Email ElizabethAren’t You Tired of the Hello Are Your Carpets Dirty Guy?
Don’t you ever wonder how many do-overs the guy who recorded Hello Are Your Carpets Dirty had to do? Because you just know he had supervision, some manager, carpet store owner, who oversaw the production of that Robocall and squealed, “Can you just say it with a little more energy?” — until the guy was so far over the top he was completely irritating. “Yeah, yeah, that’s it, make them want to stab your eyes with an icepick.” The good news is new federal regulations are supposed to put a stop to this robo-calling business.
The FCC’s new Robocall rules say the consumer must give written consent to receive this crap. Further, the telemarketers can’t call a residential landline based on an “existing business relationship” — oh, thank goodness, just in time for the next election. And the icing on the cake is the telemarketers are supposed to give callers an “opt out” right at the beginning of the message, before the words Hello Are Your Carpets Dirty leave their lips.
See, I never get past that first sentence because I’ve already hit erase again on the answering machine. So far, they aren’t calling my cellphone, yet.
Even more interesting is how the new FCC rules affect real estate agents and mortgage brokers. Mortgage brokers, according to C.A.R., are not allowed to contact a borrower more than 18 months after the loan closed. Real estate agents can’t call sellers of expired or canceled listings if their numbers are listed on the Do Not Call Registry. Call me silly, but I highly suspect few of these individuals will comply, either due to cluelessness or outright refusal. This is Amaireeeeka.
Why, just yesterday I received a spam newsletter from a mortgage broker. I emailed to explain I do not know him, have not business with him, and I am trying to reduce the amount of unwanted emails I receive every day. It was, after all, my second request to him. There are days I receive anywhere from 300 to 500 daily emails as a Sacramento real estate agent. Unfortunately, in my haste to get rid of this guy, I had clicked “reply all”, and my kind request begging him to stop emailing me went out to all of his customers. Question: what kind of person sends a bulk email exposing addresses? Answer: I guess the kind who spams real estate agents.
When I complained, he wrote back to argue that he had represented a buyer who bought one of my sellers’ listings last year, so he figured we had “worked together.” He was hurt I didn’t remember him. Why would I? My records show I closed more than 100 homes last year. Moreover, to a Sacramento listing agent, a mortgage broker is a third-party vendor hired by a person the agent does not represent. There is no working relationship. I work with the buyer’s agent, not by extension the buyer’s mortgage lender.
For more information, please see the FCC Do Not Call List website. And let’s tell the Hello Are Your Carpets Dirty guy to stuff a sock in it.
Where Do Buyers Come From for Homes in Sacramento?
When greed and the need for shelter love each other very much, buyers for homes in Sacramento pop outta nowhere. Well, that’s the answer my husband came up with when I posed the question to him — where do buyers come from for homes in Sacramento — but he enjoys making me laugh. On the other hand, sometimes sellers think we real estate agents hide buyers under our beds. I’ve heard sellers say that they did not want to list their home, per se, they just want me to bring them a buyer. Buyers come from listings, they aren’t under my bed.
It’s true that we have some buyers who will wait forever to find that special deal, but typically what these buyers want is a home under market value. They often don’t want to pay list price for homes in Sacramento, and they don’t want to pay what the home is actually worth. They often want to steal the home. And every so often, I run across a seller who wants a buyer to steal her home, and I put the two of them together, but that is not the norm. It’s not really how homes in Sacramento are sold. It’s not how Sacramento real estate works.
Our listing agreements contain a big ol’ paragraph about why pocket listings are not in the seller’s favor. Sellers ask me when they see that paragraph if they should be a pocket listing because they don’t understand the verbiage. I realize C.A.R. thinks they are doing a service for sellers but instead it’s complicated and convoluted, like anything becomes when a committee is involved in the decision. When I explain pocket listings to sellers, which I shouldn’t have to do because I don’t take them or believe in them under ordinary circumstances, sellers then ask me why anybody would ever do it. Mostly because they’re bamboozled, I guess.
And then they want to know whether I have a buyer for the home.
We Sacramento listing agents get buyers for a home after an agent lists the home for sale. The agent looks for a buyer when the homes goes on the market. Often, the buyers might find another agent to represent them, but we are actively looking for buyers every single day. That’s what listing agents in Sacramento do. We dangle that beautiful listing in front of the eyes of every single buyer we can find. It’s like fishing. When we get a bite, we reel ’em in and toss ’em into the escrow boat.
Empathy not Sympathy Governs Sacramento Real Estate
So often when you hear people talk about Sacramento real estate, they will say something like: it’s not the money, it’s the principle, well . . . it’s the money. They’re fighting hard for that money. People on the other end of the argument for principle might believe that the principle is not worth the discussion, and therefore it’s not the money NOR the principle, and they wish you would shut the you-know-what up. They might become defensive and angry and accuse the person who presses the discussion about the principle, claiming that this person is making mountains out of molehills.
Do you know anybody who ever made a mountain out of a molehill? Huh? I ask you because I surely haven’t. I don’t even think a mole can make a mountain unless you call a small pile of sand about six-inches high a mountain, and that’s not my definition.
For me, and for most real estate agents, principles and ethics and integrity are how we run our Sacramento real estate businesses. By not compromising that foundation, we don’t have to wonder if we’re doing something wrong because we probably are not. I am fearless about it.
