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Elizabeth Weintraub
Why the Sales Price a Sacramento Home Seller Wants Does Not Matter
One of the questions a Sacramento home seller asked me last week during a FaceTime interview is why didn’t I ask her how much they wanted to sell the home for, because every other agent they talked to had asked this question. I was very honest, as is my nature, and I explained that it doesn’t matter. Because it doesn’t matter how much the Sacramento home seller wants. That’s actually pretty much immaterial in a transaction; what is more important, what takes center stage, is the appraised value, which is based on comparable sales.
In fact, asking how much a home seller wants is a way to nail a seller to a lower price. It’s also a way to determine if a seller is crazy. Those words: how much do you want? are never the words that come out of my mouth because I want to do a good job for the seller, not take advantage of a seller. I would advise a client not to work with an agent who asked that question as though it was important to the matter at hand. It’s not.
Being honest like that probably cost me that listing. I could tell they didn’t like the answer. And in retrospect, when I noticed that reaction, I could have soft-shoe pedaled around it but I didn’t. The truth is there are many values to a property:
- what the seller wants,
- what the agent thinks they can get,
- what the buyer will offer,
and none of those really matter one iota if the home doesn’t appraise for those values.
However, I work for the seller, so I do whatever that Sacramento home seller wants and what is best for the seller. My clients can always count on the fact that I will protect our fiduciary relationship and do the best job possible.
These particular sellers wanted a list price from me on a home I had not viewed in person. That’s pretty difficult to do unless it is a tract home in Elk Grove or Natomas or Lincoln. Mid-Century modern homes that are custom built on acreage, well, you’ve gotta see it in person and feel the vibe, as kooky as that might sound.
Then I can give an accurate list price, a number in line with pricing the home to sell. Which might have nothing to do, btw, with our final projected sales price. Those can be 2 different numbers as well, depending on strategy, type of market and timing. Each home that I sell in the Sacramento Valley is unique, and I don’t really sell any two homes in any identical manner. I apologize that it doesn’t matter what the Sacramento home seller wants because we all want to feel that our opinions and desires are important and they matter, but what I want doesn’t matter, either.
It’s only what the appraiser determines. The appraiser has the last word. Unless . . . and that’s another blog for tomorrow. Call Elizabeth Weintraub, Broker #00697006 at 916.233.6759.
What if Sacramento Real Estate Sold and Closed in 3 Days?
What do you think would happen if you could buy a home in Sacramento and close within 3 days? Wouldn’t it be sorta cool if we could demonstrably alter the way Sacramento real estate is sold and buyers did all of their due diligence upfront, meaning they came to the table with an appraisal and underwriting approval? Back East, buyers often conduct a home inspection prior to contract ratification. This idea isn’t so far fetched.
You can buy just about any kind of product, even an illegal product from overseas, and receive it within 3 days. If you were to refinance a mortgage, that takes 30 days generally, but even when all is said and done and they are ready to close, that’s when they are required by law to ask a borrower: are you sure? Are you really, really sure you want this loan? Because we’re gonna give you 3 days to change your mind and rescind.
Yet in our neck of the woods to close escrow on a piece of Sacramento real estate, we enter into 30-day escrow periods, sometimes longer when underwriting is said to drags things out — but a delay is often not due to underwriting but because the mortgage loan officer (MLO) did not carefully scrutinize the loan application at inception or possess enough experience to predict the problem. I see some situations that never should have progressed to the point they made it to if the MLO had been more competent, but I digress.
Back to closing Sacramento real estate within 3 days. It would add certainty to transactions and definitely reduce the number of cancellations. Of course I’m looking at this solely from a seller’s perspective and how anxious sellers become when a purchase contract is signed, but then they go through 30 days of uncertainty and anxiety, never knowing whether the transaction will close. Buyers have 10 ways from Sunday to cancel a contract. They don’t even have to sneeze and trip over their own feet. They can just cancel.
Part of the reason home buyers cancel is because they’ve had too long to think about buying that home. Why, if they only had 3 days before they were in their new home, sitting back on the sofa and putting up their feet on the coffee table before the realization hit: What in the hell did we do? Well, it would be too late. For more thoughts, call Elizabeth Weintraub, Broker #00697006, at 916.233.6759.
