Email Elizabeth
Elizabeth Weintraub
When Home Sellers Hire the Second Listing Agent
In my real estate business, which covers the Sacramento Valley over four counties, it seems more and more sellers are calling me to ask why their real estate agent can’t sell their home and asking me to be the second listing agent. In fairness to my fellow real estate agents in Sacramento, some of those situations are not always the first agent’s fault. Or, it could be simply a personality clash between the parties. Whatever the reason, the fact remains I pick up a good number of listings and sell them when other agents cannot. It goes in cycles but this year that number seems to be much greater.
Fortunately, as the second listing agent, I do sell those listings. And I sell those homes at top dollar; it’s not like I list them for less than the previous sales price, because usually the price stays the same. What I look for is what are the challenges to selling the listing. All listings contain some kind of challenge and there are no slam dunks in this business. It’s easy to pick out the attractive selling points but it’s much more difficult to address the challenges, isolate the drawbacks and make those bad things appear insignificant. But that’s a specialty developed through decades of experience, I guess. It’s why my homes for sale in Sacramento tend to sell for more money –well, that, and I tend to play well with others.
I just closed a home on Friday that had previously been listed by another real estate agent for 5 months without selling. The first thing I do is scrutinize what the other agent has done and then, as the second listing agent, I don’t do those things. That’s an oversimplification but my goal is not to duplicate failure. Looking up the first agent’s listings, it was clear that most of that agent’s inventory is languishing on the market for an extremely long period of time. You’d expect to see long days on market for a short sale but not in a bunch of equity listings.
I studied what I did not like about the photographs and marketing comments and eliminated those negatives from my marketing strategy. Further, the previous agent did not hold open houses. Some mega real estate companies do not support agent open houses. Lyon Real Estate, where I work, is a big proponent of open houses. It’s true that most buyers don’t buy directly from an open house but the publicity does help to sell that home. Lyon Real Estate is the market leader in the Sacramento Valley.
My charming group of dedicated real estate agents on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team worked diligently with me to sell that home. I kept in constant communication with the seller, advising her of our efforts. I’m happy to report that the home sold. For all cash. There was no appraisal to contend with, so the seller got exactly the price she wanted — which was excellent because the comparable sales were few. The home is situated on a busy street but I worked around it. It was also overbuilt in comparison to other homes in the neighborhood, but I worked around it.
Most of my clients call me first, thank goodness. But it’s OK if I am the second listing agent. It’s not that difficult to cancel a listing contract. If your home hasn’t sold and you’re shopping around for a new Sacramento real estate agent, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. I don’t mind being the second listing agent. I will get the job done for you.
The Sacramento Short Sale Closing Against the Odds
This was the Sacramento short sale that closed against the odds. If it wasn’t for the fact that I knew the buyer’s agent and had faith in her abilities, this particular short sale closing might never have happened. It’s almost as though we “willed it” to a conclusion, so closing occurred. Of course, having years of experience in closing hundreds of short sales helps — there is no denying that fact — but this particular short sale presented so many unique challenges. The sellers were very cooperative, too, which made the horribleness bearable.
The problem with this particular Sacramento short sale was not the fact there were two loans between Bank of America and Green Tree. I negotiate many short sales with two loans. Moreover, Green Tree is not a problem for me like it seems to be for other agents. After years of hammering, I’ve got the process down pat and know intimately how Green Tree operates. It also wasn’t the fact that there was a SMUD lien filed against the property. I know what to do with those, too. It was the condition of the home.
This is where many Sacramento short sale agents throw in the towel.
Half of the home was remodeled and the other half was not. Further, it needed a new roof because the existing roof was beyond its useful life. Did I mention the pest work? The conundrum: The seller is not responsible for the repairs. Buyers don’t want to do any work and they don’t have any money anyway. Toss into that mix the fact the bank wanted top dollar for this home — the same sales price as for a home in excellent condition — and couple that nonsense with there is really no arguing with the bank.
Unless there is strong argument, which is rare. Arguing with a short sale bank is usually a wasted effort because the banks just don’t care. The value banks typically want rarely reflect the BPO as much as it does the bottom-line net the bank could obtain through other financial options. The bank insisted on a crazy high list price, which I eventually convinced them to reduce. The buyers offered an even lower price, but they were willing to obtain an energy efficient mortgage (which involves a little known credit) and pay for other repairs.
I trusted the buyer’s agent to perform. This is where industry experience and networking pays off. We had the perfect match in this transaction. I had the sellers who needed to sell and she had the buyers who needed to buy. Challenges be damned.