I see so much crap lately going on in Sacramento real estate, especially among other professionals, and I wonder why none of this bothers some of these people. What stories do they tell themselves to make them think it’s OK to lie, cheat and steal? What made them so desperate to stoop so low? We worked recently with an agent, who shall remain anonymous, who gave us the runaround on an offer. Refused to present, requested numerous unnecessary changes, used delay tactics and then, oops, double-ended it. One can report these agents to the Sacramento Board of REALTORS, but proof is difficult to show and consequences are small.
Sometimes, what comes around, goes around, though.
I thought about this as I sat across the table from a seller yesterday, signing listing paperwork. The sellers had talked to another agent who told them he did not need to view their home because he could work the numbers from the comparable sales. He was kinda pushy and insensitive to their needs. I don’t know how anybody can do well in real estate if one is insensitive to her client. Needless to say, the sellers didn’t get a good vibe from that agent and called me instead.
It’s empathy, not sympathy. People often confuse these words. It’s not a sense of sorrow for people. It’s understanding how your client feels and sharing those feelings. I can’t present a seller’s vision to the world unless I can understand it and feel it myself. That’s what we do when we sell real estate, we present the seller’s experience to the buyer in hopes that the buyer will relate and want to buy it. You might think this is weird, but houses talk. You can’t hear it unless you’re inside the home to listen and observe.
If you need a real estate agent who will listen to you, feel free to call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
What the Home Warranty Company Won’t Tell You
You’d be hard pressed to find a Sacramento real estate agent who won’t ask a seller to pay for a buyer’s home warranty plan. About the only instance I see in which buyers don’t get a home warranty plan when buying a home (unless they want to pay for it themselves or their agent is in a generous mood), is in a short sale. And that’s because most short sale banks will not authorize a home warranty payment for a buyer. Those short sale banks squeeze every dime out of the transaction. So, the message you’ll hear from short sale banks is no home warranty plan for you.
The reason agents like home warranties and why sellers will pay for it is because it’s like an additional buffer between the buyers and the sellers when something goes wrong. And believe you me, something will go wrong. It always does. It might not happen a few weeks after closing or even after a few months, but generally during that first year of home ownership something goes haywire. When it does, buyers tend to jump to the conclusion that the seller knew about this stinkin’ defect, whatever the heck it is, and purposely didn’t tell them it was going to break.
This is where the home warranty plan steps in. The homeowner pays a service call fee and, much of the time, the rest of the work order is paid for in full. Unless it isn’t. Unless it is exempt from coverage, and you’d be astonished at what’s not covered or what costs extra to cover. This is where your home warranty representative can be your saving grace. I fought many a battle with the home warranty company because it did not want to pay for something as simple as replacing a sink faucet.
Now, after your home warranty expires — because it’s only good for a year, they didn’t tell you that? — well, now the company will try to get you to renew it. The renewal price is a lot higher than the one-year fee paid by the seller. Whether it’s worth it to you depends on what is likely to go wrong at your house and what it could cost to fix. If your policy costs you $500, and the AC condenser cost you $400, plus you paid a service call on top, you might be (gasp) better off without the home warranty.
My furnace is on the blink right now, and I don’t have a home warranty. We got up yesterday morning, and it was 62 degrees in the house. No heat. Brrrrr. That’s cold for Sacramento. Ten years of a home warranty payment would pay for a new furnace. But we’ve owned our home for 12 years, so, see, financially we’re ahead, no matter what. Fortunately our problem was just a $400 control board. Everybody has to weigh his or her own situation as to whether a home warranty is worth it.
Insight Into a Green Tree Short Sale in Sacramento
I know a Sacramento short sale agent or two who will not work on a Green Tree short sale, but I manage to get these short sales accepted. I will admit that it’s a bit easier when Green Tree is in first position (and perhaps just the servicer) than it is when Green Tree is in second position and say, hard money. Especially in California. Because those hard-money second loans carry recourse.
This means if the bank did not approve the short sale and the home went to foreclosure, a second lender may have the right to go after the seller and try to collect if that loan was not purchase money. It’s also a reason that some banks, not necessarily just Green Tree, might think twice about approving a short sale. Because if the bank approves the short sale, the bank needs to release the seller from personal liability. That’s not the case with foreclosure of hard-money loans. Moreover, sometimes banks are paid more money to go to foreclosure.
Green Tree’s policy is to approve a short sale in 90 days. It’s not unusual, depending on the negotiator, for Green Tree to issue the short sale approval letter in a shorter time frame. One of the troubles that can arise is Green Tree, when in second position, might issue short sale approval before the first lender. If the first lender takes too long, that approval from Green Tree can expire. If it expires, Green Tree might not issue an extension. A short sale extension is not always guaranteed, even though some people might think so.
On the other hand, if the short sale approval from Green Tree has expired, it might also send the file to its charge-off department, depending on the length of time that transpired after the last mortgage payment. Once the file gets to the short sale charge-off team, there is no guarantee that the department will accept the same terms as stated in the previous approval letter.
If you’re looking for a short sale agent in the Sacramento Valley to handle your short sale, you should select an agent with vast experience. I’ve sold more than $65 million in short sales since 2006. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Sorry we are experiencing system issues. Please try again.