Selling 2 Homes to Buy as a Couple
A couple called yesterday to inquire about a pending sale I have listed in West Sacramento and whether they could see it. They plan on selling 2 homes in Sacramento to buy one as a couple. I’m not sure where they found the listing online but not every website out there lists the status of homes online. Many just show the home for sale and they don’t tell the website visitor whether the home has sold or is pending, which is why it’s oh-so-much better to get your listings directly from a Sacramento REALTOR who can sign you up for automatic emails from our mothership: MLS.
But if you’re just starting your hunt to buy a Sacramento home, you don’t think of that. You think, oh, look, here is a website of homes for sale, and there you go. You just want to get an idea of what’s for sale. Sure, you bought a home before, like this couple who called, because they each own a home. He owns a cottage among the leafy streets of homes in East Sacramento. Her home is in Sacramento. They have decided that West Sacramento is a good place to look for a home because a buyer gets so much more for the money.
That’s true. A comparable home in East Sacramento would cost at least $100,000 more than similar sized homes in West Sacramento, and most likely double. This couple had not yet talked to a mortgage broker, but they knew they wanted to sell at least one home. We discussed making a contingent offer on a home to buy. That was enlightening, because they weren’t sure how to go about selling 2 homes in Sacramento to buy one.
The thing is a mortgage broker will need to qualify this couple to own 3 homes. To make 3 mortgage payments. You can’t say you will rent out one of the homes because there is no rental record if they are not now rentals. Most lenders today want to see at least 6 months to a year or more of rental receipts. There are bridge loan options available but they are expensive. It would be much better to get preapproved, put one home off market in MLS until they find a home to buy and then write the offer subject to selling the home, which then immediately goes live. That’s the best option that safeguards this couple if they follow through with selling 2 homes to buy one.
Well, the number one option is sell both homes and use the cash proceeds to buy a home without a contingency in West Sacramento, but that’s not a) convenient for most people or b) really necessary. We can write contingent offers and get those offers accepted. We do it all the time.
The problem is waiting for that oh-so-perfect beautiful home that 3 other buyers want, and you have no preapproval letter and no homes on the market. If you’re in that situation, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. We’ve been helping people in this situation for decades.
The Downside to Selling Sacramento Rental Homes
Being tenants in a single-family home is no guarantee for the tenants that many Sacramento rental homes will remain a forever home for a family, especially if the tenancy is month-to-month. Often, when leases expire they are not renewed. If not renewed, the rental agreements then revert to month-to-month tenancy, and with that comes the possibility that the tenant could be booted out in the event of sale. Sure, the tenant gets 60 days notice by the owner but it doesn’t change the fact the tenant has to relocate. Most tenants, though, will move sooner.
Still, while I’m standing in these Sacramento rentals homes as the owner’s designated Sacramento Realtor, preparing my Agent Visual Inspection and getting ready to shoot photographs, I can sense the tenant’s trepidation. I try to reassure the tenant there is always the possibility that an investor will buy the home and allow the tenant to remain in tenancy, but they still fret. They worry that the new owner will raise their rent. It’s a disturbing place to be when you’re a tenant.
I don’t really know why some tenants rent instead of buying, especially in this particular market when generally the rental payments are higher than what it would cost to pay a mortgage, but everybody has their reasons. Some people are not cut out to buy a home. Some don’t possess the credit ratios. Others, I suppose, just don’t want the hassle of repairs / maintenance and their lives could be in flux, settling down for a long time is not always an option.
What my experience over the past four decades has taught me about selling Sacramento rental homes is there are no definetes and guesses can be wrong. For example, I recall a closing on a rental home in Natomas. When I toured it, I thought for certain an investor would probably buy it because the neighborhood was not conducive to owner occupants: most of the homes in that particular area were rentals. Yet, an owner occupant did buy the home, and the tenants were booted. They had lived there for about 4 years.
