Email ElizabethEvaluation of a Sacramento Short Sale Offer
There are so many reasons to scrutinize and evaluate an offer for a short sale, I hardly know where to begin. I guess I will start by saying there are people in this world, buyer’s agents among them, who wrongly believe that all offers should go to the bank. They also tend to believe that the seller is lucky to receive any offer at all and should not care what the offer is or who it came from or anything else about the offer; the seller should just sign it and shut up.
You might scoff and wonder who could be so incredibly ignorant, but I can tell you that a lot of people fit that description. I help my sellers evaluate purchase offers because they don’t sell a house every day. They also, knock on wood, will only do one short sale in their lifetime. It’s my job to see that the short sale closes.
I am looking 3 months down the road at short sale approval when I examine a purchase offer from a buyer. I consider the odds as to whether that buyer will still qualify for or still be interested in buying that home when we get approval. I consider the financial strength of the buyer, the motives of the buyer, the way the offer was written, who the buyer’s agent is and that agent’s experience level; I also look for signs of cover up or deception. There are a lot of crooked people running after short sales.
I won’t tell you exactly what I look for to determine whether there might be fraud because the crooks will read this and make sure they don’t do it.
In a seller’s market, a seller can also be very choosey as to which offer the seller elects to take. All offers are always sent to the seller, but only one offer receives the recommendation to accept it.
If you are thinking about considering a short sale, call this Sacramento short sale agent first, Elizabeth Weintraub, 916.233.6759. Yes, I will take your short sale if you have listed with another agent who could not get it approved; but I’d much prefer that you call me first.
New Doors on an Old Land Park Home
All my friends know what a remodeling nut I am. I love to remodel homes almost as much as I love to sell them. I know how to do many home improvement projects myself and have personally tackled skylight installations, putting in a fireplace, building a garage, along with the normal drywall, framing, tiling and gutting kitchen and bath stuff. There is not much I can’t do. Not because I’m some super creature but because home remodeling is not a terribly difficult task for a person with intellect, patience for do-overs and a bit of creativity.
I’ve been working on my home in Land Park practically since the day we moved in almost 11 years ago. There was not much left to do. In fact, when we ran out of things to do inside, we ripped out the sorry excuse of a weedy front lawn and laid new sod. The only thing we had not done was buy new doors. I don’t do doors. The last door I installed, I could not for the life of me figure out why the doorknob was so low. Until it dawned on me why. So, scratch the part about intellect. You just need patience and creativity.
We bought our doors from Home Story in Rocklin. Mike, the owner, came out to measure and make suggestions. The Craftsman style blended nicely with the age of our home. We replaced 14 interior doors and 3 exterior doors. One of the back doors was so badly burned by the sun and worn that it was beginning to crack down the middle. One hard slam would have split it in two.
Take a look at our before and after photos. Don’t you think they make an immense difference, not only in the appearance but also in the warmth of the space? If you’re looking to buy or sell a home in Land Park, call your Land Park agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759.
A Twist to Online Plagiarism
Seven years ago next month I started a part-time gig writing for About.com as its Home Buying & Selling Guide. Now, 7 years might not seem like a long time to some people, but say that to an 18-year-old graduating from high school, who would have been in grade school 7 years ago, and it’s a long time. It’s not long enough, though, for some people to forget when they have plagiarized.
Oh, some are bold enough to simply copy content from the web onto any other page they so feel free to choose — word for word — and they don’t realize they are plagiarizing or they simply don’t care. They often don’t care because they think nobody will do anything to them, but people do track them down. They are traceable. They have domain names and IP addresses. Everybody has a face on the Internet, if they participate. Stealing content online is a crime just the same as grabbing an old lady’s purse and running off with it. It’s maybe even more severe because it’s done on a grander scale.
There are some who think as long as they give the author credit for the work, it’s OK. But they are dead wrong. Unless the author has given permission, it is not OK. It is still theft.
Others, take words and reuse them, and they swipe thoughts and rework them, which is OK as long as it’s not identical. When it appears identical and there are direct phrases and bullet points used, a plagiarizer is treading on thin water. The correct way to use another person’s content online is to quote a few lines and then link directly to that article. That’s permissible.
I have sold some of my About.com articles. Or, maybe I should say the New York Times, which owned About.com until recently, sold them for me. Because words have a dollar value and articles are proprietary.
You can see how I might have been a bit shocked yesterday when a person out of the clear blue wrote an email accusing me of plagiarism. I was in shock because her accusations were impossible. I looked at the article she referenced, which was a piece I wrote when I started at About.com, in May of 2006. I then examined the article on her website, which she thought was plagiarized. It was very similar to my article. I could see the concern. The only problem was she or her website had stolen my content, not the other way around. She was the plagiarizer.
Sometimes, these things come down to your word against their word. Even if you are innocent, you have to prove you are innocent. I noted the copyright date at the bottom of her website, which was 2008. That was 2 years after I had written my article. I also sent her screen shot of the date the article was archived.
Now the story is she might have rewritten the content for a writer who had stolen my article. But the thing is people who swipe other people’s material and belongings are thieves. Thieves are so used to lying that they begin to believe their own lies in order to survive. As such, this plagiarizer most likely has no recollection of stealing my content. She did apologize for her brashness, so I give her that, but still. No excuse. Her stolen content was removed.
Of all the odd things that could happen, this incident really took the cake.
