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Elizabeth Weintraub
Amador Flower Farm Daylilies now on Sale
My husband got it into his head that we should go buy Amador Flower Farm daylilies yesterday, since they were on sale. Not sure what prompted this but it probably has something to do with the fact that I sprayed RoundUp in our back flower garden on purpose. We had too much grass and a ton of weeds growing in that bed. Nobody weeded it. I tried to bribe the gardeners to take care of that bed, but they don’t give a crap, either. Our back yard looks terrible since I stopped fussing over it. There was a time long ago that my husband and I both used to work tirelessly in the gardens, and our yard looked fabulous.
Now, it just looks tired. We both work and travel too much. No Martha Stewart here.
But what about lunch? That was also my husband’s concern. Probably that we’d get stuck in the Amador foothills with nothing available but stripmall lunch counters. One such restaurant popped into my head. My friend Myrl had been to Sloughhouse Inn not too long ago, and that was on our way to get Amador Flower Farm daylilies. Yup, we’d drive right through Sloughhouse.
We drove around in circles a few times because I did not realize the Sloughhouse Inn was under new ownership as the Meadowlands Restaurant. Finally, we figured out it was the only restaurant within miles. Had to be the one. So we grabbed a spot on the back deck for brunch. My husband had a scrambled egg dish with broken pieces of tortillas, chorizo: a chilaquiles. I opted for a spicy Bloody Mary to complement my patchwork salad with shrimp. The salad featured strawberries, corn, golden raisins, romaine, peppers, radicchio, cheddar and a vinaigrette dressing. Two thumbs up for this restaurant!
I also peeked over the deck to view the dry slough. For which I guess Sloughhouse was named. And yes, you can see my reflection in my sunglasses trying to shoot a selfie. I shoot awful selfies. When I see people shooting selfies with those selfie sticks, I want to break that stick over their heads. Mostly, I’m opposed to selfies on principle.
Look at all those Amador Flower Farm daylilies! They also sell bare root but primarily through online orders. Since we were already there in person, and not in a position to dig, we elected to take the pots. Daylilies are flowers that generally produce one flower a day and then it dies. Some are capable of blooming twice. They are not traditional lilies, like Asian lilies or Tiger lilies.
I queried my husband. Who did he think was planning to dig up the dead weeds? He volunteered. That would mean getting out of bed at the crack of dawn to start digging. Before it gets hot. Somehow I don’t see that happening. So, we will see if those flowers ever make it into the back flower bed. We did, however, manage to bring back a trunk full of Amador Flower Farm daylilies to our home in Land Park. Since my husband has a plan for that back garden, he’s got carte blanche to implement it.
The only bummer thing about the drive out to the Amador Flower Farm from Sacramento is loss of cellphone reception. Pretty dead on that stretch of Highway 16 and up 49. Hard to talk about Sacramento real estate when there are no cell towers.
What Types of Homes are Selling in Sacramento?
For sellers who wonder what types of homes are selling in Sacramento, I have answers. Sellers whose homes have been on the market for a while seem to still be recalling our spring market, hoping for the best. Our spring market started off with a bang but by May, for example, many of my listings, like many others, endured price reductions. We had been overly aggressive with pricing, and that strategy doesn’t work anymore. Neither does selling a home in its AS IS condition, unless it is a major fixer or a probate. And many probates are fixers homes.
When I go out to meet with sellers, it is sometimes difficult to explain they are not sitting on a “gold mine.” In fact, not only will they NOT get a bunch of multiple offers all exceeding list price, it’s a fixer. To avoid having them glare at me and think evil thoughts behind my back, I do try to explain in the kindest way possible that our market has changed. If a seller’s intent is to sell her home as a fixer, we can do it. Fixer homes are selling. There are always a market for fixer homes. But there is also a steep discount associated with fixer homes.
What are fixer homes? Today’s buyers view these homes as fixers: any home with older carpeting, popcorn ceilings, outdated appliances, tiled counters, vinyl or linoleum floors and older light fixtures. The home can be in excellent shape otherwise, but if those defects are not corrected, it will be hard to sell, if it sells at all. We should get used to 60 or 90 days on market now. It can take a lot longer to sell upper-end homes as well.
This is not a market to put a not-so-nice or non-updated house on the market, you know, like an average house. Because average house are not selling. At any price. To discover which types of home are selling in Sacramento, apart from my own experience, it’s easy to catch that action in MLS. I studied how many homes closed escrow the first half of September in Sacramento, and we’ve had 476 homes close in Sacramento County this month. Pending numbers are 1,076 for single-family homes, and probably a third of those will blow up.
I can also look at the days on market for other homes. Sure enough, if I check the history, I’ll find price reductions. Most houses will sell if the price is right. But that doesn’t mean other types of homes are selling in Sacramento. What I see are homes in tip-top shape, with all the bells and whistles and amenities a buyer wants. These types of homes, flipper homes included, will sell.
