcano, eventually dropping like ribbons of icing into the ocean everywhere in Hawaii. You can buy prints, paintings and photographs of this. What you don’t know is much of that happened years ago. That’s not what is happening today. Although the lava still flows.
Until I talked with my team member Josh Amolsch, I did not immediately realize my trip to the Chain of Craters Road and Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii was 7 years ago. Seemed like yesterday in retrospect. Much of the landscape is black lava, of which there are two popular types: Pahoehoe and Aa. The first is sort of ropey and the second it spikey. But lava also comes in many other colors, it can be red, green or gray and variants.
Josh and his girlfriend are staying at my house in Kona on their vacation and exploring Big Island. It would be fabulous if Josh and Vika decided to buy a vacation home in Kona, too. He asked me what I liked about Big Island over the other islands, and probably the biggest thing is there is so much to do on Big Island. There are many micro-climates at various elevations, and the vegetation changes with altitude. We have the tallest mountain in the world on Big Island, Mauna Kea. The people are extremely friendly, even to the haoles. It’s warm year round but if you want snow you can find it.
Did I mention it is affordable? Lots of people who are getting priced out of Kauai and Maui come to Big Island. On Oahu, there are too many people and the city is straining to meet the demand for utilities. Granted, you aren’t gonna buy a shack smack dab on the beach for a million bucks, but there are wonderful homes with gorgeous views that are still affordable even by Hawaii standards. And let’s not forget the excitement of the lava flow into the ocean on Big Island.
Josh and Vika did it the hard way, riding bikes for 8 miles. I am way too lazy for that. Too old, too. We opted for the helicopter tour. Even with all of the photographs I shot from the helicopter as some other person grabbed the puking bag, and I’m not supposed to tell you who that was except it wasn’t me, I did not get a shot of the lava flow into the ocean on Big Island like Josh captured. That main photo above is his. Way to go, Josh!
Josh Amolsch from the Elizabeth Weintraub Team at Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii, by Vika Geras 2017.
Lava flow from the Pu u Oo crater on Big Island, by Elizabeth Weintraub 2010
Pu u Oo crater on Big Island is in the eastern riff zone of Kilauea, by Elizabeth Weintraub 2010.
Afghan Whigs Concert at The Fillmore in San Francisco
Elizabeth Weintraub with Greg Dulli and the Afghan Whigs at The Fillmore
Although the Afghan Whigs were the headliner show at The Fillmore last Saturday night, the opening act was one of those things you’ve just gotta see in person to believe. They are called the Har Mar Superstar. Now, the only Har Mar I ever heard of, and maybe I’m the only one who would know that, is an auto mall in Roseville, a suburb between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The Har Mar Auto Mall. I can hear the commercials in my head. When I mentioned that to my husband, he grinned. He’s heard of this band before, but I suspect that’s probably because they have a close association to Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and Broad City. If you haven’t seen Broad City, btw, you’re missing one of the most hilarious shows on TV. Or cable or wherever it lives, I dunno, I don’t work the remote.
The lead singer of this band is a guy from Marshall, Minnesota. Sean Tillman. He is not what you could call the epitome of a sexy rock-and-roll god. For one thing, he’s fairly short and he’s also chubby. Although my husband is quick to point out that Prince was short, too. He’s also pushing 40 with a receding hairline. But by George, he gives the show his all. He really gets into it. Dances up a storm, like something out of the 1970s or what you might see on British TV. And he takes off his shirt to bounce his sagging belly about the stage. Once you see that image, you can’t unsee it. But it’s good in many ways not to harbor unrealistic expectations of your rock stars. Beauty comes in many forms and we should not idealize perfection.
Near the end of the show for Har Mar Superstar, the lead singer removes his shirt.
Let’s just say there no thoughts of wild sex, which is something lots of women think about at a rock concert, as if you didn’t know.
