Email ElizabethA Title Insurance Background Helps a Sacramento Real Estate Agent
Most people don’t know that this Sacramento real estate agent got her start in real estate in the early 1970s as a title searcher at First American Title. After a few years of standing for hours in 6-inch heels at the courthouse (without A/C) and hoisting up those heavy Grantor and Grantee books on the counter, I changed career paths and eventually became a Certified Escrow Officer. This meant using carbon paper to type from scratch escrow instructions, preparing grant deeds and explaining truth-in-lending statements to buyers — much the same duties an escrow officer handles today, sans the typewriter.
Back then I handled about 60 escrows a month. Ordering beneficiary demands, obtaining pest completions and appraisals. Since I worked in Southern California, which handles escrows differently than Northern California, much of the work in an escrow was and still is completed upfront. Sellers and buyers came to my office to sign escrow instructions shortly after contract acceptance.
My days were filled with phone calls and face-to-face interaction with customers. That meant I generally didn’t get any actual work done during business hours, so I would stay late to catch up on the paperwork. It seemed to me back then that I was doing all of the work in a real estate transaction by helping agents structure owner financing and earning a pittance of what real estate agents made. So, I switched careers in 1979 and became a real estate agent in southern California, and later a Sacramento real estate agent.
Now that I’m handling a huge volume of paperwork as a Sacramento real estate agent, though, I’m finding that my days are about the same as they were 30-some years ago. That title and escrow background has been helpful because I learned how to be organized. Because the vast amount of paperwork that is required in any given transaction for an agent today is enormous.
I wonder how other agents deal with all the paperwork without an escrow background? I suppose they hire an assistant. I won’t go down that path, though, because I feel the need to personally touch every document myself. I know, it’s anal and crazy. My transaction coordinator handles the disclosures, but I still look at them.
For example, I read every preliminary title report and appraisal for my buyers. I caught a cloud on title last week and called the title company. Turned out the back portion of an alley was never properly conveyed to the present sellers. Without a deed from that owner of record, my buyer would not receive the proper conveyance. Fortunately, the title company has now taken steps to obtain a quitclaim deed from that former seller but only because one of the present sellers knew that person.
Otherwise, we could have been up a creek. But, let me tell you, being a Sacramento real estate agent beats standing in high heels at the courthouse.
While Elizabeth is on vacation, we are revisiting her favorite blogs from previous years.
Is it the Size and Length That Matters?
A seller whose listing I canceled accused me anonymously on a website of sending snippy emails. She has no idea what she’s talking about. I mean, does she realize how hard it is to type on your cellphone when you’re in the middle of sex? Do you? No? Well, you try it, then. First, in the middle of all this heavy breathing and clawing of your partner’s back, you’ve got to make sure you scroll to “reply” and don’t accidentally hit “forward” instead .
I hate it when I hit forward by mistake and start typing in the forward-to box instead of the text box. Because then you have to cancel the message, and my phone always asks me if I am sure that I want to do that. That makes me stop to think, do I? Do I really want to cancel this message? Or, will I delete it from my phone if I do? Where do deleted messages go on my phone? These are thoughts I’d rather not have but they could save your butt someday.
Unless your butt is naked and in the air in the middle of sex. At that point, I don’t want to ponder canceling my message, but for a seller in the middle of a crisis, I would. My clients are very important to me. Even those clients with whom I have had a listing for only 24 hours before they went off the deep end. Most clients wait at least a couple of weeks before they have a mental breakdown. But for those who lose it early in the process, my heart goes out to them because they have truly special needs. I try to answer every client’s question with care and promptness.
So, while my husband is screaming YES YES YES, I’m typing a reply as to why we can’t take the address out of MLS without deleting the listing. Now, I know you might be thinking why didn’t I just talk to my phone instead of typing? Two reasons. First is my phone cannot spell MLS even though it’s in my dictionary because MLS is a word I frequently use. In fact, the way I say it makes it come out as profanity. It’s bad enough my email is snippy, I don’t want to offend a client with a profane word, especially a loose-cannon client.
Second, there’s another innocent person involved here, my husband. He puts up with enough as it is, poor guy. Not to mention, it takes raw talent to respond to emails in the middle of sex. I don’t believe I deserve that bad press. But my husband is a smart person. His advice is: don’t poke the hornet’s nest. He’s right. There is no need to point out the error of this client’s ways. Somebody else is sure to do it for her along her journey through life. It doesn’t have to be me. I don’t have to be the bad Sacramento real estate agent. I just need to spell things correctly and get on with my life.
