Email Elizabeth
Elizabeth Weintraub
Heading Off Problems in Sacramento Real Estate Escrows
The longer I am in real estate, which is going on 40 years now, the more I see how real estate can turn calm, logical people into crazy looney-tunes. Imagine what real estate does to people who already have a screw loose? And, let’s not even talk about the new Alzheimer report released yesterday that says if you think you’re losing your mind, you probably are, because that’s not very comforting either and will probably tend to encourage paranoid thoughts for those even slightly forgetful.
I have nothing against crazy people. Let’s get that straight. I am not a person who discriminates against the insane (but I do tend to draw the line at psychotics and those who don’t take their meds). Some of my best friends are so nutty they belong in the Blue Diamond Almond gift shop downtown Sacramento, yet I love them to pieces. We’re all a little off balance in our own ways.
Yet, when it comes to your Sacramento real estate agent, clients really expect to work with a solid individual. A person who has it together. That agent has to be their anchor and support system for the duration of the real estate relationship. Agents should not exhibit a wishy-washy demeanor because clients want to rely on a professional who is decisive and can guide them to make the right decisions as well. This means an agent needs to step aside and think before responding when problematic situations arise. Emotional agents who bounce off the walls don’t do well in those instances.
This week a seller called me in a bit of a panic because the buyer’s carpet installer was over at her home measuring. The carpet installer told the seller and the buyer the house contained asbestos. That was shocking news to all parties concerned. Now, you might note to yourself that the seller should not have allowed a tradesperson into the home to measure for carpeting prior to the close of escrow, and then that little fiasco could have been averted. But, in actuality, the problem was a carpet installer is not an asbestos expert.
Sure enough, after the seller hired an asbestos testing company, the test results came back clear. There was no asbestos noted in the reports in either of the rooms examined and tested. You know who suggested hiring an asbestos testing company? Yup, you got it, her Sacramento real estate agent. Probably saved that seller thousands and thousands of dollars, the amount an asbestos abatement company might charge. Asbestos abatement companies aren’t all that concerned as to whether the home contains asbestos, you know, they just come out and remove what looks like offending material.
Another agent in Sacramento this week was trying to buy a home for a family member. The buyer absolutely needed to buy a home in a certain part of West Sacramento that this Sacramento real estate agent has on the market. The problem was the preapproval letter. It stated the buyer had not completed a loan application. How is the buyer preapproved then? The answer is the buyer is not preapproved. After sending the buyer to a professional FHA mortgage broker, it turns out the buyer’s ratios are too high to qualify. Problems averted at the starting gate.
There are many reasons to hire a Sacramento real estate agent with experience. This is just a couple of examples from this week. A good real estate agent doesn’t really cost you; an experienced real estate agent saves you money, sometimes beyond her fee.
A Rainbow with Geese in William Land Park
My agent friend Myrl told me that I should carry a camera in my bike basket when I’m out riding because I will surely come across something I would like to take photo of and, sure enough, she was correct. While pedaling by homes in Land Park yesterday and around the geese in William Land Park, I did indeed come across a scene with a rainbow in it. When one spots a rainbow, it’s time to to stop and admire. We don’t have enough rainbows in our lives.
Although I did not bring my camera, I do have a caddy on my bike for strapping in my cellphone. You know, as a Sacramento real estate agent, it’s kinda hard to go anywhere without a smartphone. I might get a text message or an email or God forbid an actual phone call.
The secret to my success in real estate is that I answer my phone. I respond to text messages and emails. It’s not that I’m some super real estate freak; it’s just easier that way. Otherwise, messages can pile up and emails can be overwhelming. You might not know this, but I receive about 300 emails a day. Efficiency and organization is the way I stay on top of my game.
I hope you like this photo of the rainbow and geese in William Land Park. It’s not the best quality, not like my actual Nikon would shoot. But I do have an older Nikon lying around my home in Land Park somewhere. Perhaps I should find a bag for it and take it with me during my biking excursions around the geese in William Land Park from now on.
When Buyers in Sacramento Refuse to Close Escrow
Keeping up the spirits when buyers refuse to close escrow is an art form in itself. Not only do I need to keep myself pumped and ecstatic to move forward, but my primary focus as a real estate agent is to help my sellers move past the disappointment and crushed feelings. Sellers aren’t just unhappy when a buyer cancels, they are often furious. They would like to stomp on the heads of those buyers and drop the assholes into the river in cement shoes.
Me? I just lost a commission and money is replaceable. Another buyer will eventually show up. But the seller has lost a lot more. Sellers lose hope. Whatever plans a seller has had in the works for after the closing are put on hold or, worse, permanently canceled after a buyer walks out the door. It can be a life-changing event.
During escrow, it’s common for sellers to put their emotional attachments and any unwelcome baggage associated with the home into the past, but when a buyer cancels it all comes rushing back at them. It’s as though they failed in their mission. It’s heartbreaking, and buyer’s agents don’t ever see this side of the business. They skip merrily on their way to buy another home with their buyers and don’t look back.
After the feelings settle down a little bit, the sellers often want to sue the buyer. I understand that sentiment. Unfortunately, buyers in Sacramento have 15 ways from Sunday to cancel a contract while in the contingency contract period. If they cancel during that time period, they get their earnest money back.
Isn’t there some way to get that good faith deposit when buyers refuse to close? Not really. Not if there are contingencies in force. Unfortunately, no matter how well a seller qualifies a buyer, there is never an assurance that a buyer won’t refuse to close escrow. In squirrelly markets, cancellations can happen more often than not. Rely on your Sacramento real estate agent to help guide and navigate. I am here for my clients, especially if it gets rough.
