Email Elizabeth
Elizabeth Weintraub
Need an East Sacramento Agent?
Are home buyers in East Sacramento a dime a dozen these days? That might explain the attitude, I offered to the home buyer who called yesterday morning. We’re in the middle of a seller’s market in Sacramento these days. Lots of buyers, very few sellers. Man, she was in a tizzy. Going on and on about how horrible her last few real estate agents have treated her. One East Sacramento agent kept calling her “friend,” she said, as in “Friend, don’t worry, we’ll write that offer.” Except, he never did. She referred to this agent as cheesebally. I hope nobody ever calls me a cheesebally agent. I don’t know why some agents manage to tick off potential home buyers. I have really no idea.
I suspect this particular home buyer was beginning to think of herself as chopped liver. She has a preapproval letter, plus she’s a conventional buyer with 20% to put down. She’s got the money in her savings account and is able to provide proof of funds. She knows the home she wants to buy. In fact, she’s already identified it. Among all of the homes in East Sacramento, she’s selected hers. How hard can it be to buy it, she wondered?
She had been complaining about this problem to her neighbors when they recalled fondly their own East Sacramento agent. Which happened to be me. I had helped these people buy a home in East Sacramento three years ago. Her neighbors said I was wonderful and suggested she call me. It’s nice to be thought of as wonderful. Beats being a cheeseball, I guess.
I’m always a little bit suspicious when buyers complain about their former real estate agent. Because you never know what they might have done to contribute to the treatment. One thing being an agent as long as I have been an agent has taught me is that there is often two sides to a story. But this buyer seemed pleasant, was qualified to buy and didn’t come across as a nut job — all important components to buying a home. So, I can’t offer an explanation for her struggles.
We wrote a strong offer for that East Sacramento home and delivered it to the listing agent. Didn’t matter that she called me early on a Sunday morning. When a former client sends me a referral, I take care of those people like the precious gems they are. I love referrals. Because criminy, you’ve only got one reputation in this business. If you’re looking for an East Sacramento agent, call Elizabeth Weintraub 916.233.6759. I’ll get the job done.
Is This a Good Time for Home Selling in Sacramento?
My days seem to be pretty balanced in Sacramento in that I talk to about the same number of home buyers as I do to home sellers. Yes, I am an oddball Sacramento real estate agent who answers her phone. I also respond to email very quickly. So fast that I tend to astonish potential clients. I get the phone calls and emails because I have a ton of listings in Sacramento. Once that activity gets ramped up, it doesn’t stop, it only continues to build more business and more client contacts. As a result, the question I get asked more often than not is whether this is a good time to sell in Sacramento.
I suspect you think that any Sacramento real estate agent worth her salt is going to respond YES. Except in this case, it would be absolutely true. It’s no secret that I am not a big fan of home selling during the holidays. Sometimes, though, you have to sell over the holidays, and if you do, I’m there for you. But right now, October, is an excellent time to have your home on the market. For example, I just put a home in Roseville on the market last Friday. Within 24 hours, we have 5 offers. Five excellent offers, no lowballs. If your home is priced right, marketed right, it will quickly sell and for a lot of money!
The question other people ask is whether this is a good time to buy. If you’re working with the Elizabeth Weintraub Team, it’s a fabulous time to buy. Interest rates are low. Prices are low. But competition is stiff. We beat the competition every single day. It’s why we are successful Sacramento real estate agents.
It seems that right now many of my Sacramento home sellers are getting geared up for the spring market. Yeah, the spring market in October. Who’d a thunk it? But preplanning is important. If you want to come out with a bang in January, now is the time to plan for it. Why would you want to appeal to a tiny pool of home buyers in November or December when your home can explode on the scene in January, splashed in front of thousands? I’ll give it to you straight.
Think about it. Call me. 916-233-6759. Sacramento real estate broker, Elizabeth Weintraub at Lyon Real Estate. Now taking appointments for selling homes in the four-county area of Sacramento.
Bank of America Cancels a Short Sale
This Sacramento short sale agent spotted a freaky warning in Equator yesterday about how Bank of America cancels a short sale. It’s a Cooperative Short Sale. My seller is receiving more than $10,000 to do this Sacramento short sale. It’s been smooth sailing for her from day one — no financials, no hardship letter — and the docs are in title, knock on wood. The warning was from Dignified Transition Solutions (DTS) and read: LOANS ARE MORE FREQUENTLY BEING SERVICES RELEASED FROM BANK OF AMERICA, WHICH WOULD VOID THE DEAL. This means exactly what you think it means. It means that even though we have short sale approval and are about to close escrow, Bank of America can cancel the short sale.