The buyers didn’t have a lot of money, and we needed to rely on first-time home buyer loans and repair loans to help them to buy this house. Their agent is a pro at navigating the waters for first-time home buyers. Getting the approval from the bank for this Sacramento short sale was the first step. The second step was renegotiation with the bank. Yes, I know this goes against all that I preach about short sales and buying the home in AS IS condition without any further renegotiations but this was a special case. It wasn’t motivated by financial gain or greed.
I developed a strategy and presented a compelling case. We obtained the price reduction. The buyers got the home of their dreams. OK, maybe it’s not the home of their dreams right now, but it will be after the new roof is installed, the sewer lines are fixed, the pest work is completed and they eventually remodel the other half of the home. Sometimes, you’ve just got to have faith in the experience of your real estate agents to pull off what seems like an impossible transaction.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention. The sellers walked out of this with about $7,500 in cash from the bank. This was a sweet short sale, despite the additional work.
The Undead No-Suicide Brother in Minneapolis
For all of my readers who often skim through paragraphs of my Sacramento real estate blog, let me start by clarifying that my brother is undead and did not die by suicide. He may be dying from stage 4 cancer, which was a bit of a shock to me, but he is still alive. The strange thing is I was thinking about him a few days ago while I was out in our 106-degree heat, riding my bicycle around William Land Park and listening to Gram Parsons / Emmy Lou through my Bluebuds. We were pretty inseparable as kids — a year apart. People used to think we were twins.
But then as things sometimes go in families, we drifted apart. It wasn’t a slow separation, my brother just decided at some point during his marriage that he no longer wanted to associate with his parent’s side of the family. Nobody knows why. We exhausted efforts to turn him around. It’s one of those things that one finally accepts that cannot be changed.
Which goes to show it wasn’t a completely odd reaction from me after a pair of detectives appeared yesterday morning on my sister’s doorstep in Minneapolis. I believe they were from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s department. The police told my sister our brother is dead. Committed suicide. Said he jumped off the Ford Bridge over the Mississippi. Since the river divides Minneapolis from Saint Paul, the body had drifted to the Saint Paul side, which was why Ramsey County health authorities or the Saint Paul Police department were also involved in the investigation.
My sister was sobbing. I was in shock. My brother committed suicide? Nobody in our family died by suicide. Although, everybody’s family is dysfunctional in some way.
Now, the Ford Bridge is by 46th Street, which runs near my brother’s home in south Minneapolis. It was conceivable. The detectives said he left his bike and guitar on the bridge. I could see that. My husband found a website set up for donations to help with my brother’s medical bills, but the funding had been cut off a few weeks ago. That’s how we found out he was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. A phone number at the bottom belonged to a woman. I called, she answered; I mentioned that she had my maiden name so we were probably related.
The woman appeared a bit annoyed and impatient. I tried to be calm and sensitive. Turns out she is my brother’s son’s wife. I asked if she was sitting down because I didn’t know if she was driving or what. I did not correct her, btw, when she said my brother has 4 sisters, which he does not. I quietly shared the news I had received about his death. She choked. Then hammered me for details. Promised to call me back after she spoke to her mother-in-law. But she never called. She must have found out immediately after my call that my brother was undead, but she didn’t tell me.
Later in the day, my sister called to say she had finally reached my sister-in-law and, surprise, my brother was sitting right there. Undead. He was now the no-suicide brother. The police had mixed him up with some other bridge jumper. How bizarre is that? You can’t trust the police when they show up on your doorstep to deliver the news a relative has died? All that emotional upheaval. Of course, it doesn’t change the fact my brother is still dying, probably very soon.
My sister asked if she could see our brother. It doesn’t look like that will happen.
It seemed appropriate to watch another episode of Fargo, the TV series. Just wait until his family starts searching online for an Affidavit of Death.
Selling a Home With a PITA Tenant in Sacramento
A reasonable person would conclude that it’s kinda stupid to turn into a PITA tenant when your landlord is selling your home and you need a future reference, but the odds of running into a reasonable person under these circumstances is kinda slim. I’ve met some wonderfully cooperative tenants in my real estate career but those were primarily the guys I plied with alcohol. There were also a few tenants I didn’t have to bribe, who were kind, considerate and all around super nice people but somebody has probably killed them by now or they moved to Alaska.
