Email ElizabethSpotlight: Homes for Sale in 95624 in Elk Grove
This weekend I’m meeting with my electrician and his wife in Elk Grove to talk about selling their home in 95624. As a top Elk Grove agent, I sell many homes in Elk Grove and, over the years, that city has developed into one of my speciality markets. The ZIP code of 95624 is close to the ZIP 95829, but that area of 95829 is in Sacramento, not in Elk Grove, even though homes in 95829 might be located in the same Elk Grove school district. All of the homes located in 95624 are within the city limits of Elk Grove.
Speaking of which, the schools are a primary reason many people with families choose to live in Elk Grove. There are 15 public and private elementary schools, 5 middle schools and 5 high schools, according to Trulia. Time Magazine in 2006 named Elk Grove as the fastest growing city in the United States, just as the housing market was beginning to crash. Many homeowners lost tremendous amounts of equity from 2006 to 2012. But today, we are on the road to recovery. Many people who thought they didn’t have any equity are amazed to discover that they can now freely sell their home in Elk Grove.
Homes in the 95624 ZIP code of Elk Grove priced between $350,000 and $400,000 can be more difficult to sell if the bulk of the homes in a given neighborhood are priced near $350,000 and you have that odd $400,000 home. But it doesn’t mean it won’t sell or that you won’t get top dollar for it. It just might take a little bit longer. I sold several in the upper end of that price range recently — closed a home in East Park at $385,000 last week and a Meritage Home in Britschgi Ranch will close shortly. In February, for example, there were only 7 homes in that price range that closed escrow. We’ll see an uptick this month, I predict. At the moment, MLS reports we have 229 homes for sale in 95624, which have not yet sold nor closed escrow.
The competition grows a bit more intense in the $300,000 to $350,000 range. Last February out of 29 listings in that range only 11 sold. That equals about 1 out of 3 homes. The hottest price range, though, is the “under $300,000,” those homes priced between $200,000 and $300,000. The pending sales in that price range for February exceeded the number of homes for sale.
And this is exactly where my electrician’s home is located. We’ll probably need to spruce it up a little bit because most people don’t live in the manner in which they would present a home for sale to the public. We live like real people and not characters in a fairy tale, but it is the fairy tale I will sell. This is a one-story home in a neighborhood in which many investors have flipped homes, and it’s a popular place to live.
I talk to everybody about real estate because it’s my passion. Even when I’m having an extra electrical receptacle placed under my home office desk. Thinking about buying or selling a home in 95624? Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Same Fannie Mae Short Sale Wrinkle But Different Approach
In short sale forums across the country, agents are lamenting the problems associated with Fannie Mae short sales and Freddie Mac on short sales, but I suspect that many short sale agents in Sacramento never even bother to look up Fannie Mae loans nor Freddie Mac loans prior to commencing the short sale — because some of them are way too focused on themselves and the fact they got a listing instead of putting the focus where it belongs: on the client, on the transaction itself.
It’s true that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cause havoc in a short sale. What else is new? But at least they are trying to do something about their muddled mess, even if it’s fairly ineffective, they get a B-plus for effort. One of the newer components of these types of short sales is our ability as a Sacramento short sale agent to request a pre-approved sales price.
The sales price, I should note, is the list price, which is not necessarily the BPO value. Of course, that’s been the problem all along, the BPO has very little to do with the price that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac demand. This is like trying to pat your head with one hand while rubbing a circle on your stomach with the other. Then there’s the question of whether the offer price needs to meet the list price because we still don’t really know how much Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac will accept.
So, far, list prices are still above market value.
This is different than when Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, after 8 or more weeks of processing the short sale, notifies us of its demand for a higher price. This is often a strategy that means: the government wants to send the home to foreclosure, but we don’t want to come right out in the open and admit it. This is the strategy that has agents across the county up in arms and frustrated with our government sponsored enterprises (GSE). I don’t really know why the GSE’s adopt this strategy, but in my world, I’d rather get this information on the front end than the back end, and so would my sellers.
That brings to question the status in MLS after an offer has been received. Because even in its new practice, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cannot seem to get us the pre-approved value prior to an offer. If we change the status in MLS to Pending Short Lender Approval, it means we don’t want any more offers. If the offer we have received is not close to or above the pre-approved price, we could be hosed if the buyer won’t raise the price upon demand, and we won’t get that demand from the GSE until we are closer to closing.
My solution for these dilemmas is to leave the file in Active Short Contingent status and allow backup offers.
Saying Goodbye to the Downtown Sacramento Mall
After shooting photos of a new listing yesterday afternoon, I stopped at the downtown Sacramento Mall to visit Macy’s to see if I could pick up a new pair of shoes, as I have not been shoe shopping in person at a department store for almost a year. I work too much. The problem with Macy’s, of course, is it has downgraded its inventory so it tends to carry a lot of cheap-ass crap nowadays because it thinks that’s what Sacramentans want to buy and who knows, maybe they do.
Much of the downtown Sacramento mall is deserted. It won’t be long before the men’s store and furniture division of Macy’s will move out, too. This is where the new stadium for the Kings will be built. I owed it to myself to give it one more quick walkthrough before everything changes.
Fortunately, I did find two pairs of shoes I liked, but they were very similar to each other. As I stood there admiring them on my feet and prancing about, I decided I did not have all day to ponder the pros and cons between the two pairs, and I could not easily make up my mind, so I just bought them both. That seemed like the most cost effective way to solve my dilemma. The salesman saw that I had been struggling in my predicament and undoubtedly noticed how I resolved the issue by grabbing both pairs. He suggested maybe I would like the same shoe in a different color. Well, maybe he should go into real estate and stop wasting his talents in the Macy’s shoe department?
