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Elizabeth Weintraub
Can You Put Bananas in the Refrigerator?
If you think you cannot put bananas in the refrigerator, there is a way to do it. Who knew? Certainly not me. In fact, when I was at our neighbor’s house in Hawaii during my last visit, my neighbor dumped a bunch of ripe bananas in my arms. How she thought I would be able to eat them any faster than she could is beyond me. Although, I probably could have made banana bread. Yum, nothing like Tutu’s Hawaiian banana bread.
The main reason I have all of this fruit is because we have company coming. Josh Amolsch, my exclusive buyer’s agent extraordinaire on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team, is arriving in Kona this week with his fiancé. For some reason, I did not check my calendar and thought Josh would arrive on Monday but he’s not. Naturally, before I realized this, I bought a lot of fruit on Saturday at Safeway in Kona.
Then yesterday, during a conversation with my sister, I bemoaned the fact the apple bananas might be too ripe by the time Josh gets here. Papayas and mangoes will hold a few days but the bananas will be tricky. My sister said I should put bananas in the refrigerator only when they turn ripe. If you do it before the bananas are ripe, they will rot in the refrigerator.
But if the fruit is ripe, and you put bananas in the refrigerator, they might turn brown a little bit, but the interiors will be sweet, firm and yellow.
So go ahead and put bananas in the refrigerator after they have fully ripened. OK, I might have to eat one just to make sure.
When Buyer’s Agents Make Promises They Cannot Keep
What do Sacramento listing agents call it when buyer’s agents make promises they cannot keep? I know some people would call it lying. But with the way the world is going today, with all the crazy crap like truth is not truth and fake news accusations when the news is factual, it can make a person nuts. We want to believe our fellow agents, but sometimes, you just can’t.
I hate to say that, but you get good and bad in any profession. There are people whose word you can trust, take to the bank, and others who say whatever they have to say to accomplish a directive with little regard for the truth. No wonder agents have such a bad reputation. They have a bad reputation in part because they deserve it.
Now, when I had buyer’s agents make promises they cannot keep in the past, it was usually over a short sale. In retrospect, I was a lot more hard-nosed then than I am now. A buyer’s agent could weave a love story about how her buyers are madly in love with this house. Could not see buying any other property. They will gladly wait for the bank’s approval. When none of that crap they spewed forth was true. It was wishful thinking.
It is rare when one of my team members needs to cancel an escrow. They are educated, trained and skilled in real estate. If one of their buyers decides to cancel, it’s generally for an excellent reason. Every so often, though, the buyer is just not committed. However, I’ve never known any of my team members to be dishonest. Ever. And we discuss how to break the news to the listing agent without burning bridges.
Over the past couple of months, I’ve seem to have noticed a large number of buyer’s agents make promises they cannot keep. You would hope an agent’s word meant something. That there was honor. But that’s just my wishful thinking.
Buyers With Agents Calling Listings Agents, WHY?
Before the incident of buyers with agents calling listing agents happened yesterday, I had been rudely awakened at 4 AM. My fault, really, for leaving my Apple Watch on and not muting it on the charger. At 4:00 it went off, screeching with a Hawaii Emergency Alert that Hurricane Lane was approaching. Would the government purposely send out an alert at 4 in the morning if it wasn’t necessary? Must be important. I jumped out of bed.
Wasn’t much of an alert. Check media for an update was the message. I watched a CBS reporter talk about the flooding in High-Low as the reporter next to him lowered his head and whispered: Heeeeeee-Lo. Much of the flooding, raging rivers and landslides were happening inland or on the eastern side of Big Island. Hilo was hit extremely hard.
At the moment, I am in Kona, on the western side at our house in Hawaii for Labor Day. I wandered back to bed and fell fast into a deep sleep. Only to be yanked awake by the sound of my Apple Watch ringing like crazy a little before 7 AM. Wow, I had slept in. Sound asleep but able to dash for my phone in the kitchen, I grabbed my cell. This Hurricane Lane business has been exhausting.
I didn’t even announce my name; I was so groggy. Just mumbled: Hello. Did not realize this was a case of buyers with agents calling listing agents. The woman on the other end was rather brittle. She began firing off questions about a listing. Despite my present circumstances, I did my best to answer her questions.
