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Elizabeth Weintraub
How to Cure Health Problems You Did Not Know You Had
Believe me, I did not start out trying to cure health problems I did not know I had. Most of the time, if I’m breathing and can see when I open my eyes in the morning, I am content. As a general rule, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my health. The most consideration I give is when I’m about to see my primary doctor for an annual checkup. Then I put together a list of irritating or annoying things, and she fixes them.
Never anything that’s a big deal. But as we get older, and I am heading toward 67, you and I might find that things on our body have stopped working in the way that we were once accustomed. We don’t realize it because we tend to compensate for it. Especially if we are a top Sacramento Realtor and always way too busy to spend a lot of time trying to cure health problems.
We leave that to our doctors. And therein lies the problem, for me at least. Because, by the time I visit my doctor, I have already compensated for some stupid defect and I don’t mention it. Or I hope it will magically go away. That somehow the passage of time will autocorrect. Except autocorrect doesn’t always work. Hey, when you get a text from me that says HO Away, you just have to sound it out, for crying out loud. Don’t text me back to ask what does HO mean.
I realized I had limited motion when I attended a Yin Yoga class a while back. Practicing yoga has been on my mind for years, I’ve just never acted on it. The instructor asked me if I had any questions. Yes, I mentioned once having the good fortune a few years ago to score tickets to a concert at The Crest Theatre to watch Mark Lindsay from Paul Revere and the Raiders fame.
That guy was born in 1942, 10 years older than me. Yet, there he was on stage, kicking a leg over his head. When he bent at the waist to bow in front of the audience, he could kiss his knees. He folded in two like an envelope. So impressive! I want that flexibility. So our yoga instructor gave me the Mark Lindsay pose. I learned a lot of poses, actually. Some of which are very hard, which only involve standing on one foot.
By the end of the class, I was sweating and panting, and all I did was stretch. And that’s when I discovered one of my legs would not move in a certain direction. Felt pain on the outside of my thigh. As though it was restricted. So I Googled those muscles and figured out which one it was. Followed by another search for relieving pain in that muscle and how to strengthen it.
The next few trips to the gym focused on working that area to try to restore movement. I used only low weights on the machines and moved slowly, not enough to cause any pain or harm. At a friend’s suggestion, I booked an appointment with a medical therapist who practices a wide range of massages, including relieving pressure points.
At home, I used my bands to strengthen that side of my body as well. I began to feel better and stronger. I lost weight, too. Sure enough, today, I can move that leg without pain. It’s incredibly empowering.
Yeah, people tell you all the time that you lose muscles when you age, but if you’re like me, you just pooh-pooh it. Never used those muscles when I was younger and nothing bad ever happened. So why should I have to care now, was my attitude. But it is true. You lose muscle if you don’t work it. It’s not gonna continue working for you if you don’t support it. This is not like TSA workers who had to show up for work like slaves without payment during Trump’s self indulgent and utterly childish government shutdown. No, sirree, those muscles go on strike when you’re getting old.
Well, I did not enjoy a lot of balance, either. In my defense, why would anybody stand on one leg when you have two perfectly good legs to hold one up. It can be challenging to balance on one leg, though, especially with my hands twisted into some weird contortion over my head. But I am doing it.
I have learned that I can’t reply on my body to just perform like it always has. Nope, need to nurture it and build those muscles for support. Makes total sense to me now. Plus, I’m very proud I could cure health problems I didn’t know I had until I stopped to acknowledge the pain and took charge of my health. Nobody else is gonna do it for you, you know.
Whose Fault is Your Unhappiness?
The pursuit of happiness, an unalienable right offered to us in the Declaration of Independence, does not guarantee people won’t point fingers when they ponder the question: whose fault is your unhappiness. For starters, the Declaration of Independence does not provide a blueprint of where to find happiness or even that a person will ever become truly happy. Just that we all have the right to attempt to be happy, as long as we aren’t hurting anybody or breaking laws.
We can do pretty much what we want to do as long as it makes us happy. What I find is many people might not know what makes them happy. Never pondered that aspect of living. Maybe they never considered the state of happiness as something to obtain? Some also tend to believe they don’t deserve happiness. Not true. Everybody deserves bliss. Not surprisingly, the wickedly depraved often believe happiness is overrated, and they will tell you that, because they can’t achieve it.
