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Elizabeth Weintraub
Median Home Prices Drop in Sacramento
No way around it, the median home prices in Sacramento dropped during January 2019. We haven’t seen median home prices in Sacramento this low since February of last year, when it was $350K. Our last few months of the year in 2018 reflected a median home price of $365K, and along comes January and wham. The median home price slipped to $352K.
Our highest median home price was $375 from last June. Then it bounced around, leveling out in November and December at $365K. It’s been a rough month for Sacramento housing this January. Although, I did rank as the #1 agent at Lyon Real Estate for last month, so it wasn’t a bad month for me or my clients.
Look at those sold numbers for January. A dismal 840 homes closed last month in Sacramento County. That’s a 25.4% decrease over January of last year. Awful, just terrible. Another terrible sign is inventory is up almost 25% year-over-year as well. Which is great news for buyers but not so hot for sellers. The only redeeming statistic I can report is our pending sales have leapfrogged through the roof.
Yup, pending sales is where it’s at. Pending sales are the future. It predicts the direction we are heading, and our pending sales for January is up 35.9% over December. However, before you get all giddy about our pending sales, please know that we have no statistics on how many blow up and do not close escrow.
It is not unusual in these types of markets for buyers to develop cold feet or some other problem and agents might have to sell a home three times to get paid once. Buyers flake out, and that rate seems to be accelerating in my experience. One day they love the house and the next day they cancel for unknown reasons. Just means the market will likely be a bit rougher on all agents, and we may all end up performing more uncompensated work.
Oh, shelter my poor eyes from this chart, which shows the cumulative days on market in Sacramento real estate. Ordinarily, when the days on market go up, it can cause buyers to want to pay less than list price. This might very well be a catalyst as to why we are seeing our median home prices drop in Sacramento. OK, squinting at it, I can make out our days on market for last month is 49. That’s high!
Of course, the super hot desirable properties that anybody would give their eye teeth to own are still flying into escrow fairly quickly. But the main thrust of the market is price reductions, longer days on market and some pretty good deals for home buyers.
For more information, please call your top producer Sacramento Realtor, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916.233.6759.
Where Do You Find Listing Specialists in Sacramento?
Do you wonder if you deserve your own representation and where you can find listing specialists in Sacramento? Most agents who solely represent sellers are always ready to talk about selling a home, providing you can find such an agent. There are not very many listing specialists in Sacramento. For example, I can count the number on one hand, and I’m not so sure about the other four. I can only vouch for myself.
Most agents, if you don’t already know, try to work with both sellers and buyers. They probably don’t attract enough business to specialize. Some of those agents might call themselves listing specialists but they are not, not truly. I know this to be a fact because my outlook and business focus is so completely different from agents who represent both types, sellers and buyers, and even those who only represent buyers.
In fact, I venture to guess you will have an easier time tracking down exclusive buyer’s agents than you will finding listing specialists. Make no mistake about it, true listing specialists only represent sellers. They do not operate in dual representation. Their primary focus is seller fiduciary in Sacramento, which means putting the sellers’ interests above their own.
These agents are definitely not trying to double-end the transaction and earn twice the commission, which is almost every other agent’s dream goal (except for exclusive buyer’s agents and listing specialists).
Which means it can be confusing. Especially for those buyers who think they oughta work only with the listing agent in hopes the agent will be so danged greedy he or she will do anything to accommodate the buyers.
Now, I don’t know of any agent who is an island. If an agent is a listing specialist, odds are she has a team of exclusive buyer’s agents. These agents represent buyers, which frees her to focus solely on sellers. When the only thing an agent thinks about day-in and day-out is maximizing her seller’s profit potential, it puts a whole new spin on listings. A different world opens.
It’s hard enough to wear one hat in real estate, I don’t know why anybody would want to wear more than one. It’s too danged hot in Sacramento anyway.
To find listing specialists in Sacramento, you can stop right here to talk to me. Or, you can continue pounding the pavement. You can call Elizabeth Weintraub, your trusted name in real estate for more than 40 years, at 916.233.6759.
The Best Kitchen Trash Can
For the past 3 years, I have not been thinking about acquiring the best kitchen trash can. I’ve just been annoyed with the one we have. Every time I try to pull a full bag of trash out of our kitchen trash can, the sides of the garbage bag swell and stick to the can. This is the kind of can with a metal square lever that lets you tuck the edges of the trash bag under it, but the sides of that poke holes in your trash bags.
So I dash to the garage, dangling the trash bag away from my person to prevent splashes from whatever. There’s got to be a better way, I decided. We don’t have enough room at our vacation house in Hawaii to install an under-the-sink option. Our trash can sits on the floor near the entrance to the kitchen.
What is the best kitchen trash can to buy? I Googled a few and then made a trip to Target. Yes, of all places, Target. That’s because they carry Simplehuman trash cans. I considered briefly the voice activated, but that involves batteries. I have enough work as it. Don’t need to be changing batteries, too.
Several features make this type of kitchen trash can perfect. One of the biggest benefits is the J-type garbage bags that are designed to fit inside the can and under the lid. Which means the trash bag holds it shape and position. When you toss a heavy item into the bag, it doesn’t cause the bag to collapse or slide down inside the trash can. It stays put.