Then she asked when she could do a “site visit.” A what? Is she local? She wanted to know if she could flip the house. If there was room for updates. I suppose so. Sounded like a flipper who might lowball, but I try to reserve judgment. Somehow I collected my wits about me and informed the investor I do not work with buyers. Not sure she knows how real estate teams work. Tried to be as nice and helpful as possible.
Well, she has her own agent, apparently. I began to explain that I was about to get blown away by Hurricane Lane in Hawaii. Which fell on deaf ears. OK, let’s focus on her. However, she really needed to engage her own agent. That’s why a buyer hires an agent. Buyers need to let their agent gather information from listing agents and to show homes. Buyer’s agents are more than happy to earn their commission.
If they don’t trust their agent, then don’t hire the agent. Buyers with agents calling listing agents are saying they don’t believe their agent can do their job. If they don’t think their agent will represent them properly, then maybe they need to find a new agent. Or, as I told this caller, she could work with one of my exclusive buyer’s agents.
It seems unprofessional and a bit rude to treat a buyer’s agent in this manner. Like, here, draw the contract, and the buyer will do everything else herself. Speaks volumes about how they view our profession.
Still, Hurricane Lane did very little damage to the Kona side of Hawaii Island. We prepared for the worst, and the best happened. Which was just a little rain. Off and on. Those clouds in the photo above passed very quickly over my house heading east within minutes. Seems like the storm is over for Big Island. I just lucked out.
Those on the other side of the island were not so lucky. You can help those affected by Hurricane Lane by donating to the Red Cross Hurricane Lane relief efforts.
Hurricane Lane Conditions Thursday at Kailua-Kona Hawaii
So many people have asked me about Hurricane Lane conditions at Kona that I thought you might appreciate photos of the action. Throwing into the mix, of course, the progress with the bath remodel project at our vacation house in Hawaii. Not a good time to run out of ibuprofen either. When your back is strained from lifting furniture, well, acetaminophen just isn’t the same thing, and I am not going to Target today. Not elbowing my way down empty aisles.
We start off with a photograph of the Kona sunset from Tuesday. There are no sunsets I’ve ever seen as gorgeous as the sunsets in Hawaii. Nothing compares. This photo is before the rains and before Hurricane Lane conditions started to hammer away at the Big Island.
Here is the sunset from August 22nd, just as Hurricane Lane approached Big Island about 280 miles south. Before I went to bed Wednesday evening, I opened the door to our lanai a bit so I could hear the storm coming. We were supposed to get a lot of rain starting Wednesday night.
This whole business with the hurricane has strengthened my belief that we bought in the right place on the Big Island. We had stayed on the Hilo side and explored that area, but there were too many drawbacks. First was the lava flow possibility going down to Puna. Insurance rates were too high, making the lava zones too expensive, and with good reason. It turns out.
Second was the tree frogs. The coqui. They drive me nuts. Chirp chirp chirp I suppose it’s like a train after a while, you don’t notice it. It grows on you or something. But I don’t want to give them that opportunity.
And third, buying up the hill instead of on Ali’i Drive seemed like a wiser investment. After all, I am a survivor of my house falling into the ocean in Ventura in 1981. Just because they build houses on the ocean, doesn’t mean it’s a safe place to live.
This is our lanai. I carted all the breakables and fly-ables to the garage. As I stood in the doorway of the lanai Wednesday night, I listened for sounds of activity. The weirdest thing happened. No sound. No wind, no cars on the road, no animal noises, no drifting music uphill from Royal Kona Resort. Nothing. Complete silence. Uh oh, I thought, this is the calm before the storm. Super freaky experience, this dead vacuum.
It’s not like I am in Florida, you know. People in Florida can move away from a hurricane simply by hopping in their car and driving in long traffic lines to go elsewhere. The NCL ship did not dock in Kona on Wednesday, either. We have no way off the island. What the hey. You go with the flow. I slept straight through the night.
Come Thursday morning, I woke to steady rainfall about 5 AM. No winds. And the rain eventually stopped. Then I noticed the guys from Lowes were back in my driveway. I thought they weren’t coming. They had installed the tub and moved the toilet flange the day before. But they had the medicine cabinets with them, which Lowes finally located.
Somehow the cabinets were lost in the store. But Tom, the project manager, found them. However, an issue existed. Turns out the studs in both baths are not 14 1/2 apart, like they should be. For some reason, the distance is 13 1/2 inches. Which means the medicine cabinets won’t fit without alterations.