While Elizabeth is on vacation, we are revisiting her favorite blogs from previous years.
HGTV: Cancel This Escrow
I’d like to see a new show on the cable network HGTV called “Cancel This Escrow.” They could film three different buyers during the escrow period — after the contract is signed but before the deal closes — and viewers could guess which one of them is likely to have cold feet and cancel this escrow. I mean, all three of them could threaten to walk away from a home closing, but only one of them actually will. Then we could listen to their excuses for buyer’s remorse and reasons to cancel this escrow:
- The palm tree tree in the back yard doesn’t have any flowers.
- The garage floor has four quarters divided by cracks.
- This house is painted brown, yuk.
- The street isn’t wide enough.
- One of the electrical outlets doesn’t work.
- It doesn’t have a built-in microwave.
- There’s no exhaust fan in the bathroom.
- I don’t like the way the light reflects on the ceiling fan blades.
- The garage door springs are missing a safety latch.
- Somebody left an empty can of paint on the roof.
While Elizabeth is on vacation, we are revisiting her favorite blogs from previous years.
A Sacramento Agent is Not Always Sitting Behind Her Desk
The last few days have been so weird in Sacramento real estate. I’ve got sellers saying they don’t know if they should accept an offer, even though most of their two-dozen offers are more than list price, and I’ve got buyers on other transactions saying they don’t know if they want to close. Why, it’s enough to want to make a Sacramento agent want to write an article about an Affidavit of Death. OK, I couldn’t help it, but I hope you like that link. 🙂
It would be easier if the next time I decide to plan in advance for months and months a vacation somewhere wild if I would just move the date up just one day early. Then, everybody would think I was leaving on, say, a Monday, instead of a Tuesday, which would give me one whole extra day to take care of last-minute problems that have a way of being very last-minute, up to the point of when I’m boarding the freakin’ plane.
It’s enough to give a normal Sacramento agent a heart attack. But no heart attacks for me. When I go, it will be something much more horrendous. I was lounging about at the doctor’s office yesterday in my underwear, waiting for almost 40 minutes on the examining table before the doctor popped her head in the door. We just have to do a little biopsy, she says. Nurse, oh, nurse, where is my razor blade? I can’t do a a biopsy without a razor blade. Flipping her gloved fingertips in the air. Twirling. Waiting.
Conditions aren’t always quite so comforting while I’m lying on my back and trying to answer emails on my cellphone. Doctor sticking a numbing needle in my stomach. Ouch. Slicing off pieces of skin with razor-sharp, um, razors (who knew?). What is astounding to me is when clients sometimes say my emails are too short. They have no idea what this Sacramento agent is actually doing while I’m attempting to respond quickly to their concerns. People who know me are groaning. People who don’t are wondering what I’m talking about.
No matter what, I still try to give first-class service to my clients. I have systems in place, team members from the Elizabeth Weintraub Team who will jump in to help, and even then, I have a really hard time going on vacation. I don’t want anybody to think I have abandoned them, because I haven’t. Not really. Not ever, if I can help it.
F-Bombs and Sacramento Real Estate Agents
An agent from Davis called yesterday and dropped F-bombs left and right. Said she had moved here from southern California. She wasn’t upset or anything, it’s just the way she apparently talks to other people. People she doesn’t know. People she’s not even mad at. She seemed angry with the world and complained a lot about how we sell real estate differently in Sacramento than agents do in southern California.
I’m not so sure about that. I used to sell real estate in Newport Beach in Orange County several decades ago. Escrow is handled a little bit differently from north to south in California, but agents are still pretty much the same. In southern California, escrow instructions are signed right away after an offer is accepted, and the escrow officer is on top of the file from day one. In northern California, most of the documents are signed at closing.
As a veteran Sacramento real estate agent, I’ve been selling real estate in Sacramento for so long that I’ve grown very accustomed to the way we handle our processing in northern California. It seems to be a bit more civilized and makes more sense. Why go to all of that work when the file might not close, seems to be the premise in Sacramento.
Because after an offer is accepted, the appraisal still needs to be completed, the buyer has to conduct a home inspection — during which problems could arise, nothing that requires F-bombs — not to mention, a buyer might not make it out of underwriting. It just seems to make sense that most of the paperwork is consummated after the borrower has lifted the contingencies and the loan is ready to fund.
But regardless of my opinion about whether selling real estate in northern California is easier than in southern California, I don’t believe agents should swear at each other. Sheesh. It was ##$^@ this and *&%$# that. Plenty of F-Bombs. I wanted to ask that agent what pool hall she had rolled out of that morning, but I figured why irritate her further.
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