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Elizabeth Weintraub
Are You a Buyer Who Wants to See Homes Outside Your Price Range?
Is it smart to look at homes outside your price range? At first blush, sometimes buyers think, oh, what can it hurt? Maybe the homes are overpriced and the owners will eventually lower the price to my price range? Or, maybe the seller is severally distressed and needs an immediate sale so she will take less.
Looking at homes outside your price range is likely to do one of three things. All three of them can be damaging.
1) You may find yourself falling in love with a home that is so far out of your price range you’ll do practically anything, liquidate any asset, to possess it. When emotions run away with you, that’s how people often end up in financial trouble.
2) You could fall into a great pit of depression. Quite logically, you may ascertain this is not a property you can afford, maybe not ever, and that makes you sad. It’s the opposite reaction you expected. There is little joy in drooling over a commodity you cannot afford as all it does it elevate your expectations to a level you might never achieve. And that’s a terribly negative place to be.
3) You could lose out on an opportunity that is well within your price range because you are spending too much time looking at homes outside your price range. When that window of opportunity opens, you’re already behind closed doors elsewhere. And that’s a shame.
It truly makes more logical sense to look at homes within a range you can afford to buy. Let’s say you are preapproved for $525,000 and want to buy a modest home in the leafy Sacramento neighborhood, Land Park. The first thing I would tell you is look somewhere else or raise your price point. Many of the homes for sale in that price range are near noise, some other detriment or incredibly small.
You could instead look at Southside Park, which is a perfectly nice neighborhood in the same ZIP code as Land Park but it is not Land Park. It is more urban, like Midtown. I would also encourage you to check out 2214 Davini Lane near Southside Park. It is a tri-level built in 2007, which features all the bells and whistles. For sale at $489,000.
By focusing on your price range and not looking outside your price range, you’ll have a better chance of buying a home you love for the long run. It’s a lot of work to go through buying a home. Why repeat the experience due to a mistake? You can get it right the first time around by talking about your price ranges with your agent and making sure your parameters for a property search are returning results you can live with.
One of the Movies About Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Because I haven’t been to the movies for a while, it seemed fitting to see one of the movies about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, On the Basis of Sex. I was using the Regal app on my phone to check out the shows at a specific theater in Kona, and that movie was not on the list. On a hunch, I tried the Fandago app, and sure enough, the movie was playing at the Regal Theater. So I bought my ticket on Fandango instead of through Regal. That was a weird thing,
Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always been my hero for as long as I can remember. She is a true crusader of women’s rights, and we need more people like her. The United States still has not managed to pass the ERA, giving everybody equal rights, you know. Our advances haven’t quite yet made up for the distance we still need to go.
In case you think we don’t need women’s rights, and I know there are some people who, for whatever reason, do not understand why we do, here is a good example. This weekend a carpenter came over to make some much needed repairs that the other contractors managed to mess up. As we chatted, he mentioned that he and his girlfriend live up the hill. He actually said, “I would have you over to see our house but my girlfriend is a terrible housekeeper.”
Do I keep quiet when people say things like that? Don’t see how I can. Keeping quiet is complacency at best and conveys a message that one agrees or at least tolerates, and I will do neither. I gave him a piece of mind by reminding that women were not put on the earth to clean house, and he should be equally as responsible for keeping his house tidy.
Also, in the movie, we see Ruth Bader Ginsburg as an overachiever, which she was, but also a bit of a nervous klutz. They make up stuff in movies for dramatic effect as I doubt RBG was nervous. She strikes me as a woman who would have been so well prepared and organized that there would be no room for anxiety, much less wearing anxiety on her sleeve.
Being a smart women, RBG won a landmark tax case (co-presented with her supportive tax lawyer husband) that would not allow a man to be considered a caregiver for tax purposes because he was not a woman and unmarried. It made perfect sense to show a man was discriminated against on the basis of his gender when you’re dealing with other men.
