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Elizabeth Weintraub
Short Sale Negotiators Should Move to South Carolina
An endearing thing about the South is the way people interact with each other. Whereas, I, for example, will tell you to your face exactly what I think — although, even a critical statement will be tempered somewhat — that method of communication is a stark contrast to the way it’s done in the South. I am called all sorts of sweetness in the South. I am addressed as “darlin,” which immediately warms me up to the person speaking until I begin to wonder what he wants. Oh, nothing, he’s just holding open a door for me to pass through. My feminism cringes a little but I fast get over it.
Why, this politeness and gentleness is so contagious a person could bless my heart and tell me not to worry my sweet little head over it, and I would not be offended no matter what the issue was at hand. They could be dropping nuclear bombs on the city, and I wouldn’t care. Southern hospitality is not overrated. It’s the real thing.
Short sale negotiators should be forced to spend some time in the South before working in customer relations at a bank. If every time I spoke to a short sale negotiator, I was treated the way the nice residents of Hilton Head, South Carolina deal with strangers, this Sacramento short sale agent would have died and gone to heaven.
This view in my blog today is of a cold, wet beach at Hilton Head, South Carolina. But the people here are so danged charming, I don’t give a hoot that our weather kinda sucks. Can I interest ya’ll in some grits?
A Sneaky Way for Fannie Mae to Reject Short Sales
Fannie Mae and Bank of America can be a difficult combination in a Sacramento short sale. Not insurmountable by any stretch but still difficult. Part of this stems from the guidelines overhaul last fall, I suspect, in addition to the fact that Fannie Mae has been releasing Bank of America from servicing. But much of the struggles short sale agents face with Fannie Mae short sales probably have a lot to do with the fact that Fannie Mae, under the direction of the FHFA, has been moving away from short sales all together. There is a lot of speculation in the short sale community as to why.
It’s kind of a joke that Fannie Mae has set up a place where short sale agents can escalate or contest a price valuation. It’s just a website and a process to make an agent feel like Fannie Mae is doing something positive when it’s not. Just a way to shut up an agent. It’s sort of a smoke screen, I imagine. Because I knew a value was wrong, and I asked Fannie Mae to review it. Not only did the BPO agent call me upon completion of the BPO, but she told me the value. Fannie Mae again insisted on a much higher value — even with the evidence of the true value put before its very eyes. The BPO means nothing. The review process is worthless.
It doesn’t matter what the value is to Fannie Mae, if it doesn’t want to do the short sale it will set a value too high. And the value will stay there until the moon turns blue or the market finally turns around. That’s Fannie Mae and our government for ya.
I’ve got another short sale in which Fannie Mae is insisting we produce corporate documents for a buyer who is not a corporation. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times we ask them to read our lips, the buyer is not a corporation, the buyer is a general partnership, Fannie Mae has continued to demand corporate documents such as Articles of Incorporation. When we finally passed that hurdle, the representative from REDC asked for POF in the partnership name. It seemed fastest for the buyer to deposit all of the funds, including the balance of the sales price and all of the closing costs, into escrow.
The buyer deposited all funds into escrow and we presented Fannie Mae with the receipt. Not good enough, says REDC. The buyer must now remove all of the money from escrow, put it back into the bank and produce a bank statement. I’m not kidding. I wish I could make up this crazy crap — but then I wouldn’t be a Sacramento short sale agent, I’d be some insane person in a mental hospital.
Will both of these Fannie Mae short sales close? Yes, most likely. And that’s why I’m a successful Sacramento short sale agent. I hang in there for the long haul and don’t give up.
Rising Home Prices in Sacramento Knock Out Short Sales
Short sales are soooo 2012. When a reporter called to interview me a few weeks back, she asked if I am seeing appreciation in Sacramento and, if so, how much. How much are homes appreciating? Trying to put a finger on the exact amount is difficult without reviewing the variable stats, but my gut said double digit. I wanted to say in the 20% range but I didn’t reach out that far; although, in hindsight, it would have been accurate.
There are so many ways to show and predict the real estate market in Sacramento. You can look at month-over-month numbers and year-over-year, and compare square-foot costs to closed sales, you can manipulate the crap out of numbers to make them say just about anything you want them to reflect. You can say sales prices are going up because homes sold for more this month than they did last month, but that doesn’t take into account the fact that we have fewer homes for sale or more homes or that sellers are moving up and those are not first-time home buyer numbers, and so forth.
What I am seeing all over the board is the fact that rising prices in Sacramento are putting sellers into positions of equity. These are sellers who would have been a short sale candidate last year but this year they are sellers with equity. While they might have been kicked under the table by buyers in March of 2012, this month buyers are handing them real silverware, placing linen napkins in their lap and popping the cork. Sellers with equity are back.
