Email ElizabethClosing a Home in South Sacramento for an Elderly Seller
If my mother were alive today, she would be in her early 80s, just like an elderly seller in Sacramento whose home that I, as her listing agent, recently closed. This woman’s son had called from Georgia to ask if I would help his mother to sell her home. His mom is moving across the country as I type to live with him. Her son had done his homework online, reading website after website about real estate agents. He didn’t pick any ol’ Sacramento real estate agent, he entrusted this agent to take care of his mom.
I suspect he chose me in part because I give a crap about other people; I guess it shows, and I have a conscience that follows the Golden Rule. I have an obligation to those I represent, not only as a a REALTOR but as a person.
This elderly seller lived for many decades across from a school in South Sacramento. It’s not the easiest neighborhood in which to sell nor the best location. People get so used to where they live that they don’t always realize that selling real estate depends on the adage: location, location, location. They feel that if they can overlook a train rumbling past the kitchen window, so should every other buyer out there.
Selling a home near a school is no easy feat. I’ve sold 3 of them like this in the past few months. It’s got to be the right combination: an attractive sales price, good condition, exemplary layout. The first buyers who expressed an interest in making an offer were put off by the school, and there was no way they would offer list price. So, we focused instead on the second buyers who appreciated the immaculate condition of the home and its upgrades.
This elderly seller was a bit feisty, sharp as a tack and a supremely delightful person to represent. She was resourceful, and we talked for a while at her kitchen table about her life. It was difficult for her to read the listing paperwork, which I also emailed at her request to her son so he could feel comfortable as well. I showed her patience. Some day I will be that old, and I would like to think that my real estate agent at that time in my life would take a few extra minutes out of her day to be patient with me.
I am honored to have met this woman, this elderly seller. I wish in our country that our American customs showed more respect for elderly people, like they do in other cultures in which the elderly are revered for their wisdom. We should show a little more compassion for our elders. Open doors for them, if you can. Let them move ahead of you in line at the grocery store. Stop your car at pedestrian crossings and wait for them to cross. Small things, simple gestures, are big things.
Another Chase HELOC Short Sale Closes in Spite of Chase Bank
I wrote about a Chase HELOC short sale earlier this spring that was messed up 10 ways from Sunday by Chase, yet due to sheer determination and copious amounts of perspiration, and in spite of the ineptness of Chase’s HELOC short sale department, I got it closed. (I can hear my dead mother in my head whispering: women don’t sweat, we perspire.) In that blog, I described Chase Bank as ambling along “like a fat walrus after a big lunch drooling fish guts down its chin,” and that perspective hasn’t changed one iota.
It’s not like we don’t have enough other distractions as a Sacramento short sale agent that we need to pile more crap on our plate by throwing the completely abysmal methods Chase Bank, as a junior lender, employs on top of it. But you get what you get in Sacramento short sales.
We can’t always choose our dancing partners, and I would not put a short sale seller through more misery by turning down her short sale simply because she has a second mortgage with Chase Bank. That would be ridiculously unfair to the poor seller to be penalized in that manner. But I’m not saying other agents won’t refuse because they might. Especially if they have a lick of sense in their heads, unlike this glutton for punishment of a short sale REALTOR .
When I think back to when this short sale began, I was kicking my toes in the sand at South Beach, strolling along the water’s edge with my husband during our winter vacation last December, when my phone rang. I dug into my cute little Kate Spade wristlet a client gave me as a closing gift and pulled out my phone. Like I said, I’m a glutton for punishment. What other kind of moron would answer her cell on vacation like this?
I assured the caller I could handle her short sale when I got back to Sacramento in January, snatched a pen from my husband whom, as a gritty journalist, I can always count on to carry a pen even while we’re on the beach shooting photos of brightly colored umbrellas with a beach-ball blindingly brilliant blue sky on the horizon, to write down her information.
We closed this short sale this week, 7 months later. But not before we weeded through a lot of difficult buyers and a break-in by thugs that resulted in the theft of all of the built-in appliances, which required additional security methods much to the chagrin of the out-of-area sellers. Even though we sent all of the paperwork to both banks, Wells Fargo gave us turnaround in 4 weeks, but Chase chugged on. Escalations help somewhat but the fact is Chase HELOC seems to remain a Neanderthal when processing a short sale.
Customary Fees for Selling a Home in Sacramento
A sure sign for a Sacramento listing agent that the buyer is “not from around these here parts” is when the buyer’s agent submits an offer that is not in line with customary standards for selling a home in Sacramento. While the seller’s closing costs are not actually etched in stone and they are negotiable, there are still customary ways of splitting costs or paying the fees that parties come to expect.
It’s kinda like how you know if it’s August, it’s time to put up your hair, wear minimum jewelry (because anything metal will burn) and limit your exposure to the sun. Nobody really tells you how to survive our extreme 100+ summer heat, it’s just common sense. Or, alternatively, you just hop in your car and head for the Bay area.
