Email ElizabethReal Estate Tips
Do Not Run Out of Gas on Moore Road in Placer County
This is the right way to insert a nozzle, not by hauling the hose over the car.
The one place you do not want to run out of gas is on Moore Road as it changes from Placer County to Sutter County, let me tell you. I came home late the night before because I had an early evening appointment in Fair Oaks to list a home, followed by a stop at the Sacramento Board of Realtors Masters Club Mixer, held at an enormous 7,500 square-foot home for sale in Carmichael. I didn’t want to make my husband hold dinner any longer than 7:30, so I didn’t stop at the gas station on my way home, figuring I’d do it on my way out in the morning.
Except you know how that goes, and I did not think about it as I headed out to Roseville the following morning. Nope, I was thinking about the home in Sun City, which list in the Bay Area I might market to and how the seller was doing that filling up my gas tank did not cross my mind. Not until I was on my way back, and I drove past my turnoff on Baseline because I was yakking on my cellphone with a seller from Midtown who is ready to buy in Roseville. She could not believe that yes, one of my team members would be delighted to show her homes in Roseville.
I drove into no-cellphone-coverage territory and my call dropped on Moore Road. It’s a two-lane road with a ditch on each side, so if you run out of gas, you have no choice but to leave your vehicle on the road where somebody else is likely to smash into it. Lovely thought. Assuming the swooping planes overhead don’t crash into you first. Looked like several single-engine planes, bright yellow, were crop-dusting except they were flying very low and sideways over fields of water.
Consider remaining range
When I asked SIRI for directions to the nearest gas station, she could not access the Internet. The gas tank on my car read: consider remaining mileage. So polite, those Italians. Yes, let me ponder the remaining mileage before I panic. SIRI then suddenly found a signal and led me 8 miles out of my way to a closed gas station on West Riego Road. I’m beginning not to like SIRI anymore. I am cursing SIRI under my breath, but hey, lookie here, I am about to get on 99 and head south: SIRI where is the closest gas station?
Del Paso Road in Natomas, but she didn’t specify which way to turn. 50 / 50, I chose east. Sure enough, SIRI demanded a U-Turn. I am now muttering some not very nice things about SIRI as I notice, hey, a gas station. A Chevon station. Right there on my right, with a whole bunch of pumps . . . and every single one of them is busy. Wait, one opened up. I zipped in. Whew. Except my gas tank is on the other side of the car, which means the pump hose is not long enough to reach my tank. I press my body into my car for leverage and pull. An inch short.
I had no choice but to lay the hose on the ground, try not to run over it as I repositioned my vehicle in the tight space available between the hose and the car behind me. Please, nobody light a match.
Those at the gas station were undoubtedly witnessing this fiasco and wondering what in the world I was doing. But it’s OK. See, I’m in real estate and that kind of stuff is allowed. At least, that’s what I tell myself every time something like this happens. To be fair, I have yet to run out of gas, but yesterday came pretty darn close to it.
Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures in Sacramento Real Estate
Do desperate times call for desperate measures?
Do desperate times call for desperate measures in Sacramento real estate? I’d like to believe otherwise but then I may as well make like an ostrich and stick my head in the sand. Except an ostrich would be likely to end up with a bunch of baby ostriches and I’d just mess up my makeup or lose an earring.
I realize it’s tough out there for home buyers right now. If they love a home, so will another . . . and another and another. That means some lucky sellers are receiving more than one offer for a home. Yet, this is absolutely a great time to buy a home because interest rates are positioned to rise on the horizon. On the downside, if a buyer’s offer contains anything out of the ordinary as compared to the other buyers — like maybe a contingency to sell an existing home — the buyer could be at a distinct disadvantage. To counteract this situation, some agents will write more than one offer for a buyer, even though it is frowned upon and could violate certain good faith contract laws.
The one thing an agent should not do, however, under any circumstances, is send two offers from the same buyer to the same Sacramento listing agent and, on top of it, include a note about how much the buyer LOVES the home. Ummm, which one does the buyer love? We don’t know. But I did receive 2 offers from an agent signed by the same buyers on two different listings. Guess the agent must have figured desperate times call for desperate measures; or, perhaps it temporarily slipped the agent’s mind that both listings are mine.