An unexpected part I thoroughly enjoyed was when the real Ruth Bader Ginsburg walked up the steps of the Supreme Court dressed in a blue suit, the same color blue she wore when attending Harvard Law as one of 9 women. Oh, and the closing song: Here Comes the Change, by Kesha. Loved it. Will probably be nominated for an Oscar.
Two thumbs up for the movie, On the Basis of Sex.
Customer Service at its Worst at an Apple Store
If I didn’t experience this with my own two eyes, I would not have believed how I could find customer service at its worst at an Apple store. Seems crazy, right? Usually, every Apple store I’ve ever been to has been fabulous, just like Apple products themselves.
Now, it goes without saying that I tend to hold high expectations of service from other people, so you know that I am often disappointed when they do not measure up. Some people who probably don’t know any better would say I am the kind of person who is hard to please. Mostly because I expect people to behave in a respectful manner and to do a good job.
On my first visit to the Apple store in Kona, I asked the guy if I could buy a MacBook Air with a 1.5 GB hard drive. He told me to go online and order it there. Which seemed odd. I’m not sure that they are really an Apple store but they do sell Apple products. He was nice enough, though, and showed me a few computers. When I decided on the specs, he said I should bring the MacBookAir back to the store when I receive it, and for $75 they would transfer all of my data from MacBook Pro to my new MacBook Air.
What a deal! I hate doing technical stuff myself and was also a bit worried about the quality of my Time Warner WiFi at the house. It tends to be sporadic and drops off at times. I should mention that I specifically asked if I should make an appointment to do this and was told no, I did not need an appointment.
Couple days later, my MacBook Air arrives via UPS. I grabbed it and ran over to the store. This is when I encountered customer service at its worst at an Apple store. Two rather disgruntled customers left the store almost immediately as I arrived, saying something about going to T-mobile as the guy was no help. Maybe that colored his attitude?
Big smile. Aloha! I am here to transfer the data on my MacBook Pro to my MacBook Air. The store was empty at this point. Snot-nosed mouth-breather stood there chewing on his hair and staring at a bug on the floor. What he said next stunned me: It will take 4 to 7 business days. Seriously?? Who can be without a business computer for a week? That is not what the other guy said a few days earlier.
Well, we have other computers to work on before yours, mouth-breather said. Although, like I mentioned, the store was empty. Nobody else was there.
OK, fine, I’ll migrate the information myself. But I still needed a case for the MacBook Air because it’s so much smaller, I might drop it. Mouth-breather waved his hand toward a shelf, there is all of our MacBook Air cases, he said.
I pawed through the collection, found a clear case. Will this work, I asked?
Sure.
Removed it from the package and started assembling it on my computer. I got the back on but struggled with the front portion.
“Ah, we don’t let customers take product out of the packaging,” he says. Too late for that remark.
I overlooked that snotty comment. “If I can get this on my computer, I will buy it. Here you try it.”
He could not snap it on, either. Oh, no wonder, it did not fit my computer. Wrong case.
Can’t help you, he says. We don’t carry cases for the new MacBook Air.
Can you at least tell me how to transfer the information myself? I haven’t migrated data for maybe 10 years. Does it take a Firewire? Do I need a special connection?
He mumbled something about needing a hard drive, and well, let’s just say if he had to perform that service for me, the odds seemed high he would mess it up.
If this is not customer service at its worst at an Apple store, I don’t know what is. Of course, it is Hawaii, so there is THAT. Not even a I’m sorry. No Aloha in that place.
As I left the store, he opened the door to holler at me in the parking lot, “I’m sure the other guy just miscommunicated.”
I am not.
You may laugh at me for expecting good customer service, and I do not care. I would never treat my clients like this. This would be telling like my sellers in Sacramento to go look at Zillow and not waste my time by asking for a professional CMA. Or directing our buyers to find their own damn property online. We do not sell Sacramento real estate like that, no sirree.