This Elk Grove Agent Sold a Home $40K Over Comparable Sales
Rumor has it that this seller’s market in Sacramento started this spring, but from my perspective, it began last fall with the September market. We have two very strong markets in Sacramento: Spring and Fall. If you can’t make the spring market, sometimes it is better to wait until fall. Although, in this seller’s market, anytime seems to be a good time to go on the market because all the guidelines and rules and everything you know about real estate have been tossed out the window.
For example, we have been taught since day one to examine the comparable sales when pricing a home. But the comparable sales mean jack squat today, which is why appraisers are having such a tough time trying to appraise. Sales from 3 months ago are not relevant to the market today. It’s the pending sales and the active sales that are predicting which way the wind is gonna blow in this marketplace. That, and a little bit of fairy dust mixed in.
When a seller called me last winter to list her home in Elk Grove, she was concerned that it might not sell right away because it was so close to Christmas. She didn’t live in the home, so it wasn’t upsetting HER Christmas, so it made perfect sense to put it on the market. I looked at the comparable sales and with my then-innocent eyes said: “Oh, look, they substantiate a price of $240,000. Tops. The market movement will let us stick $20K on top and we should do it to see what happens!” The seller liked that strategy. $20K over the pendings was a little risky. We put her home on the market for $259,000.
I did my usual marketing. Promoting that home everywhere that is conceivable online. Shot impeccable photos. Networked the listing like crazy. Within a week, we received an offer that the seller accepted for $275,000! But a few days later, the buyers developed cold feet and canceled. Buyers are a little wobbily right now, I’m finding. This isn’t the first buyer to cancel on one of my sellers due to cold feet or due to writing multiple offers, which is unethical if not against the law.
You will hear agents say that the first offer is always the best. That’s another widely accepted real estate axiom that doesn’t necessarily apply to our present market. The following day, the day before Christmas, we received a second offer of $290,000. It involved financing. The buyers, upon hearing their offer was about to be accepted, changed it in haste to all-cash at $280,000. See what I mean about buyers being a bit unsteady? But $280,000 and all-cash was still better than the first financed offer of $275K.
This Elk Grove home closed in January at $280,000, all cash.
The seller told me when we closed that she was very happy she chose me as her Elk Grove Agent. Even though I don’t live in Elk Grove, I sell a lot of homes in Elk Grove, and I know the Elk Grove neighborhoods very well. Because I am a top producer in Elk Grove, I routinely pop up on those lists from outside referral companies. They look for agents who sell the most homes in any given area, so they have something of value to offer to their sellers.
Well, you can get something of value by calling me directly: Elizabeth Weintraub, 916 233 6759. You can trust that I’ll always give you the straight scoop and put your interests first.
Your Sacramento Home Might Be Worth More Than You Think
Talk about a home that might be worth more than you think. Although I sold a ton of short sales last year — more than 100 — I also sold a bunch of regular equity sales in Sacramento, too. This year, I am selling more equity sales, which is a good sign. It’s probably not so much that the homes are necessarily worth a lot more than they were last year as it is buyers are willing to pay more for them. You see, what a home is worth and what a buyer will pay are really two different things. A smart Sacramento real estate agent spots these opportunities and capitalizes on them.
Why, I just sold a home for $65,000 more than it would probably appraise for. This is just one example of a home that might be worth more than you think; I have plenty more. When I first talked to the sellers of this particular home, which we will leave unnamed, it was apparent they needed to do a short sale. I collected the usual paperwork, their tax returns, bank statements, payroll stubs and we worked on the hardship letter together. Tweaked it, refined it, cleaned it up a little bit until the hardship letter was perfect. They had the property management company send me the keys.
When they had initially called, they said they were undecided about either listing with me or perhaps listing with their property management company. Now, this property management had admitted it had little experience in real estate and none whatsoever in negotiating a short sale, but for some reason, perhaps loyalty, the sellers felt that they should consider listing with the property management company. I simply pointed out the error with that kind of thinking and showed them what life could be like if they listed with an experienced short sale agent. So, they chose me, and may I say they made a wise choice.
I figured the home was worth, maybe $130,000. I studied the comps within a 1/4 mile. The street was known as a busy street, so that suppressed the price a bit more as well. But when I got out to the house and looked at it, I could not believe that such a structure would be worth only $130,000. My gut said it didn’t seem right. I don’t care what the comps reflected; it wasn’t a true picture. We have a hot market, and a three bedroom, two bath, two story with all kinds of updates should not be selling for $130,000. Plus, the street was a lot quieter at that end of town. Why, an investor would pay a lot more than $130,000. In fact, an investor might pay, say, $195,000.
I looked at the payoff to the lender on the seller’s first mortgage. After paying all the costs of sale, including commission, plus late fees, several months of interest, the seller would net about $500. But it would mean no short sale. No ding on the credit from a short sale. The mortgage would be paid in full. I quickly called the seller and asked if they wanted to try it. I suspect they thought I was nuts, but they agreed and we listed the home at, say, $195,000.
It closed at $195,000. What a long shot that paid off.
This isn’t my only story like this in Sacramento. If you are wondering whether your home might be worth more than you think, and if you’d like to avoid a short sale, call me. Even if the sold comps don’t support your value, this Sacramento real estate agent might be able to sell it anyway without doing a short sale. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put almost 40 years of experience to work for you!
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