Email ElizabethElk Grove Pool Home with a Four-Car Garage
Selling a pool home in Elk Grove without showings is not as difficult as one might think in the Sacramento real estate market today. I’ve got a lot of agents calling me on my pending listings, for example, and asking if they can write backup offers. Of course, these are very attractive homes, too, in high demand, and not your usual run-of-the-mill listings. Mostly the agents don’t want to make those phone calls yet do so because their buyers ask.
Sort of like my husband agreeing to go with me last weekend to see the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. He’s not a huge fan of that genre. Probably because he was in kindergarden when Roddy McDowall made his mark as Cornelius. But I have to say I understand his reluctance to see the movie because halfway through I didn’t care which side won the war. It could be the apes; it could be the humans; I didn’t give a damn. I just wanted the thing to be over and the yawning to cease.
Calling on pending listings is kinda like going to see that movie your spouse wants to see and you do not. So I have done you a favor here, believe it or not, and now you do not have to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes until it comes out on DVD and your kids are screaming for it. Then, you can go into another room, down a six-pack and pass out.
But before you do that, call me on a new listing that you can’t see until you make an offer. That’s because the home is occupied by the seller’s ex-wife, and she gets to stay there until December. However, the seller wants to sell that home now. It’s beautiful: marble floors, granite counters in the kitchen, a single-story around 2,000 square feet in Camden Estates. This Elk Grove home also features 3 to 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a pool with a waterfall and, a spectacular feature many will drool over is that 4-car garage with boat parking.
You can buy this home for $369,000. Just call your Elk Grove agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916.233.6759 at Lyon Real Estate. I’m always ready to talk as long as we don’t have to discuss Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
The Enormously Big Deal of Buying a House
When it comes down to choosing between buying a house in Sacramento or having a baby, the latter is a bigger deal for most people, yet you can’t rule out the enormously big deal of buying a house. The Washington Post talks about the financial constraints felt by many in today’s economy and how, while waiting for improvement, some decisions are postponed, as in this part of the article: “Choices large and small hang in the balance — whether to buy a house, go to college, get married. Have a baby.”
I don’t know about you, but all of those choices seem ginormous to this Sacramento real estate agent. I don’t spot a “small” choice in that grouping. Not only that, but buying a house is often said to be the single most expensive investment a person can undertake. They are all big choices and decisions, accompanied by their friends: anxiety, risk and anticipation.
As a person who works with people to sell and buy Sacramento real estate, I can tell you it’s also a highly emotional experience, mixing the love of all things drywall and wood with Ben Franklins. One moment a person is hyperventilating and the next cooing. I never know what I might find on the other end of the phone when I answer.
It’s my place to be empathetic and listen. To be that rock to lean on. To offer support and guidance and help sellers and buyers through my decades of experience to make the right decision. Sometimes it means taking the lead and saying, OK, look, here’s what we’re gonna do. Offering that solution. Other times, I need to sit back and wait for the information to sink in and for the parties to reach a state of calmness, awareness and decision-making capability.
I help people make a transition. And transitions are a big deal in life. Your Sacramento real estate agent is a coach for you, not a crutch, but we can be that, too, if that’s what you need.
Don’t Knock Real Estate Paperwork
The Sacramento courts are filled with disgruntled buyers who lose case after case because those plaintiffs believe they have justified cause to break the rules of real estate and they found a lawyer willing to file a lawsuit. That’s the interesting thing about our court system. Sometimes you can win, depending on the argument and the lawyer’s strategy. Sometimes you can lose, and get kicked to the curb, but whatever you do, you’ll generally end up paying for the privilege.
Whichever way it goes, nobody really wins. If there is a win of sorts, it can be more often than not bittersweet. People can slam down that open Budweiser, shooting beer into the air, and scream about deserving justice, but our court systems are not really about justice.
Still, it makes sense as a Sacramento real estate agent to document every file and retain every email for each and every real estate transaction. Because the best way to stay out of court is to not get there in the first place and show the opposition there is no case.
Clients wonder why they have to sign piles of paper and so many documents, and this is why. It’s to stay out of court. It’s not to win.
There are people in the world who believe they don’t have to conform to the rules. I have been guilty of that attitude myself, so I understand it. But there are certain types of rules and demands that can’t be ignored. If a police officer finds you sitting in an idling vehicle at the side of the road, for example, slumped over the wheel drunk, you can be pretty well assured you’re going to jail and you’ll lose in court . . . unless, maybe, you’re a legislator.
Don’t ever knock paperwork. When your Sacramento real estate agent presents you with documents to read and sign, there is a good reason. Paperwork is the cornerstone and foundation of real estate.
Is it Bad for Sacramento Real Estate to Sell in One Day?
