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Elizabeth Weintraub
The Sacramento REALTOR with the Highest List Price
Do sellers always pick the Sacramento REALTOR who proposes the highest sales price? Not if they’re smart they don’t. They should pick the REALTOR they most trust, like and who has the experience to do the best job for them. But what if they do take the REALTOR with the highest price and that REALTOR just happens to be me? That’s what happened this summer, and I wasn’t feeling really good about the fact that price might have been the main reason I was chosen to list that pool home in Carmichael.
I’m not underestimating my experience because I’m certain my decades in the business was a motivating factor, but I had the sneaky suspicion that if I had suggested a lower sales price, that seller might not have elected to list with me. It doesn’t mean I will sell out my ethics or tell a seller a price that I don’t think the seller will get just to obtain that listing. That’s not how I work. I do try to get the seller the highest price possible, though.
The thing is home pricing is so variable. There is no single list price, actually. There is a price it should be listed at, which is not necessarily the price a seller expects to get. There is a price a buyer might offer, which is not necessarily the price at which the home may appraise. There is market value and there is appraised value, and the two are not necessarily the same thing. It’s more of a strategy, mixed with science and emotion.
Much of my pricing is based on how the home feels emotionally to me. I know that might sound a little new-agey and touchy-feely, but buyers make offers based on emotion. I try to look at the home through the buyer’s eyes, and then I turn that feeling into a dollar figure, followed by a way to justify that price to an appraiser. It’s a different approach than most REALTORS use, and it’s been very successful for my sellers.
There were REALTORS in my real estate office who thought we had priced that Carmichael pool home too high. It didn’t have upgrades. It wasn’t remodeled. Some of the appliances didn’t even work. Other REALTORS at the listing presentations had suggested sales prices that were tens of thousands of dollars lower than mine. My suggested sales price was the highest. From a sole listing viewpoint, the price didn’t make sense. From a buyer’s viewpoint, though, it did.
We sold that Carmichael pool home at list price. It closed last week. So, while I always tell a seller do NOT pick the REALTOR who gives you the highest price, in this particular instance they might have just done that and it was not the wrong thing to do. Still, I hope they chose me for my willingness to always do what I believe is best for them and not because my suggested list price was the highest.
I don’t intend to beat out a competing agent by suggesting higher prices during a listing presentation. I do what I believe is right.
Sacramento Home Sellers Dump House at Huge Loss
Impatience lost a couple of Sacramento sellers $50,000, and I don’t have the heart to tell them. These sellers don’t read my blog, and I doubt they know anybody who does, so it’s not like I’m breaking the news to them in this manner. Besides, it wouldn’t have changed anything for them because they had already made their decision; they just apparently didn’t have the heart to tell their Sacramento real estate agent about it.
Instead they elected to remove their home from the market so they could refinance. At least that was the story. One can’t get a loan on a home if it’s for sale in Sacramento. Maybe they started out thinking about a refinance and then some EP (equity purchaser) guy called? Maybe that EP guy was a client of another agent whom he wanted to cut out of the deal or maybe the guy just regularly combs the canceled listings, calling sellers, trying to strip out every last dime of equity and leaving a few scattered pennies on the table? Hard to speculate, and it doesn’t matter.
The situation is the sellers grew impatient. Their home wasn’t selling fast enough. It was due to price, like most homes that don’t sell fast enough. The price needed to be a little bit lower but the sellers continued to hold out hope for their price until they just gave up. Out of the blue. What I know is they asked to cancel the listing because they planned to refinance, and the next thing I saw they had suddenly sold their home at a gigantic loss. It’s called a For Sale by Owner.
The new owner then put the home back on the market for $50,000 more than the owner had paid for it. Along came a buyer who contacted me. The buyer contacted me because I sell a lot of homes in this particular neighborhood in Sacramento. My buyer bought it. That $50,000 is going into the pocket of the EP guy. Telling my former clients that they messed up would be pointless and mean. But it’s not pointless for readers of this blog. It’s a good example of what can and does happen.
If they had only waited for the fall market in Sacramento and continued to list with their Sacramento real estate agent.
Yoda says: Patience you must have, my young padawan.
