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Elizabeth Weintraub
The Birthday Post From Elizabeth Weintraub
Today is my 61st birthday. That means it’s time for the birthday post from Elizabeth Weintraub, something I do every year. This year, I almost didn’t celebrate it. Because let’s face it, what’s one more year? What does turning 61 mean? It’s not a milestone birthday. It means I better be over the fact that I turned 60 last year because it’s all older from here on out. Choices that I may have once had the option to choose among are becoming leaner and fewer. I no longer have all of the time in the world to do whatever my heart contends. The clock is ticking on.
It’s kinda the opposite of uplifting.
In fact, it’s so the opposite of uplifting that I was considering holding off on birthday celebrations until maybe I turn 65 and apply for Medicare. Yup, no more birthday parties or gifts or cards or anything remotely celebratory in connection with my birthday for a while. Not one more birthday post from Elizabeth Weintraub. Then, perhaps I could celebrate in 5-year increments, so it wouldn’t seem like I was getting so old and decrepit. Maybe by the time I turned 90, I would once again be ready to celebrate every year, when I truly have an event to celebrate, something to blog about and make a birthday post from Elizabeth Weintraub mean something.
After I thought this and contemplated it for a while, I concluded that celebrating only milestone birthdays was a pretty stupid and wasted thought process. I should be content with the fact that every morning when I open my eyes that I am still here and have not been abducted by aliens.
Not only that, but the past year has been remarkable. I got to enjoy 3 weeks in the South Pacific over the holidays, finally visited Hilton Head Island, scored front row seats to a musical in Chicago, spent Thanksgiving with both of our families and had the best year in real estate ever over the past four decades, selling $32 million in a depressed market.
Turning 61 is pretty great!
Closing Tip for a Sacramento short sale
The closing tip for a Sacramento short sale today is brought to you by Pica, the Ocicat, who lives in Land Park with this Sacramento real estate agent. He asked me to shoot his photograph and post it here. He wants to say: “Nation, don’t listen to Stephen Colbert when you can find out everything you need to know about the world from this cat.”
Pica knows a lot about Sacramento short sales. For example, Pica can tell you that when it comes time to close that short sale, you can’t simply sashay into the escrow office to sign documents and close. That’s not how it works, regardless of how many dead fish you drag to the title company’s doorstep.
For one thing, all parties to the short sale, the buyers and sellers will sign closing documents a few days before the actual closing date. Funds need to be deposited into escrow as either cash, certified check or wire, the day BEFORE closing. You cannot write a personal check to the escrow company and expect escrow to close until that check clears the bank, which could take 3 to 7 days.
The most important thing to realize, whether the buyer is obtaining a loan or is paying cash, makes no difference, is escrow cannot close until the final HUD has been approved by the short sale bank. If there are two loans on a short sale, generally approval is required from both of the lenders. Don’t overlook this closing tip for a Sacramento short sale or you won’t close.
Some short sale banks require up to 72 hours to approve the HUD. That means 3 days turnaround. You can’t rush the bank or escalate a Final HUD approval. Lots of people, even mortgage brokers and Sacramento real estate agents, tend to forget about the essential fact. And that’s how a short sale can expire, especially if the closing is intended for the last day of the approval letter. There is no time to pause for an emergency butt lick.
So, don’t be a lazy cat or an uninformed cat. Allow time for that Final HUD approval. Ask your escrow officer how many days it could take to get approval and get your documents to escrow with enough time allotted for Final HUD approval. Here, have a freeze-dried chicken treat. Pica has a nap to take now. He has given you your closing tip for a Sacramento short sale, and his job is done.
Two Sacramento Homes Closed on Tuesday
As good fortune has it, I managed to close two more escrows yesterday, which resulted in another two Sacramento homes closed. I’m on a streak this week. One closing was a home in Land Park, a cottage in Upper Land Park. We weren’t too certain that the buyers were closing when they signed the purchase contract. I’m not sure what the hesitation was about, but when I have that gut feeling, I listen to it. The sellers had made a deal with the buyers that we would not change the status in MLS from active to pending until the buyers removed their inspection contingencies. They had already been there and done that when a previous buyer had developed cold feet a few days into escrow. So, we left the listing as active, pending rescission, for a few weeks.
The strangest thing happens when a buyer spots pending rescission as a status modifier on an active listing. It’s like a switch goes off in their heads. Like, maybe they ate Chinese food and an hour later are starving. They might not ever want to look at this home, but the minute they see somebody else might want it, they are desperate to buy it, and it doesn’t seem to matter what it is or where it is located. As a result, we had a decent back-up offer within days, just in case the existing offer went sideways.
But the offer didn’t go sideways. The buyers removed their contingencies and we closed, just like clockwork. The sellers are ecstatic and so are the buyers.
In the second escrow, well, what can I say? It was an Elk Grove short sale that had emerged from bankruptcy. It was a short sale that should have closed last year. We received a perfect offer, after a few others blew up, and our new buyer was willing to mow the lawn, turn on the utilities, and even replace the electrical meter and A/C unit, which had been swiped. The only problem was we could not close because we did not have the final discharge from a previous bankruptcy. The bankruptcy was discharged two years ago, but it was never closed out in the court.