The buyer has completed all of her home inspections. She paid for a lot of inspections, too: roof, chimney, general home inspection, pest report. Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking so what, the buyer does not have a contract with Bank of America. The buyer has signed a purchase contract with the seller, and that purchase contract is contingent upon bank approval of the short sale — even though it is a preapproved Cooperative Short Sale, the bank still needs to approve the purchase offer.
Yet, you probably wonder how can Bank of America cancel a short sale? The bank is not the investor. This is the little known but all-important fact in most short sales. Often, the bank is only the servicer, it services the loan, collects the payments (or non-payments) and disburses the money on behalf of the investors. Investors are increasingly pulling that servicing from Bank of America.
I had another Bank of America Cooperative Short Sale yanked by the bank right after the Equator counter offer. Here, we were waiting for what we so innocently presumed would be the short sale approval letter when we were abruptly notified that Bank of America was no longer servicing the loan. It had been transferred to our buddy, Seterus. Which was once, believe it or not, IBM. What a sad graveyard for typewriters and a former technology giant. We started the short sale over from scratch with Seterus. No cash for this seller. No guarantee the short sale will be approved again, either.
Another Cooperative Short Sale at Bank of America is destined for another servicer as well. We went back to the bank negotiator to ask for a short sale extension and were informed the file was being held, pending a servicing release. At least the bank had the decency to hold this pending release but it’s also now being released. This investor is Fannie Mae. I don’t know who the other investors are in my other Cooperative Short Sales — just that those investors are not a government sponsored entity (GSE) like Fannie Mae. That information is unavailable. I do know that we have Fannie Mae saying: Adios, B of A. And don’t let the door hit you in the butt.
Still, the question is how can Bank of America cancel the short sale just before closing? Like with most things, the answer lurks in the legal documents. In the short sale approval letter, Bank of America says, “We may terminate this agreement at any time if we have evidence of: blah, blah and
“The transaction does not comply with our requirements, policies and procedures.”
If Bank of America is no longer the servicer, you’re hosed. So, the moral of this story is it ain’t over until the fat lady sings. Until you close escrow, that Cooperative Short Sale at Bank of America could be at risk.
A Day in the Life of a Top Producer
Elizabeth Weintraub is a top producer agent in Sacramento
Does the public care whether their Sacramento real estate agent is a top producer? Does the public even know what a top producer is, and why should it matter? It doesn’t. And I say that as a top producer, not as some aspiring real estate agent who hopes to make it big someday. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a seller announce that she needed to hire a top producer. That’s because the public tends to think every Sacramento real estate agent is a top producer. The truth is you’ve got closer to your 1% in this business, and then there’s the other 99%. But who really cares?
Some agent was mentioned in a REALTOR magazine about having sold more than 200 homes in 2 years. I thought, wow, that’s a lot! It made me wonder how many I have sold. See, I’m so busy selling real estate in Sacramento that I don’t always have time to count my big ‘ol stacks of money. I pulled up MLS and entered my ID, and asked it to show me sold transactions for the past 2 years. My number for October 11th was 199 transactions. My jaw dropped. I kid you not. That’s pretty spectacular, especially when compared to my early days in Sacramento, after I moved back to California from Minnesota.
I recall sitting at the manager’s desk at the Lyon office in midtown Sacramento. I was looking at my performance for the year. I think back then I sold around 20 homes a year. Respectable. Decent. More than enough to qualify for Master’s Club at the Sacramento Association of REALTORs. I was complaining and asking why I wasn’t doing better, that I had so much extra time on my hands which I could be utilizing in my business, and kibitzing in general. I felt that I was capable of doing more, selling more homes, but I wasn’t doing it.
It’s not like I had some grand plan that I implemented. No big epiphany. I just put my nose to the grindstone and didn’t look up for several years. Grabbed every business opportunity I spotted. Held open houses every week. Handed out my business card to strangers. Took Floor Calls and talked with walk-in traffic at the office. I did not discriminate except to try to weed out the crazy people. Somewhat nutty people are OK. The downright screwballs and looney-tunes, not so much. But by not discriminate, I mean I did not turn down a listing for a $30,000 condo anymore than I would reject a $1,000,000 listing in Granite Bay. And I agreed to work on short sales.