About Health and Safety Issues in a Sacramento Home Inspection
Those dreaded words for a home buyer after a home inspection — Health and Safety Issues — could mean life or death or it could mean federal regulation, get out of my face. The people who freak out over health and safety issues probably do not adhere to the 5-second rule. You know, if you drop a piece of food on the floor, you’ve got 5 seconds to pick it up and eat it before it becomes contaminated.
For example, an ungrounded receptacle into which a lamp is plugged is most likely not going to explode or burn down the house. Sometimes, people replace ungrounded receptacles with 3-prong receptacles, which are still ungrounded if attached to the same wiring. You can even find instances in which a homeowner has piggy-backed the neutral to make it appear grounded when a home inspector’s tester is plugged into the socket. In my own home, built in 1948, I have pulled Romex from the electrical box to new outlets for our electronic equipment, but I do not lose sleep over a lamp plugged into an ungrounded receptacle.
I have a healthy respect for electricity. After all, I am a person who once, by accident, stuck a fork into a receptacle when I was a kid. Then, after the shock wore off, I wasn’t really sure what had happened, so, just to be sure, I inserted said fork back into the receptacle. It’s a miracle I am alive today. Don’t ever do this.
A really good home inspector can explain the issues to a home buyer because, believe it or not, most agents are not certified home inspectors and don’t want to engage in conversations about this. The liability is too great. Yet, home buyers need help to understand a home inspection.
I’m a little jaded, I suppose, because I’ve worked on my own investment homes over the years and there’s not much I can’t do in the arena of home repair and maintenance. I can put on a roof, install a fireplace, cut holes in the ceiling for skylights, build a garage, finish off a lower level shell, all with my own two hands and aching back. Unless a home is sliding off its foundation or sinking into the ground, most defects can be fixed and are not necessarily a huge deal.
We recently had an escrow in which the buyers were terrified that the door to the garage was not fireproof. Notwithstanding the fact the home was built in the 1960s and hasn’t yet burned to the ground. They wanted the seller to install a fireproof door because their FHA appraiser noted it in the appraisal. This happened to be a short sale, which is sold AS IS. We had explained to the buyers that any repairs they wanted needed to be completed at their own expense, but somehow those words didn’t sink in, and when they spotted Health and Safety Issues in the home inspection, they became even more freaked out over it.
Agents get freaked out, too, but generally for a different reason than buyers. They don’t want to get sued. They know that a raised sidewalk is a trip hazard and could be called a Health and Safety Issue. They also know that if you can’t look where you’re walking, then don’t step off the curb and text; moreover, you should probably go home and lock yourself in the bathroom because you’re too inept to walk in the world among the rest of us.
Fortunately, the buyers finally came to their senses in that escrow and installed their own fireproof door in the garage. We closed yesterday, and the seller was ecstatic.
When a buyer purchases an older home, there will always be Health and Safety Issues because codes and regulations continually change. These “issues” probably not exist as a code when the home was built. Are they gonna kill you? Probably only if you don’t eat it in 5 seconds. Ask your home inspector.
Selling a Home in Sacramento and Offer Negotiation
A seller who is selling a home in Sacramento should not have to wonder if the buyers who just wrote an offer on her home really want to buy the house. I mean, what if I told you that I am willing to sell you a Ferrari for $10,000, but you say the sale is subject to your ability to find the money buried in a barrel Breaking Bad style out in the desert somewhere? Oh, and on top of that, at anytime, you can decide to renegotiate the price with me or ask me, if you like, to throw in, say, a year’s supply of gas and car washes for you. You’d probably think you hit pay dirt.
This is exactly what buying a home in Sacramento is like for some home buyers. The market is super hot for sellers of well-priced homes. Doesn’t matter if that home is located in Elk Grove or East Sacramento or Lincoln; if it’s priced right, the seller will probably quickly receive a full-price offer, if not multiple offers. On the other side, buyers don’t like to compete with multiple offers. It’s just a mindset though. Because buyers are competing the minute they step foot inside a home for sale where another buyer has recently been.
Lately, I’ve been encountering buyers who must think they are clever. Their idea is to lock down the home immediately by promising the seller everything the seller is asking for and, after a few weeks have passed and all of the other buyers have gone away, then they will ask for a price reduction or a credit. I sell more homes than most agents, and I see this tactic used over and over. It’s not enough to elicit a promise from the buyer that a home is sold AS IS because some buyers conveniently forget about that promise.
