Email ElizabethForget Trying to Balance Work and a Personal Life
There is nothing wrong with loving your job and not trying to balance every little aspect of your life. On the other hand, some people behave as though they’re living on a seesaw in their career, always in motion, afraid that if it stops moving for just one minute, the weight from their fat butt will force the wrong side to the ground, kersplatt, and then everybody will see them for the pitiful failure that they really are — that’s what people think.
Years ago people, OK, mainly men, loved their jobs, felt fulfilled by a career and enjoyed going to work. Today many men feel torn in two. Women in the 1970s were not always encouraged to feel deeply engrained in their careers lest they turn into an old maid. Today, women are told they can’t have it all so they better choose. Or, they better try harder to balance work and a personal life. Forget balance. It’s overrated. You’ll hear men and women alike swear that family comes first, and work comes second, like loving a job is evil or there is something fundamentally wrong with your makeup if you look forward to going to work.
Spittooey on crap. If you have to say that family comes first, maybe there is something out of whack that makes you feel the need to verbalize it in that manner? Because most people don’t talk about having to put family into their hearts because family already occupies a spot. And, so does work. I love my job, and I don’t apologize to anybody for it. It doesn’t mean I love anybody or anything else any less. It’s not either or. Love doesn’t get “used up.”
People feel almost guilty if they admit they love their job. Workaholic describes a person who finds pleasure in working. Why should that be wrong? Isn’t that what everybody should strive for? To find a job that they love to do to such an extent that it doesn’t become work? If I promise a real estate client I’ll be over to shoot photographs and sign listing paperwork, they can count on me to show up. I don’t use family as an excuse not to perform. I balance my temperament, it’s not necessary to try to balance work vs my personal life.
Sacramento Homes Take Longer to Sell This Spring
Are Sacramento homes taking longer to sell this spring? You betcha. The trouble with making predictions in Sacramento real estate is sometimes those forecasts don’t materialize because the market shifts. Real estate agents who make predictions tend to look at the direction the market is moving and figure it will keep going in that direction. I tend to look for odd things that appear out of place. You know, I ask: what does not belong here? What one thing is not like the others? I look at the market somewhat differently, but then my approach is not an average approach, which is probably partly why I am successful at what I do.
Sellers always want to know how quickly a home might sell. I can identify the drop-dead gorgeous homes that should fly into escrow but I will still suggest at least a 2-week period for those sales, when last year it would have been 24 hours. This means I might need to remind a seller whose home has been on the market for 9 days that she has at least another 5 days to go, and maybe more. We can’t always accurately pinpoint that moment of sale. It depends on the buyer. These are just ballpark estimates.
It seems to this Sacramento real estate agent that homes are taking much longer to sell this spring, ever since January. So, I went on a hunt for facts to back up this assessment.
I can tell you that days on market — the average cumulative days on market — are 49 for February in Sacramento County. In April of 2013, that number was about cut in half at 26. This means the average cumulative days on market has pretty much doubled this year. Which goes to show when I tell a seller that what used to take 1 to 2 days is now taking 1 to 2 weeks, and what used to take 1 to 2 weeks might take 1 to 2 months, is absolutely accurate. Buyers are moving more slowly.
Home are definitely selling. They’re just selling at a more normal pace than over past decade of screwball-ness. You remember what normal is, right? No? Well, try to take it easy and slow down a little bit. At my age, the world moves much too quickly as it is. Savor a few precious moments. Pet your dog, hug your kids. Your home will sell.
April is a Time to Plan a Real Estate Agent Winter Holiday
You might find it difficult to believe that this Sacramento real estate agent ever has any downtime to screw around and contemplate a winter holiday, but I just had four dental implants shoved into my jaw on Friday, so I’ve been taking it easy. ?By taking it easy, I mean working solely on my existing business and not really focusing on new business. This free time gave me a few hours yesterday to visualize a winter holiday, among all the offers and phone calls rolling in. It’s tough to find time to slow down and take it easy when you sell real estate for a living. But the key is to make sure you have WiFi wherever you are. WiFi and satellite internet rules the world.
For example, a few years ago, I listed a home and sold it while dangling my toes off a dock attached to a thatched roof hut on an atoll in the middle of the South Pacific. People might wonder why would I do it? Why would I work when I’m on vacation? Because they wouldn’t. I do it because I like it. I’m just a weird duck. No client ever has to worry that I will go away and forget about her or him because I won’t. I love what I do, and I love the fact it gives me the financial opportunity to explore new places.
I like to take a real estate agent winter holiday in early December and return early January, because business is about as slow as business can get during any given year. So it’s not a constant pace nor consistent pressure that means I can’t enjoy a vacation. I can do both. So this year I’m thinking about spending about 10 days to unwind at a resort near Hobart, Tasmania. I’ve always wanted to see a Tasmanian Devil. Then jumping on a 16-day cruise aboard a small cruise ship from Sydney to Melbourne and around New Zealand. I’ve watched an excellent murder mystery series lately about New Zealand, and the Flight of the Conchords doesn’t count.
The series that resonated was Top of the Lake, starring Elisabeth Moss and Holly Hunter. I could see myself in that Holly Hunter character. She made me laugh out loud. The scenery was gorgeous and breathtaking. You can get kinda sick of watching the underside of LA freeways on TV.
