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Elizabeth Weintraub
Clear Out the Clutter Before Home Selling in Sacramento
Most people have too much personal stuff, and this Sacramento real estate agent is no exception. I tell my clients to clear out rooms to make them look more spacious while I continue to shove furniture into mine. Of course, my home is not for sale. And we don’t invite any friends over because we don’t have any friends. Yet, our motto is if something comes into the house, something must go out.
OK, I admit that’s my motto and not that of my husband. Getting him to part with any personal belonging is tragic. Once a treasure touches his hands, it somehow transforms from an inanimate object into a living, breathing artifact worthy of preservation until the end of time.
But for the rest of us, into the trash. Or, to the Salvation Army or some other charity. Or, my favorite, the curb in front of our house, because it’s so immediate. I hardly ever see anybody remove the stuff — it’s magical elves who come in the night. Except for this guy who knocked on the door yesterday to ask me if there were any parasites living in the Oriental rug I had placed on a chair at the curb. Excuse me, parasites? Is that what you expect when an owner decides to clear out the clutter?
We had cleaned out the garage. The garage is a place where things go to prepare to die. It’s like the stopping ground before a final death. The weigh station before the graveyard. The hospice, like Denver International Airport. It’s for things we aren’t quite ready to part with, things that we might have some use for down the road and would be devastated, I imagine, if we could not find it in the garage when this immediate and urgent need arose. Of course, I can’t ever recall going out to the garage to find a stored item that I really, really needed to use at that very moment but if I needed it, it would be there.
Like a kitchen chair that came with a table and 5 other chairs but doesn’t fit in our kitchen space. It’s been living in the garage for 7 years. My husband pleaded with me, as I ferociously marched this kitchen chair to the curb, to return the chair to its rightful spot in the garage. His rationale was someday in the future we might want to give away our kitchen table, along with its 5 remaining chairs, and our lucky recipient would be horrified to discover the set did not come with 6 chairs. Oh, contraire, sugar bear. Our lucky recipient would be thrilled with the set of 4 chairs and one bonus chair that she can store in the garage. It’s one way to clear out the clutter.
Which brings me to a point about selling homes in Sacramento. See, it doesn’t matter if your home is a short sale or it’s a regular traditional sale, almost every home on the planet will show better with fewer pieces of furniture. Every seller should prepare a home for sale. Take down those photos on the walls — those grinning pictures of Aunt Mildred and Uncle Henry toking up in 1969 at Woodstock — and clear out the clutter. Your Sacramento real estate agent will thank you. And you’ll most likely sell faster and at a higher price. Not to mention, if you’re driving around homes in Land Park, please, feel free to take that kitchen chair sitting at the curb. I’m no stranger either to having to clear out the clutter.
How Do Sacramento Appraisals Work?
People think Sacramento appraisals are etched in stone, but that kind of thinking is flawed. Appraisals represent an opinion of value. Get 10 appraisers together in a room, and you’ll have 10 opinions of value, and some of them will undoubtedly be worthless. But that doesn’t stop people from thinking their home in Sacramento is worth a certain value because the appraiser said so or the agent said so.
Market value is that price at which a seller is willing to sell and an able buyer is willing to buy. It’s when you throw a lender into the mix that appraisals come into play. This is a reason sellers tend to prefer cash buyers. When you throw an appraiser into the transaction, it’s not unusual for market value to vanish — poof! The appraisal is for the lender, to protect the lender’s security; it’s not for the buyer, even though the buyer pays for it.
I closed a Sacramento short sale transaction this month in which we had 2 appraisals. The first was ordered by the mortgage lender by mistake. It was a conventional appraisal, not an FHA appraisal, and there is a difference between the two. The conventional appraisal came in at, oh, let’s say $200,000. The problem was the buyer had applied for an FHA loan, not a conventional loan and did not qualify for a conventional loan. So, the buyer could not use the $200,000 appraisal for her loan.
