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Elizabeth Weintraub
Beyond the Marketing of Homes in Sacramento Real Estate
Many successful listing agents in Sacramento maintain an unusual love affair with real estate, coupled with a magnetic attraction to the psychology of marketing homes in Sacramento. We want to understand the techniques that trigger a person’s home buying button. Our brains are turned on by this. It’s often a matter of: W + X + Z = $, ding, ding, ding. We latch on to proven techniques.
We don’t let our emotions rule or get out of hand when dealing with people because it might not deliver the desired result if we go off half-cocked. It’s tempting to be snarky but if that snark irritates or annoys the person we’re trying to attract and receive an offer from, well, that’s a defeatist attitude and not in our seller’s best interest, much less anybody else’s. My advice to agents struggling with snarky syndrome is to suppress the snark. Save it for your friends who appreciate it. Or for your own blog. Like this one.
As a listing agent, I want buyers to feel comfortable and happy and their agents to be thrilled. That’s the goal. When all is said and done and the escrow has closed, is the buyer’s agent a hero / heroine to the buyer or a person to avoid by walking on the other side of the street?
Part of marketing homes in Sacramento successfully is achieved by making the buyer ecstatic over the home purchase. Home staging is a proven strategy and tends to generate a lot more money for the seller than homes that are vacant, and it generates happiness. It’s different than decorating or furnishing a home. Home staging highlights features of the home without making it apparent, and it’s an art. A decorator or designer can’t do it. Staging, when done properly, creates an emotion the buyer can’t get out of her mind, no matter how she tries to shake it.
Another aspect is responding quickly to the buyer’s requests for paperwork and being available if the situation warrants. Little is worse than trying to call the listing agent who has vanished for the weekend. Cooperation is key. Meeting reasonable expectations. Finding solutions. When you put all of these elements together, it’s a recipe for a successful closing and happy parties. It’s not just the marketing of homes. But that’s where one begins.
Why Websites Will Not Replace a Sacramento Real Estate Agent
Thinking about Zillow and Trulia client interactions with those websites generated profuse apologies last Wednesday from this Sacramento real estate agent to my doctor. It was like a light bulb had gone off, and I accidentally stepped on it and broke it. I was at the doctor’s to talk about my cholesterol but while I was there I thought it would be a good idea to also discuss another situation that, on the surface, appeared minor but health is not my profession. I am an agent who sells real estate in Sacramento.
However, I would be remiss if I didn’t admit that I had been looking online and reading other websites, comments and input from complete strangers, about a medical issue. Like I know crap from shinola. It involved spots on the heel of my foot. Just as I opened my mouth and inserted said foot, I realized how idiotic I sounded yet I still shoved a piece of paper in front of my doctor on which I had written the name of a particular affliction.
This is a woman who has completed a 2- to 3-year residency after 8 years of college and has worked as a doctor at U.C. Davis for more than a decade. My medical knowledge would fit in her pinkie. I felt incredibly ashamed when I admitted that I found the name of that disease online. I immediately backpedaled and said I realize it must be irritating to have patients with absolutely no medical background diagnosing themselves at Web MD or other websites.
I felt like a total idiot.
The doctor calmly asked if I am particularly flexible. No, not really, I guess. OK, can I do the splits, for example? No, I cannot, unless you count crawling over a fence gate to retrieve a lockbox and just about killing this Sacramento real estate agent. Well, then I don’t have said disease I had presented and the spots, while painless, are also harmless.
I don’t know how doctors handle these ridiculous episodes because they must come up over and over from patients. We can’t help ourselves. The internet is right THERE and doctors are not. I imagine those in the medical profession spend a good part of their precious time reassuring patients over imaginary diseases, time that would be better spent treating them and not explaining why the internet is wrong.
But times are what they are and people naturally gravitate to the web to look up stuff. I have patience when clients tell me they looked up the market value of a home on Zillow and therefore they know exactly what it’s worth. They don’t know any better. It’s the same patience I employ when a buyer calls to say she found the perfect preforeclosure home on Trulia while I explain that it’s not for sale. It’s OK to look online for homes, but it’s not OK to rely on it.
Bottom line, the internet is absolutely, positively, indubitably and without question no substitute for education, training and experience. I hear agents yapping that Trulia and Zillow will replace them. Silly wabbits. The internet can’t replace an experienced Sacramento real estate agent.
