Email ElizabethDid You Miss the Boat to Buy a Home?
A Sacramento home buyer called yesterday to lament about her attempts to buy a home. She asked me if this was a good time to buy or a bad time to buy. It’s not as simple as that, I’m afraid. It’s a good time to buy if you can conform to the market, and if you can buy a home. That’s because interest rates are low and prices are very affordable. But it’s a lousy time to buy as well because you might not be able to buy a home at all. It’s not like a buyer can make a full price offer and expect that offer to be accepted. Come on, this is not the middle of the Mojave desert — even though that’s how Bay Area investors see us — this is Sacramento.
Sacramento — a severely distressed real estate market that is beginning to rebound. Prices are inches up. Prices are not kissing the sky like Jimi Hendrix. Yet home buyers are making crazy offers like Charlie Sheen on a bender. I can quietly list a home and slip it into MLS and within 24 hours, I’ll have a pile of offers on my desk for $20,000 to $50,000 more than list price. If this isn’t madness, I don’t know what is. If those Charlie Sheen offers were cash, I’d be dancing naked on my desk, but they aren’t. They are financed offers, and if the property won’t appraise to get that loan, they may as well be offering us a cart filled with gold bullion, which we all know will never leave the vaults at the U. S. Mint.
I can’t tell you if this a good time to buy a home. It depends on how much stamina you have and your appetite for rejection. It depends on your type of mortgage, too. It depends on who you are working with, which Sacramento real estate agents you choose to represent you. I can tell you the Elizabeth Weintraub Team is closing deals. I can tell you that some of the largest real estate companies in Sacramento tend to list most of the homes for sale in Sacramento. Some of the real estate companies do not put every listing immediately into MLS. If you are lucky enough to be working with a top producer in Sacramento, you might gain a bit of an edge.
It doesn’t mean that going to the listing agent ensures that buying edge because no reputable listing agent in Sacramento would put her seller at a disadvantage. No way, Jose. We want our sellers to get the highest and best offer; there are no compromises. No favorites. Everyone has an equal chance. But you might get a chance, and that’s the important part.
In this seller’s market in Sacramento, hitching your wagon to a top producer might be the wiser decision.
Do You Want to Live Near the Russians?
By that title, I am not talking about the 49th state admitted to the Union, no, no, no. I’m speaking directly about Sacramento. I’m a Sacramento real estate agent, and I could say that I know where the Russians live, but that would only send the CIA after me, and having the FBI hot on my trail is bad enough. I don’t need one more government agency chasing Elizabeth Weintraub all over Sacramento. No, Sirree. Oh, wait, I didn’t mean to say the FBI, it’s just a California district attorney’s office who wants more information on the bad guys that I sometimes write about.
But the other thing is I do know where the Russians live, but I can’t tell you. If I tell you, I could be accused of breaking the Fair Housing Law. The Russians are a protected class. Put that into your Eisenhower pipe and smoke it. I’m not going to say anything bad about the Russians, either. Some of my favorite people hail from Russia. I’m trying to think of some Russians other than my housekeeper and a REALTOR from Daytona Beach, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.
I got to thinking about this because a) many people demand that real estate agents perform acts that would get a real estate agent investigated if the authorities knew or watched the agent do it, and b) people don’t know much about real estate agents, and that which they do know for certain, absolutely certain, is often absurd. Like John Oliver said at the Crest Theatre last night, and I paraphrase, about 50% of Americans are positively devastated and at odds with each other 100% of the time. This is just regular people. This is not real estate agents he’s talking about.
When we got on the elevator after Oliver’s performance to rise to the fourth floor and find our car, I looked around at the people on the elevator. Usually, I don’t like standing in close knit quarters with a bunch of strangers. But these people at least had something in common with me; I mean, they had been to see John Oliver, which means if the elevator suddenly got stuck between the floors, I probably would not mind having to participate in a sudden crisis with this particular group of strangers. It would be better than, say, being in a bus load of Republicans that flew off a cliff while on vacation in Utah.