But if your home isn’t updated or fixed up, it might not sell without an aggressive discount. Buyers are no longer jumping on every new listing. Some have given up and left the marketplace because affordability has become an issue. Interest rates are rising, conventional at 4.75%. Median price points still stable. Attractive market but not as attractive. Others sit on the sidelines to see how long a seller will keep an overpriced home on the market. Like vultures. Waiting for that price drop.
It’s a new world in Sacramento real estate for listing agents. Adapt, educate, inform and conform. The only other alternative is to get out. And we’re certainly not doing that. Not after 40+ years selling. But some other agents might bail.
Realtor Ethics Violations Not Available to the Public
While I hung out in Hawaii last week, Ken Harney from the Washington Post contacted me about Realtor ethics violations and the new policy changes at NAR effective this January. The new policies now allow for publication of Realtor ethics violations, meeting certain criteria. Supposedly, this is so agents can find out which other agents have been found guilty of violating the Realtor Code of Ethics. However, the information is not available to the public.
Well, I’ve got news for ya. Most Realtors already know who the perpetrators are.
Ken Harney had made a comment that alluded to the notion paid subscribers of certain websites could monitor or change their online reviews. Which is not really true. I know for certain that many popular websites publish anything any member of that websites cares to write. Especially when the person writing the nastygram is not a client of the agent, makes up some crap, and you can’t get rid of it. Take Zillow for example. A poster of a review needs to satisfy only two conditions: to NOT be a real estate professional and to establish an account on Zillow. Then the reviewer can write anything that pops into her head, sort of like Trump, and the victim can’t take it down.
Harney says you can look at reviews or no reviews on Realtor.com; however, I don’t ask clients to post a review there. Because it’s not as widely read as Yelp or Zillow. You can’t ask clients to post their reviews everywhere for you online. Realtor.com is on the bottom of many agent’s lists. Further, I understand that an agent can remove bad reviews from Realtor.com by not approving them, but I haven’t verified this. However, you can find my client’s testimonials at Sacramentorealtorreviews.com.
As for Realtor ethics violations being available to the public, I replied via email to Ken Harney’s request: The public viewing of dirty laundry is never gonna happen. I see the Washington Post changed my comment to “not going to happen.” But another newspaper did not. I think it lessens the impact to change what I said. It’s not meant to be assertive or in favor or against, just a fact.
Very clearly Realtors attempt to police themselves and, as such, sometimes they are wrong and sometimes they are right. A person was once pursued for an ethics violation when she excitedly wrote online that her business had exploded like 1,000 percent, it was so crazy. Do you think people are serious when they say something like that? Who do you think turns in so-called ethics violations of false advertising like this? Jealous agents, that’s who. These are NOT agents concerned about raising the bar.
Agents concerned about raising the bar are out there setting good examples.
On top of this, many years ago I got hauled into a ethics hearing that was so bogus, so contrived, so over-the-top idiotic, yet the abuse upon full disclosure failed to cease. Not even when an association lawyer who is now in management at the Board tried to stop it. The ethics committee jumped all over that claim and forced me to show up for a hearing that I should never have been called in for. Required to show my 1099 from the New York Times to prove I was also a paid freelancer. Brought my laptop to the hearing so I could visually explain how the internet works. They had no claim. Of course, I was found innocent.
But what a mess that should never have happened. That experience erased any feelings of good will toward the procedures. Such a dog-and-pony show. It most likely happened because some green-eyed agent noticed my content ranks high in Google for real estate-related material online. This individual evidently searched hard for something to report for a Realtor ethics violation because nobody goes to that extent on impulse. The person decided, in error, that the website, owned by the New York Times, had failed to disclose my Realtor status online. Which was untrue. Flat-out wrong.
Why aren’t they out there busting the agents who lie to your face? Doctor documents over a client’s signature? Insist there is no variable commission when there is? Tell buyers if they write an offer with the listing agent, they will make sure they get the property so they should drop their buyer’s agent? Submit earnest money deposits on transactions that are already deposited in another escrow? Independently make decisions for their clients? Squeeze buyer’s agents out of a listing on purpose? Tell a buyer a listing with a release clause is sold?
Those are a hideous bunch of infractors.
As long as Realtor Associations are in charge of ethics violations, there will always be drama. It’s like incest in some ways. And they will never publish that information to the public. They aren’t even that sure of it themselves.
Managing Buyer Repair Requests to Buy a Home in Elk Grove
Managing buyer repair requests is an art form. I can always spot that experienced buyer’s agent who invests the time to educate her buyers. It’s as plain as day. Some buyer’s agents simply take orders from their buyers. Don’t know why. Who is the professional and who is the client? I suspect some agents don’t know the answer to that question, so they allow their insecurities to bubble, to thrive and to rule. Agents don’t want to tell a buyer to back off or calm down or listen to reason, not in those words, of course. They want to be a buddy. And that’s the problem.