People don’t like to think about the phrase whose fault is your unhappiness because it’s way too convenient to blame somebody else. Point the finger elsewhere. Make it all somebody else’s fault. There is always some other person or circumstance holding you back, right? Lots of excuses. Not enough money. Not enough time. Not smart enough. Not enough experience. People will object. Fear you will fail. Can’t, can’t, can’t is such a negative and defeatist attitude.
As gently as I can say this, that person holding you back is reflected in your bathroom mirror every time you step out of the shower.
Reminds me of a situation a few years ago. I had ordered a car built with all the options I wanted and exactly the way I desired it. Was very excited. Waited a long 6 months or so for delivery. When I got to the dealership, the car was missing an important option; they had messed up my order. So, it would take another 6 months to build another vehicle.
At least a good 30 days had gone by before I heard myself repeating whose fault is your unhappiness, Elizabeth? I had blamed the dealership for screwing up. That’s why I didn’t have a new car. In reality, that was an excuse to be unhappy. I did not deserve unhappiness. Did I really need a custom built vehicle or could I let go of that idea? What I needed was a new car, and the reason I did not have a new car was because of my attitude.
Instead of wallowing in whose fault is your unhappiness, which is a sorry state of affairs, I decided instead to comb a number of dealerships, found my dream car and bought it.
However, happiness is not directly tied to material objects. You absolutely do not need wealth. I made the long trip across the International Dateline to Vanuatu 5 years ago to check out what is billed as the Happiest Country on Earth. People danced to music in the streets. A maid at my resort took me to a Kava Bar in Tanoliu and then to her modest house to share a fresh coconut. Her village was still governed by a chief. They cooked meals over a fire pit outside and lived entirely off the land. Not an unhappy person in that group.
Happiness comes from not always embracing certainty. From pushing yourself to do things that are uncomfortable. The funny thing is once you experience the uncomfortableness of a new experience, it becomes comfortable.
Nobody else is in charge of running your life and pursuing happiness but you. Empower yourself to step outside of your usual boundaries. Amazing transformations will take place. I promise you.
Why Do People Go Into Real Estate?
Yesterday I received a call from a guy who said he would like to talk to me about why people go into real estate. Did I have a few minutes to spare? Just some random guy seeking out a random agent, he said. For starters, I should say that happens because of my extensive exposure online, especially due to all of the articles I published over the last 12 years about homebuying on what is now The Balance. My voice somehow encourages a lot of people to contact me.
Unfortunately, there is no money in it to talk to some of these people. Every so often they want to buy or sell a house in Sacramento, but there are also telemarketers who want to sell me something. Lottsa luck there, I say; and there are people who genuinely do not know who else to contact. Or, maybe I am self delusional. I could be wrong. But I do try to help, regardless. They could be people who regularly contact strangers online to try to squeeze information from professionals for free. It’s better to think the best about people, because by thinking the worst, the worst has a better chance of becoming reality.
I feel an obligation to give back all the great pieces of knowledge I have acquired over the years. Self reflection helps. Engaging in open lines of communication; heck, just talking about it brings up ideas to analyze. But back to why people go into real estate.
This is not a new concept, but I truly believe many people go into real estate because they don’t fit well in any other occupation. Real estate is a business comprised of misfits. Losers, if you may. People with nothing else going on in their lives. Maybe they were fired. Maybe they quit job after job. Downsized. Dropped out of college. Or, simply aimless. Maybe they are like me and do not respond well to positions of authority. I resist every time.
Truth is to be wildly successful at real estate involves tremendous sacrifice. Many sacrifices. Intense focus. And running the business has got to come first. What? I know a lot of you are probably thinking, you know maybe that’s your take but that’s not my take. My family is always first. I say either you are deluding yourself or you won’t make it in real estate or both. It takes constant drive and self motivation, which makes it impractical to try to achieve balance.
If you want to make it into the big time in real estate, stop believing the myth you can have balance in your life.
Some people consider themselves wildly successful if they can sell one house a month. To me, that is the bare requirement to exist in this profession, and 90% of agents in Sacramento sell 12 or fewer homes a year. That is perfectly respectable for an agent, but it is not what I call wildly successful. Let me add there is nothing wrong about not wanting more that real estate has to offer. But the guy who called me wanted to know about extreme success.
My definition to become wildly successful in real estate involves production and sales volume. Most superstars on the lower end earn annually at least a quarter of a million, but I would imagine the average is closer to half a million. Agents who work in higher end markets easily make a million+.