Call it the LOST syndrome. You know, there you are on a plane flying to some exotic place like, oh, maybe French Polynesia, and the plane suddenly nose dives. Next thing you know, you’re waking up a beach splattered in palm fronds with a bunch of people you wanted to kick while standing in line to board. Do you like these people? Would you rely on these people to strangle a pig with their bare hands so you could eat something other than coconuts? That’s something to think about the next time you are standing in a crowd of people whom you do not know. Why, a meteor could hit the earth and spare this circle of people and you.
Do me a favor and think about that the next time you ask this Sacramento real estate agent where the Russians live. You want a real estate agent who has more than 30 years of experience and is a top producer representing you? Sure you do. Then, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Why Did the Seller Reject Your Offer to Buy a Home?
If you’re looking for the secret about why the seller might reject your offer, you might be sorely disappointed in my answer. That’s because in just about every situation you can name in the Sacramento real estate market, it is the seller who chooses the buyer, not the agent. As such, the seller can have a bazillion different reasons why the seller prefers one offer over another. Yes, at this point you’re probably thinking: what about the listing agent’s input? Doesn’t the listing agent influence a seller’s decision? I believe that it is the listing agent’s job to guide, not to decide.
One way a purchase offer can gain traction is to be written correctly. This may sound overly simplified and you might wonder how anybody could write an offer incorrectly, but that’s obviously because you are not a listing agent in the greater Sacramento region. If you were a listing agent, you would know how offers can be written incorrectly.
Write the offer without mistakes is the number one rule.
It’s difficult to write a purchase contract without any mistakes. It means an agent needs to re-read MLS to make sure all of the directions were followed. Sometimes, listing agents insert tips or requirements into MLS, so it’s a good idea to review the confidential agent remarks and look for attachments in MLS. Veteran agents know that we live in strange times. It also means checking the correct boxes, making certain the buyer’s name is spelled correctly and matches the preapproval letter, double-checking the math and terms, using the right property address, including required documents, and so forth. Dot I’s. Cross T’s. Don’t give the seller a reason to reject your offer.
I can’t tell you how many offers the Elizabeth Weintraub Team gets accepted in Sacramento simply because the offer is written correctly. No other reason. It’s not our ranking or the fact that other agents respect us, it’s that our offers generally do not contain any mistakes. Because what is there for a seller to base a decision upon apart from price / net proceeds? In a short sale situation, for example, the seller isn’t even receiving any of the profits so price, while important, is really not a primary consideration. Commitment to the transaction is paramount, as is the ability to close escrow. In a short sale, you’ve gotta be willing to wait for short sale approval and be able to close without delays or hiccups.
A while back an agent changed the amount of the earnest money deposit in a purchase contract that I received. The amount was cut in half. It was simply crossed out and rewritten, without an initial. I did not know whether the agent changed the earnest money deposit or if the buyer had altered the contract, but in any case it was enough for me to question the buyer’s agent. I felt this was an issue the seller might want to know and she may raise the question herself. Why did the buyer lower the amount of the earnest money deposit on this short sale?
The buyer’s agent explained that the buyer did not want her money tied up for a period of possibly 3 months. Probably because she would be losing out on that whopping .5% interest rate paid by local banks — that 60 cents paid over 90 days.
The seller was looking for a committed buyer. A buyer who really wanted the home. A buyer who was willing for 3 months. This is a seller’s market in Sacramento. Many sellers receive multiple offers. Sometimes, a seller can receive a dozen purchase offers or more within 24 hours. In a short sale, many sellers are not looking for a reason to accept a purchase contract — they are looking for a reason to reject it so they can focus on the few offers that fit the sellers’ criteria. Try not to give the seller any reason to reject your offer.
Buying After a Short Sale
It is almost mind boggling to look at all the misinformation one can find online about selling a home in Sacramento as a short sale. Not only that, but some of the right information is received incorrectly by the recipient, which is a double whammy. Short sales are complicated. If one is going to consider doing a short sale, one should hire an expert, a Sacramento short sale agent who has closed 100s of them, and there aren’t very many of us around.