How much of a problem can that be? Huge.
The lawyer told us it would take 30 days. Every month, she was hopeful the file would close out. Except it did not close out. We finally tracked down the Trustee of the Court to get the straight scoop. The trustee had to send out notices, wait 3 months for checks to clear, along with a bunch of other court-related stuff. It took us 8 long months to close out the bankruptcy, which had already been discharged. If a lawyer tells you a bankruptcy will close out in 30 days, you might want to get a second opinion, just sayin.
The buyer was a trooper. He really wanted this house. So, did a bunch of other people who continually wrote and called and begged to be a back-up offer. We’ll pay cash, they cried. We’ll wash your car for a year. No, not really, but that was the unspoken sentiment. I waited for the chocolate-covered strawberries to arrive at my office, along with a bottle of champagne, but it never came.
I’m pretty lucky, when our buyers go into escrow, they tend to stay there.
Every Sacramento real estate closing is different. That’s what makes this business so much fun and exciting. Some closings you pull out your hair. Some, you don’t. But at least these two Sacramento homes closed without any further drama.
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Getting Ready to Sell a Tenant-Occupied Home
If a client needs me to tell a short-sale bank to #*%$-off, I have no problem doing so. I can be as tough as the next guy, and probably much more decisive. In a moment’s flash, I can size up the situation, analyze it, choose the appropriate reaction and, bam, just do it. But decide whether to carry an umbrella when it’s sprinkling outside, no can do. It’s a struggle. It’s more than a matter of take the umbrella or leave it, in Sacramento, it’s do I open the umbrella or do I wait until I am soaked?
There is a fine line between being a wimpy wasp or a tough-as-nails Sacramentan, I’ve noticed. For one thing, it’s perfectly OK to stick a travel-sized umbrella in your bag if it’s rainy weather. It’s another thing if you’ve got to stick your hand out to determine whether it is actually raining hard enough to open the umbrella. That’s why you see so many suited guys downtown running in the rain, umbrella clutched under their arm and a newspaper over their head. They don’t want to look like a wimp. They’d rather look ridiculous.
Kind of like I looked, standing on the steps yesterday and holding a clipboard over my head when it was raining. Yes, I had an umbrella in my bag but it seemed pointless to open it. I had not expected the tenant to lock the gate between the house and the street, but fortunately there was a doorbell right there on the wall, and fortunately, she quickly came out to let me inside.
This Sacramento real estate agent was inspecting two houses on a lot in Midtown that will most likely come on the market this week or next, depending on whether I rouse the sellers from cruising the beaches on vacation in Maui. When I first called one of the tenants, she was very reluctant to let me visit. Why, she needed more than a few hours of notice, and she hadn’t cleaned the house. She didn’t know if she would be home, no, probably, she would not be home, and she wasn’t sure when she ever would be home, if I wanted to know the truth.
I assured her it was OK. I would visit the house next door. Oh, and did I mention that most likely an investor would buy the property, so she could probably just stay on as a tenant if she so desired. I let her know that when I finished inspecting the home next door, I would stop by, and if she was home, that would be cool, and if she wasn’t, that would be OK, too. I’d just catch her some other time down the road.
After I completed my initial agent inspection and shot photos of the first house, I walked over to the second house and knocked. Oh, my goodness. She was home. Imagine that. Somedays, I’m just lucky like that.
Rain in Sacramento and Short Sale Woe
An unusual thing is happening in Sacramento today. It is raining. There is a Delta breeze in the morning, which is usually reserved for late afternoons and early evenings. The temperature is 65 degrees at 9 AM; it’s cold. I kind of like it. It’s a bit like short sale woe.
I miss the romanticism of thunderstorms and afternoon summer rain. We don’t get that kind of weather in Sacramento; it’s not like the Midwest. There is always some tradeoff in life. If you want to live in Sacramento where it’s sunny all of the time, well, you put up with the fact that it just doesn’t rain often in the summer.
Some things you just accept because there isn’t much you can do about it. Like starting a short sale over. Yes, that kind of short sale woe. I know agents who will throw in the towel when the short sale lender says no. But I don’t give up. Because I know that the no answer means I most likely need to repackage the short sale in the manner that will cause the lender to say yes.
I’ve had my share of temporary declines, but a rejection doesn’t mean no short sale; it’s not short sale woe for me. It is very, very rare for this Sacramento real estate agent to completely lose a short sale because a bank would not grant approval — I can count on one hand the number of times it has happened. Most of the time, a short sale is lost not due to bank rejection but because the seller gives up. The seller just can’t go on. I understand that sentiment, too. I would never try to force a seller to continue in a short sale when the seller has run out of steam. But if you want to get to closing, I’m your agent.
I plan to enjoy the rain today. Even though it makes my hair frizz. Maybe, if I’m really lucky, I’ll spot a rainbow!