Do you believe that you bought that home in Sacramento too quickly or, as a seller, do you believe that you were too fast to accept an offer for your home? Is it bad for Sacramento real estate to sell in one day? Welcome to the club of anxiety. Lots of people harbor those kinds of thoughts, but that’s all they are, just thoughts, passing thoughts, bubbles of self doubt, short moments of questions that should be allowed to pop through your brain to briefly make an appearance, bow, and then slink away somewhere to quietly die.
This is how Sacramento real estate happens today. Sometimes you sell in one day. If you are lucky. We are ensconced in a real estate market of low inventory. Lots of buyers are scouring the new listings every day, looking for that special gem. If your new home listing fits those requirements, bam, it’s sold. There is no shame in selling a house in one day.
Last week I put a bunch of new listings on the market, and one property in particular, well, the first few days were a little slow. No phone calls, not much activity for 24 hours. Then, out of the blue, an offer arrived. It was the sole offer. Not really astonishing given the fact that there were no inspections nor opportunity to view the interior until after offer acceptance. While this did not sell in one day, it still sold fairly quickly.
The seller asked if he should take the offer. It was over list price by a few thousand, which to this experienced Sacramento real estate agent is a sign of urgent and serious commitment by the buyer, followed by perhaps a hope harbored by the buyer that the few thousand extra will be recouped upon inspection — the answer to that game-playing strategy when I’m the listing agent is generally NO, because I bring that possibility to my seller’s attention at inception. Plus, I hail from Minnesota; I expect people to stay true to their word and don’t much care for those who lie. The seller could not believe that we received an offer so quickly. The implication was should he wait to see if a higher offer would arrive?
We had received no phone calls and no inquiries. I suggested he take it. When opportunity presents itself, you can be cautious, but you should proceed. I had that lesson engrained in me when I was a kid — only fools kick the door of opportunity closed. Sure enough, though, a few days later, we received another offer not as attractive. The first offer is usually the best.
Selling is just the beginning. Closing is another journey.
Bad Times Ahead for HAMP Rate Resets on Loan Modifications
If you pay your mortgage through a HAMP loan modification originated in 2009, be prepared to be hit with a major rate reset beginning as early as October of 2014. As I read the Treasury FAQ about Hamp rate resets, it became crystal clear why so many of my Sacramento short sales lately involve homeowners who have been approved by the HAMP program. My business of selling Sacramento real estate and especially short sales does not lend itself to helping sellers do loan modifications because, contrary to popular belief, I am not a lawyer. I am a real estate agent and I sell homes. To that effect, loan modifications affect my business only in a peripheral sense.
However, I vividly recall when the Home Affordable Modification Program, HAMP, was initiated by the government in 2009 to help homeowners stay in their homes. When it first began, many homeowners were rejected for HAMP and, having no other course of action, they turned to short sales, which meant eventually moving out of their homes, and not the preferred alternative. But over the years, the government and the banks got their acts aligned together or maybe the banks just figured out how to extract more money from the Treasury, and a large number of distressed homeowners received loan modifications.
One of the key qualifiers for the program was to be employed, so that left a lot of Sacramento homeowners in the dust. For those who managed to hang on by hook or by crook to a job, they probably were qualified for a loan modification. Like the bandage it is, though, a HAMP loan modification is only a temporary solution.
I advised people back then that doing a loan modification might be similar to putting a gun to your head and just not pulling the trigger for a few years. When you’re desperate, you’ll grasp at anything that keeps you in your home. I understand that. People tend to hope for the best. The sad thing is life over the years did not get proportionately better for many people in Sacramento. My husband, for example, lost his job in journalism in 2008 and has yet to recover.
The flaw in the HAMP program, if you will, is the fact interest rates reset after 5 years and every year thereafter. So if you took out a loan modification in 2009, your rate could go up by 1% and your payments could jump by $200 this October. If you took out a loan modification in 2010, you’ll be hit next year. And the rate continues to reset year after year. It doesn’t get any better than you have it right now.
Which is why some sellers will find they can no longer afford to pay their mortgage nor stay in their home due to the HAMP rate reset, and they will turn to the best Sacramento short sale agent they can find, which will be me. I have sold more short sales in the Sacramento area than any other real estate agent since 2006. I know how the banks negotiate, how to get your short sale approved and, best of all, you’ll be done with it now and forever. There is no out-of-pocket cost to you, all fees are paid from proceeds at closing. You can call the #1 short sale agent in Sacramento: Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759, at Lyon Real Estate.
The good thing — if there is such a thing as a good thing when it comes to short sales — is the fact that if you were approved for a HAMP loan modification, you are practically guaranteed to be approved for a short sale.
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