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Tips for LGBT Home Buyers When Writing a Letter to the Seller
If you’re looking for tips for LGBT home buyers who are trying to compete in Sacramento’s hot seller’s market, you’ve come to the right place. Every agent on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team loves working with LGBT home buyers. We absolutely do not discriminate and we take caution to try to ensure our clients never face discrimination. But when you’ve got idiots like U. S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher saying home sellers should not have to sell to gay or lesbian people, it confuses some people. Fortunately, it did not confuse the National Association of Realtors, which promptly withdrew its campaign contributions to Rohrabacher.
The issue of LGBT home buyers writing a letter to the seller came up yesterday. At first blush, the agent’s first instincts was to advise the LGBT home buyers to put it all out there, take a stand, be who they are and be proud of it. Problem was the seller of the property was born in 1926. Really old people are not always known for insightful tolerance. And no, I do not intend to argue ageist issues or discuss those who discriminate against older people. Just saying, you’ve got Grandpa Joe who’s moving kinda slow at the junction and does not necessarily understand a thing about LGBT.
The agent thought back to heterosexual couples who wrote letters to the seller, talking about how they just got married. How excited they are to buy their first home. About plans to start a family. Why can’t these LGBT home buyers express the same sentiment? Good question. And it’s best answered by considering these two additional questions:
- Do the LGBT home buyers need to make a statement or do they want to buy a house?
- Since when is it anybody’s business about your personal life or sexual orientation?
Home sellers want to sell their home to an owner occupant, generally. Sellers take great delight in knowing the new home buyers feel a connection to their home. After all, it’s years of memories in that home for the seller. They want the new buyers to fall in love with the home. To express their enthusiasm for the property, to show the love. Every person on earth can do this. This is not hiding who you are, it’s just not focusing on other aspects.
My advice for LGBT home buyers is let your desire for the home shine through in your letter. Put your heart out there, not the gender you identify with nor your sexual preferences. Because it is not any of the seller’s business. Further, California law prohibits discrimination based on sexual preferences, but you probably know that. What people outside of the LGBT community often do not realize is that the federal Fair Housing Law does not include sexual orientation as a protected class.
After all this of time, there is presently a bill before Congress to amend the 1968 housing law to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes.
It’s only taken 50 years. After this, maybe we can pass the ERA?
What Happens When Sellers Reject a List Price Offer?
Is it smart for sellers to reject a list price offer? You might wonder why a person would put her home on the market and then turn down an offer at full list price or better. But it happens. You know why? One reason is the seller is mentally ill. I’ve certainly experienced a few of those. But much of the time it is because sellers harbor unrealistic views of how much their home is worth. They probably get that mindset from asking Uncle Joe or they wrongly trust Zillow estimates, and both are most likely widely inaccurate.
Or, they add up all the money they have ever put into the house. For some reason, sellers tend to believe improvements do not depreciate. That new kitchen 10 years later is not new. Further, if they put on a new roof several years ago and it cost $15,000, they think their home is worth $15,000 more. It pains me to say, it is not worth $15,000 more. Not on the day the roof was installed or even two years later. Because a roof is a maintenance item, not an improvement.
It might appear as an improvement to the seller because maybe the old roof was really old shake and now this roof is a 50-year warranted comp. Still, it is not an improvement. A new roof just makes the home more sellable. Further, I find the amount of money people put into a home tends to grow in hindsight.
Then we have the Sacramento listing agents who have done their homework and they suggest a sales price the seller does not agree with. However, maybe the seller didn’t share with her agent that she was not in agreement. She might have signed the listing agreement at a lower price than she wanted. Maybe the seller figured multiple offers would push up the price. And then no multiple offers happened.
Whatever the reason, when sellers reject a list price offer, the seller has several options. The first is the seller can take the home off the market. Especially when it is clear there won’t be any higher priced offers. The second is MLS regulations require that the Sacramento listing agent put a note into MLS for other agents that lets agents know the seller has rejected a list price offer. This option is rather defeatist for the seller because now other agents are likely to suggest their buyers pass on viewing the home.
When sellers reject a list price offer, they tend to appear unstable to everyone. The third option is to raise the price in MLS. However, if you’re a seller who thinks that’s a good idea, well, that option is pretty much like putting a gun to your head and just not pulling the trigger yet. Hate to say.
Tips for Writing Purchase Offers in a Foreign Market Like Sacramento
Being an out-of-area agent working at writing purchase offers in a foreign market must be really tough. For example, as a Sacramento Realtor, I would not want to represent a buyer to purchase a home in San Francisco. I would refer that buyer to an agent in San Francisco. I don’t know the values, the neighborhood pockets or even much about local customs. Except I know enough to realize agents in San Francisco do a lot on the front-end of the transaction. In Sacramento, most of our due diligence is during escrow.
To be blunt, my 40+ years in the real estate industry absolutely do NOT qualify me to represent a buyer or a seller outside of my local four-county area. If another agent believes differently, that’s certainly that agent’s prerogative.
Further, it is not against the law for any California agent to engage in writing purchase offers in a foreign market. Because a California real estate license allows a broker to collect a commission for the sale of property anywhere in our great state. I’ve watched San Diego agents try their hand at listing homes in Sacramento, generally very poorly, too. Such a bad idea. Those poor sellers.