I encountered a PITA tenant recently in Fair Oaks. I called to make an appointment to view the home and take photographs because the seller is hiring me to sell his home. It was previously in MLS but did not sell for a variety of reasons, one of which I suspect involved tenant sabotage. I say this because when I called, the tenant was immediately defensive and combative. She argued intensely with me about the photographs, which are owned by the previous agent. She felt they were beautiful — featuring a hamster cage in the middle of the living room floor — and rattled on about how she knows what good real estate photographs are supposed to look like. She carried on like she shot them herself, and maybe she did.
After much complaining by the tenant, I was able to set an appointment for next week. Due to the tenant’s combativeness — to be on the safe side and comply with CA Civil Code 1954a, which gives sellers or their agents the right to show a property for sale with 24 hours notice — I prepared a written Notice of Entry. However, the tenant turned into a screaming lunatic when presented with the document. She has no way to legally refuse entry but my California real estate license does not include going into the home packing heat. Unfortunately, that seller, with a balloon payment looming, now can’t sell his home due to the tenant. The poor guy will probably be forced into short sale territory after the PITA tenant eventually vacates.
I have another home in Lincoln coming up for sale next week. We’ve been trying for several months to list the home for sale but the tenant has refused to cooperate. These tenants are doctors, too. Just goes to show that medical physicians are not exempt from being a PITA tenant. They don’t care about receiving a good recommendation because they are closing a home and no longer need to rent. Their attitude is screw the landlord. They don’t care. Sue ’em. They can afford a judgment.
Sugar and honey doesn’t always work.
That’s the thing about being a busy Sacramento real estate agent. We get an up-close and personal view of the underbelly of society: the PITA tenants. The best way to sell a tenant-occupied home in Sacramento is when it is vacant. Sacramento homes for sale that are vacant are a) easier to show b) show better, and c) they also tend to bring top dollar, which often more than makes up for the vacancy factor.
The Best Place to Retire
I am having a really hard time deciding the best place to retire, where I want to go to die, because let’s face it, the places where people go to retire are usually the places where they stay until they kick the bucket. When you reach a certain age, like 70 or 80, say, you’re not likely to move around again, unless maybe you’re that poor guy Casey Kasem. I mean, what if I choose the wrong place and I hate it, and I can’t leave? What if there is a better place to choose, and I didn’t go there? My life has not been comprised of permanent decisions.
My girlfriend who works as a professional clown in Austin picked her place to die a long time ago. I reminded her of that over the weekend. She’s not ever moving again, I pointed out. She will die where she lives in Texas. Maybe not right there on her 10 acres of land, but that will be her home when the end comes. I’m sure she probably didn’t think about her last days on earth when she initially bought her home, but that’s how it’s working out for her. She likes living in the country. She’s happy at home, with her garden, pets and a pool to jump into during those hot summer days in Texas.
She’s so lucky.
I, on the other hand, have a really hard time making permanent decisions. For a long time when I was younger, I was dearly frightened of coloring my hair because it was a permanent color solution. If I had known you could strip color and start over, I would have begun coloring my hair much earlier. The word permanent means forever, and I can’t wrap my brain around that notion. Maybe that’s why I’ve been married 5 times.
I like knowing I have options. If something doesn’t work out, I have the power to change it. There are no bad decisions, just detours.
It’s why I don’t sport a tattoo. Other than the fact I am a big wuss when it comes to pain. You want to operate on me in some sort of fashion, you better make sure I am sedated. A cortisone shot in the back? I get put out. Dental work? Sound asleep. Besides, I don’t trust the tattoo guys. I’d wake up to find the state of Alaska tattooed on my back instead of a cute butterfly on my wrist. And I can’t get a butterfly because a seahorse on my ankle might be cuter. I can’t make up my mind. Because it can’t be changed later. No really, there’s always a scar. It’s permanent.
I’ve never had any kids because it’s a permanent commitment. You can’t disown a kid or toss them out into the back yard to fend for themselves. Hey, you guys, go eat some grass. They scream and make a fuss when they are babies, and when they grow up, they move back home. No, thanks. You always have to remember their birthdays, and then they have kids. Their kids have kids. It’s a never-ending cycle, and it all started with you making that decision to have kids. Not me.
But I have no problem telling other people what to do. Nope, see that cliff over there? Jump off. No, don’t pinch your nose or look down, just run and leap. OK, one less person on the earth to worry about. And more time for me to spend wondering where in the world I want to go to die and why I can’t seem to face that choice. The best thing to do is not think about it and continue selling real estate in Sacramento. I have a long ways to go yet.