I routinely receive calls lately from sellers who want to buy a new home right away. The problem with that concept is it is very difficult to do because a seller has to fit very tight criteria. Generally speaking, the following statement is true: if a buyer can qualify to buy a new home, that buyer will not be considered as a short sale seller by the seller’s bank. Banks are not in the business of giving sellers a break. If your home is underwater, that is not enough of a reason to do a short sale. On top of this, banks typically must follow financial guidelines in which to grant a short sale, and most bank’s guidelines state a seller must have a financial hardship. If a seller has a financial hardship, banks generally don’t lend money to these types of sellers to buy a new home. However, the other side of the coin is it depends on the story, how it is presented to the short sale bank and what the hardship consists of.
Do you see the dilemma? Most people, when faced with dumping an underwater home or staying there and hoping it will someday turn back into the black, will choose doing a short sale. That’s because they can wait out the two years required by most lenders and then buy a new home that is almost identical to the home they sold.
You can’t predict the future with absolute accuracy. But one can compare the past. There are sellers who sold in 2009 and bought again in 2012. They were able to replace their previous home with a better home in a nicer neighborhood for less money than they sold at. Less money, even! It was cheaper to buy a new home. Prices are edging up a little bit in Sacramento but let’s face it, the market is still excellent. Prices are low and interest rates are low. It’s still worth it to short sale now and then buy again in 2 years.
Because who wants to watch a buyer move next door who bought that home for half of your mortgage? If a spouse is not on the mortgage, that spouse might qualify for a new home. Some seller’s parents qualify for a new home for the sellers. There are ways to work around this dilemma. Call a Sacramento short sale agent like Elizabeth Weintraub today at 916-233-6759.
The Wii Perfect 10 Exercise Game
This Sacramento real estate agent is a firm believer in shades of grey, and I am most certainly not talking about you-know-what book. In fact, I have not read that book. I’m in the minority, I fear. I probably should read it, if for no other reason than to know what other people are talking about. However, I am writing today to say there really are no shades of grey when it comes to learning and knowledge.
It’s pretty much black and white. There are 2 ways to learn. From a third party or from yourself. Let me tell you, learning from a third party is much preferable yet so few of us learn our lessons that way, myself included. Yup, I’m a “let’s stick that fork in the wall socket again because I cannot believe what just happened” kinda person. OK, maybe I’ve evolved a bit since I was five. In any case, I am hoping that my readers can learn from my tragic experience with the Wii Fit Plus Perfect 10 exercise game and not make the same mistake.
I regularly workout with the Wii Fit Plus. It’s pretty cool, and it means I don’t have to leave my computer, get dressed, drive down to the gym, workout, come back home again, and waste all that time when I could be helping sellers and buyers to sell or buy a home in Sacramento. I can simply get up from my desk, turn on the flat panel TV, pick up the Wii and step on the balance board for my 30-minute workout. It’s a quick break. Good way to deal with stress generated by Sacramento short sales as well. And if I have to pause to answer the phone, that’s doable.
What I didn’t bank on was what could happen by changing my workout routine of ordinary push ups and leg extensions. Ooo, I thought, what is this Perfect 10 exercise game? I’m telling you, don’t do it. Oh, sure, Wii gives you a warning that says don’t shake your hips too hard, and you think to yourself, how could I possibly shake my hips too hard. I know how to shake that booty, and I’ve been doing it for years. OK, maybe I haven’t been shaking that booty for 20 years or so. This particular Wii exercise game involves swinging your hips to the left or the right, forward or backward, to bump a ball. The screen presents you with 3 or 4 balls, and each ball has a number. Your task is to add up those balls to the number 10. You get 20 screens, and it is timed.
This is not something a person who was born during the Eisenhower years should be doing unsupervised. Yes, that is the problem. I was unsupervised. At least I didn’t hit my head. I’m hoping I can walk again in a few days.
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