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Elizabeth Weintraub
Winning the Cat Box Wars is Like Closing a Difficult Short Sale
Getting my cats to switch over to the Breeze litter box system is sort of like getting a short sale — with all of its moving and opposing parts — to close escrow. It becomes a matter sometimes of who will be last person standing at the OK Corral — who has the most staying power. Who will emerge the victor — will it be the 3 cats who have always used litter and are not exactly known for changing their preferences? Or, will it be me, the caretaker, who has to put up with a few extremely stinky cat boxes?
The way the Breeze switchover works is you have to stop cleaning the cats’ existing litter boxes and wait for your cats’ cleanliness instincts to kick in. The idea is when they no longer have a clean cat box, they will embrace the Breeze litter box. When that happens, you can remove the stinky old cat box and they should continue to use the new Breeze litter box. So, who has the most stamina? Me or the cats?
I understand stamina and perseverance. I am a real estate agent in Sacramento with extensive experience in closing short sales. Further, I have sold more than $65 million in short sales, according to the January 2014 Trendgraphix report, which is more than other real estate agent over a 7-county area. When I say that not every short sale is a slam dunk, thank you, ma’am, you better believe it.
A short sale is closing next week that had been denied 3 or 4 times — I can’t recall. I’ve been working on it for more than a year. The buyer has been waiting all of this time, very patiently. When the nearly impossible happened and we received the short sale approval letter from the first lender, we still had a battle to settle with the second, which involved more negotiation with the first lender. In the end, both lenders finally agreed to close. Each gave a little bit to make it work.
But bottom line, the agents and the buyers and the sellers all clung to the hope it would close. We didn’t lie down in the street and moan: Oh, shoot me now and put me out of my misery. And that’s why I think I will win the cat box wars. Plus, I found evidence of usage this morning, which is cause to celebrate. Oh, how a little poop excites a weary warrior!
Selling a Short Sale to a Person You Know Could be Short Sale Fraud
A potential short sale seller in West Sacramento called a few days to ask questions about selling her home to a relative. Friends told her she could sell the home to a Living Trust, which her son controls, and then she wouldn’t really be selling the home to a relative — what bunk. This type of short sale transaction could very well violate an arms-length agreement. I can’t believe any lawyer would suggest that idea, but it’s possible because lawyers are not infallible. They make mistakes. Plus, they can then charge a client even more money to build a defense. Pretty good racket. Just think: Better call Saul.
This seller said she read in some of my blogs that it’s not a good idea to try to pull the wool over the lender’s eyes because it can come back to bite you. Hard. Right on the butt. I realize people get emotional about their homes and want the real estate to stay in the family, but if you’re doing a short sale in which you have to sign an arms length agreement, it’s not worth the consequences. The lender could say it’s mortgage fraud and reverse the seller’s release of personal liability, not to mention, prosecute everybody involved.
If you want to read about what recently happened to a seller and his real estate agent regarding short sale mortgage fraud, you should read this article in the Modesto Bee. There were so many alleged wrong doings, it made my head spin. The federal prosecutors say the agent and seller conspired. Here are some of the allegations:
- The agent wrote the short sale hardship letter for the seller.
- The hardship letter misrepresented the seller’s ability to make the mortgage payments.
- The seller and agent made false statements about the seller’s assets.
- The agent and seller misrepresented knowing the buyer.
- The seller sold to the buyer, which was the listing agent’s son, as a straw buyer.
- The seller gave the buyer the money to purchase the home in exchange for the buyer giving it back to the seller.
The buyer’s agent also gave the listing agent 75% of the buyer’s agent commission, which makes me wonder — what about the buyer’s agent in all of this? Is that agent’s broker liable? What about the listing agent’s son? Sounds like a group effort.
At this point, the seller apparently has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. If the agent is convicted, she could face 30 years in jail plus a $1 million fine. This might be a good time for the agent to watch the Netflex series Orange is the New Black.
Before you judge that listing agent too harshly, consider the fact that it’s possible she doesn’t really sell much real estate and just happens to hold a real estate license, like about 80% of the agents out there. It explains why she might not know any better but it doesn’t relieve her from responsibility to have known.
Did You Forget to Sell Your Home in Sacramento?
Did you forget to sell a house in Sacramento last year?
You might not think it’s possible for a homeowner to forget to sell a house in Sacramento but as a real estate agent, I can assure you that it happens. I often joke that if some agent just followed me around and picked up the real estate business I leave lying on the side of the road, they, too, could be a top producer. My biggest drawback is I don’t continue to ask sellers if they are ready to sell. I don’t want to insult their intelligence. But I also realize that sellers sometimes forget which agent they have called, much to my dismay.
It’s completely arrogant to assume that a seller will think only of calling this Sacramento real estate agent when she’s ready to sell. I mean, many do and wouldn’t dream of hiring any other agent because they believe I am the best Sacramento real estate agent for them, but people are different from each other — what one person does, another does the opposite. Not to mention, they have other things going on their lives than simply concentrating on selling a home. They have children, families, vacations, illnesses, financial complexities, career demands, political distractions, community involvement — complications to everyday life that often take precedence.
From now on, my plan for 2014 is to not let any business slip through the cracks. I will politely stay in touch until the cows come home or sellers tell me they no longer have any interest in selling a home.
Sellers don’t always use analytical criteria when hiring an agent. They sometimes believe by mistake that all agents are the same, so hiring the guy across the street or their Uncle Joe, doesn’t make any difference, when it can make ALL the difference in the world. They don’t know that the top 10% of agents sell 90% of all the homes in Sacramento or how to find that top 10% or even why it makes a difference.
And whose fault is that, that they don’t know? Fortunately, I know the answer to that question, and my focus in 2014 is to answer it for clients. If you’re getting ready to sell your home in Sacramento, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Here is an Odor Free Litter Box Cats Actually Use
Jackson can make his own litter box.
Our cats are in for a real treat or, as my husband calls it, a true motivation for them to take a crap on the kitchen table. While I was in Serrano last week checking out a home a seller at the last minute now may or may not want to put on the market, I met a charming tenant and his equally captivating two cats. The cats use a different kind of litter box system than I’ve been exposed to, and unless you see it in action, you might not believe that it works.
It’s called Breeze. Have you heard of it? It’s an odor free litter box. No tracking of dust or clay, either.
The tenant showed me the litter boxes, the pellets and a special pad that lines the bottom tray. The pellets are made out of something foreign but they call it a natural mineral. The deal is you fill the box with the pellets and change the pad once a week by sliding out the tray and removing the pad. I’m a little unclear as to how the pad actually leaves the tray. It’s not something I’d want to pluck with my bare fingers, and I’m not sure if one could try to dump it into a garbage bag without perhaps leaking liquid in an undesirable place such as on my shoes, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
This odor free litter box system is made by Tidy Cat, which apparently is owned by Purina. My very first real job, because waitressing doesn’t count, was working as a secretary at Checkerboard Grain, a division of Ralston Purina, on the 4th floor of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. They gave me the job because I answered the question of why do you want to work at Purina with: “My cats like Tender Vittles.” I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Ralston Purina. So, I thought I’d give the Breeze litterbox system a try.
This guy in Serrano — his house was odorless. There was no cat litter tracking dust anywhere. I cannot imagine a world without cat litter sprinklers on the floor, but I’d sure like to give it a try.
I did not buy enough boxes to properly make the transition, so I ordered two more systems from Petsmart with free shipping. You can’t just get one odor free litter box and see how it goes, like maybe you would with a first husband. You’ve got to make a real commitment. However, they are on sale, only $29.99, and you get the litterbox, pellets and four pads. Replacement pads are $1.50 each. I filled the first and only box that I have so far with the pellets. First thing our little kitten Tessa did was try to eat the pellets. She could not believe her good fortune: a smorgasbord of pellets laid out in a huge trough. None of the cats has yet to use the box, but the trick is to stop cleaning their existing boxes so they will be forced to use the pellets.
You can see this will be delightful for a few days. I’ll let you know how it progresses. Or, as my husband says, another fine mess you got us into. If this actually pans out, I will recommend Breeze to all of my clients when it comes time to put their cat-occupied homes on the market. Because selling a home where pets live can be tricky. The only downside is I can see myself in a back alley trading bitcoins for pellets when Breeze stops manufacturing them.
If You Aren’t Ready to Buy a Home in Sacramento
Don’t be afraid to tell a real estate agent why you are calling.
When a person calls a Sacramento real estate agent about buying a home, there are basically two things that agent wants to hear. Either the person is ready to buy a home in Sacramento or the person is not ready to buy a home. Either one is OK. We are not answering a phone solely to make a sale and push a buyer into making a decision that perhaps a buyer is not yet ready to make. But it’s helpful for us to know what the buyer hopes to accomplish by talking with us.
We are not standing behind a desk at an office, monitoring a candy dish for those who walk in. Most of the time, when a buyer calls a real estate agent, we are busy selling real estate. We are with a client showing homes, writing purchase contracts, shooting photographs, driving out the W X Freeway on our way to a listing appointment. We could also be walking the dog, comparing cold cuts at Taylor’s Market or picking up our car from Midtown Autoworks after an oil change.
We don’t work retail. We work from our cellphones.
I’m one of those agents who tries to answer her phone, which seems to blow away many callers. I have to admit that, yes, they have reached a real live person, which astonishes them. If a buyer wants to buy a home in Sacramento, I am ready to help. But if it’s so surprising that an agent would answer her phone, when buyers do reach voice mail and leave a message, why don’t these same buyers answer their phones or return the calls agents leave for them?
Probably because they are not yet ready to buy. Many are “just looking.” Just looking seems to be a phrase for describing curiosity. Technology makes it easy to contact a Sacramento real estate agent. If a buyer is simply curious about a sales price or some other aspect of a home she has just driven by, it’s OK to say so when calling. Just say: I am not ready to buy a home in Sacramento.
She can also search the web from her Smartphone and get the answer just like she finds out which is the top downloaded song from iTunes and the present weight of Kardashian’s beehive butt.
Because so many callers forget or are afraid to mention that they are not really buyers, this becomes the reason many agents don’t answer their cellphones and send all unknown calls to voicemail. But I can’t help myself, when my phone rings, I tend to answer it.