This is the same agent who called to ask how much the buyer had to offer to get the home. Well, the answer is I do not know. I am not the buyer, and I am not my seller. I can’t read my seller’s mind and, even if I did possess magical powers, I wouldn’t share that information. It’s privileged, covered under client fiduciary, in addition to it’s not fair to other agents. I need to treat all parties fairly. It’s in the Code of Ethics.
The agent moaned and said the agent would do it, and the agent’s general real estate practice is to often help other agents this way. Well, as a listing agent, the agent is only helping the agent who wins the offer, not all of the other agents. No point in explaining that as it’s not my place to educate; some agents would find it demeaning. But I did explain to the agent that we all work differently. My real estate business in Sacramento is undoubtedly unique compared to others. Some of us, apparently, adhere to desperate times call for desperate measures. I don’t tell agents how much to offer. That’s between agents and their buyers.
If you’re looking for an experienced agent to sell your home in the Sacramento Valley, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Elizabeth consistently ranks in the top 1% of all Lyon and other agents.
What Supra / MetroList iBoxes Won’t Tell You Until It’s Too Late
How to remove a defective MetroList iBox in Sacramento, made by Supra.
If it wasn’t bad enough that real estate agents were royally screwed last year during the famous two-for-one Supra iBox exchange — which means exactly what you think, trade in two lockboxes and get one in return — now those brand new, fancy schmancy bluetooth iBoxes are failing to function, what we call a malfunction; and the icing on top is it’s a malfunction without resolution. It’s a case of bend over and drop the soap because here in MetroList prison, they want to drive home the point hard and fast once again.
Sure, MetroList finally backed down and agreed that agents were NOT required to exchange MetroList lockboxes and we could continue to use our old infrared lockboxes. Except, many of the buyer’s agents in the field do not realize that many Sacramento listing agents did not switch to the new iBoxes. If an agent is a top producer, for example, she is not trading in dozens of perfectly good lockboxes with 75% of power remaining in the battery. Not unless she is a knucklehead. This means if a buyer’s agent trots out the door with just a Bluetooth cellphone App on his iPhone, he’s not opening many of the lockboxes in use throughout Sacramento, because those infrared lockboxes require a FOB along with the cellphone App.
No FOB, no openy lockbox.
It’s that simple. I would not say, though, that this is the #MetroListMess that is happening, although it could be. Because I know agents and many of us don’t have time to understand all of the intricacies involved with new technology, we just expect it to work. Tip #1, bring your FOB, people.
The more important issues are why do the Bluetooth Supra-manufactured iBoxes malfunction and why doesn’t MetroList have a solution? We had four Sacramento real estate agents attempt to open a MetroList iBox a couple of days ago. Two of them used a cellphone app with a FOB and two agents tried using the display key. The results showed up on the SUPRA website as an attempt to open the box, but the box refused to release the key much less the shackle. In talking with other agents, I am not alone.
Warning: Not every iBox will open nowadays.
Try calling Supra today. You will be placed on hold for 30 minutes and advised to call back After Hours, presumably when they are closed. Why is that? Why are so many agents calling Supra today? I wonder if it is related to the #MetroListMess. Dunno. After I finally connected, I was advised to contact member services at the Sacramento Association of REALTORS. Wait until you hear the member service advice.
First, they make it clear they do not trust their own members by stating we must pay them a $100 refundable deposit to rent a bolt cutters. They want to make sure they get the bolt cutters back. As further proof that they do not trust us, they ask that we give them, which we have already given them, our prized possession, the reference number from Supra. With trusty bolt cutters in the hands of a person like me, for example, who just had rotator cuff surgery and is still a recovering patient, I am required to then drive back to the property where the bad lockbox resides, cut it off with the bolt cutters, which is not as easy as it sounds, and then drive to MetroList to exchange the bad lockbox for another iBox, which could be just like the last one, defective.