Lipitor, First Class Meals in Flight and Saving Whales
It’s hard to say which was worse news yesterday, that the airlines will no longer serve meals in first class or that my cholesterol level shot back up since I stopped taking a statin. Well, yeah, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, hey, there’s the whole Gaza thing and Ebola concerns and our severe drought going on, and this screwball Sacramento REALTOR has her knickers in a twist over the scarcity of meals in flight, especially in light of the fact she gets stainless utensils and not plastic, on top of enjoying TSA Pre-Check. Where’s the beef?
She should be happy her eyes open in the morning instead of yakking about her cholesterol level and no in-flight meals. The problem is I had set such high expectations when my last test results showed such a dramatic drop due to my new lifestyle diet. I have to say “lifestyle diet” so people don’t think I’ve switched to some fad like 16-ounce steaks smothered with sides of bacon. Fruits, vegetables, lean meats, reduced sugar, whole grain, healthful stuff. It dropped my cholesterol dramatically but it was by accident.
I was hopeful that I could stop taking a statin to reduce cholesterol but no such luck. Without a statin, my cholesterol level jumped to a dangerous height and more than doubled. Ah, the joys of being over 60. Yet, still, there is a silver lining of such in that Lipitor is available at a reasonable price because its patent protection expired, and I can switch back to Lipitor instead of taking a generic.
Since 1997, Lipitor has earned Pfizer $81 billion, making it the best selling prescription drug in history. My doctor prefers Lipitor, says it’s the better cholesterol medication for me but because of its patent, I could not afford to buy it. This is America. All we had to do was try not to die while we waited for the patent to expire.
My positive outlook doesn’t do a thing about the flight meals, though. It’s American Airlines that is starting this but you know how that goes. All of the airlines will follow suit soon enough. It’s bad enough that they made coach class so unbearably uncomfortable that passengers would rather crawl naked through broken glass. I suppose the best way to fly is to be sedated. Once on-board, get an injection, have your hands tied and be hung from the ceiling like a pig dripping blood at a meat processing plant; simply go to sleep until the plane lands at your destination.
Think of all the money the airlines will save. American companies are in big trouble today because they are not making enough profit. Some are setting up domiciles overseas to avoid taxes. We also have to pay some of them just to do the right thing, like the cargo and freight shipping companies who operate off the coast of Santa Barbara. The government is now paying 6 global shipping companies $2,500 a pop for each ship that slows down and tries to not run over a whale. Saving the whales should not mean we have to bribe corporations but it does. These are probably the same types of people whose parents had to pay Johnny not to whomp his sister.
The whale-saving speed reduction program is expected to reduce emissions of smog-forming nitrogen oxides and help to protect the lives of our ocean mammals, which is hard to argue with. On the other hand, the hand with the sticky fingers that hasn’t been washed for a while, we’ve subsidized the airlines for years, and we still can’t seem to save that industry. Not even for beef tenderloin with a side of asparagus and a limoncello raspberry torte.
Where to Find Good Deals on Foreclosures in Sacramento
Just what is the deal with all of those Sacramento foreclosure listings potential buyers find online and get all excited about? Man, you’ve got your auction houses, trustee sales, preforeclosures, short sales, bank-owned homes, HUD homes, the list goes on, and it’s enough to make a poor buyer’s head spin. Let’s not even talk about Property Radar because that’s way too confusing for even licensed real estate agents to navigate much less a poor first-time home buyer, but talk about it I suppose we must.
For starters, you can pretty much discount at least 90% of the stuff you find posted online, unless it is posted on a reputable website in which all of the information on that website is screened for accuracy such as MetroList — but even the public can’t access all of the up-to-minute information available from MetroList like a real estate agent can. We pay big bucks for dues to these businesses for a reason. They have a monopoly.
The preforeclosures that look like listings are typically not for sale. Some buyers spot preforeclosure homes on a website like Zillow, which buys a feed from third-party vendors that downloads listings of homeowners in default. It generally means a homeowner is behind in making payments. A preforeclosure does not mean the home is for sale or will ever be for sale, nor does it mean anybody has the right to start poking around the property, looking in the windows, unless they want to get shot for trespassing.
A short sale listing could be for sale or it could be a contingent short sale or a pending short lender approval status, in the latter cases it means somebody else beat ya to the punch and has already written an offer that the seller accepted. Some short sale status information, especially those advertised in MetroList, are very confusing and laypeople can’t figure out whether they are for sale or not.
