Elizabeth Weintraub

Elizabeth Weintraub

40+ years of experience in real estate, Sacramento real estate broker working at Lyon Real Estate in Midtown Sacramento. Author of The Short Sale Savior. Home Buying Expert at The Balance. Top Producer, ranks in the top 1% of all real estate agents in Sacramento Region. Life Member of Master's Club awarded by Sacramento Association of REALTORS.

Real Estate Agent Event at a Treasure Island Winery

Bay Bridge.300x200

Bay Bridge from Treasure Island Vie Winery

How many reasons does a Sacramento real estate agent need to take a quick trip to San Francisco, much less to visit a winery on Treasure Island? I’m betting many readers of this Sacramento real estate blog do not even realize that a) Treasure Island is a drivable exit off the Bay Bridge, and b) Treasure Island features wineries. Because if you’re like me, when you’re driving over the Bay Bridge, you’re keeping your eyes on all of the other bottlenecked vehicles around you, hoping an earthquake doesn’t strike and focused on not getting run off the road into the water.

It was work-related, too, so the trip was a business write off, including the limo service. See, it’s not so bad to drive into the Bay area if you’re relaxing in the back seat of a Lincoln Town Car. My friend and manager of the Lyon Sacramento real estate office, JaCi Wallace, agreed to go with me to Treasure Island yesterday, so we had a few leisurely hours to talk. It was fabulously fun because we chatted non-stop and probably talked off the ears of our poor driver who had to listen to us discuss real estate the whole way there and the whole way back.

JaCi-Pacita-Cynthia.300x200

JaCi Wallace, Pacita Dimacali, Cynthia Larsen

The main reason for the trip was to meet other Bay area real estate agents and vendors at an ActiveRain Meetup event. These people are agents I know from the ActiveRain website where agents hangout. Unfortunately, we were so busy and enthralled with the event, we — OK, this yo-yo — forgot to take photos until it was just about over.

We sipped wine at the Vie Winery and had an opportunity to meet Bryan Robertson, part owner of the Treasure Island winery and also real estate agent extraordinaire. Bryan hosted this event along with Kathleen Daniels, a broker / owner from San Jose, made sure we had something to eat with all of that wine tasting. Pacita Dimacali, who sells from Alameda to Berkeley, smoothly led the introductions. I had once interviewed Pacita many years ago for my book, The Short Sale Savior, and she told a story about how she received a real estate client who had read that book and called her. Sweetest person you’d ever want to meet.

Elizabeth-Antonio-Pacita.300x200

Elizabeth Weintraub, Antonio Cardenas, Pacita Dimacli

It was over all too soon, and when I looked up, everybody was gone. I was not lying flat on the floor, in case you’re wondering, just standing inside the Vie Winery, mesmerized in a conversation with Antonio Cardenas from San Leandro, ballroom dancer and REALTOR. I had wanted to play Bocce ball with Lottie Kendall, Cynthia Larsen, Ann Wilkins and Melanie Ross, probably a few others whose names I have accidentally omitted, but they had all vanished.

We’re all busy with real estate right now. Which meant back to Sacramento to answer more emails and sell more homes. You can mix work with pleasure in this business. That’s one of the great things about being a Sacramento real estate agent! Great Treasure Island winery, too.

 

About Selling Homes in Elk Grove

Sacramento-home-for-sale.300x225There are some things I know about that I do not care to know such as Simon Cowell got his best friend’s wife pregnant and why Aretha Franklin, the beloved godmother of soul, doesn’t quite trust modern medicine, but there are other things I know that carry significance, especially about Sacramento real estate and selling homes in Elk Grove. Now, having an almost 40-year career in real estate, I can tell you that it’s very common for clients to have a different idea of what an agent should do to market their home than what an agent believes is the best course of action.

That’s OK, because I go with the flow. I want happy clients. I want more referrals coming to this Sacramento real estate agent, and unhappy clients generally don’t give referrals. It is the referrals and 5-star reviews that keep the doors to my business open. When I’m selling homes in Elk Grove, I want those Elk Grove sellers ecstatic!