Macy’s now has WiFi so my cellphone worked all over the store, which was great! I chatted with buyers looking for homes, an agent in Phoenix sending me a referral, and a possible new listing for a seller in East Sacramento. But I knew I had to get back to my home office and upload photos for my new listing before it went live in MLS at midnight. That was a pressing deadline. I had allocated an hour for shopping and my hour was over.
I dashed for the elevator. The door opened, I got on and reached into my pocket for my cellphone. Just then a heard a guy yell HOLD THE ELEVATOR as he sprinted across the parking lot, his face beet red from puffing and huffing. I pushed CLOSE. Rats. He stuck his magazine into the door and jammed it open. I am nice all day long, darn it.
Foiled. He got on anyway.
Karma gets you, you know. Sure enough, I zipped into the middle exit lane, the one without a dude in the box who can take your ticket, and I ended up having to back out while some woman in a sporty red car yelled at me because she thought I was going to hit her.
As I drove up 9th Street with the top down and hair flying, leaves whirling around me in gusts of wind, I thought about how different it is to be working from my home office today versus what it was like in the 1980s. Almost nobody back then worked from home, and if you did, you didn’t tell anybody about it. Nowadays, it’s very common place. Few top-producing real estate agents work out of an office. You meet clients at the office, but you work from your home office.
If you haven’t been to the downtown Sacramento mall yet to say goodbye to the old place, this might be a good time to do it. And tell that guy in the shoe department at Macy’s, the kid with the red hair, he should go into real estate.
When It is Time to Downsize Your Home in Sacramento
Home sellers nearing retirement age across the country will soon get a chance to hear this Sacramento REALTOR‘s personal views about downsizing, i.e. moving into smaller quarters. Of course, you won’t hear all of it, like you would in my blog, because most reporters don’t send interview subjects a draft for approval prior to publishing — because that would not be called journalism — unless maybe they were writing for an online newspaper or a national magazine pandering to a subscriber base.
Although this particular reporter did sent me a draft of his article for approval and asked a few more questions he forgot to cover. He mentioned that in his review, it seemed his article wasn’t quite balanced enough and he wanted to cover a few more points about the downside to downsizing and discuss why a person might not want to downsize. He could not print the additional comments I sent in their entirety because his editor would most likely edit them, he explained. His reasoning was their readership has about $35,000 tucked away for retirement, and he didn’t want to offend their readers.
I can see that. I can see that they have far more problems than my comments about a mobile home if all they have is $35,000 in the bank. What I said was not everybody needs to consider downsizing: People who are already living that dream, even if it’s living in a broken-down old tin-roof mobile home on the side of a river bank, should stay put. If you’re happy catching catfish off that dock, who’s to say you need to move? But apparently the aforementioned comments, which I pulled outta thin air, were too close to home, and will never see the light of day except for here.
This is what I get for watching that last episode of HBO’s True Detective — with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey down in Louisiana.
For others, those who can see the future and want to change that vision, downsizing is the way to go. When I retire, I plan to downsize as well. I don’t need all that space I have now. Personally, I believe most people have too much crap and need to get rid of it, and downsizing gives you a reason to dump much of it.
A potential seller in West Sacramento called a few days ago to talk about her own downsizing situation and that of her mother, who lives in Greenhaven. She wants her mother to move and her mother wants to stay put. Turns out her mom is 79 and has lived in that home for more than 3 decades. You know what? She ain’t moving. See, now I saved this daughter all of that grief of pleading and begging. Ain’t gonna happen.
New Home Listings in Roseville, Greenhaven, Fair Oaks
When I woke up to rain in Sacramento this morning, my first thought was how excited I am to work on preparing my new home listings for this month, but my second thought was April showers bring May flowers — that ditty has little to do with anything because it’s still only March and because we already have flowers. By the time April rolls around, I have summer fever. I also wish we had enough rain to end the drought, but it looks like we are in a for a long struggle and need to practice continual water conservation.
A report in the Sacramento Bee revealed most of the water consumption in the Sacramento area is in Granite Bay as residents in Granite Bay use twice as much water over Sacramento residents. Larger lots, more grass, mostly. My new listings for this month are not located in Granite Bay, although I do sell homes in Placer County. These are homes in Fair Oaks, Greenhaven and Roseville, all areas I know very well. When you sell homes all over Sacramento like I do, it’s nice to be able to pick and choose which homes I want to sell and which sellers I want to represent.
While I’m selecting my new projects, homeowners are also selecting the agent they want to work with, and goodness knows, they have a huge selection from which to choose. A seller shared with me last week that one of the reasons she chose to hire Elizabeth Weintraub over the other agents she interviewed was because I did not talk AT her; I talked with her. Of course I talked with her, because that’s how I talk. Plus, I need to get to know my sellers on a personal level so I can best communicate and deliver the type of service they want. Make them not just happy but ecstatic. You can’t do that if you’re talking AT people.
If you are looking for a home in Greenhaven, Fair Oaks or Roseville, you will love this selection. First, they are all equity (traditional sales) homes, so you can close in 30 days. The home in Greenhaven sports gorgeous hardwood floors and an oversized lot, located in a pretty, tucked-away neighborhood, ready for immediate occupancy, under $300,000. The home in Fair Oaks boasts granite, is an updated and spacious single-level and offers country living in the city, priced under $400,000. The single-level home in Roseville features matted cherry cabinets throughout, granite counters, ceramic and marble floors, a popular model with a beautifully landscaped back yard, also priced under $400,000.
If you are a buyer working with the Elizabeth Weintraub Team, you’ll get first glimpse of these homes as they come on the market. All of our buyers tend to enjoy a bit of an edge in the Sacramento marketplace, and it’s not because they’re working with the smartest agents I know, but that certainly helps.
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