Not sure why the workers don’t want to just cut the danged stud, block it up and stick the cabinet in there. That was my first suggestion. Then I flashed back to one of the first houses I had toured as a Sacramento Realtor in 2003. The sellers in that house had installed a medicine cabinet that cost more than $1,000. Big selling feature they claimed. I could not imagine such a thing then. Can’t imagine it now. Except the Kohler cabinets I purchased were $260 a piece, and even that seemed high for a cabinet that will rust in 10 years.
My suggestion was why not return the medicine cabinets and buy a different width? The GC from Lowes says he has high-end clients who are looking for matching medicine cabinets, of all things, so maybe he’ll find out if they will buy them from me. Although, seriously, I don’t know why they are reluctant to cut through the stud.
All of this was going on Thursday morning when Linda texted to see if I wanted to join the gang down at Kona Haven Coffee. We had a front row seat to view the ocean, which you can see in the first photo in this blog. That is Laura on her Harley Davidson pulling away into traffic, with the Royal Kona Resort in the distance. People were out, wandering about.
This blog was composed on Thursday, as it rained off and on all day. Friday will undoubtedly bring us a different story about Hurricane Lane conditions in Kona. If I end up evacuating, it will be OK because I have a charger in my car. Which makes me very happy to think about. You know how I need to stay wired! Stay tuned.
New Natomas Homes vs Resale Homes by Same Builder
Much of the new Natomas homes vs resale in Sacramento are not constructed on spec today. Builders found out the hard way how quickly they can get stuck with inventory when markets shift. Today, many builders expect a commitment to buy new Natomas homes before they break ground. It is especially important to know this as a Sacramento Realtor when selling resale homes by the same builder. Because given a choice, new or used, you know which buyers would pick.
So that was my challenge when I was called upon to list and sell a resale home in Natomas that had not yet met its first year anniversary. Circumstances beyond the seller’s control led him to need to sell his dream home. He paid for many thousands of dollars of upgrades, which had now slightly depreciated. Not only that, but his home was located on a busy street, and his cul-de-sac was so narrow that you couldn’t turn around without driving into somebody else’s driveway.
Let me say a word about upgrades in new Natomas homes vs resale. Buyers pay through the nose for those upgrades. They are new for about 3 months. Then, for the rest of a buyer’s life, she will remember exactly how much each item cost, and she will decide much later in hindsight that the money she spent just wasn’t worth it. There are no years and years of builder upgrade enjoyment.
Another drawback to this home was the funky layout. You entered through a long hallway, with a bedroom / den at the front of the house. A bit creepy. After moving through this enclosed tunnel, then it opened up to a beautiful entertainment area, dining space and a gorgeous, simply drop-dead WOW-factor kitchen. Straight outta HGTV.
Our best bet to sell this house would be pricing it in direct competition to the newer homes. The benefit to passing on new Natomas homes vs resale homes by the same builder is the fact buyers do not have to wait. They can buy the home of their dreams right now, and it’s already built with a ton of upgrades.
Plus, the seller had a time-sensitive incentive, a valid reason why he needed to quickly sell. Still, he wanted to try a higher sales price, so that’s what we did. After a few weeks, it was pretty clear buyers were not warming to the over $500K price tag for the resale home. More research that I presented to the seller indicated the home should be priced at $485K. That was about what he paid for it a year ago.
Fortunately, the seller took my advice and adjusted the sales price. Next day, bam, into escrow. He said he should not have questioned me because I was right. Hey, I’m always right, I laughed. Mostly always.
Unfortunately, it took the buyers forever to close escrow. They ran 3 weeks over the deadline for closing. Their mortgage company wholesaled the loan to Citadel. Remember that name because everybody I know who has worked with that group has awful things to say. It’s like the loan got approved with the mortgage lender and then they started the process over from the beginning with Citadel. Slow as molasses. Bad communication. Buyers were almost as disturbed as the seller over the horrid ordeal.
However, we did close yesterday, a bit over list price. 16 Lake Katerina Ct, Sacramento, CA 95834 closed escrow at $488K.
When it closed yesterday, I told the buyer’s agent, this deal with Citadel, well, I prefer dealing with Hurricane Lane. Which, when you read this is banging the hell outta Big Island. I am at our house in Kailua-Kona for the Labor Day weekend. Actually, it is not a choice. Now that I pause. I had to do both.