If you are an agent who has elected to begin writing purchase offers in a foreign market, you might ask a listing agent to share local customs. This procedure would stop the seller from having to clean up all of the mistakes in the offer before the offer could be accepted. During the time a counter offer is out for signature to the buyer, another buyer could swoop in and snatch that house.
Sacramento is in the midst of a strong seller’s market. Not to mention, once a buyer decides to buy a particular listing, another buyer often falls in right behind. It easily comes down to timing. That second buyer could cause a bidding war, induce multiple offers.
It is so easy to ask a listing agent about writing a purchase offer in a foreign market. For example, sellers do not pay for a buyer’s home inspection report. Yet, some Bay Area agents I’ve noticed believe they do. If I were a buyer, I would not rely on a home inspection from a seller, LOL. Which is probably why buyers pay for their own inspections. It only takes a second to ask how to split fees, which party chooses title and escrow.
Respect Home Buyers in Sacramento By Not Speaking Real Estate Jargon
As a career Sacramento Realtor, I try not to use real estate jargon with our home buyers. We speak it so much to each other. If you were to listen to a convo between myself and the most wonderful transaction coordinator in the world, we may as well be speaking Klingon. Here is an example: We need to issue the NTBP to sign the CR 2, and we may as well throw in the DTC since we’re so close to docs. What is that real estate jargon?
It means we need to send the buyer a Notice to Buyer to Perform, to put the buyer on notice to complete a contractual obligation. In this example, it is to release the loan contingency. Being close to docs means the lender is about ready to send loan documents to escrow. We might suspect the buyer will try to extend closing, and we want the right to cancel if the buyer doesn’t close escrow on time.
We would do this especially if we were sitting on an executed backup offer that offered more money to the seller. But a Sacramento Realtor has no business using real estate jargon with a buyer. Every industry has its own acronyms and secret decoder rings. It is almost unpardonable to speak a foreign language with a home buyer. Nobody wants to ask for an explanation.
I found myself talking with a buyer yesterday and apologizing. The apology was because I referred to a 3, 2. Caught myself doing it. So I corrected the real estate jargon, apologized for saying it in the first place and then explained. A 3, 2 is a 3 bedroom / 2 bath home. There is no place in real estate communication for real estate jargon. It is insulting to our clients when we speak that way.
We can use our words. That’s why we have words. Maybe even the best words, the very best words. You cannot take the real estate reporter out of my husband, even though he now works for the state of California. For instance, if you think corporate communications is laughable, imagine dealing with government workers on the state level. He constantly works on breaking a story into simple words that anybody can understand and relate to.
As a Sacramento Realtor, we owe our clients the same communication skills. Be sensitive to the needs of others. Just say no to real estate jargon.
Signing With a Power of Attorney for Sacramento Real Estate
One of the most commonly used and often misunderstood documents is the power of attorney, especially when used in conjunction with real estate. Basically, we use two different types in California: a specific or a general power of attorney. When it comes to real estate, many title companies prefer the specific power of attorney. This comes up a lot, especially with trusts. People seem to think you can use a power of attorney any old time and you can’t. You can’t use a power of attorney with a trust. That’s why a trust names a successor trustee.
Also, for example, a person can’t sign a power of attorney giving another authority to sign on her or his behalf if that individual is not in full control of her or his mental abilities. In other words, if the person suffers from dementia and is unable to manage her or his own affairs, that person does NOT have the capacity to sign a power of attorney. The time to sign a power of attorney is while the person still knows what’s going on and understands what she or he is signing.
It also goes without saying, a person can’t be dead. A power of attorney terminates upon death. Dead people are not capable of entering into agreements; I don’t care which SYFY show you watch.
That’s all the basics you need to know, except the specifics of signing with a power of attorney. Here are the general rules:
- Sign the other person’s name first
- Then use the word “by”
- Followed by your name, and
- then “as her (his) attorney-in-fact.”
Say, we’ve got a married couple like Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka. If David were to embark on an African safari while he and Neil were buying a home, David could give Neil his power of attorney. Neil would sign as follows:
David Burtka, by Neil Patrick Harris as his attorney-in-fact.
When dealing with Sacramento real estate and a purchase contract, make sure your agent also prepares a RCSD, representative capacity signature disclosure. This lays out who can sign for whom. It may also require a copy of the power of attorney.
One important caveat, though, concerning signing with a power of attorney that I discovered last week. DO NOT PRINT your signature. You would think nobody would have to say this to another person, but you do. There are people who will print a signature. Especially those millennials who never learned cursive writing in school.
We had a closing held up last week because the buyer printed her spouse’s signature with a POA! The buyer signed in front of a mobile notary, and the mobile notary did not know enough to know the buyer could not print a signature.
At least the buyer’s grade school taught kids to print. I’d hate to think that in this day and age a person could not communicate without a computer or cellphone. But some millennials, apparently, could be stuck drawing stick figures. It’s like we’re back to telling stories through art on caveman walls because nobody can write anymore.
I clearly recall in third grade receiving a very low grade in cursive writing. Big trouble, not allowed to bring home low grades. I had resisted moving from printing to a new form of communication. Didn’t hurt I printed beautifully. Block letters, easy to read. Now I had to learn a new way of communicating. My mother forced me to copy a chapter from a book in cursive. And I embraced it. Perhaps I’m jealous that today’s kids aren’t forced to make that transition. You kids get offa my lawn. But it does come in handy.
