Email ElizabethFinding a Replacement Property for a 1031 Exchange
Lots of investors from the Bay area call top-producing Sacramento real estate agents when they decide to sell — which is how I end up working with many of them — and the shift I spy on the horizon now is to 1031 exchanges. You might not know this, but I got my start in real estate in the 1970s by working solely with investors, many of them first-time investors. I sold investment properties exclusively for about 9 years, and I moved into real estate from my certified escrow officer position, during which I processed and closed a large number of 1031 tax deferred exchanges.
It’s funny how some things can come full circle. Now that the market in Sacramento is picking up, more investors have equity and some of them want to put that equity to work elsewhere. They don’t want to pay taxes on the sale of their investment property if they don’t have to, and most of them don’t as long as they find and identify a replacement property within the 45-day period and effect a 1031 exchange. (There are minor sub-rules that don’t apply to very many, so I won’t go into those.) The more important rule is an investor has 180 days to close escrow.
My new clients have a rental home in Elk Grove they want to exchange. They don’t live in the area and have discovered how difficult it is to manage an investment property without family nearby. A drive into Sacramento from the Bay area can take 2 to 3 hours each way. Some investors might prefer to move their equity to another town.
A 1031 Exchange wouldn’t be such a nagging problem if we had more inventory in Sacramento. I try to explain that investors actually have about 75 days, if you look at this systematically. Once an offer is received to buy the investor’s rental property, that escrow period is about 30 days, give or take. That means 30 days + 45 days = 75 days. But people, being people, sometimes look to the worst case scenario. Like, what happens if they can’t find a replacement property?
Being in real estate, I know they will find a replacement property for a 1031 Exchange, even if they’re looking out-of-area, because I know real estate agents and how the business works. But that doesn’t help the investor if they’re not standing in my Jimmy Choos, and looking at this from my viewpoint.
This is yet one more reason why we need more inventory in Sacramento. To give investors an assurance that they can find that replacement property, and two more properties along with it as a backup. If you’re thinking about deferring taxes on the sale of your investment property, talk to your accountant and then call this Sacramento real estate agent, Elizabeth Weintraub. I’d love to help you to locate a qualified intermediary and sell your investment home, 916.233.6759.
All Sacramento Real Estate Agents Are Not the Same
Joining the ranks of Sacramento real estate agents and selling real estate in Sacramento was never an industry that I set out to find nor really considered as a career. It was not plucked out of the clear blue sky, either. I fell into the business by accident but it’s almost like it was planned. It was a gradual thing. First, in the early 1970s, I needed a job. Unlike today’s kids, I wasn’t living at home, and I didn’t want to sleep on the street, so getting a job sounded like the best idea yet. I went back to college, and took a full-time job as a title policy typist. That job drove me insane.
I couldn’t stand it. Sitting in front of a typewriter for 8 hours a day pecking away, inserting little bits of carbon paper to fix my mistakes, typing the same thing over and over. It made me want to scream and rip out my hair, but I sat in my chair, kicked off my 6-inch heels and massaged my nylon-clad feet. I could recite a Schedule B of an ALTA title insurance policy by heart. Eventually, after delivering an ultimatum, I was promoted to title searcher, moved up the ladder again to escrow officer, then became a certified escrow officer who specialized in creative financing and tax-deferred 1031 Exchanges.
One crazy day in the late 1970s, I looked up from my messy desk into the eyes of a doofus agent sitting before me who was whining about his buyer not qualifying anymore because Downey Savings and Loan raised the interest rate on his buyer’s loan, and I realized I could do a better job than this joker, earn substantially more money and not have to work for the Man (i.e. corporate environment, for those of you born after 1985).
New clients asked me yesterday for the secret to my success over the last 40 years. They sort of hit me off guard because I wasn’t expecting that question. Mrs. Seller shared with me that she is a psychotherapist and is thinking about getting her real estate license. That sounds like an excellent idea to me, I replied. Because then she could counsel clients properly:
- You know why you’re so stressed out? Because you need to buy a house.
- Or, kids driving you nuts? You need a tri-level so you can stick them on all the third floor.
- Or, you know what your problem is? You need a four-car garage.