Of course, there is also The Hobbit, if you need another reason to see New Zealand. But I think that show previously mentioned, which you can get from Netflix, is enough of a reason. The Hobbit is too computer generated and imaginary. See, this is a reason to excel at selling real estate. You can watch a movie with beautiful scenery, say to yourself Hey, I’d like to go there and then go off on your real estate agent winter holiday. Of course, I would also like to find a traveling companion because even a small luxury ship requires double occupancy or you’re penalized. My husband will probably be unable to go as he’s actively searching for a new career. Being a veteran newspaper reporter isn’t the best occupation these days.
On a side note, I also see in the Sacramento Bee this morning an article from Lyon Real Estate on the front page that says I am #1 in the downtown midtown office for last year (as I’ve ranked the last few years) and ranked #4 in the company. I wonder how that #4 ranking happened when I sold more homes and produced a higher dollar volume than the #3 proclaimed agent. I looked at the numbers in MLS and in Trendgraphix, and both of those reporting sources indicated I rank #3. But you know what, I am not as riled about it as #3 was, I suspect. And I guess that’s why Lyon shows this level-headed agent at #4.
Politics. Schmolatics. I don’t waste time on petty crap I can’t control.
Is anybody interested in Australia and New Zealand this winter? I realize many people want to stay home for Christmas and New Years, but I prefer to travel. Maybe I should call a few other top producers to see if they would like to take a fun trip and go on a real estate agent winter holiday?
Sacramento Home Buyer Says: I Do Not Want to Be in a Bidding War
In Sacramento real estate I often hear expressions reiterated over and over such as I don’t want to give away my house and my new favorite: I do not want to be in a bidding war. Personally, I don’t know of any seller who is giving away her house, so that’s a goofy expression. I take it to mean they want to negotiate; they want market value, and that’s a more positive way to phrase it. But buyers who say they don’t want to participate in a bidding war, or in other words a multiple-offer situation, well, they generally don’t have much choice, to tell you the truth. If it’s a nice house, others will want it.
The problem that arises is a buyer’s perception of what a “bidding war” means. An agent told me yesterday that her client does not want to pay $10,000 over list price in a bidding war. I was dumbfounded. Where did they get that number? That was so 2012. Those days of buying homes in Sacramento are gone. We might be receiving 2 or 3 offers on a home now instead of 20, and those offers mean you will pay list price or very close to it. If a buyer has to offer a little bit more to make the offer attractive, generally it’s by a $1,000 to $2,000.
And smart agents will wrap those small incentives into the closing costs anyway, and not in the sales price. Because they know we listing agents give our seller’s net sheets to show how much they will receive when multiple offers arrive. It’s the best way to compare those offers.
A bidding war means a Sacramento buyer might be in competition with one other buyer. And maybe that other buyer has a doofus agent who advises them to offer under market value as many of them do these days for no ungodly reason. If that’s the case, and odds are it is, a #2 buyer can buy that home just by writing a clean offer at list price.
Multiple offers don’t always mean what you think. They don’t always mean a bidding war. If a buyer doesn’t want to make an offer on a home that some other buyer wants, it’s possible that buyer might not buy anything. It’s worth the small risk to sign your name to a purchase contract and let your buyer’s agent go to bat for you. Don’t let words scare you.
When Will My Home in Sacramento Close Escrow?
Sellers don’t take kindly to the correct answer when they ask: when will my home in Sacramento close escrow. The correct answer is, of course, when fairies sprinkle pixie dust. If a buyer is lucky enough to be working with one of our preferred mortgage lenders, I can accurately predict a closing date for my sellers, but if it’s some other lender, an exact closing date is difficult to nail.
Oh, sure, there is a closing date specified in the purchase contract on page 1 near the top. It will either indicate an exact date, such as April 30th, or it will give an approximate number of days (usually 30) from the date of the contract to close. The date of the contract is the date the agent (or buyer) received the executed contract, which is usually the date the last buyer signed, not the date the purchase contract was drawn. However, to many mortgage lenders in Sacramento, those closing times are simply estimates and mean little.
If the closing date expires, the mortgage lender will simply expect all parties to extend the purchase contract. That’s because mortgage lenders might not give a crap about whether the loan blows up because the seller refuses to extend. They work in some other financial arena, worlds apart from Sacramento real estate. It happens. Sellers are not obligated to extend the purchase contract upon expiration. Buyers might cry foul under those circumstances but what happens if a seller could sell to another buyer for more?
Big name banks, and you all know who they are, are the most guilty of not closing on time, but so are the itty bitty real estate companies that try to wear two hats and be a mortgage broker plus a real estate agent to some poor fool. The first is because they’re too big to care and often employ salaried employees who don’t give a hoot either. The second is because they’re generally inexperienced and too small to carry any weight.
The fact is we real estate agents can push and shove or be as sweet as sugar all we want to manage escrow closings, but until the underwriter releases the file from underwriting and sends docs to title, we don’t really know for certain when we will close. Once we get the docs, then we can target the date. This is why it’s so important to work with a mortgage lender who can guarantee a closing date. These lenders do exist.
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