In another rental property in south Sacramento, I imagined a first-time home buyer would buy it because the price was so completely affordable, but that’s not what happened. Actually, an investor bought it. Then, when I had placed an investment property, a couple of homes in East Sacramento into escrow, that buyer is an investor buying in part for a family member. It’s often a mix of things. But one thing remains, and that is the tenant is affected, no matter how you look at it. The tenants in East Sacramento are moving out because they’re tired of disruptions and showing the property.
Every situation is different. I encountered tenants in a home in Lincoln a while back who were opposed to showing the home at all. Even with receiving 24-hours’ notice, they decided their right to quiet enjoyment was disrupted and they refused to show, so the owners had to evict them. After the eviction, the owners discovered the tenants had poured Castor Oil all over the carpeting and further damaged the interior. These guys were doctors who had bought a million-dollar home — profession and wealth is no measuring stick that you’ve got good tenants. I suggested the owners call their insurance company and put in a claim. As a result, the insurance company paid for the repairs and is pursuing those evil people for repayment.
Whatever the situation with tenants, I will help a seller to move that rental property and obtain the highest price. It’s just what I do. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Running Naked in Sacramento
Elizabeth Weintraub with her jeep in 1974.
It is obviously time to run naked in the streets of Sacramento but nobody is doing it. Makes me wonder that after the Sacramento City Council removed the nudity privilege, whether there was a lot of squawking from radical nudists about their bare-naked rights. What is sort of amazing is that for a time in 2015 it was perfectly OK to appear nude in public in Sacramento as long as you were not in a city park. You could stroll down the sidewalk in front of Lyon Real Estate on J and 28th Street, flaunting your naked self and nobody could arrest you.
But please don’t do it. There are very few people who really look good without any clothing. The older you get, the worse you look without clothes, well, unless you’re Jane Fonda or Cher. Take it from The Snake Oil Willie Band and their hit single, I Don’t Look Good Naked Anymore:
One of my first clients in Sacramento is the owner of the Naked Lounge over on 15th Street. When he bought a home in Sacramento, he handed me an earnest money deposit drawn on his Naked Lounge account, and I didn’t know what to make of it. Was it a strip joint? I guess I was a bit relieved when I discovered it was a coffeehouse lounge, although I would be perfectly OK representing an owner of a strip club or even a stripper, for that matter; I don’t discriminate against anybody, except maybe a fanatical right-winger. I could not in good conscience, for example, work for Jerry Falwell.
Jerry Falwell wouldn’t look good naked, either. Besides, he’s dead.
But it’s not just the overweight people who don’t look good naked. It’s us old guys of any size. I’ve managed to keep my weight in check, and let me tell you, getting old is best spent with somebody else who is getting old right alongside with you. It keeps you from obsessing over every gray hair and every new wrinkle or barnacle that appears out of nowhere.
When I attended my 20th high school reunion in 1990, I could not believe all of the old people in that room. Most of the men were pretty much bald and fat. In my mind, I was not old. I wore a black mini skirt, paired with knee-high leather boots and my hair was fairly long and dark. I was so weight conscious that I weighed the other side of 100. On my way to the Reunion, I was stuck in the back seat of the car sitting on the hump. With my knees shoved into my face, all I could do was stare at the wrinkle in my knees. I was horrified. Where the hell did that come from?
So shocked that I made everybody stop at the 7-11 so I could buy a new pair of pantyhose. Obviously, the crinkle in my knee was caused by my pantyhose. There I was in the back seat struggling to get out of my existing pantyhose and pull on my new pantyhose as we drove along the city streets of Minneapolis in a car filled with 5 women. Imagine my shock when I realized it was not my pantyhose. It was my skin. And it’s been downhill since then. My skin is now starting to resemble crepe paper: when I turn my arm a certain way I can see it. Alien skin. I’m turning into E.T. My dermatologist prescribes all sorts of lotions for my dry skin, and there is just no turning back the clock.
You have my assurance that this Sacramento Realtor will never run naked down the street, even though it’s perfectly legal for now to do so. Besides, the only Barenaked Ladies anybody pokes fun at in my house is on iTunes.