In one situation, I reminded the seller that the buyer might not know any better. The buyer might be getting pushed by relatives or friends who say that even though the buyer promised to not ask for a repair, the buyer should demand a new HVAC installation. Because you never know. Sometimes, sellers cave. I don’t like to see buyers and sellers at each other’s throats when there is no reason for it.
However, the seller pointed out that this was no first-time home buyer who was buying his home in Roseville. Nope, this was a retired guy over the age of 65. The seller said the buyer knew exactly what he was doing. Maybe. Age is really no guarantee, but the seller could be right.
This Sacramento real estate agent sometimes advises her sellers to issue a counter offer when an offer comes in at full price, quickly and with a shortened time frame for acceptance. The counter is not about price. It’s about performance.
If the buyer blows a fuse because the seller insists upfront upon no renegotiations down the road, well, what does that tell you? Buyers always have the right to cancel within the contract default period of 17 days for any reason — but once a buyer commits to buy a home, the negotiations should really be pretty much over. Particularly in today’s real estate climate. There is nothing wrong with pointing out to a buyer that AS IS in the residential purchase contract means AS IS. It doesn’t mean maybe.
You can shake hands all you want, but a pen to paper is always better. If you’re thinking about selling your home in the Sacramento metro area, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759. Put 40 years of experience to work for you.
Where is the American River Bike Trail in Old Sacramento?
Have you ever wondered where to find the American Bike Trail in Old Sacramento? It doesn’t matter which direction you come into Old Sacramento, from the North or the South, the bike trail disappears. ?That’s because you’ve got tourist attractions, old wooden boardwalks and cobblestone streets, all of which is hazardous to riding a bike.
Nothing against the broasted-chicken-legged serious bike riders in Sacramento, I’m just a regular old-lady bicyclist with a pink Townie, featuring upright handlebars. Most days I take a bike ride before dinner. It’s a great way to interact with nature, get a little exercise and ponder all of the incredible crap that happens in Sacramento real estate every day; thrusts me into a different environment. Every day I almost kill myself, too.
Why do we have to ride with traffic? That seems so insane. I’d much rather look the driver in the eyes before I am sprawled with my face smushed against his windshield. I don’t like trusting other drivers not to hit me because half of them are morons. So, sometimes I ride on the sidewalks and almost mow down pedestrians. I ride on the wrong side of the street. So, sue me. I’ve ridden on those raised boardwalks in Old Sacramento, too, looking for the bike trail in vain, vibrating like crazy, and almost losing my cellphone, which is attached to my handlebars. I’m lucky my Jawbone didn’t bounce out of my pocket.
For lunch yesterday, it seemed like a good idea to stroll through Old Sacramento with my husband on our collective four feet and look for the bike trail. Old Sacramento is a smaller version of Skagway, Alaska, a town Robin Williams called the End of the World. We discovered a new store there called The Chefs’ Olive Mix. It’s on the corner of Second Street and J. The retail section is set up with stainless steel urns on the top shelves and the bottom shelves are filled with product, mostly balsamics and olive oils from all over the world.
You can sample fabulous olive oils and check the polyphenol percentages, the higher the percentage the more intense the flavor. I tasted the truffle salt. Word of warning, don’t lick a big ol’ handful of truffle salt because the taste will not leave your mouth. Not even after you fork out $1.76 for two pieces of candy at Candyland and carefully suck on that cherry Tootsie Roll Pop. The truffle will linger.
However, Eureka, we did find the bike trail. Because I ride from my home in Land Park, I hop on the American River Bike Trail from Broadway heading north, but you can also pick up the bike trail from Front Street past the Animal Shelter. Either way, once you reach the Tower Bridge, the trail will disappear. This means you’ve got to drive in traffic down Second Street, dodge the horses and little kids, or navigate through the throngs gathered in front of Joe’s Crab Shack and the Delta Queen. Those tourists just stand there and spin around directionless like they can’t believe where they are, watching pigeons poop.
There is no sign for the bike trail until you get there. But from Second Street, if you take a left, head west, at the Railroad Museum and go past the old-timey hardware store, cross the train tracks, there is the American River Bike Trail. If you’re coming from the north, just head toward Tower Bridge and Embassy Suites.
Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub
