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Elizabeth Weintraub
When It is Time to Downsize Your Home in Sacramento
Home sellers nearing retirement age across the country will soon get a chance to hear this Sacramento REALTOR‘s personal views about downsizing, i.e. moving into smaller quarters. Of course, you won’t hear all of it, like you would in my blog, because most reporters don’t send interview subjects a draft for approval prior to publishing — because that would not be called journalism — unless maybe they were writing for an online newspaper or a national magazine pandering to a subscriber base.
Although this particular reporter did sent me a draft of his article for approval and asked a few more questions he forgot to cover. He mentioned that in his review, it seemed his article wasn’t quite balanced enough and he wanted to cover a few more points about the downside to downsizing and discuss why a person might not want to downsize. He could not print the additional comments I sent in their entirety because his editor would most likely edit them, he explained. His reasoning was their readership has about $35,000 tucked away for retirement, and he didn’t want to offend their readers.
I can see that. I can see that they have far more problems than my comments about a mobile home if all they have is $35,000 in the bank. What I said was not everybody needs to consider downsizing: People who are already living that dream, even if it’s living in a broken-down old tin-roof mobile home on the side of a river bank, should stay put. If you’re happy catching catfish off that dock, who’s to say you need to move? But apparently the aforementioned comments, which I pulled outta thin air, were too close to home, and will never see the light of day except for here.
This is what I get for watching that last episode of HBO’s True Detective — with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey down in Louisiana.
For others, those who can see the future and want to change that vision, downsizing is the way to go. When I retire, I plan to downsize as well. I don’t need all that space I have now. Personally, I believe most people have too much crap and need to get rid of it, and downsizing gives you a reason to dump much of it.
A potential seller in West Sacramento called a few days ago to talk about her own downsizing situation and that of her mother, who lives in Greenhaven. She wants her mother to move and her mother wants to stay put. Turns out her mom is 79 and has lived in that home for more than 3 decades. You know what? She ain’t moving. See, now I saved this daughter all of that grief of pleading and begging. Ain’t gonna happen.
New Home Listings in Roseville, Greenhaven, Fair Oaks
When I woke up to rain in Sacramento this morning, my first thought was how excited I am to work on preparing my new home listings for this month, but my second thought was April showers bring May flowers — that ditty has little to do with anything because it’s still only March and because we already have flowers. By the time April rolls around, I have summer fever. I also wish we had enough rain to end the drought, but it looks like we are in a for a long struggle and need to practice continual water conservation.
A report in the Sacramento Bee revealed most of the water consumption in the Sacramento area is in Granite Bay as residents in Granite Bay use twice as much water over Sacramento residents. Larger lots, more grass, mostly. My new listings for this month are not located in Granite Bay, although I do sell homes in Placer County. These are homes in Fair Oaks, Greenhaven and Roseville, all areas I know very well. When you sell homes all over Sacramento like I do, it’s nice to be able to pick and choose which homes I want to sell and which sellers I want to represent.
While I’m selecting my new projects, homeowners are also selecting the agent they want to work with, and goodness knows, they have a huge selection from which to choose. A seller shared with me last week that one of the reasons she chose to hire Elizabeth Weintraub over the other agents she interviewed was because I did not talk AT her; I talked with her. Of course I talked with her, because that’s how I talk. Plus, I need to get to know my sellers on a personal level so I can best communicate and deliver the type of service they want. Make them not just happy but ecstatic. You can’t do that if you’re talking AT people.
If you are looking for a home in Greenhaven, Fair Oaks or Roseville, you will love this selection. First, they are all equity (traditional sales) homes, so you can close in 30 days. The home in Greenhaven sports gorgeous hardwood floors and an oversized lot, located in a pretty, tucked-away neighborhood, ready for immediate occupancy, under $300,000. The home in Fair Oaks boasts granite, is an updated and spacious single-level and offers country living in the city, priced under $400,000. The single-level home in Roseville features matted cherry cabinets throughout, granite counters, ceramic and marble floors, a popular model with a beautifully landscaped back yard, also priced under $400,000.
If you are a buyer working with the Elizabeth Weintraub Team, you’ll get first glimpse of these homes as they come on the market. All of our buyers tend to enjoy a bit of an edge in the Sacramento marketplace, and it’s not because they’re working with the smartest agents I know, but that certainly helps.