Enter the FHA appraiser. Her appraised value was, oh, let’s say $180,000. Yup, a $20,000 difference. Which appraiser was right? They were both right, if you can believe that. Because this transaction was a short sale, though, the short sale bank had plenty to say about that FHA appraisal at $180,000. The bank had approved a sales price of $200,000. It would not agree to let the seller sell at $180,000. We supplied comparable sales and argued, but in the end, the bank agreed to, let’s say $195,000. The buyer had to pay the difference of $5,000.
How much was that home in Sacramento worth? It was worth $200,000 to the buyer. The buyer always has the last word. If you’re thinking about listing your home in Sacramento, hire the best Sacramento real estate agent you can find. Because you want somebody on your side, not just the agent who will promise the highest sales price. Agents will list at whatever price a seller wants. The agent doesn’t choose the price. And the seller doesn’t, either. It’s the buyer.
How to Time Your Sacramento Short Sale
Two things potential sellers tend to ask this Sacramento short sale agent. The first is whether the bank will do a short sale. The answer to that is generally yes, unless you just bought a new home in your name. If you’ve just bought a new home in your name, unfortunately, you’re pretty much hosed and you should probably talk to a lawyer about that bad advice. The second question is how long does it take to close a short sale? What a seller is really asking is not how long it takes to close but when the seller must move.
Closing hundreds of short sales give this Sacramento real estate agent a unique perspective. Based on a seller’s individual situation, I can pretty much predict when the seller will have to move out. In some short sales, a seller should not move out at all until closing. A little known and recent supplemental twist to the HAFA short sale, for example, withholds the $3,000 payment to the seller if the property is unoccupied.
I also ask sellers why are they in a rush to move out? If they are not making a mortgage payment, and most of them are not making a payment, it’s free rent to stay in the home. Why move elsewhere and pay two sets of utility bills? Plus, moving out leaves the home vulnerable to vandals. There are good reasons to stay put.
Timing the short sale is important. A seller’s convenience is the most important. A potential seller from Granite Bay called me last week. He wanted to know if he could rent back and close his short sale. I’m glad he called me and not somebody else because the answer to his situation is no. He needs to delay his short sale until he’s ready to move. His short sale will take 120 days and he needs 6 months. On top of this, few short sale banks will grant a short sale to a seller who intends to rent back. In fact, one of my team members brought a short listing in MLS to my attention last week. The listing agent had noted in the confidential remarks the seller would sell only to an investor who would let the seller rent back. The lender was Wells Fargo. Lottsa luck there, buddy.
In a Wells Fargo short sale, all parties sign an arm’s length. No exceptions. See, the thing is if a seller and listing agent commit mortgage fraud — and violating an arm’s length could be considered mortgage fraud — a seller has given the bank a potentially legal reason to set aside the deficiency waiver. That means the seller could end up owing the bank the difference between the sales price and the mortgage payoff after the short sale closed. Simply because the agent gave the seller bad advice. Legal advice, on top of it, which an agent is not allowed to do.
My time frame for closing a short sale is my seller’s time frame. I am in no rush. I won’t push a seller to put her home on the market. To do a short sale, a seller must be ready to move forward. I advise my sellers along the way and help them to adjust their moving plans depending on their particular short sale circumstances. Stuff happens. Are you ready to do a short sale? Timing that short sale is everything. Hiring the right Sacramento short sale agent is a close second. It’s OK to ask your agent if it’s time to put your home on the market based on your own personal situation. In fact, I insist.
Wells Fargo Returns Short Sale Fund Wires
A Wells Fargo short sale is generally a pretty efficient transaction. Its negotiators are well trained, perform specific duties and work within well defined parameters. It’s almost like you put people into a cubicle so small that they can’t move around enough to even raise their arms, and this prevents them from messing up too badly. Caged egg-laying chickens might have more room. In some ways, I bet Wells Fargo doesn’t like the fact that we are stuck with human beings at all in the work force, but what the hey. Yet, even with all of this efficiency, a local title company says it has been “inundated with returned fund wires from Wells Fargo.”
There is a glitch in the Wells Fargo short sale closing process. For some reason, lately the closing instructions on the final HUD conflict with the closing instructions in the final short sale approval letter. In less than 24 hours from closing a short sale, Wells Fargo last week began sending back the funds to title. The funds are returned in some cases because the Wells Fargo arm’s length affidavit is missing a notarized signature, but in other cases, Wells Fargo has supplied no reason at all.