But yesterday I elected to make an exception. A seller asked if I would put a box of fliers on the post outside of her home in Elk Grove. I could do it but it would be pointless. It was good that I took the time to explain my reasoning because the seller agreed. Here are few reasons why it’s not a very good idea to put out flyers when selling homes in Elk Grove:

  • The home in Elk Grove is located on a cul-de-sac off a quiet street so walk-by traffic is unlikely.
  • We want potential buyers to call us. That’s why my Elk Grove office phone number is front and center on the gigantic For Sale sign, followed by a rider with my cellphone number, and another rider with the cellphone number for an Elizabeth Weintraub team member.
  • Kids often swipe flyers.
  • My Virtual Agent system attached to the for sale sign gives potential buyers many opportunities to get information. They don’t even have to call an agent or talk to an agent. By calling an 800#, all data is sent as a virtual tour to their cellphones. They can text a code, just like American Idol, and all data is sent as a virtual tour to their cellphones. Or, they can take a picture of the QR code with their cellphone and all data is sent automatically to their cellphone.
  • But probably an unexpected reason is the home will be sold by the time we get out there with a box of flyers.

If you’re thinking about selling a home in Elk Grove, call an experienced Elk Grove agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759. The Elizabeth Weintraub Team was just named by Real Trends as one of the top 25 best real estate teams in California.

Sacramento Real Estate Agents and Sucky Technology

Internet Sacramento real estate agentIf you’re going to work as a Sacramento real estate agent and rely on technology, you’ve got to always have a Plan B. It doesn’t hurt to have a Plan C as well because sure enough, if something can go wrong once, it can screw up twice. I’m not simply talking about cellphones, although it would be nice if they made an exceptionally GOOD cellphone but today most phones pretty much do double and triple duty, which renders them unreliable. I’m amazed you can’t stand on your phone and have it read your weight.

You can’t really blame the manufacturers, either. Because they’re just making crap that people want to buy; they are fulfilling needs and wants. We can look in the mirror and thank our own selves for this situation.

Websites go wonky. Internet coverage drops. Fax lines are continually busy. All this crap happens daily. Over the past few days, I’ve struggled trying to fix Trulia because it’s been messing up my listings. Photographs vanish. There are inconsistencies between agent profiles and agent inventory yet data appears pulled from a single source. Almost all of my listings at one point turned into Unknowns and disappeared from Trulia. I know you’re probably suspecting operator error — that good old OE, which is often responsible — but I hadn’t done a thing except visit the page to enter this weekend’s Open Houses. So, I uploaded once again all of the photography, listing by listing. Thank goodness I utilize other websites where I manage my listings. But those mess up, too, from time to time, so I’m not just picking on Trulia.

Digital online signing services sometimes don’t perform as smoothly as they should. So, I have backup plans for that. I also use 3 browsers for different functions. I have not only scanning abilities but two separate fax numbers that go to my email. Yeah, it costs another 8 bucks a month to maintain a separate fax, but when you’ve absolutely, positively need that document, that 100 bucks a year is peanuts in exchange for peace of mind. Forget the 15 bucks a month for the iPad when for $50 you’ve got a hotspot.

If I can’t get in the front door for a service, I’ll find a way to get in the back door or substitute another technology. It’s how I guarantee first-class service to my clients because they deserve it. I would not be an effective Sacramento real estate agent if I behaved otherwise. But jeez Louise I’m thankful for technology, even when it malfunctions.

What Sacramento Buyer’s Agents Want to Know

Buyers Agents Sacramento.300x200As a listing agent in Sacramento, I hear almost immediately from a lot of buyer’s agents when any of my new listings hit the market. Ding, ding, ding, my phone rings, one call after another. Especially if the listing is priced well and a turnkey home. The first thing agents want to know is if it’s still available, even if it’s only been in MLS for 30 minutes. That’s not as unusual as it may sound because my photos look enticing, the marketing verbiage is attractive and, in our competitive market in Sacramento, sometimes buyers don’t view the home before writing an offer. With digital online signing services such as DocuSign, buyers can quickly sign an offer within minutes for submission.