What took them so long to design something like this? Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering how expensive are those designer trash bags that fit so neatly inside the can? They are about 30 cents each. As compared to, say, Glad trash bags for 13 gallon cans, run about 16 cents each. Or, you can figure two bags a week will cost $20 for 6 months. Twenty bucks buys 60 bags.
I chose the semi-round, 45-liter Simplehuman because it cost $99 and occupies a smaller footprint in the kitchen. But it’s not just the designer trash bags that make this the best kitchen trash can. For starters, it holds 3 times as much trash as our former trash can. The step-on pedal is easy to operate but a bit too complicated for a cat to try it. Plus, get this, it automatically soft-closes.
Just like my new MacBook Air, the Simplehuman trash cans come in an array of colors, even rose gold.
Target. It’s the place.
Update on Lowes Kona Kitchen Remodel
OK, so no surprise here that our Lowes Kona kitchen remodel is still not finished. Part of the problem is we bought our cabinets from Lowes in Kailua-Kona, the Shenandoah line, exclusive, it seems, to Lowes. In retrospect, if I had more time, it would have made more sense to order custom cabinets from any of the fine cabinet makers in Kona. But I had to get back to Sacramento to continue selling Sacramento real estate.
I placed the order for our Lowes Kona kitchen remodel in June, along with signing a contract with Lowes to buy most of the supplies from Lowes. However, Lowes did not do the remodel nor adequately oversee the job. Lowes hired a third-party contractor to do the work. So I probably would have been better off hiring my own contractor, but that is water under the bridge.
The cabinets arrived at the store in August but nobody inspected the cabinets until they were delivered to our house in November. At which point, they discovered a few of the cabinets were damaged and part of the order did not arrive. Were the missing pieces ordered in the first place? I dunno. It would have been better if Lowes had been equipped to inspect the delivery when the cabinets arrived instead of wasting 3 months, but no, the cabinets quietly sat damaged in storage.
If I had been aware they were to arrive and be delivered without inspection, I would have driven out to Lowe’s storage bay and unboxed them myself to check. As it is, all work came to a screeching halt in early December to wait for another shipment.
In early December, Lowes ordered replacement cabinets and they are arriving tomorrow, in early February. An unexpected twist — when I called Shenandoah directly, I was informed that Shenandoah had discontinued the cabinets in August and did not tell us.
Lowes had to go an outside vendor to get the replacement cabinets. If I hadn’t called Shenandoah, I would not have known this little fact.
Jacob at Shenandoah says he has worked there for 3 years. He said it takes 8 weeks to get the replacement cabinets because, although almost every cabinet they sell is made from maple, well, the cabinets are maple. He also said the glaze was, well, special. I don’t know how well they will match the other cabinets, but I will find out tomorrow. No amount of begging or bribery would deliver those cabinets any sooner.
Which means the finish work, depending on the condition of the replacement cabinets, will begin on Friday. It is possible the Lowes Kona kitchen remodel, which began in November, might be completed before Valentine’s Day.
Many Home Showings and No Offers, What is Wrong?
Not too long ago we closed on a property that had many home showings and no offers, and there was nothing wrong with the property itself. It had been priced too high. Once we brought the price in line with what the market would bear, the home sold. Without question. Nobody asked why has this been on the market for so long? They could see why.
It was also a difficult sale for the sellers. They had no mortgage, so apart from paying for utilities and property taxes, it didn’t cost much to keep the home on the market. As the listing agent, I wasn’t complaining, either. The home’s location was excellent and it made the phone ring with buyers for others homes. I will be as patient as my sellers.
However, usually when there are many home showings and no offers, it generally means there is something wrong with the property. The way to cure that problem is to figure out what is wrong and fix it. If you can’t fix it, then lower the price.
What could be wrong, you might ask? It could be condition. Some homes without updates or the wrong kinds of updates will get passed over by today’s discriminating millennials. Buyers dislike oak cabinets, white ceramic counters or white appliances. In those instances, you have two remedies. Paint the cabinets, install quartz and replace the appliances. Or, substantially reduce the price. What first-time home buyers want today is very different from buying trends in the 20th Century.
It could be location. Some homes built in front of major freeways (what were they thinking??) are challenging locations to sell. Moreover, if you can see a school when standing in the front yard, that’s a bad location. In those situations, sellers have only one remedy. Make that house the cheapest home within a 1/2 mile radius. Same principle applies to a bad layout. It is generally too expensive to change the layout, which means the price needs to account for the configuration deficit.
Many home showings and no offers? Perhaps the home looks differently online than the photographs reflect. Once inside, buyers could decide it doesn’t meet their list of requirements. If the home could use a little TLC, it is OK to market it that way. Let buyers know what they are getting into, and they will be better prepared to view the home. When hopes are dashed the minute they step inside the home, that is not a good buying experience.
Sometimes it can be the season, typically the months of December through February can be slow. You also can’t count open house traffic because those people are not necessarily buyers. Those are people who like to attend open houses, or people walking and driving by.
Of course, the bottom line solution in just about any situation in which you have many home showings and no offers is a price reduction. But before automatically slashing the price, be sure to consider other factors first.