Fortunately, the Apple customer service guys online are so danged helpful, I’ll never have to go to that store again. And so glad I bought my new iPhone XR in Honolulu and not there.
Number One Agent at Lyon Real Estate
Imagine my surprise to wake up in Hawaii on February 1 and discover my company named Elizabeth Weintraub as the number agent at Lyon Real Estate for the month of January 2019. I have been working from our vacation house in Hawaii since November. Won’t be returning to Sacramento until early March. One of my team members contributed a sale to January, but all of the other closings were my listings.
When I mentioned this accomplishment to my sister, she asked me how the other agents felt who are working so hard in Sacramento, while here I am lounging about at Kona Haven Coffee (with phone in hand, I should add). I don’t know how the other agents feel. Maybe they feel like they should go to Hawaii, too, and then sales will pick up. But if the sales aren’t happening where they are, being in Hawaii won’t change that.
Fortunately, many of the agents I know at Lyon find my situation amusing and have sent congratulatory emails.
We have about 1,000 agents at Lyon Real Estate. Becoming the number one agent at Lyon Real Estate is no easy feat. It requires focus, concentration and dedication. Just goes to show, though, that like anybody can become president (and sadly has), anybody can be the number one agent at Lyon Real Estate.
I don’t always tell my clients where I am because they might not understand. If they ask, I’ll tell them, but why do they need to know? They could get upset because a) they are not in Hawaii, and b) they might feel like I should be physically in Sacramento at all times. However, most of my clients feel that as long as I respond to them immediately, which I always do, they don’t really care where I am.
My method of operation is simple: business comes first. I answer my phone when it rings, and respond immediately to text and email. If there is a problem, I take care of it, but usually I see them coming a mile away and send problems on a detour. This is what experience brings to Sacramento real estate.
So don’t hate me because I’m the number one agent at Lyon Real Estate. I earned it. Nobody is handing me success on a silver platter.
Buying a Home With a Video Camera on the Doorbell
When showing a home to buyers, approaching a home that sports a video camera on the doorbell is asking for trouble if you’re not careful. Buyers might not even notice the camera, so it is up to the buyer’s agent to have that conversation before coming close enough to the house to be recorded. It is very common nowadays to discover a video camera on the door bell.
When I listed a house in Natomas with the video camera, I asked the seller if it was working because it did not chime when I pressed the button. Sure enough, she had the original Ring Doorbell. Those batteries don’t last very long and their range of motion is such that it uses more energy than is necessary. But buyers should act as though all the video cameras on the doorbell work.
At our house in Hawaii, I had installed the Ring doorbell, and the battery issue was always pressing. Such a hassle to remove and charge. I thought I had solved it by installing a solar panel, but that did not charge the battery. You know why? Because the Ring Doorbell was not in the sun. Duh! Double duh! It needs full sun to charge a solar panel. Period sun or filtered sunlight won’t cut it. So I bought the upgraded version, the Video Ring Doorbell 2. Plus I bought an extra rechargeable battery for it, and so far that’s been working great.
Worked so great that when I looked at my Ring app the other day because it notified me when I was the gym, I saw a police officer standing there. Uh, oh, busted, what the hell have I done now? Turns out he wanted to know if I had a video of an intruder who broke into my neighbor’s unlocked car.
It picks up the sound of anybody approaching the house. When I listed another home in West Sacramento, the seller had a blast sitting back in his office chair and playing his videos of buyers. Buyers who gushed and oohed and ahhed over the house. At least they were saying complimentary things. Which is better than, Oh, my gawd, look at the flooring, absolutely atrocious.
Good thing none of those types wrote an offer because it would prejudice the seller. Sellers do not want to hear their house is a piece of crap and their decorating taste sucks.
Many sellers have security systems with cameras that record sound and movement inside the house as well. Don’t assume that you are not being watched. In fact, assume that you are.
Try not to linger outside of the house in full view of the video camera on the doorbell, too. Smart technology is everywhere, and everybody is listening. Even the television could be recording you.