You Never Forget How to Ride a Bicycle
No matter how hectic being a Sacramento real estate agent is for me, I always try to set aside some time over the weekend to enjoy an adventure, something totally unrelated to real estate. There comes a point when I must pull my head out of my computer and go outside. And not just to take a listing, which is a lot of fun in itself, but to do something completely different. It keeps me refreshed, motivated and focused during the week. Agents who don’t take a little time off now and then can burn out.
Besides, I have just put another listing into escrow this weekend, an unusual property in Orangevale. Negotiation of a sale to fruition is generally a good cause for celebration. It’s not easy to put a sale into escrow when the seller doesn’t have email nor a computer. This is where having the luxury of 17 Lyon Real Estate offices around the Sacramento Valley comes in very handy. Without satellite locations for me to work in, I’d have to make several roundtrips by car to obtain signatures, which can eat up half an afternoon. It’s not the best use of my time, driving around. The best use of my time is talking with a client and advising a client.
Sliding my cellphone into my wristlet, my husband and I ventured off into Midtown. Although we live in Land Park, we often walk to Midtown because, well, because we have two feet and we can walk. The weather was beautiful. Homes in Midtown are unique and interesting. And all of that walking helped to burn up some calories we probably packed on after a stop for Dim Sum at New Canton on Broadway, but hey, a person can get hungry walking around.
It was about then that the thought popped into my head that perhaps I should buy a new bicycle. I don’t really like the bicycle I have. It was not a bike I picked out myself. It was a Christmas present one year from one of my ex-husbands who didn’t really know what he was doing. This was during the 1980s, and the doofus bought me a silver touring bike to ride around town, super skinny tires, turned-down handle bars (hard on the back) and one of those cross bars that if you fell on it, yowza, you don’t forget the pain. It’s also oversized for me, and it’s been hanging up in the garage for years gathering dust.
We headed over to the bike shop in Midtown on 24th & K Street: City Bicycle Works. This bike shop has a lot of inventory. If there’s a drawback to living in Sacramento, it’s the fact that most stores in town, regardless of what you want to buy, lack inventory. I was really attracted to the Bianchi bike in the photo on top of this page, but I ended up buying a hot pink Electra Townie (to the right). It has a basket to hold that imaginary cat who someday will want to ride with me, a chrome bell to warn those in my path to get the #$%& out of my way and, of course, a cellphone caddy.
Unfortunately, my new bike would not fit in the back of my husband’s Prius, so I rode it home. It was only 3 miles. Truth was I could not wait to get on it. There are bike lanes all over Midtown, but the ride down T Street under the shaded tree canopy was especially lovely. The other aspect I found to be especially enjoyable was being able to tap the bike pedal backwards to slow down. It’s one of those instinctive things a person like me would recall from when I first learned how to ride a bike in the 1950s. That feature is back in these new models. I guess they know their market for nostalgic town bikes.
Maybe today, after listing a pool home in Carmichael, I’ll take an hour off and head over to the river by Old Sacramento and zip down the levee. If you spot a woman on a pink bike with a cellphone attached to handlebars and her ponytail flying, wave hello.
Why Buyers Should Talk to their Sacramento Neighbors
If you think your neighbors don’t matter when you buy a home in Sacramento — or anywhere for that matter — think again. I could not imagine a smart person buying a home in a neighborhood without talking to the neighbors and, perhaps, even asking the neighbors what they think about each other. Some people love to gossip.
My parents didn’t do that when I was growing up. They bought a home and did not talk to the neighbors in 1955 in a brand new subdivision called Heritage Homes, located in the Village of Circle Pines, an isolated area at the time about 15 minutes outside of Minneapolis. Our neighbors, the Palmquists — I vividly recall those horrid people and their hoard of little brats to this day — were absolutely unbearable. Apart from letting their lawn die, throwing trash all over the yard — such an eyesore — and their screaming, yelling and drunken brawls at all hours of the night, the kids were hoodlums who would steal toys in bright daylight right out of our yard. One of the Palmquist kids stuck a water hose into my bedroom window and turned it on full blast.
To try to put a stop to this kind of behavior, I stuffed one of the little Palmquist girls into my red wagon and pulled her out into the field across the street. A field that was converted into an ice rink in the winter but in the summer was blanketed with stickers. After a stern lecture and warning, I removed her shoes, dumped her in the field and left.
Fortunately, the neighbors on my street of homes in Land Park are wonderful. We stop when we see each other outside and talk. It’s a quiet street with very little traffic, only a block long. It’s rare for anybody who doesn’t live here to walk down our street or drive by. It’s like an oasis. There were a couple of neighbors whom some people didn’t much care for and they moved away.
Neighborhoods can change. We’ve been lucky throughout the ups and downs of the Sacramento real estate market that we’ve had only one short sale on our street. Imagine the economic make-up of areas where everybody paid half a million or more for their homes and those very homes are now worth $200,000 or so. That’s assuming, of course, that those individuals who overpaid could afford it at the time they bought.
One of my clients, a seller who had owned a home in an upscale community of million-dollar homes, recently closed escrow. Homes in that neighborhood are now selling around $400,000. He held a liquidation sale the last few days of his occupancy, and some of his neighbors who served on the board of his HOA showed up and tried to stop him from having the sale. They even sent security guards over to his house to stop the sale. They videotaped his wife screaming at their rude behavior, such a mild mannered and sweet woman otherwise. This is what neighbors can do.
You’re not just buying a home; you’re buying a neighborhood. Talk to the neighbors before buying a home.