If you plan to bid on a trustee’s sale, you’ve got to figure out if the minimum bid is reasonable or the opening bid is unreasonable. If it is unreasonably high, it means the bank doesn’t want anybody to bid on it and prefers to take the home in foreclosure because the bank might make more money to foreclose than to sell at market. If it is reasonable, then you better be prepared to bid with the courthouse steps’ sharks, those guys chewing toothpicks and sticking unlit cigarettes behind their ears. They know what they’re doing; you don’t. Plus, you’ll needs lots of cash. No financing.
There are always auction websites such as auction.com where you can go to buy auction homes online, finance those homes, and you can name an agent to represent you. Be careful of shill bids and reserve pricing, figure out incrementals, and know whether you’re bidding on a short sale, foreclosures in Sacramento or a flipper.
If you like, you can look at those overpriced homes HUD lists online at Homepath, where there is no appraisal because the home probably won’t appraise at that price. The government doesn’t care if you’re upside-down the day you buy.
Or you can just cut to the chase and talk to your Sacramento real estate agent and ask a professional to find you a good deal. But bear in mind we have very little inventory and stiff competition for the well priced stuff. Maybe your best bet is just to try to buy a home? Not everybody needs to get a smokin’ deal to do well. Those searching for smokin’ deals often end up with nothing but black hands and shredded beliefs based on getting something for free.
Buying a Fixer Home in Elk Grove Presents Opportunity
As long as that fixer home in Elk Grove has not lost its integrity, I would consider buying it, providing the price was right. Many people would agree with this premise — I should more clearly define “many people” as the people who don’t mind doing repairs or fixing up homes. Because not every buyer wants to buy a home if it presents a few challenges. As with life, I suspect most don’t enjoy challenges. They would prefer a challenge-free life, a marshmallow life.
On the other hand, I love challenges because for me it’s a very clear set of purpose. After I study what’s presented, I can envision the conclusion, the outcome, the goal; it’s crystal clear. Take home improvement projects, for example. I love to remodel homes and turn them into pieces of artwork, and I’m just about done with my own home so you know what that means. It means I need to work on somebody else’s home because my husband is not yet ready to move.
I’m too busy, though. Which means my improvement urges are suppressed. I sell real estate in a 4-county area in Sacramento, and that career keeps me plenty busy working with clients. When I spot a fixer home that is begging for work, I can’t help but feel pulled toward it. It’s a sickness of sorts. Like my dead ex-husband who liked to start new companies always had a problem driving past a “for lease” sign because it called to him to rent the space, remodel it and open a business. See what I mean? Stupid. You catch that home improvement bug, and you yearn to tackle new projects; like a chocolate craving, you can’t help it.
This Elk Grove agent has listed a home in Elk Grove that is crying out for such a project. It’s a short sale, but it’s pretty much a guaranteed short sale for reasons I can’t go into. Trust that if you write an offer, it will close. There is a little bit of dry rot, it needs a new roof (approx $10,000), I would replace the carpeting (because it’s stretched, dirty and an icky color), and the seller says the toilet upstairs needs a new seal and had leaked, which is why the water is turned off.
This home is priced roughly $70,000 below its fixed-up market value according to the 1/2 mile comps for a 3 bedroom, 3 bath, over 2100 square feet in Foulk’s Ranch. But the flippers nowadays seem to have higher profit margins, they want steeper discounts, which a short sale won’t necessarily offer. Some don’t seem to understand that banks aren’t figuring in the flipper’s profit margin when determining value on those BPOs. At $255,000, it’s a great deal for an owner occupant, though, especially a first-time home buyer.
Slap on a new roof through an energy-efficient mortgage, perhaps fix the few spots of dry rot to get a mortgage, and deal with the rest of the stuff later. Even a 203K loan would suffice and handle all the repairs. But many homebuyers want turn-key projects, and don’t care about the quality of the work. I’ve always figured I’d rather have the home fixed up according to my own standards and not those of some guy out to make a fast buck, but that’s me, and I’m not normal. Remember, I love home improvement projects.
So, here’s the deal. Either buy the home today, do your own repairs the right way and pocket the leftover equity, or buy it later from a flipper and pay a premium for the opportunity.
Check out 7113 Ballygar Way, Elk Grove, CA 95624, offered by your Elk Grove agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, Lyon Real Estate, 916.233.6759.