People go into real estate to make money. To make a living for themselves. But it is hard work, long hours and involves a lot of rejection when you begin. If you have a pipeline for business, contacts that routinely feed you clients, you’re way ahead of most other agents. Some of us don’t rely on our “sphere of influence” i.e. people we know. We build our clientele from taking buyer calls, doing Floor, hitting the pavement to knock on doors and beg for work like some homeless person asking for a bowl of soup, holding countless open houses in the rain. We are too busy for lunch. You get the idea.
Fact is most agents do not make a lot of money. Only a few people who go into real estate will become millionaires. Along the way, you’ve got to develop a passion for the work, the people and focus on positive outcomes.
The secret to success is to always put your client’s needs above your own. Easy to say, hard to execute.
Further, to consistently produce a large volume of sales, one must also ensure the quality remains, the personal touch, the fact that clients feel they are my only client. It is a myth that agents who do volume cannot provide quality service, and agents who rattle that cage of nonsense are sucking on sour grapes.
People who go into real estate will tell you they want to help other people. If that were totally true, they’d volunteer at Loaves and Fishes or come up with some other brilliant idea to save the world. Of course, we will feel very rewarded by helping a seller or buyer, but it is extremely challenging to manage how others react to you. I often say I do not sell real estate, I manage people and their expectations.
Over the past 40+ years in real estate, I have created amazing transactions out of thin air, saved many folks from their own destruction and blazed an incredible trail in real estate. If I had to do it all over, I would. I am turning 67 this year, and still going strong in Sacramento real estate.
How to Double End a Listing Without Listing the House
The process I am about to describe to you, how to double end a listing without listing the house, is not something your broker’s legal team will want you to read about. I am not promoting this particular system as much as sharing stories that happened to me 40 years ago when I first started selling real estate. Many of our activities back in the 1970s would have lawyers today running for the closest bottle of scotch.
Yup, today this would involve practicing risk management on overload. Legal liability up the wazoo. Yet, I’m gonna tell you anyway, because that’s just the kind of person I am. A troublemaker. With a capital T that rhymes with B and stands for bad influence.
You might not think of me as a bad influencer because I generally try to do good things, but let me say, soon as my junior year in high school ended, my probation officer (didn’t every kid have a probation officer back in the ’60s?) insisted I leave my group home in Wayzata and find other living arrangements. Because I was . . . you guessed it . . . a bad influence. I encouraged other kids to take control of their lives and question authority, and that was bad.
Back to this situation. So, the way an agent could double end a listing without listing the house is to first find sellers who want to sell but do not have an agent. Sometimes these sellers are called FSBOs, which stands for For Sale By Owner, pronounced FizzBo, or they could be a referral or some guy who walked into an open house and mentioned wanting to sell. I called them from the newspaper classifieds. You could find them today on Zillow. These are people without representation.
In the 1970s, when I obtained my real estate broker’s license and began selling, double ending a listing seemed like a good way to go. Today, not so much. Today I would say double ending a listing is asking for trouble and I do not work with buyers anymore. I represent sellers. But back then I didn’t know any better. Dual agency was also more common than it is now.
The reason this worked so well, to double end a listing without listing the house, was because some sellers were very resistant to listing. But they were not resistant to selling. Much like today, actually. I sat down at many a dining room table to tell sellers I was not there to list their house; I was there to buy it and assign the sale to one of my investors.
Unsecured promissory notes were used as a down payment, again, rife with legal problems today. I paid the sellers their asking price, too. Because I discovered we could make money at list price. We did not need to buy low and sell high. That is a fallacy. Even created my own purchase agreements in 3-part NCR so they appeared official. I knew enough from my years in escrow to know when to remove prorations from the sale agreement. Sort of the big print giveth and the little print taketh away.
The agreement I signed with the sellers was in my name or assignee. I often wrote the contracts to close in 7 days. This was very appealing to a seller. Full price and fast closing. Most of all, I performed. I transferred all my purchase contracts to investors. Which meant when I called them to say I found an investment property for them, it meant it was already in escrow.
There was no showing of homes. I showed one home. The home I just bought for them. If they didn’t want it, another investor would take it, but they almost always accepted the assignment without questioning. I was the professional, and they were just the guys with a bit of cash. There was a certain amount of respect for what I could do.
Not like today. Today many buyers think they know everything. After all, they watch HGTV.