I always wonder why other people go into real estate. Most of us have had another career and either got sick of it or were fired, or maybe I should use the correct term, downsized. Very few people, I suspect, looked around at a tender young age and said, you know, real estate is the place for me to be. Very few people evolved into a real estate agent like I did. It was such an obvious path for me to follow, like Darwinism. There is nothing better than being a real estate agent. Well, I could own a company, but I’ve done that, and I prefer selling real estate. I’m very comfortable with my career, and that makes me confident. Confidence brings me clients.
Plus, I answer my darned phone. I guess I’m successful because I am careful where I spend my time, because my time needs to be spent on clients. My focus is not on “prospects.” I talked with a seller yesterday from Fair Oaks who is interviewing 4 or 5 agents, including an agent who initially sold her the home as her buyer’s agent, but is not a strong listing agent. I pulled that agent’s production in MLS and he listed 3 homes over the past year and a half or so and sold 3 homes, and that low production didn’t seem to faze the seller. The seller said her reason for interviewing an enormously large number of agents is to get different appraisals.
I explained why that approach was not exactly useful because it only encouraged agents to come up with higher and higher numbers in hopes of getting hired. Did I see value in plucking 2 to 3 hours out of my day to prepare a presentation, go to her home in Fair Oaks and talk about selling that entry-level home so she could hire the agent she probably has decided that she already wants to hire — which does not take into consideration performance standards, service excellence, negotiation skills, experience level nor even competence?
All agents are not the same. I will fight to the death for my clients. I don’t feel that way about prospects.
How to Fix a Vessel Sink That Doesn’t Drain Completely
Need to fix a vessel sink that doesn’t drain?
Need to fix a vessel sink that doesn’t drain? If you are a homeowner who has recently remodeled her master bath, odds are you have probably installed a vessel sink and might have now noticed that your sink does not always promptly drain or drain completely. OK, for me, I hate to admit, it took me 6 years to get fed up with the sink not draining and to acknowledge we had a problem. I imagine it’s because I’m preoccupied, either in a rush to get out the door, or I’m too tired and I’m heading for bed, to focus on the problem of slow drainage.
The need to fix a vessel sink that wasn’t drain completely was one of those things that caused minor irritation but not enough to register on the brain waves in such manner that I needed to find a solution for it. It was just a small PITA, not a huge one. The thing about human nature is after a while, those constant nagging voices in your head that say you should do something about this manage to ripple to the surface, and then I pay attention.
Of course, we tried other things first. Like pouring caustic substances into the drain, hoping maybe it was a hair clog. Although, I replaced all of the horizontal plumbing pipes in my home with copper and the vertical under the sink has been replaced, along with the sewer line, so that was actually kind of a stupid thing to do. Not only that, but the acid tarnished part of the brushed nickel pop-up drain, which had replaced the previous grid drain, because we initially thought the drain itself was causing the problem.
As a result, we had to replace the drain a third time. Since I’m too busy these days as a Sacramento real estate agent to replace the drain myself, I decided to hire a plumber. I hate working on plumbing because things can leak — with plastic you can’t tighten it too much or you’ll break it and with metal you really need more arm strength than I possess. If a plumber had to come out to do such a small job, then he or she may as well fix the drainage issue, too. The time had come. After much research, it became apparent to me that the problem was ventilation. There was no ventilation, no air hole in the vessel sink. If you plugged up the drain with a wash cloth and quickly pulled it, the suction would force the water to drain.
To fix a vessel sink that doesn’t drain, install an air gap, on the left, with a black cap.
This is the same principal as the unhygienic backwash that can happen with a kitchen dishwasher and no air gap, and is why home inspection reports will note the absence of an air gap like a defect. An air gap can be installed under the sink or on top of the sink. In my bath, I opted for under the sink. This means attaching a piece of plastic plumbing that resembles a Saguaro cactus arm, like a right-hand turn signal bike riders use. You stick it in below your sink drain with a piece of plastic that connects the sink drain to the plumbing pipe below leading to the P-trap portion, and to this connecting piece of plastic, you screw in the arm. Then attach an air gap at the top.
Bingo! The sink drains perfectly now. I hope this solves your vessel sink draining problems. If you need to fix a vessel sink that doesn’t drain, this is the solution. If you have a real estate query to solve, I also hope you will call Elizabeth Weintraub, the #1 Sacramento real estate agent at Lyon Real Estate. *Nobody sold more homes in Sacramento last year at Lyon. 916 233 6759.