I wrote to SAR and offered to give them $100 to forget that I once had this leased lockbox in my possession. Because you know, in the tradition of bend over and drop the soap, MetroList will probably find a way to make Sacramento REALTORS pay for the defective product they leased to us and seem to now take zero responsibility for, especially when we don’t return it at the end of the lease because it’s still attached to a home, in dead status. Except I failed miserably to make SAR understand that I was trying to give it cash to free me from MetroList prison. Just take the money and write off the loss of this lockbox, I pleaded.
SAR responded: “The $100.00 you would give us would be a deposit for you to check out the bolt cutters from us. That covers our cost of the bolt cutters in the event you don’t return them to us. It has nothing to do with MetroList being able to forget about the your lockbox.”
I explained again that I want to give them $100 to make this go away, but it still wasn’t sinking in. SAR wrote back: “The $100 I’m referencing is only to rent our bolt cutters.”
Words, just words on a page. Floating away into space.
What about the poor seller who has the defective lockbox on her railing, and the buyer who will have to deal with it after escrow closes? I asked SAR what happens to the lockbox, and who will cut it off since it’s not me and apparently it’s not SAR. The fellow working in member services at SAR responded: “If you are not cutting off the lockbox, then it’s not being cut off.”
I called SUPRA back, even though I did not want to sit on hold for another 30 minutes while SUPRA deals with all of the other iBox issues it must be facing, but I wanted to find out first-hand how to remove the lockbox. I felt I owed it to the seller since I was receiving little assistance from SAR, and MetroList wasn’t responding either to the email I cc’d. I asked SUPRA how can they expect a little old lady, especially one who is recovering from rotator cuff surgery, to use a bolt cutters?
Where can I buy a pair of overalls and work boots? I did not realize that trade attire was required to be a member of MetroList. I’ve never worked in the trades before. I’m just a Sacramento REALTOR, for crying out loud. I did not see this clause in the fine print of our MetroList lockbox lease agreement.
SUPRA said, and I kid you not, you can’t make up this stuff: “You should find a big burly gorilla of a guy” to go over to the home in Land Park and cut off the lockbox. My jaw dropped. Is this 1970? I ask: How Is This Still a Thing, John Oliver?
Tip #2: If you have a fully functioning infrared lockbox, you should probably use it.
Tip #3: Don’t put a MetroList iBox on a listing, say, in Lincoln, when you live in Land Park.
Tip #4: If you are a hoodlum looking for a way to swipe lockboxes, you still can’t get the key out even after you cut off the lockbox. But give me a jingle because this Sacramento REALTOR could use your services.
FOLLOWUP 3/1/15: MetroList, bless their hearts, has come to my rescue and will deal with the lockbox on the home in Land Park and has directed SAR to give me a replacement!
The Fixer Home in Citrus Heights That Sold AS IS
This is a story of a real estate closing that could happen to just about any seller in Citrus Heights, or anywhere in the Sacramento Valley for that matter, and how a first-time home buyer found her dream home. Sometimes, sellers find it difficult to believe that their Sacramento REALTOR is really looking out for them and trying to do what is best. In those instances, sellers tend to form their own thoughts about how they intend to sell a home, a strategy that can backfire.
A client contacted me in 2013 to inquire about selling another investment home, this time a home in Citrus Heights. I had previously sold a home for this couple in Roseville. They were very happy with me. I met with the tenants in Citrus Heights and prepared an agent visual inspection. My advice was to evict the tenants. The home was not presentable.
Sometimes, you can easily sell a home with tenants in it and sometimes you lose too much on the sale if you leave the tenants in the property. An experienced Sacramento REALTOR can spot the “trouble sales” a mile away and properly advise. In fact, I have one at the moment that I’ve been trying to sell for almost a year and the tenant is very uncooperative yet the seller won’t throw her out, so we had to wait. Because of the challenges, that particular seller is losing approximately $15,000 on the sale due to the tenant. Penny wise, pound foolish. Laugh, if you want, there are reasons behind these expressions.