What about a mortgage? There were no new mortgages. Interest rates were too high. Rates were 18% at one point. I bought the property subject to the existing financing. Often, the down payment was between 7% and 10%. If it was 10%, the seller would get the 3% difference, because 1% went to closing costs and 6% to commission. Just because I wasn’t listing the property did not mean I did not write a commission into the purchase contract.
Today, the commission, though, is not part of the contract.
I created my own form to transfer my interest in the purchase contract to the investor. It’s a wonder I wasn’t ever sued for practicing law without a license. No investors qualified to buy the home. No credit reports. No disclosures, no preapproval letters, no proof of funds.
In addition to taking title subject to the existing mortgage, sellers would receive, for example, a second trust deed for the balance of their interest. They didn’t want the trust deed, most wanted cash.
I had another group of investors who purchased trust deeds at a discount. On a straight note (with simple or compound interest accruing, no payments), the balloon payment was typically 3 to 5 years. I sold those at a 30% discount to the seller, pocketed half and gave a 15% discount to the investor. The investor got a great yield and everybody was happy.
If this hurts your head, well, it is fairly creative, and remember, this was from a time when an agent could do many things an agent cannot do today. If you could come up a plan, it was most likely executable as long as you weren’t breaking any laws, and we did not have laws like we do today.
The sellers knew what were doing. They knew the paper was created and sold in a second transaction, and there could be liability with the subject-to due to alienation clauses, which could result in an acceleration clause. Sellers did not mind that I was paid to sell their trust deed and I received a standard real estate commission for double ending the sale.
Because, like I said earlier, they did not want to list their house.
But I look at that type of transaction today, which seemed so normal and ordinary during the creative financing years, and I can’t hardly believe it myself. Kids, don’t try this without legal advice. Some things from the past belong in the past.
Today, everything I do is to protect my seller’s interests. And I’m a lot wiser.
Be Sure to Catch These Open Houses in 95818 Today
Some sellers do not want to do open houses in 95818 when the weather is bad or traffic is slow. However, that’s precisely when one should hold open houses in 95818. Any lazy agent can hold an open house when the weather is beautiful and there are tons of buyers milling about. But the sales are done by continual marketing and never coming up with a reason not to hold a home open. You never know where your buyer might come from.
We have two open houses in 95818 this Sunday. Hours are 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. One home is located in Southside Park, just north of Upper Land Park. People do not seem to realize that the ZIP code of 95818 runs down to S Street in Midtown. They tend to think only about Land Park and Curtis Park, two tree-canopied neighborhoods close to downtown and Midtown.
Our first open house has more of an urban vibe. It’s perfect for that lock-and-go lifestyle that busy professionals tend to gravitate toward. The address is 2214 Davini Lane, Sacramento, CA 95818. It is on 5th Street, a newer development, built in 2007, between W & V Streets, and is a row off the main drag for privacy.
This is a 2 bedroom, 3 bath with an area for an office, a tri-level. Beautiful open floor plan, granite counters, cherry cabinets, stainless appliances. You will find two master suites on the top floor, just in case you are considering sharing a home with a roommate. Perfect for entertaining, too. Garage has an electric charger for your car. Offered by Elizabeth Weintraub and Lyon Real Estate at $489K.
Our second open house is a vintage home with plenty of history. It is located in Curtis Park on one of the best streets overlooking the park at 2641 Curtis Way, Sacramento, CA 95818. If this was April instead of January, we would have multiple offers on this house, no doubt. Built in 1922, it boasts more than 2,800 square feet, according to the Sacramento County Assessor.
Gorgeous hardwood floors mostly throughout. If you want space, this house features extremely large rooms. There are two master suites, each up and down. The second floor master is an addition, and it’s a doozie, so LARGE. Walk-in closets, a sitting area, and a beautiful master suite bath. The wallpaper is red, showcasing Parisian circus monkeys wearing hats (quite vintage and beautiful). But if it’s not to your taste, you can change it.
This home has a large trek deck, with a pool and spa in the back yard. If you love Curtis Park, this home will speak to you. The best part is this home is offered by Elizabeth Weintraub and Lyon Real Estate at the unheard of price of $799K. This is less than what the seller paid 12 years back.
For more information on homes in Land Park or Curtis Park, or anywhere in the greater Sacramento region, call your top producer Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. There is hardly a street in the area I don’t know.