If an agent can’t find a way to explain to a client why the buyer’s chosen plan of action is harmful and a really bad idea, then how is a buyer’s agent representing that client? What kind of service is that? I tell you what it is. It’s called lip service, for some of you younger guys. Lip service is a disservice. Just like agreeing for the sake of harmony when the agent knows it is wrong. The best way to engage in managing buyer repair requests is to have a conversation with the buyer prior to inspections. To review other types of inspections and to prepare the buyer for the inevitable: The fact their dream home has things wrong with it and damages the seller might not fix.
This is never time “wasted” on behalf of the buyer’s agent. Yet so few set aside time to discuss aspects of the transaction with their clients.
I’ll give you a case in point. Yesterday, I closed a listing in Elk Grove. A sale which I sold twice and got paid once. Nobody likes to do that, albeit it is less work for me than the poor buyer’s agent who now has to hit the street to show more property or, worse, lost a client over it. In this scenario, a buyer’s agent begged me to show compassion toward his buyers. The agent made a plethora of promises he ultimately could not keep. When I hear from that agent in the future, I shall no longer hold a high opinion of that agent. The opposite. He lied. Repeatedly.
— Which is unacceptable in my book. Other agents say, hey, we all huff and puff and fluff, get over it. But, no. We all don’t huff and puff and fluff. —
After promising his buyer would purchase AS IS, he sent the sellers a 14-item request for repairs. It included things like replace all the fixtures and faucets in the house, replace the siding, install new windows. Crazy-ass stuff. The one thing he should have focused on was replacing the leaking water heater and he might have closed. Focusing on one major item is a sign of a smart agent. But no, they tend to get caught up in drama.
I tell sellers not to do repairs after they get a home inspection. But they take it personally. They actually want to fix broken things. It’s hard to get them to back off and wait for a request. Because what they think a buyer will want fixed and what a buyer really wants are two completely different viewpoints. No sense fixing stuff the buyer doesn’t care about. No two buyers are ever the same. After the existing buyers canceled, we found another buyer right away. Of course, this new buyer did not care at all about the home inspection. Just like I said. Those buyers had an agent who was adept at managing buyer repair requests.
Also, in this particular transaction, when our winning offer arrived, we already had a counter offer out to another buyer. That buyer was slow to respond. His agent did not appear overly motivated, either. While that counter offer was out and awaiting buyer approval, we received the offer we really wanted. Bay area buyer. Cash. $5K over. So we sent the second buyer a withdrawal of offer, withdrew that counter offer, and accepted the offer we preferred.
The sellers had already decided at that point to replace the water heater. It was expensive. Cost $1,400 to replace a 40-gallon water heater. Yikes. For that price, one may as well go tankless, but I digress. Last water heater I helped a seller replace was $750. Only a few years ago. However, these particular buyers had paid for a pest report. The first set of buyers did not. See? They don’t always get a pest. The pest showed $7,500 of Section 1 work, plus more for Section 2.
We had bumped up the sales price by $5,000, so we reduced it by $5,000, which made the sellers even. Even Steven. No pest work, and we closed with a cash offer. 9089 Paseo Grande Way, Elk Grove, CA 95758 closed escrow on September 12, 2018 at $339,999.
Throw Back to the Days of Sacramento Short Sales
Tropical storm Olivia approaches eastern Kauai. by: Josh Amolsch
If I didn’t know this was 2018 and not 2008, I would pinch myself and be happy we are not dealing with the attitudes of Sacramento short sales. Although, I did receive a call about a property in Elk Grove that was listed a bit over $400K, which suddenly dropped to $330K. The caller asked me if I thought $340K would work as an offer, so we had to discuss how short sales work. Why a bank would accept an offer, and how banks look at their BPOs. Still, I could work the comparable sales to arrange for a pretty good value that we could substantiate, but then the buyer never called back.
Almost 70% of my listings have been sold more than once and are now back on the market. You know what that means, right? It means that buyers are acting like the days of Sacramento short sales, i.e., eager to get into escrow but reluctant to stay put. When I talk with the exclusive buyer’s agents on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team, they say it is not unusual for them to spend a lot of time on the basics. Such as going over the purchase contract in detail, discussing how individual properties would meet long-term goals. Managing expectations.
This helps to prevent cold feet. Counseling buyers, making sure their needs are met. Not dragging them kicking and crying into escrow. Not every buyer is cut out to buy a house.
It was very common during the heydays of Sacramento short sales to have buyers cancel. But today, there is no reason other than anxiety, I suppose. Example, a starter home near downtown Sacramento has been in escrow four times. There is nothing wrong with the house. It’s been babied like no tomorrow, and the seller has been on top of every maintenance issue. We have a clear pest. But buyers are afraid.
I hope this stream of flakey buyers is just a quick rash that has stopped spreading. At least one thing is certain. We will never go back to the days of Sacramento short sales. The market might come to a slow-as-molasses rolling stop before leveling off, but it will never be a bubble bursting. Conditions for that kind of storm are non existent.
