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Elizabeth Weintraub
Fun Photos From the California State Fair 2018
We probably have not been to the California State Fair since before they changed the time period from August to July. August is such a hot month in Sacramento. Well, I mean it was 98 yesterday, and that’s still hot, but not as hot as August often is. Plus, there were misting booths and air-conditioned spaces. Although, we had a long walk from the parking lot to the entrance gate in the hot glaring sun.
I kept my eyes peeled for Lobster Boy or Bearded Lady or some of those other old-timey entertainment tents, but I don’t think they are PC anymore. Did not find any of those.
However, with all of my listings presently pending, it seemed like I deserved a bit of break from my Sacramento Realtor duties and pretty much took the afternoon off. OK, two phone calls and 4 text messages. Still, my phone was fairly quiet.
What I did find was corn-on-the-cob, which is always my go-to snack for the California State Fair. Any State Fair, really, gotta get roasted corn-on-the-cob. I also heard a lot of unsolicited comments about my shirt. Everybody loves this t-shirt. I found it at Nordstrom maybe 5 years ago. Most of the chuckles are from women. The guys just stare and say they don’t get it. In case you can’t read it, it says: Eat Your Lettuce and Be Sad.
Don’t ask me what kind of cow this is, because I have no idea. Cows are not my thing. I do not know anything about them except they need to be milked twice a day or they will explode. This particular cow looks like she has a river running across her shoulder, and the world map is stamped on her body.
Yes, ask me about goats. I know a lot about goats. For example, these darling critters are Nubian goats as evidenced by their long silky ears. I used to have a Nubian goat whose name was Zubie, and she lived in my back yard in Newport Heights in Costa Mesa. She and I would go on walks together. Little old ladies would stop me to pet her, telling me how much they love Dobermans. I was also shocked to discover that I could not get milk from Zubie unless I had a male goat around. I learned that little fact by going to the Orange County State Fair one year and asking.
I love carousels. Especially older antiques. One afternoon while working as a marketing and communications director in Minneapolis, I talked a group of coworkers into grabbing a bus and going to the Como Park Zoo. We ate hotdogs and rode around and around on the Painted Ponies on a 1914 vintage carousel. It was common for me to plan long lunch outings with my workers.
No wonder, I also worked as a meeting planner. Won an award from Meeting Planners International for Best Meeting of the Year in Minnesota. Only because nobody else applied for it, and I said to myself, hell, I’ll take that award then.
And we bet on the winning horse in Thoroughbred racing, Race #2, at the California State Fair. The one in front, in red, Knust. Not big gamblers. We paid $6.00 for win, place or show, and we won $12.40, which we promptly splurged on aquas frescas. It was hot. Did I mention how hot it was! Fun afternoon at the California State Fair. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.
Pros and Cons About Sleeping on Buying a Home in Sacramento
My amazing team member Amy McMullan, exclusive buyer’s agent extraordinaire, shared yesterday that her buyers had talked about sleeping on buying a home in Sacramento. She showed them a bunch of homes but they were not quite ready to commit. Sleeping on buying a home sounded like a good idea until they Googled it. Naturally, they found an article I wrote: 10 Ways to Know You’ve Found the Right House. They texted Amy to say yes, let’s write a purchase offer. How cool is that? Really made my day that I was able to reach out and touch these guys; help them make a decision.
It’s hard NOT to find an article I wrote about real estate and homebuying through Google because I produced a ton of material online over the years, early on and in great volume. Further, without tooting my own horn too much, readers find my voice connects with them. They also appreciate my sense of humor. I try to make my information easy to read. So it gets clicked on a lot, and that propels my articles to the top of Google searches.
In some ways, it is my legacy. That sort of content will always be managed by some corporation for profit so it won’t ever vanish.
But home buyers will continue, no matter what, to consider sleeping on buying a home. They come up with this idea because they don’t really know what else to do. Somebody once told them if they feel the same way after sleeping on it, it’s a good idea. Hogwash. You generally feel the same when you go to sleep as you do when you wake up. (Well, unless you’re tripping.) The only difference is you waited too long and now some other lucky home buyer snagged the house. There are zero pros to sleeping on buying a house except 12 hours passed.