My Citrus Heights seller, being a nice guy, decided to wait another year and then ask the tenants to move. At that point, he decided not to sell the property outright but to gift the property to a worthy charity and take the tax write-off, as long as the non-profit agreed to hire this Sacramento REALTOR to sell it. The head of the charity once sold real estate in another part of California. Usually I love working with real estate professionals, even if they are no longer in the business, but there is also a downside to it because people are the sum of their own reality. What works in Orange County doesn’t necessarily work in Sacramento, and our real estate market is very different. Plus, when years go by, things tend to change, so what was true 20 years ago is not true today.
We sold almost immediately to a first-time home buyer who was obtaining a conventional loan. As part of this buyer’s due diligence, she obtained a pest report, which reflected about $4,000 worth of work. Even though the home was sold AS IS, the buyer asked the seller to complete the pest work. The seller adamantly refused. The non-profit felt it could sell for cash in this market at top of market, a strategy that falls pretty flat in this market. Investors expect a profit margin and won’t pay top dollar. We reached a standstill, and the home went back on the market. Finally, the seller lowered the price but not enough to attract an investor who would pay cash.
We sold to a buyer who was obtaining an FHA loan and who agreed to pay for the pest work herself. Now, the problem with FHA is the 90-day flipping rule, which means title cannot transfer within that period. Our escrow was delayed by several months. The lender had its own issues and caused more delays as well. Ultimately, the home closed but the non-profit lost about $10,000 during this time period in order to save the initial $4,000 for the pest report — to sell AS IS.
The moral is sometimes it’s better to bend a little bit with a bird in hand. Sacramento REALTORS, the busy ones, spend a lot of time analyzing markets and movement. It’s professional advice a client can rely on.
Should You Buy a Home on Friday the 13th?
Tomorrow is Friday the 13th, today is a county holiday for Lincoln’s birthday and Monday is a federal holiday for President’s Day, whatever the heck that day is supposed to be now. The Powers That Be have not been successful, apparently, at renaming the date. It’s not named in celebration of all presidents. It’s not a combination of Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthday. It’s just a way the federal government turned 2 holidays we used to enjoy into one holiday, unless, of course, you work for the County of Sacramento, and then you get two days off, throw in a sick day and voila, you have 5-day weekend. Hooray for judges.
What these holidays and dates mean for real estate and those buying a home in Sacramento is that there are no recordings (closings) at the County Courthouse from Thursday until next Tuesday unless you choose to close on Friday the 13th.
There are some people who are superstitious. You never really know how many people fall victim to that, but I suddenly want to make up voodoo dolls in their likeness and poke the object repeatedly, not in a harmful way, just enough to amuse myself in front of them. An agent mentioned the other day that he was not really superstitious but he would prefer to push a closing scheduled for February 13th out to the 17th, you know, just to be safe. Safe from what? Is that not superstition?
Did you know there is a word for Friday the 13th? It is Paraskevidekatriaphobics, and it means an irrational fear of Friday the 13th. Notice the emphasis on “irrational.” Now, I realize I am only one person, but I have never had a bad or unlucky Friday the 13th. Ever. No accidents, no illnesses, no lost money, no family deaths, no divorces, no marriages, nada. Not even a cross word. No stubbed toes or hangnails. No bad hair days. And if I had, I certainly wouldn’t blame it on Friday the 13th.
People didn’t always harbor a morbid fear of Friday the 13th. At some point in history, before the Crusades, it was actually considered a lucky day.
Not to mention, I have 4 closings scheduled for tomorrow, all four of which have been extended from the original closing date due to loan difficulties, some more than once. It’s a really tough real estate market in Sacramento right now. So challenging that some inexperienced agents are watching in horror as their escrows blow up in front of their face. It’s us veteran agents — people like me who can glue them back together, roll them onto a stretcher and cart them back into the operating room — who succeed. My real estate success is not by accident, and it’s not affected by Friday the 13th.
If you’re looking for a top Sacramento REALTOR to ensure your escrow closes, then call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