*per Trendgraphix 2014
Dealing With Difficult People is Easier If We Look at Ourselves
Dealing with difficult people in a real estate transaction is a bit more challenging than dealing with difficult people in a normal day-to-day life because you can’t get rid of them on a whim, and you have to figure out, no matter what, how to get along with them. It’s kinda like getting married without the engagement or wedding. They’re just there, and you have to not only make the most of it, but one has do it in such a manner that these difficult people come to believe that you’re the most wonderful person on the face of the planet.
There are people who will tell you that even I, yes, this agent, can be difficult, although I know my regular readers would scoff at that premise and say oh, pshaw, but you guys are not my travel agent. That’s the guy who has to put up with me demanding stuff like, you know that photograph of the hotel room that says it is not indicative of the hotel room choice I have selected, well, that’s the room I want. It exists, and I want it. I don’t want a partial ocean view, or ocean view. I want an oceanfront, and not just an oceanfront, but a corner room, and it should be on the top floor. My heart goes out to this poor guy. He has to work with me. No mini bar? What do you mean there is no mini bar??
Yesterday I read an article about how not every person should expect to get a private room at the hospital. Oh, man, wait until I get old enough to be hospitalized on a regular basis. I will be terrible. I will not understand why ICU is on the 5th floor when I want a room on the 12th floor. Away from the elevators. They should move ICU to another floor. The sickest people should have the best view. This is how awful I will be, I just know it.
The article said that there is no clinical proof that sharing a room with another sick person increases your chances of catching whatever they’ve got. This is not something I have had any reason to consider but now that it’s been brought to my attention, I can’t help but figure I won’t be quiet until I know the disease of every patient on my floor. That way I can choose who I might not want to follow to the bathroom. If the doctors and nurses won’t give me that information, I’ll grab my own legal pad and make the rounds myself. People will tell me because I’m holding a legal pad.
I hope I never have to go to the hospital. I could not live with a guy in a bed next to me watching television after 9 PM. I would grab whatever breakable object is within my reach, maybe that empty bottle of grappa I’ve hidden under my pillow, and propel it toward the television screen with all the brute force I could muster. Then I would pull the covers over my head and pretend to snore.
And this is why I understand people with particular preferences and can work with difficult people. We all have our little quirks. If you’re looking for a real estate agent in Sacramento, you may as well call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759 because you’ll find worse agents but you won’t find any better suited for you. At least try to catch me before I go on vacation or into the hospital.
Why Condition Matters When Selling Sacramento Real Estate
Condition of property is one of the big three elements when selling Sacramento real estate— or any home in the Sacramento seven-county region — but it’s often overlooked or dismissed by sellers. They get used to their house the way it is. They might say something like, “Oh, we’ll let the buyer take care of that issue.” Unless the house is pretty much a tear down, or needs such extensive work that we call it a fixer home, a home buyer will not do those repairs / corrective work. End of story. Only an investor will buy that kind of home today. And investors aren’t paying full price this spring.
The three key elements for selling a home in Sacramento are:
- Location
- Condition
- Price
You can have a great price at market value that would apply to a turnkey home in a fabulous sought-after neighborhood, and it still won’t sell because the home is not fixed up. You can have a great price for a good location and a home in move-in condition, and the home won’t sell if it’s located in a bad place like under a freeway or next-door to an apartment building.
If the home needs major work, you should just do the work before putting that home on the market or else adjust the sales price accordingly. If the home is located in a bad location, your sales price also has has to come down and be adjusted for that location. You can’t get top dollar for a beautiful home in a bad location. You can’t get top dollar for a fixer home regardless of its great location.
These are the rules of real estate. I don’t make them up. These rules are not something this Sacramento real estate agent has plucked out of thin air or can bend at will but that’s the way some people react to the news.
The only way you’re getting top market value for your home is if that home has a great location and is in top condition. You need all three elements to command the top of the market, even in a seller’s market.
Buyers want a turnkey home in a good location, and they don’t want to do any work. If you’ve got ugly carpet, you need to replace it or be prepared to be hit with a lowball offer that will far exceed the cost of replacing that carpet.
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