Of course, I check the Supra lockbox online showings to determine if the agent representing the buyer has entered the house. But that doesn’t tell me if the buyer was with the agent at the time. The buyer could live in San Francisco for all I know, but I can get a clue from the address on the buyer’s preapproval letter or earnest money deposit check. I can also just ask the agent. This is part of the information I pass on to my sellers as together we analyze the purchase offers.

The second thing buyer’s agents want to know is how much their buyer must offer to buy the home, on top of how many offers we have received. I will answer the third question but not the second, unless the seller instructs me to do it. And since it’s not really in the seller’s interest to disclose how high a buyer needs to go, few sellers will give me the go-ahead, yet buyer’s agents will still ask about it. They need to study the comparable sales and act accordingly; do their job.

Buyer’s agents will say: My buyers really wants to buy this house, so tell me how much they have to pay to get it. Well, I don’t know because it’s not my house. That’s the seller’s decision, and the seller probably doesn’t even know. If there is financing, the home needs to appraise. Moreover, if I tell that buyer’s agent how much everybody else offered, then I have to go back to all of those other agents and tell them how much the other buyers have offered. I can’t treat one agent with preference over another agent. They wouldn’t like it if the tables were turned and it was done to them. I am a REALTOR, which means I have to abide by the Code of Ethics, and I must treat all parties fairly.

It’s not just a made-up code that nobody follows.

 

A New Listing: Home in Citrus Heights For Sale

new listings sacramento.300x200Just because life dropped an anvil on my heart doesn’t mean that my real estate business comes to an abrupt halt. I still have clients to take care of, listings to sell and escrows to close. It’s not like I can call in sick to myself when I’m self-employed. Besides, the grieving process for Pia will take time; it can’t be rushed. It helps to focus on something else during the day than feeling sorry for myself because the light of our lives has vanished from our home.

Pia’s death has left an unexpected hole in my world. You know how they say that sometimes we don’t realize what we have until we have lost it. Pia was the driving force, pretty much head of our household, even though she was the smallest weighing in at 9 pounds, and the cat who regularly interacted with us. It’s quiet now. The other cats don’t chat much. They sleep a lot. She used to talk to us in that Granny (from the Beverly Hillbillies) voice. She was better than Siri. You could ask her anything and her answer was never garbled or confusing. It was pretty clear. Meow. She had a definite opinion on everything, too.

I was thinking about this yesterday as I stood in the kitchen of a home in Citrus Heights. The seller of that home was grieving, too. A close family member who once owned that home had died. He wasn’t crying or looking exceptionally grief stricken but it takes a long time to remove that lump in your throat and the pain in your heart after the loss of a loved one. I could see the sadness in his eyes.

There were no jokes or funny stories. Just a quiet, sensible discussion about the comparable sales and how I will market the home in Citrus Heights. It’s an incredible place, and the previous owner had made many upgrades. It has a new furnace and AC unit, the carpeting is new, the roof has been replaced, new water heater and water softener, brand new washer and dryer, plus the drywall job in the garage is impeccable, coupled with a beautifully painted finish, with plenty of electrical outlets on the walls for power tools and lots of overhead lighting. It’s the kind of home that a home buyer would be hard pressed to find anything wrong with.

Except for one thing. He left the wallpaper in the kitchen. It’s pretty wallpaper and unobtrusive, but buyers generally don’t like wallpaper. There is a thin strip about an inch wide on one side, running full length. I pointed it out. The seller touched it and gingerly smoothed the seam with his thumb. People who have hung wallpaper know how important the starting spot is. We talked about which sides of the kitchen the seller’s relative had started the wallpaper. For a minute, just a minute, he was there in the kitchen with us, papering those walls.

This home in Citrus Heights will go on the market, August 23rd, Friday at $205,000. It’s turnkey and affordable and ready to move into. It’s a nice home for first-time homebuyers to build memories together.

 

Subscribe to Elizabeth Weintraub\'s Blog via email