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Elizabeth Weintraub
How Badly Do You Want to See Everglades National Park?
“How badly do you want to see the Everglades?” the guard asked as my husband and I pulled into Everglades National Park at Shark Valley, Florida. In his hand, the guard stared at my Sapphire Preferred VISA. His eyes traveled to my driver’s license and back to mine. He asked again, batting those baby browns at me: “How badly do you want to see the Everglades?” My immediate thought was: Hey, my husband is sitting RIGHT IN FRONT of you. Right here. I was speechless. What kind of question was that? Who do you think is driving this Mustang? Look! I have a wedding ring on my finger.
I pulled my mind from the gutter.
When the National Park gate guard asked us a third time, I knew his question wasn’t directly specifically at me, even though it was. You look too young, says he. That’s because, as he readily pointed out, if we waited another year, we could get a lifetime pass for the $80 I had offered to spend for a one year National Park Pass. Turning 62 has its privileges, which I will sooner discover next summer. Not now.
The best way to see Everglades National Park is by tram. That way you can stop to see the wildlife without all the critters screaming for cover and hiding. Those airboats at tourist Everglade spots look inviting and are fun to ride, but they make so much noise that they pretty much scare away any kind of critter for miles around.
We shot photos of many alligators, tons of alligators, white ibis, anhinga, blue heron and even a praying mantis. I discovered the Everglades is not a swamp. It is a river. The Everglades is not a river of grass; it is a river of sedges. It moves 1/4 of a mile per day. It is a river 40 to 60 miles wide and more than 125 miles long. We also learned that the fastest an alligator can run is between 11 and 14 MPH, so when people tell you an alligator can run as fast as a racehorse, that’s laughable. But it doesn’t mean an alligator won’t attack if you put yourself in the position to be chomped.
They are also not green. If you spot a green alligator, it’s because the alligator has given up and is rotting. It is letting algae cover its body. Alligators look a lot like a piece of tire rubber that flew off a 16-wheeler semi and landed by the side of the road. Black. Or even gray. But not green. In fact, it’s very difficult to tell the difference between a piece of tire and an alligator when you’re speeding along the highway. Just trust me on this one.
Does Work Make You Sick?
Knock on wood, I asked my husband yesterday if he can remember the last time this real estate agent was sick. I mean really sick. In bed sick, moaning and groaning, unable or unwilling to get up. It seems that when I was the communications director for a Minnesota nonprofit, I managed to use up almost every sick day I had per year. Yet, now that I live in Sacramento selling real estate, I cannot recall the last time I didn’t feel well.
Oh, wait, perhaps it was after our Galapagos trip in 2005. We thought it would be fun to end the vacation with a trip to the jungle in the middle of Ecuador. Yeah, sticky, hot and buggy, with giant croaking frogs, screaming monkeys and pouring rain at 3 AM — kinda like Sacramento short sales, now that I pause to reflect. The water wasn’t as safe to drink as we were led to believe. I’ll spare you the details but let’s just say that giardiasis is very unpleasant.
But since I’ve been a Sacramento real estate agent, I haven’t been sick one single day. Have not spent one day for the past 11 years under-the-weather, so to speak. On the surface, you could probably conclude that’s because Sacramento real estate is so all-fired consuming that I don’t have time to be sick. People who hate their jobs are often ill. I love my job. So, that, and I suspect even more important is that I spend most of my productive work time in front of my computer and not in the company of little kids.
It’s the kids that get you sick. They are walking little germ-carrying time bombs. And they make everybody else around them sick as well. When I hear a client sniffle over the phone, I ask: Do you have kids? Yup, well, there ya go. The two ingredients for a healthful life: no kids and self employment.
We are in south Florida on vacation, and there are kids everywhere. It’s hard to get away from them. We are heading off to tour the Everglades today, so don’t be surprised if an alligator or two pops up in my blog along the way.
Before Remodeling Your Home
You probably don’t think to call an agent before remodeling a home, but maybe you should. Ah, we agents of a certain agent suffer from remodeling nostalgia overdose; it’s no wonder I have a hard time remembering what year it is. Much less the month and day. There is so much nostalgia going on that it’s like the 1960s all over again. OK, no smoke-filled rooms stuffed with stoners stumbling around toting bongs — which today would be water bottles — but you get the point. The clothes, the TV shows, the home furnishings, they all yell groovy, baby. Or maybe it just seems that way with Mad Men and Masters of Sex.
My husband is often eager to remind me that he was drooling in his crib during the period I talk about the early 1960s. He doesn’t see the era as special for that reason. I’ve got clients who absolutely adore “mid-century,” as in 50 to 60 years ago. Notwithstanding that mid-century homes, especially in Sacramento, are in high demand. In fact, homes of any character tend to sell faster and for more money than cookie-cutter boring homes. It’s like the difference between a 1950 Buick and a 2013 Camry. Style, curves, angles, real steel, heavy metal construction versus cheap plastic boxes.
The problem comes about because it seems like it’s in our DNA to want to remodel. To modernize. OK, maybe I’m just talking about myself. But when I think back over homes I have torn apart and remodeled, I cringe. I shouldn’t have done it. I can’t believe, for example, that I hung hunter green wallpaper and installed hunter green ceramic tile in an Eden Prairie, Minnesota, split-level home. I am very sorry that I installed white cabinetry with oak trim in a Cape Cod by Lake Nokomis in South Minneapolis. I apologize profusely today for the Pergo floor in the Victorian in the Whittier neighborhood.
Thank goodness I came to my senses in Sacramento.
But at least I can say I never ripped out 1940s cabinetry and replaced it with tasteless cherrywood and granite counters. Some homes deserve better. Historic homes deserve to be preserved and admired. Restored, if possible. Not stripped of all character, detail and design to try to conform to what we might call modern standards. What we call modern doesn’t last very long. It’s really a trend. It’s not modern. There is a difference between the two.
So, before you raise that sledgehammer, ask yourself this question: Are you doing more harm than good? Maybe you should set down that sledgehammer and move away from the walls. Call a Sacramento real estate agent to ask if you’re damaging your home before you undertake any major home improvement project.
Think About Selling a Sacramento Home When Buying
One of the biggest fears sellers often harbor about selling a Sacramento home is what if it doesn’t sell? They have those fears because they are not in real estate. When you’re in real estate, like this Sacramento real estate agent, you know that anything will sell if the price is right. Even a flooded-out house with mold the size of basketballs will sell. And yes, I’ve sold a lot of those types of homes, too.
There are a variety of reasons why selling a Sacramento home might take longer than usual to sell, though. These are sometimes the reasons that some sellers don’t want to hear because they are reasons the sellers should have thought of before they bought a home. I often tell people that the time to think about selling a Sacramento home is when you buy a home.
Maybe it’s in a bad location. You know, location, location, location is what drives real estate. Maybe there’s something about it that other homes have and yours does not. I ask buyer’s agents who show my listings to give me buyer feedback. From feedback I hear about things we can rectify. If we can’t rectify those things, we can adjust the price to account for it.
It’s difficult to explain to a seller that she bought the wrong home or paid too much, but I do try to get that point across if it is true. It is often true. Especially in certain neighborhoods in Sacramento, it’s easy to buy the wrong type of home in the wrong location.
Or, we can wait for the buyer who is just like the seller of any other beautiful home in Elk Grove. Because the seller bought this home for a reason. That is most likely the same reason a new buyer will buy it. Nobody is that unique. A buyer will appear, and we will reel ’em in.
There is a buyer for every home in Sacramento. If this agent is listing and selling your home, you can count on it.
Tips For Canceling a Short Sale Offer in Sacramento
Some buyer’s agents do not know that when a buyer and a seller sign a purchase offer for a short sale listing, they have entered into a binding contract to buy a home. I don’t really know why agents often treat a short sale like the red-haired stepchild, but it’s a real transaction just like any other real estate transaction. If you sign a short sale offer, you’re committed.
This means if the buyer elects to cancel after approval, a buyer can do so. The RPA contract put out by C.A.R. is written in favor of buyers. Probably because buyers sue more often than sellers. Sellers are typically happier after closing than buyers. It’s rare that a seller feels that he or she got the raw end of the stick. But buyers? Whole ‘nother story.
Some people believe that the only time a buyer cannot cancel is after all contingencies are removed, and that’s a myth. They can still cancel. Buyers can always cancel. But in that event, they could get sued because they don’t have a contractual right to cancel, although, that’s where they will argue.
If a seller does not sign a buyer’s cancellation simply out of spite, a seller can be facing a $1,000 fine. The seller has no right to ignore the cancellation, if the buyer is within the time period to cancel. But that’s after 30 days. So, you can’t really force sellers to immediately sign a cancellation for a short sale offer especially unless you’re standing over them with a sledge hammer, and no agent has the inclination to do that.
But what happens when it’s the other way around and the sellers want to dump a buyer? How is that handled? Before my sellers cancel buyers from a short sale transaction, we give them a chance. It’s the fair and equitable thing to do, even if they are not fair and equitable to us. Besides, contracts stipulate. We send them a Notice to Perform. We spell out what we want them to do, and if they don’t do it, we can unilaterally cancel that short sale offer.
However, if you as a buyer wants to cancel, you need to sign a cancellation of contract. Not a withdrawal of offer and not an addendum. Buyers sign the top and bottom portion and date it, along with escrow information to release the earnest money deposit. Buyers also need to state a reason for the cancellation. When buyers sign a short sale addendum, agreeing to wait for short sale approval, the buyer is supposed to wait during that period of time. But bottom line, if a buyer doesn’t want to buy, nobody can make ’em. I suppose it’s possible they could be sued for sending a seller to foreclosure, but that’s for lawyers to argue.
For more questions about a Sacramento short sale offer, call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759.