It happened on two of my Sacramento short sales yesterday, among many others at the title company. A representative from Wells Fargo called me to request documents. She gave me 15 minutes to deliver the docs. Not only did my escrow officer stop what she was doing and email them, but my TC immediately uploaded the docs to Equator. One of the reasons I always answer my phone. You never know what kind of emergency can pop up in a short sale. We beat the 15-minute deadline but Wells Fargo still returned the wire.
What are the consequences of a returned wire? Hmmm, apart from egg on the face (sorry for the chicken joke), in many instances not much, depending on whether the short sale approval letter has expired or whether there is a per diem clause in the terms. As long as there is time left on the approval letter, apparently you’re OK. But if there isn’t, I imagine Wells Fargo would demand its due. That’s the sign of efficiency.
Take Xanax for a Bank of America HAFA Short Sale
In some Sacramento short sales, I want to grab an ax and hack Bank of America into itsy bitsy pieces. Hey, don’t call the cops. In other short sales, I’m littering the doorway with rose petals. There is no one-size-fits-all explanation when it comes to a Bank of America short sale. But there is also no middle ground. No median. It reminds me of that nursery rhyme about the girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. When a Bank of America short sale is good, it’s very very good. When the short sale is bad, it’s horrid.
I tell my short sale sellers in Sacramento that there are two kinds of customer service reps at Bank of America: the brilliant and the morons. Nobody in between. They always laugh, but they and I know it’s the truth. I am also at an advantage with that statement because I know by the time a seller gets to me, that seller is pretty much ticked off at Bank of America. That seller has probably tried to do a loan modification and failed, often miserably. I don’t have to do much to poke the hornet’s nest and find common ground.
By the time a seller calls this Sacramento short sale agent, the seller is often exhausted, tired and angry. Oh, they can try to disguise their anger, and most do try to be polite, but I hear it in the cracking sounds of their voice and I see it in the fire raging behind their eyes. Bank of America has pushed them over the edge. They’re not even sure if they want to do the short sale because they are worried it will favor Bank of America in some way. Or, that the bank will reject their short sale. There’s fear and loathing. Believe me, I understand and empathize.
Moving a Bank of America short sale forward has its roots in patience. In not expecting too much from bank employees. Lowered expectations is key. Especially for a Bank of America HAFA short sale. A HAFA can expire. You’ve got about 4 months to close a HAFA. When you have a Bank of America HAFA coupled with a Green Tree second mortgage, that’s a lovely treat. Because Bank of America will take so long to approve the short sale, the Green Tree file will close. Green Tree keeps its files open for 90 days, and then they close them.
Those pesky laws about time frames in a HAFA? Ha. Bank of America thumbs its nose at those laws and slaps your face twice with its glove.
By the time we received short sale approval from Bank of America for our last HAFA short sale, Green Tree was long gone. We reopened the file with Green Tree and pushed. More than 60 days later, Green Tree issued approval, but then the Bank of America HAFA had expired. Could the bank extend? Yes, but it refused. Instead, Bank of America closed the file and reopened it, started over from scratch. New RASS, new TOS, new BPO, new HUD, it’s a new day at Bank of America, and it’s welcome to more hell for these Sacramento short sale buyers and seller.
On Wednesday, I sent a Tweet to the Social Media team at Bank of America about this file. I’ve Tweeted them so many times over this that they ignored the Tweet. It’s very unusual not to get a call back from Bank of America. I think I wore out my Tweets. The negotiator noticed the ZIP code was wrong. She asked me to send her a change of address when it was Bank of America that entered the wrong ZIP code. Oh, please.
We have a buyer’s loan about to expire if we don’t close by the end of the month. We have the Green Tree second loan going to charge-off at the end of the month. And we have a Bank of America negotiator lamenting about a ZIP code on a file that had already been approved once. This was already an approved HAFA short sale at Bank of America! Slap the Xanax into my hand.
I hope that today is the day we receive the new approval for this Bank of America HAFA. That’s one thing you can count on from this Sacramento short sale agent, I never give up hope.