As you’re leaving town, the buyers from the Bay area are heading this direction, pulling their Bay area agents in tow. Our lockbox keys are not yet reciprocal, so it’s often difficult for Bay area agents to show homes in Sacramento, not to mention there is the whole pricing issue and being unfamiliar with neighborhoods that can lead their buyers to overpaying for homes, which is not unusual. Sacramento sellers often pray for a Bay area buyer. Please send me some fool from San Jose, they beg.
If a Bay area buyer would like to downplay the fact that they don’t know the area and their agent may be unfamiliar with customary ways of writing offers in Sacramento, then at the very least there should be a discussion about fees in the purchase contract. It is permissible to pay all of the fees, if the buyer wants, but it’s not always necessary. It is not customary for the seller to pay all of the fees, however.
Your best bet is to call the listing agent and discuss the offer beforehand. When the seller is paying title and escrow, for example, typically the seller chooses the title company in Sacramento. The trend seems to be moving toward sellers and buyers splitting the escrow fee as well, just like the city transfer tax is often paid 50 / 50. But there’s no law that dictates, except for RESPA, and that doesn’t affect fees the sellers pay. For more information, call Elizabeth Weintraub, Sacramento listing agent, Lyon RE, at 916.233.6759.
The California Motto is Dude I Flaked
Do you always do what you say you’re gonna do? Not everybody adheres to the principle of self responsibility. They find ways to rationalize. The California motto, believe it or not, is “Dude, I flaked.” Like it’s OK to break a promise. The Blues Brothers exemplified flakiness with Jake’s excuse, but my viewpoint is different. The way I look at the world seems to have more in common with a rebel, almost a radical renegade, sewn together by the threads of a Midwesterner who survived the ’60s and the Zen of it all.
At the core is my word. I try to do what’s right. I think through actions before reacting. Especially when I’ve got so much garbage coming at me at times from all directions because I happen to work in Sacramento real estate. Over the years, I’ve had to step over the rotting pears, dodge the slippery banana peels and hold my nose as I slip past the decay of what is sometimes presented as helpful real estate advice by others.
I’ll give you some examples. A real estate agent yesterday warned yesterday that I will never sell a property at the price the seller wants. I don’t understand why he said it except his buyer wants to pay less. He had no retort when I pointed out I had recently sold a model just like it for roughly the same amount. Eventually a buyer will pay cash and be thrilled, that’s what my experience says. His differs.
Another real estate agent wanted to argue over a short sale listing, in particular the seller’s insistence that the buyer be dedicated to the transaction. Like, who woulda thunk that we’d actually expect the buyer to commit to close escrow? He said his buyer and he should not be required to marry the property when they should be able to milk the cow at their convenience. This is probably the same guy who can’t be bothered to close the front door when he leaves the house.
He argued there is no inventory and the buyer is unlikely to find another home that mirrors the home she so desperately loves but doesn’t want to be engaged to. This doesn’t sound like the kind of buyer I would want to work with, but then I am not required.
When I drove out to Rio Linda last night to inspect a property that the contractor swore up and down 10 days ago would absolutely, positively, be ready for sale on July 30th. Imagine my horror when I discovered the windows were boarded up, covered in newspapers, ample warning signs of the condition inside. The kitchen had no counters, no flooring, no lights, no appliances except a dishwasher.
The contractor pointed to a 15-year-old stove sitting in the middle of the living room. It was stained by globby drips of dried food flings and partially rusted. He asked if should replace it or try to clean it up. It was a piece of shit. I used those words because they have strength. His hands immediately reached for his ears; then mopping his forehead, he mumbled about his Russian heritage and laughed, nervously. Not everybody resides in reality, and one can’t always count on performance simply because a promise was made.
The California motto of Dude, I flaked, does not exist in my world of real estate. But I can spot those who would appreciate the sentiment should the opportunity present itself.
How to Change the House Number of Your Sacramento Home Address
Would you like to know how to change your house number in Sacramento? Is ennui driving digital discontent over the numbers you’ve been stuck with all of these years? Haven’t you always wanted to pay some scruffy kid to spray paint a different number on your curb? Just imagine how lovely your checks would look. And how perfunctory the beautifully new and sparkly address will eventually appear on all of the junk mail delivered to your home.
At least the pizza delivery guy will still find your house, and that’s the more salient factor.
Now is your opportunity to get that house number of your dreams. I suspect it needs to make sense, numerically, and complement the present system in use. For example, if your house number is 3951, you probably cannot arbitrarily change it to 007. It might have to remain an odd number of four digits that accessorize your neighbor’s, so you can place the fickle finger of blame on each and every one of them as to the reason why you can’t get double-oh-7.
Although I was formerly unaware — yet as a Sacramento real estate agent I find this information potentially useful — a division exists within the city of Sacramento called the Addressing Unit. Who knew? The address is:
Community Development Department
City of Sacramento Addressing Unit
300 Richards Blvd, Sacramento, 95811
916.264.5011
You may obtain the change of address form CDD-0104 by emailing: addressing@cityofsacramento.org.
Best of all, the service is free. Just fill out the Change of Address form and return it to the City of Sacramento. But please don’t change your address just prior to asking this Sacramento REALTOR to put your home on the market for sale. If you persist, it won’t show up on map searches.
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