An agent in San Diego said the other day that listing short sales was so much easier than listing a regular home with equity. She said there was no need to address commission nor sales price. I believe that those two things generally are not really a big issue in a regular transaction. But maybe that’s just the way I do business. I look at the bigger picture. The bigger picture is a satisfied and happy client. A happy client means referrals. Referrals means I don’t have look for business. I make a client happy when I give them what they want.
If I am selling a client’s home quickly, with minimum fuss and at the highest price we can possibly get in the market place, that’s what a client wants. They want to trust their agent. They don’t want to sell real estate themselves, or that’s what they would be doing. They’re not really hung up on whether they are paying me X amount or Y amount, because I am giving them what they want. I tend to exceed expectations.
Today, I am meeting with a seller of a duplex in Foothill Farms. It’s a regular transaction. He also wants to buy a home in midtown Sacramento. I am taking a probate listing in River Park, over in East Sacramento. That home needs a bit of work. I might list a home in Fair Oaks, but that seller hasn’t yet decided whether she wants to finish remodeling the home or sell As Is. I met with her yesterday, and she needs to make some decisions fairly soon.
I’ve got two short sales to put into escrow today, an Active Short Contingent and a Pending Short Lender Approval. Just finished filing the purchase offers. I’m writing this in the dark. The sun hasn’t come up yet. So, if you’re an agent reading this and wondering why your life doesn’t mirror that of a top producer, you might try getting up earlier in the morning and squeezing more into your day. None of this sleeping-in-until-noon business. And don’t focus on becoming a top producer. Focus on the business at hand. The rest will follow.
How to Get $10 a Day for a B of A HAFA Short Sale
We just closed a Bank of America HAFA short sale yesterday that had started in January. This was my second Bank of America HAFA short sale closing this month. The one that closed last week was much worse by comparison. In this particular HAFA, I was fortunate to represent an extremely detail-oriented seller who had completed all of her paperwork immaculately and upon receipt. This escrow should have flowed just like clockwork, yet it took 10 months to close. Within 30 days of opening the file in Equator, we had approval from the second lender, Green Tree, and all documentation submitted and verified, including two completed BPOs. Still, it took 10 months.
By the time Bank of America gave us its first B of A HAFA short sale approval in May, the approval at Green Tree had expired. Despite our pleas, Green Tree closed the file. We reopened the file at Green Tree and started over. There were the usual battles at Green Tree: calling the seller at work, harassing the seller for payment, threats of short sale charge off, and finally we said: fine, send the file to charge off. See, this is the thing — Green Tree can reopen and re-approve a file in 2 to 3 weeks, what it takes Bank of America 3 to 4 months to do.
To add to the horrors, Bank of America then abruptly closed the file early July. It was a mistake. We had asked for an extension but no, they closed the file. We tried to reverse the soft decline, Tweeted the Social Media Team, escalated the file to the Executive Office, but to no avail. Of course, by this time, Green Tree approved the short sale a second time, while we started the process over with Bank of America.
Bank of America assigned an escalation specialist to the file. This negotiator managed to get approval two months later, insisting her performance was perfectly satisfactory. You’re telling me that a HAFA initiated in January and closing in October is perfectly satisfactory? This is why many sellers would rather poke out their eyeballs than do a Bank of America HAFA short sale. The only benefit to a seller is that $3,000 payment. Which worked out to a return of $10 a day.
I reflect on this and wonder what we could have possibly done differently. The answer I come up with is not to have applied for a B of A HAFA short sale at Bank of America. But when a seller insists on a HAFA, that’s what I do. It’s not my decision to make. This particular seller figured she had 10 months to wait, so it didn’t matter. As long as she closed by the end of the year, she was satisfied, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say she was happy about it.
The other element in this transaction was the buyer. The extremely patient, dedicated and committed buyer. We selected the right buyer, which is always key to a successful closing. It could have been much, much worse. I could have had to sell this Elk Grove short sale three times instead of only once.
As an experienced Sacramento short sale agent, I have been closing Bank of America HAFA short sales for a long time. I am Equator Platinum Certified and a Certified HAFA Specialist. If you absolutely want to do a HAFA short sale through Bank of America, I doubt there is much I haven’t seen, and I’ll be happy to help you close it. Just be forewarned.