I received an email from a buyer’s agent a few days ago about a home she had counseled her buyer to purchase. Her buyer loved the home. It was close to her work. Within her budget. It had everything she wanted except no garage. Since this is her first home and she wants to buy in downtown or Midtown, she’s not gonna get a garage, most likely. She needs to get over that. But she probably hasn’t realized that yet.
Her agent said, “She missed a good one. Could not make up her mind.” And that’s what tends to happen when buyers choose sleeping on buying a home in Sacramento. There is no upside to doing it. There is a lot of downside. So, I suggest you print out my article linked in the first paragraph of 10 Ways to Know You’ve Found the Right House and tick off each item after you think you’ve found “the one.” In this market of low inventory, there probably won’t be another for a while.
Trust your instincts.
Why Appraisals Rarely Exceed the Sales Price in Sacramento
Why do appraisals rarely exceed the sales price in Sacramento? In fact, I know that sellers definitely want to know: why do appraisals come in at the value anyway? Seems rigged. Good questions. Although it is also rare to meet that goofy kind of buyer who says, I thought the home would appraise way over list price, and since it does not exceed the sales price, I don’t want to buy it. Those kind of buyers are out there. A Sacramento listing agent does not really know what buyers are thinking when they make an offer to buy a home, but after years go by, it gets easier to guess.
Further, appraisals rarely exceed the sales price because that could result in a non-conforming appraisal. Wha, you exclaim? How that can be? Wouldn’t the lender be happy with a lower loan-to-value ratio? No, the answer is no. The only values a lender will consider is the sales price, if it’s lower, or the appraisal, if it’s lower. Whichever is lower. In addition, an underwriter might think something is wrong with a home that appraises for a lot more than its sales price. Because that would be weird.
I know buyers often think they know more about the market than the agents who work in those markets or the sellers who live in those neighborhoods. Don’t get me wrong, buyers are very knowledgable, but they generally don’t know more than professionals in the industry. Because experienced Sacramento Realtors know that if you list a home too low, buyers will bid up that price. It’s virtually impossible to sell a home for less than market value when that home has been exposed for a long period of time to a wide pool of buyers.
Generally, since appraisals rarely exceed the sales price, appraisals tend to come in right at the sales price or sometimes lower. A lower value would result in a low appraisal, and those do happen. Buyers get overly excited and bid up prices above the price at which the home will appraise. Because appraisals are based on comparable sales. Not market. In those cases, buyers either pay the difference or sellers lower the price. Buyers usually do not cancel. Instead, they are generally very excited.
It is rare for a seller to lower the price after a low appraisal and then have a buyer demand a deeper price cut. I know. Nuts, right? But I have witnessed buyers try to do exactly that. Makes a person wonder what they’re smoking. Their reasoning is they thought they were getting a deal when the seller discounted the price and accepted their offer. Now if it appraises at a bit less, buyers may have lost enthusiasm for the house they claim to love.
They probably imagined they were getting a smokin’ deal. Pulling the wool over everybody’s eyes. Which meant the contract was probably signed in bad faith. Have you ever heard of a buyer leaning toward cancellation because the appraisal was too low? Sellers, yes, but buyers?
Some buyers also don’t realize an appraisal is only one person’s opinion. It is not a fact. Not etched in gold.
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, there is always some new fresh hell on the horizon to let you know that you will never see it all. Even after 44 years in the business, there is always new crap.
The Secret to Saving Money is Not Always Pinching Pennies
Would you like to know the secret to saving money? There are millions of people who truly believe that to save money or make a smart financial move that you need to pinch pennies. They always haggle. Always try to get a discount. Such a mistake. You could be hurting yourself by trying to get by on always clipping coupons and looking for sales. I believe it sets you up for what I call the “poor kid syndrome”. Those who don’t believe they deserve anything nice and that they should suffer for what they get. Or, maybe that’s just my mother talking.
This is not to negate people for whom every dime is precious because they can barely make ends meet now. Some people truly do not make enough money to live on. This is for those people who do make enough money to live on, yet they continue to scrimp for no reason and have not yet learned the secret to saving money.
