Email ElizabethVA Buyers in Sacramento Can Come Over Here and Sit By Me
It seems like lately I have been closing more homes in Sacramento by selling to VA buyers. I doubt it’s because there are more VA buyers. I suspect it’s because there is such a prejudice in Sacramento and neighboring counties. Sellers don’t want to sell to VA buyers, and that’s a big problem.
It’s a problem because sellers do not understand and some agents do not understand, either. They hear the word VA loan and freak out. They wrongly believe that sellers will have to jump through a bunch of hoops, make a bazillion repairs and pay a lot of extra money to sell to a VA buyer and that’s baloney.
VA buyers are gold mines who do not deserve the reputation they get. It’s extremely unfair to paint VA buyers with such a broad brush and say they are uncreditworthy or that their offer should fall to the bottom of the offer pile. It’s shameful, that’s what that attitude is, shameful.
To qualify for a VA loan with no money down means that buyer has excellent credit, probably better than that 20% down conventional buyer who everybody seems to gravitate toward. If you’re trying to buy a home with a VA loan, give me a ring. I educate my sellers, and my sellers are eager to sell to you. You don’t have to write 12 offers to buy a home in Sacramento.
Come over here and sit by me, and we’ll get you into a home. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759.
Appreciation vs. Market Recovery for Sacramento Real Estate
If a reporter at the Financial Times does not understand the mathematical calculations of our Sacramento real estate market, it stands to reason, I suppose, that the average consumer is confused as well. Or, maybe some of us just didn’t pay enough attention in math class, hard to say. Not everybody likes math or realizes in school how useful math is when we’re all grown up. If you’re struggling to understand what has happened in the Sacramento real estate market, I’ll lay it out for you in terms that are easy to understand.
From January of 2012 through January of 2014, our Sacramento real estate market median price has increased 50%. When I mentioned this over the weekend to a Financial Times reporter, she said, “But your market has fallen at least 50%, so that means you’re at breakeven now, right?” I might have rather stuck hot pokers in my eyes than be forced to learn that an isosceles triangle has 2 equal sides, but I do comprehend that one can’t solely pluck the median price range and decide our market is back to normal.
- For starters, that 50% price increase applies only to the median price. Our median price moved from $160,000 in January 2012 to $240,000 in January 2014.
- Second, averaged over those 2 years, that’s only 25%, and the market is fairly flat today.
- Third, homes priced above that price point and below that price point have not necessarily appreciated by 50%.
- Fourth, if you take a home that was originally valued at $500,000, apply a 50% fall in market value, that would drop the value of that home to $250,000. A 50% increase would make it worth $375,000, not $500,000.
All real estate is local to neighborhoods. Some areas of Sacramento fared better than others. Some areas of Sacramento were hit harder than others during the downturn, most notably the newer home subdivisions in Elk Grove, Natomas, Roseville and Lincoln. It’s amazing, our Sacramento real estate market, varies so much from one neighborhood to another!
I freely admit that I didn’t really fare so well in high school math. I think I took the class because I needed one more class to graduate. I took off so much time during my senior year by hitchhiking around the country, I probably earned a B- or a dreaded C. English was my strong suit, though, straight A’s. Yet, even I, a lowly Sacramento real estate agent, know how to run the numbers. My high school math teacher would be so proud. If you want to know more about the Sacramento real estate market, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. I’m never too busy to talk.
Robert Randolph and the 86th Academy Awards Show
This will be the first night in many decades that I will have to view the 86th Academy Awards show on some other day. The reason is that Robert Randolph and the Family Band is bringing funky soul tonight to the Crest Theatre in downtown Sacramento. Randolph is a guy who got his start in southern church music and was named about 10 years ago to the Rolling Stone’s list of 100 best guitar players ever. I just hope he doesn’t make us get up on stage and dance because I’ll be fighting the bedtime nod-off time. Hey, 9 PM, I want to go to sleep. I don’t care where I am.
Of course, the downside is I will get up tomorrow morning and read in the headlines who won the Oscars, and I won’t have watched the Academy Awards. I have decided that this is OK, worked through the rationalization. After all, it’s not like I don’t know who is in the running. It will be one of those movies, and one of those best actresses, and one of those best actors. And 12 Years a Slave, a favorite, with 9 nominations and which isn’t yet out on Netflix (darn), will probably steal the show with many Oscars. That movie, which I wish my husband would have agreed to see with me, has generated a lot of momentum and buzz.
My fingers are crossed for Bruce Dern in Nebraska.
Then I will get to watch at my leisure the very amusing Ellen DeGeneres and fast-forward through all of the commercials. I read in Parade today that one of DeGeneres’ favorite top 5 movies is Steven Martin’s and Carl Reiner’s The Jerk. What do you know! That’s one of my favorite all-time movies, too, primarily because it’s a movie that makes me laugh out loud every time I watch it. It never gets old. Unlike some of us.
Plus, that movie is responsible for the way I have long been filling out biographies about my background. Whenever a document directed me to write a little bit more about myself or share private information, I would write: I was born a poor black child.