Our reason for visiting San Francisco last weekend was to see the Afghan Whigs. We actually got to meet the Afghan Whigs and at least two of its original members, John Curley, the bass player and Greg Dulli. We’ve caught other shows with Greg Dulli with one of his sideline projects like the Twilight Singers in various cities around the country. It’s one of those guys you just follow. When we we met Greg Dulli, my husband tried to claim that he was the one who introduced me to the Afghan Whigs music, but he was mistaken. I first saw the band at First Avenue in Minneapolis with a bunch of Hells Angels guys, and that was before I met my husband. Which I duly noted when I shook Greg’s hand. Turns out my husband was a beat reporter employed at the Cincinnati Enquirer at the same time that John Curley worked as a photographer at the paper.
It’s indeed a small world.
Greg Dulli, far right, at Afghan Whigs sound check.
We got to The Fillmore around 5:30 for sound check and do a meet-and-greet. For some reason, my husband wanted his own photo with the Afghan Whigs, so he is not in my photo. Dulli says to me, “Get in here, Miss First Avenue,” which made me laugh. They were very nice guys and signed posters for us. I eventually gave my poster to a couple of gay guys in the balcony who were overjoyed to receive it. I have no walls in our home to display it and, besides, I bought this super cool print from Mario Duse in Union Square of the fog rolling over the City. I’ll have to remove a few Sacramento top producer plaques, including my Outstanding Life Member of the Sacramento Board of Realtors, to find a place for it.
Tom Petty wall at The Fillmore
As a nice tribute to Tom Petty, The Fillmore has arranged a wall with album covers as you approach the back room and balcony. The Afghan Whigs put on a decent show, which included songs from their new album, “In Spade.” And I got the black devil t-shirt, of course.
Which reminds me, when Tom Petty died earlier this month, my team member Josh Amolsch sent me a text message to ask if I was aware of it. I texted him back that I was having a hard time getting over the fact that OJ was out of jail for it to sink in.
Josh asked, “Not a fan?”
I replied, “Who can be a fan of a murderer?”
And all afternoon Josh was busy Googling: “Tom Petty Murderer.”
Photos of Colorful Blooms at San Francisco Botanical Garden in October
Entrance to San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park.
Many thanks to San Francisco Realtor Lottie Kendall who first introduced this Sacramento Realtor to the San Francisco Botanical Garden. This place boasts over 50,000 plants, and is located inside Golden Gate Park at the corner of 9th and Lincoln Way. Admission is free to members; or $8.00 regular and $6.00 admission for seniors. My husband and I had originally planned to visit DeYoung Museum as there is always something happening there, but the exhibit last weekend was Teotihuacan. Since we were in Mexico climbing the ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan last February, and we also toured the National Museum of Archeology in Mexico City, it seemed like the exhibit might be redundant.
I am always up for visiting a botanical garden, and the San Francisco Botanical Garden was an excellent choice. The day was warm, sunny and beautiful. No coats or jackets necessary for the middle of October. When I first shot a few photos, I did so with PlantSnap to see if that new app, which my husband backed through crowdfunding, would show me the name. Except it did not identify most of the colorful blooms. I entered my suggestion for the name, based on nearby signs, but PlantSnap did not save my collections. Which is probably my fault for not watching the video. I don’t have the patience for instruction videos.
Therefore, some of the photos contain captions identifying the flowers and plants at the San Francisco Botanical Garden, and some do not. If you recognize a flora, please let me know, and I will tag it. My only regret was we did not have enough time to visit all 55 acres and every collection. I hope you enjoy the photos below.
Scrub Jay near the Garden of Fragrance at San Francisco Botanical Garden.
Balloon flowers
Lichen grows on European Hornbeam
Luculia Gratissima
Salvia Moorcroftiana
Monarch butterflies on butterfly bush
Peaceful pond with ducks at San Francisco Botanical Garden.
Red Spider Net Grevillea
Banksea Giant Candles native to Australia
Australian bottle brush
Sky Blue Lochroma Cyaneum
Peruvian Glory Bush
Winter’s Bark flowers are fragrant and used to make tea.
Dragon Trees in the Succulent Garden