Finding Your Best Elk Grove Real Estate Agent Has Nothing to Do With Commission
When the first words out of a potential seller’s lips in Elk Grove are how much is your commission, I figure I’m talking with a person who doesn’t really understand the value of an excellent Elk Grove real estate agent — whose clients call her the best Elk Grove agent they’ve ever hired. In fact, it’s quite likely the individual believes all real estate agents are the same, which is too bad, and the person sees no value in paying an agent her worth because, down deep, they believe the agent is “worthless but necessary.” It’s an incredible insult, yet the caller sees it as shrewd negotiating and continues to try to kick the commission down a percentage point or two. These sellers are simply focusing on the wrong thing.
I always tell sellers that they can find a cheaper agent and an agent who will offer discounted and lesser services. Although all commissions are negotiable, I charge the same percentage I have always charged for the past 40 years. In exchange, they’ll get superior service, and my expertise will more than pay back more than my commission because they’ll probably get more for their home and enjoy a smooth escrow. I manage details, stay on top of my transactions and promptly communicate.
This is why I was not completely stunned when clients decided I deserved more than my commission, but I was stunned by their expression of gratitude. These were delightful sellers I met over FaceTime when I put a contractor’s box on their home and took them on a virtual tour in real time. They lived out of state. I helped them to prepare their home for sale, and gave them advice about what they needed to do to appeal to today’s Elk Grove home buyers.
Later, held numerous open houses, plastered the home everywhere online through extensive marketing, and followed up on every single showing. Some buyers who came through the open houses thought the home was priced too high — based on smaller homes in the neighborhood that sold for less. For some stupid reason, they wanted to pay the same price for a big home as for a small home. But I championed on and, sure enough, this was one of the few homes in Elk Grove that sold for more than list price.
The sellers sent me an unexpected Christmas gift from Nordstrom, an expensive perfume set. Last week, I received a bottle of Bollinger Cuvee Champagne. When we closed escrow on Friday, a Nordstrom gift box arrived, containing a certificate easily exchangeable for a pair of Jimmy Choos. Holy cow! When I thanked them profusely for such overwhelming generosity, they responded: “You really went above and beyond and felt put in effort on our behalf greater than we have seen from any other REALTOR. We felt that for you to simply get the same rewards as a REALTOR doing just what they needed to wasn’t appropriate.”
So don’t listen to this full-service Elk Grove agent substantiate her commission, listen to happy sellers. If you don’t feel this way about your agent, maybe you’re working with the wrong agent.
Selling a Sacramento Home as a Short Sale After Bankruptcy
There is only one way to sell an underwater home in Sacramento after a bankruptcy has been discharged and finally dismissed, and that method is through a short sale. Doing a short sale after bankruptcy is a greater challenge than doing a short sale before bankruptcy. A short sale after bankruptcy is not a slam dunk, like your lawyer might have promised (lawyers don’t sell homes nor typically negotiate short sales). Sometimes, people think these abandoned homes are great bargains, but generally the banks still insist on receiving market value, and market value is subjective — especially when the home sits in ruins as compared to the surrounding homes and the bank won’t take that condition into consideration when determining value.
See, that’s the thing. People erroneously believe that a bank cares about the condition of a home, and that belief is a foolish assumption. Yes, it makes logical sense that a bank would care, so I understand why you might have formed that assumption because to presume otherwise goes against all that is sane and objective, but let’s remember, we’re talking about our financial banking institutions in the United States. Let’s get real. Banks don’t care.
I closed yesterday another Sacramento home as a short sale after bankruptcy. Bankruptcy does not release the home from the seller’s name. That title and mortgage lien(s) remain. I’m not sure why homeowners sometimes do not understand that they still need to get rid of the house after bankruptcy is over, and that the house is generally not very desirable at that point. Squatters break in. Water leaks develop. Mold can happen. Stuff breaks. And it’s generally been vacant for 6 months to a couple of years, depending on how long the bankruptcy took, and lawyers don’t enjoy a reputation for fast service.
After a home has been discharged in a bankruptcy, the lenders cannot ask a seller for financial records such as bank statements, tax returns and payroll stubs. However, that did not stop Bank of America nor Green Tree from demanding those documents, even after I informed them they are quite possibly breaking federal law. Sometimes, you have to decide on which hill you want to die, and the sellers did not want to die on the paperwork hill, so they submitted the demanded paperwork in protest.
Service Link, representing Bank of America, managed to mangle the HUD 12 ways from Sunday. We submitted various adaptions and argued and argued until Service Link finally accepted the fact that certain customary expenses are seller-paid fees in a short sale transaction. You can’t really blame them because these third-party vendors work on short sales in many other states and customs vary, although it doesn’t explain why they operate unsupervised.