I hope nobody thought that was racist and they got the reference. See, this is probably why I had to go into real estate in the 1970s and why nobody would hire me to do anything else. I make an excellent Sacramento real estate agent.
Where Have All the Sacramento Short Sales Gone?
My topic today — where have all the Sacramento short sales gone — brings up a few musical notes rattling around in my brain. Do you remember The Jayhawks and the tune Blue? It starts out: where have all my friends gone, they’ve all disappeared. Turned around maybe one day, you’re all that is here. That’s the song that a lonely Sacramento short sale agent who had not developed any other business is probably singing right now.
I received a chart a few days ago from the California Association of Realtors, which I have inserted above. It clearly shows the direction of foreclosures known as REOs, the short sales in Sacramento and the traditional equity sales. The dark blue on the bottom is regular homes in Sacramento for sale. It’s just about squeezed out the short sales and foreclosures, which is excellent news for our real estate market. Short sales are in red and the light blue on top is foreclosure homes.
It seems like only a few years ago that short sales dominated the market, and I went back to check. Sure enough, if you look at the time frame from November of 2010 through January of 2012, you will see that 36% of the market was short sales. Even more dramatic, 45% of the pending sales were short sales, and 32% of all closed sales were short sales.
The reasons why short sales no longer dominate the market in Sacramento are simple. We’ve had a huge uptick in appreciation. Our median sales prices rose about 45% across the board from the beginning of 2012 (which was the official Year of the Short Sale) to the summer 2013, when price increases leveled off. On top of this, most people who had ever thought about doing a short sale have already closed a short sale. These were the people who bought or refinanced from 2004 to 2009.
Today, those short sale numbers for Sacramento County in January 2014 are . . . are you ready for this? We closed 100 short sales. One hundred short sales. Is this like 100 bottles of beer on the wall? I could sing that song, too. They breakdown like this:
- Active short sales comprise 10% of the market January 2014
- Pending short sales comprise 16% of the market January 2014
- Closed short sales are 11% January 2014
I pulled those statistics from Trendgraphix reports. Fortunately, although I managed to accrue quite a specialty in short sales and even wrote a book about short sales in 2009, I still sold regular traditional real estate, and I’ve sold even more regular homes last year. I sell in the range of 8 to 10 homes a month, in case you’re wondering, so I see a wide spread of activity across our four-county area and move a lot of inventory.
Can’t say I’m sorry to see short sales disappear. They aren’t really my friend or anybody’s friend. They’re a regular pain in the neck but a necessary component of real estate for some sellers. If you’re thinking about doing a short sale, it’s not too late as there are so many good rules about short sales for sellers today that were not in place 8 years ago. It’s not the stigma it used to be, and most sellers pay no tax and have no liability because they are lucky enough to live in California. Our rules are different than other states. I can help. Nobody has sold more short sales than I have over the past 8 years in this region.
If you want more information, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Image: California Association of Realtors
There is a Limit to How Much Help a Sacramento Real Estate Agent Can Give
Elizabeth Weintraub can help with relocation referrals.
If your home isn’t selling in Sacramento, call Elizabeth Weintraub, a top-producer Sacramento real estate agent, to fix it. She’ll know exactly what to do, what’s wrong with it and how to correctly price that home. That seems to the general consensus lately based on some of the phone calls I’ve received. While it is true, and I try to help everybody if I can, there are only so many hours in the day and, besides, let’s face it, if it’s not my listing, I don’t get paid for this assistance. I am not a nonprofit entity. Agents don’t work for free (unless they’re working on short sales in bankruptcy). If you’re not planning on canceling your listing, don’t call me. This agent cannot interfere in another agent’s listing. If you’re canceling your listing, though, that’s another story.
People call and say I found you online, and you seem to be so smart with great reviews, I need some help. Sure, flatter and then stab me in the heart when you say you’re working with another agent. I’ve asked sellers why they stay with an agent who is not producing results and whom they complain about, because I don’t understand that attitude. It sounds so defeatist. Maybe it’s like people who are attracted to torture and get off on it, what do you call those people, there’s a noun for that, oh, yeah, politicians.
Another agent in Sacramento asked yesterday if I would be willing to meet with him privately and advise on best real estate practices and marketing plans for his brokerage. Do I look like a representative at the Small Business Association? I am a hard-working real estate broker who sells real estate under the Lyon banner in a four-county area in Sacramento. I run a business. My own business. I have team members who support and work with me. My own clients to take care of and produce results for. Even if the agent was willing to pay me, I don’t work in the field of agent support.
This is what happens when a person gives advice on the internet. People tend to forget that you are a business entity who works 12 hours a day in her own business. That’s not to say I don’t answer a quick question here and there or that I wouldn’t help an agent if I could be of assistance, but that’s not really my job.
My job is to sell homes for my sellers and make sure home buyers get into a home. If you want to buy or sell a home in Sacramento, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759. If you need a referral to an agent elsewhere, I’ll be happy to assist.
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