One of my clients called me a while back because she was starting a new travel agency. She asked me if she could send me trips to consider because I would be “saving money” by booking with her. She seemed shocked when I said I am not interested in saving money. Because I know the secret to saving money. It’s not found in getting a discount on plane fare. What you get with a discount on plane fare is the red eye. Who wants it? Or a discount on a hotel room is a room with a blocked view. Who wants it?
The secret to saving money is to pay yourself first. Even if it’s a small amount. Just do it. Set it aside in a separate account; don’t co-mingle the funds where you can easily spend it.
Another client called to ask if he couldn’t just buy a new sink before listing a home in Sacramento. I had suggested he refinish his chipped vintage sink. The estimate was $300. He could buy a new stainless sink, not porcelain, for $200, which was his preference. First, it would not fit in the same over-mount manner because his vintage sink is custom and laps a wider area of tile than a new sink will do. Plus, he needs to install it himself, which eats up more of his time. Not to mention, the original sink is perfect. So-called “saving $100” is not worth it.
Further, I just received a bid for fabricating quartz and installing a couple of vessel sinks in our house in Hawaii. It was a bit high. I could have asked for a discount or obtained a second bid. But the difference was not that great. The construction company came highly recommended. And, in Hawaii, that’s saying something. However, being on my way to 70 has taught me that consumers should not always push service vendors to reduce prices.
Bad idea. If you don’t like the contractor, call somebody else. When you think you know the secret to saving money is to get a discount from an independent contractor, you are wrong. You are building bad rapport and animosity. You are telling a person that the individual is not worth the money the person expects to receive. It’s insulting. So, even if they take your job, they probably won’t put a lot of effort into it. Human nature.
Further, not everybody is trying to rip you off. Some are worth what they charge.
I think of this today because yesterday I had an irate buyer on the other end of a transaction. The home did not appraise way over market value so now the buyer’s interest appears disrupted and it might not close. The buyer apparently objects to paying appraised value. There is nothing wrong with paying what something is worth. In fact, it’s a way you end up with what you desire. The other way, you breed disappointment.
What would you rather have? Disappointment or your heart’s desire?
How Long Did It Take to Sell a Southside Park Bungalow at 411 U Street?
Before I tell you how long it took to sell a Southside Park bungalow over on 5th and U Streets, I can share a few other details leading up to this. I know people see the days on market and wonder if they should go into Sacramento real estate. It all looks so easy. Although it is not that easy, and I suspect some people find it difficult to believe. They do not understand why the professional agents, those like me with four decades in real estate, can turn over inventory so fast. Couldn’t possibly be because we know what we’re doing, now could it? Must be because the market is so danged hot.
Well, I’ve got news for you. The market is not all that danged hot anymore. I keep saying it, but we are on the tail end of the seller’s market. Because I’ve weathered four decades of real estate and been through a dozen up-and-down markets, I know how to adjust to market conditions. My marketing is chameleon-like. It changes with the market movement. You know how chameleons change colors depending on their environment? If they land on green grass, they turn green. They become brown when crawling up a tree trunk. Well, that’s what I do.
I first started to work on this property last April when I was in Hawaii. In fact, continued to work on it when I made my next trip to Hawaii in June. We got the pest report, which was minimal, not even $500. Which is unusual for a Southside Park bungalow home built in 1927. The seller took meticulous care of this home. We made a number of trips to the house to advise the seller on preparation.
While looking over the comparable sales, I decided to advise the seller to increase the price he initially had agreed upon. We could get more money, given the competition at the time we went on the market. Sure enough, first day on the market, an interested buyer popped up. She has $100,000 to put down. But she spent too much time thinking about making a purchase. Enter a second buyer. Then a third buyer.
The third buyer, well, I thought we’d get an offer from that agent but in the meanwhile, the agent with the second buyer called. Of course, I let her know about buyers #1 and buyers #3. We could get an offer from either one of those buyers any minute. So she swooped in with an offer for her buyers and the seller accepted. Just as a courtesy, I let the other agents know the Southside Park bungalow is now pending.
This is how buyers lose a home. Not acting fast enough.
411 U Street, Sacramento, CA 95818 is pending after 5 days on market. Darn, I’m all out of listings again.