Later, Green Tree came back just prior to closing and insisted that the sellers sign a letter stating they do not have to submit their paperwork because this was a short sale after bankruptcy. Of course, by then it was water under the bridge, and I honestly don’t know how this company stays in business, apart from the Peter Principle that plagues many corporate entities. Oh, wait, I hear Green Tree is under investigation by the FTC.
Fortunately, I managed to sidestep a big fight with Green Tree on the payoff. That’s another thing people don’t understand after a bankruptcy, they think the banks will rollover because the liens are worthless. I’m telling ya the banks won’t. They fully realize the fresh start sellers still require the bank’s cooperation.
Then, several months into the short sale, Bank of America — as has been its policy lately with these underwater mortgages — elected to sell the mortgage to another company, in this case, Bayview. Just as Bank of America was ready to issue the approval, whammo, it forced us to start the process over with Bayview. Did I mention I only get paid once and I get paid the same whether it’s a short sale or a regular equity sale?
Bayview then conducted its own BPO and decided the price needed to be about $25,000 higher, which it may as well have offered to burn down the house, that demand made about as much sense. Part of the “price valuations” is they have often little to do with actual value and are more about how much the bank needs to net. This is akin to a seller telling me she needs to sell at $500,000 because she needs the cash when her home is worth $300,000. Her needs in that case are not relevant and completely unobtainable.
The demand for a higher price from Bayview happened right after thugs broke into the garage, and they also swiped the AC unit, including the lockbox off the front door, along with the front door handle. There was no compensation to the buyer for that, of course, and that was a delicate situation to overcome.
The good news is we closed escrow yesterday, about 6 months after I listed this home. This was actually a fairly fast short sale after a bankruptcy. The types of problems I’ve shared with you concerning bankruptcy and short sales are very common as well. If you need an agent to sell your home after a bankruptcy, you should call your Sacramento short sale agent Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759. There is no reason to list your home until the bankruptcy has been fully completed. An order to discharge does not count; you need the case closed.
What is the Problem With 2014 Sacramento Short Sales?
The problems with Sacramento short sales in years past used to lie with the banks and the buyers, but those days are long gone. Buyers and short sale banks are not the source of our misery today. Most of the buyers who enter an agreement to buy a short sale are willing to wait it out and realize there are a few fees the bank might not authorize such as pest and home warranties and 100% of the escrow fee. They possess realistic expectations. The banks have invested money and effort into establishing entire short sale departments that mostly did not exist from 2006 to 2008. They’ve put systems and procedures in place, and are constantly tweaking their efficiency and effectiveness.
There are some banks that face little struggles now and then such as the Chase HELOC departments in Equator and the banks that try to satisfy regulations and cope with the fallout from the National Mortgage Settlement, yet cause months of delays due to ineptness, but for the most part, you can’t really blame the banks anymore when a short sale takes forever. OK, you can blame Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but even those guys are shaping up their systems. Rarely a day goes by when I don’t receive a timely email from somebody at Fannie Mae to say by golly they have received the BPO, and they’re still working on a pre-approved value. It’s better than a poke in the eye with a stick, even if it’s sorta meaningless after 2 weeks.
I’m not getting a lot of pushback and attitude from buyers either because they are educated now. They do their own homework online, they talk to their buyer’s agent, and they’re prepared to wait for short sale approval. They realize that when they go into an escrow in which the Best Sacramento Short Sale Agent is negotiating, that escrow is likely to close. I cannot remember the last short sale that did not close, and I’ve closed hundreds of them — more than any other real estate agent in a 7-county area since 2006.
The problems I’m seeing today do not stem from buyers nor the short sale banks. Nope. They cannot shoulder the blame anymore in today’s Sacramento short sale world. Instead, the problems tend to stem from the sellers themselves. There’s not always a full proof way to figure out which sellers deserve help and which don’t really give a crap. So, try not to blame the agent if the short sale goes south because the sellers messed it up. Most of the short sale agents I know are professionals who care deeply about their sellers and sometimes can inadvertently overlook their shortcomings.
Short sale agents need to be more vigilant, especially since short sales make up such a small portion of our market (about 10%) — short sales now appeal to smaller pools of buyers and will take longer to sell. Fact, Jack. My advice to fellow Sacramento short sale agents is try to make certain the effort you expend is for a seller who is willing to cooperate and see it through to the end. Otherwise, cut the losers loose. You owe it your own sanity, and you owe it to the buyers. You may represent the seller, but you still owe honesty and good faith dealings to the buyers.