When I get a call from a seller asking if I will handle a short sale for them, the first thing I do now is establish whether they have to do a short sale. Because you know what? They might not have to do a short sale. Many of these sellers are finding that they qualify for a regular sale. Even sellers who are behind in their payments are finding investors who are willing to make up the back payments, bring them whole and even put some money into their pockets — after all is said and done and closing costs are paid.
Is it obvious to everybody? I wouldn’t be writing this if it were. I see it. I see it even if the comparable sales don’t support it because I have special glasses, the kind that see through walls. Not really, but I do spot certain instances that others can’t seem to see. I know which way the wind is blowing. I sold over $32 million last year, and that’s a lot of homes — I see a lot of action. If you are wondering whether you need to do a short sale or if you can sell with equity, you should call this Sacramento real estate agent, yes, me, at 916 233 6759. I might be able to sell your home without it being a short sale.
And wouldn’t that be a fabulous thing for you? Relief might be right around the corner. Get a jump on it. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759. I love my job, and I’m happy to talk with you.
When to Accept a Sacramento Purchase Offer
Sellers today get very excited when they receive an offer but not excited enough to sign a full-price offer for their home in the Sacramento area. Wha? Yes, sellers do not want to take the first offer that comes in. They are savvy and know multiple offers will arrive if they just wait. The problem is a seller can’t wait very long unless her agent specifically states an offer review date in the MLS comments. Some sellers think they can wait as long as they want to accept a purchase offer, but they cannot.
Most residential purchase contracts in California contain a 72-hour clause for offer acceptance. This is by default. It means a seller has 72 hours to respond or the offer will expire. If a seller rejects a full-price offer that meets all requirements, it can be a problem. It can be a problem for the agent, and it can be a problem for the seller.
Agents are required per MLS to state in the comments that the seller has rejected a full-price offer, if the seller has rejected a full-price offer. An alternative is to increase the sales price in MLS to the price a seller will accept. Moreover, once a willing buyer has submitted a full-price offer meeting all the terms and conditions of the listing to a seller, the court typically says the brokerage has earned a commission. It’s not the listing brokerage that usually raises a fuss over this, it’s the selling brokerage, the company that represents the buyer.
Not to mention, just overall, a delay in response to purchase offers can super irritate a buyer to the point that a buyer might withdraw her offer if the seller keeps her waiting too long. While it may be tempting for a seller to wait to see how many other offers a seller will receive, a seller could have a legal obligation to quickly respond to a purchase offer.
Bidding Wars to Buy a Home in Sacramento
A potential home buyer called yesterday to talk about buying a home in Lincoln. Lots of buyers gravitate toward Lincoln because it’s newer and often more affordable than Roseville, although it’s a bit further out from the core of Sacramento. He wanted to know what the market was like in Lincoln. The real estate market in Lincoln is the same as anywhere else in Sacramento right now, mostly a seller’s market. Limited inventory. Too many buyers. Crazy bidding wars.
This fellow said he did not want to get into a bidding war. Hey, I did not want my car to stop in the middle of the freeway the other day either but it did. All the lights on the dashboard came on and it just stopped running. Fortunately, I was in stop-and-go traffic, coming back to Sacramento from Roseville, one of the few times I was grateful for the slow down in traffic. And now that I think about it, my car is not even 2 years old, and I better take it in to have it checked out or I could die next go around if it happened again. This is how busy I’ve been — not enough time to think about why my car died on the freeway, of all places.
The point is we deal with what’s at hand, and right now, we have a seller’s market. This means that some first-time home buyers will not buy a home. Because there are not enough homes for sale to feed the demand. There is not enough for everybody, no. No sense griping or complaining, it’s just the way it is. If you want to buy a home, you might end up bidding for it against one or more buyers. It’s not the fault of your Sacramento real estate agent, so don’t blame her.
Is it a good time to buy? You betcha. Interest rates are so low it’s almost laughable. It’s as though you’re getting money for free. Prices are still low, even though they are edging upwards. Do you want to wait until interest rates reach a point where they double? Do you want to be priced out of the market or have to settle for a home you don’t want? A little competition doesn’t kill you. What can kill you is to sit back and watch all of this action without participation. Or, not taking your car to a mechanic, as in my case.
So, the worst happens and you pay $5,000 more or $10,000 more or whatever amount more than the seller asked. The list price is not all that important in today’s market. The market value carries a lot more weight than a silly listing price. And what difference will it make a year from now or two years from now?
