Email ElizabethKnow Your Area Before Home Buying
Overwater bungalow at St. Regis Resort at Bora Bora.
The water is very still this morning, unlike the turbulent waves and constant ripples of the past week. I can see the sun barely begin to poke through the clouds. Even the air is hushed. There is some kind of creature rustling the palm fronds over my head. I prefer to think that it is a bird and not a rat. I have not seen a rat. Plus, a rat up on the roof would probably have to be a water rat since my structure was built over the water, and I don’t know if there is any such thing as a water rat in Bora Bora. But there are birds.
I spent several hours yesterday tracking down the types of birds we have seen. Two in particular. I researched them online until I was satisfied that I had located the correct birds. You might wonder why a person would spend an inordinate amount of time on her vacation to do this, and I guess there are two reasons. I like to be aware of my environment, and I am inquisitive. If you are aware of your environment, it heightens your enjoyment of said environment. You feel more connected to it, part of it.
It’s no different than how you might feel about your neighborhood or your home. If you are unfamiliar with a place you might want to move to, then hire an expert who can advise and assist, such as a Sacramento real estate agent to help you before home buying. If your agent doesn’t have the immediate answer, she has the resources at hand to get it for you.
Buying Sacramento real estate is not only an emotional decision for most people, it’s also somewhat logical and based on each person’s individual lifestyle. How will you know if your lifestyle is a good fit for an area if you don’t ask questions of your real estate agent? You don’t really need to know if an area will fit you, you need to know if you will fit in to a neighborhood. Doing homework before home buying pays off. I had a lengthy conversation before I left for my vacation with a fellow from Hawaii. I could sense instinctively that he would most likely be happier living in Curtis Park than in Land Park, and I didn’t draw that conclusion from anything tangible.
I present to you on this page a couple of Chestnut-breasted Mannikins (Longchura Castaneothorox) above. They were brought to Bora Bora from Australia and are not endemic. To the right are Red-Vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus Cafer). One of the bird sites lists the bulbul as one of the top 100 most invasive species as it has established itself in the wild not only in South Pacific islands but all the way to Dubai.
That bird on the roof just flew off and landed on another roof down the way. It is definitely a Chestnut-Breasted Mannikin. Whew.
Should You Change Agents?
A seller, obviously frustrated with her Sacramento real estate agent, emailed yesterday to ask if I would be interested in representing her. She didn’t say why she was dissatisfied with her agent, but I intend to probe. Because sometimes there is nothing wrong with her agent at all. Sometimes, when the results do not meet a client’s perhaps unrealistic expectations, a client becomes disillusioned and wants to change real estate agents. It’s not that I don’t want new clients, but I do try to encourage people to stick it out with their present agent, to give that agent at least one more chance, and to talk through any perceived difficulties.
Besides, an upgrade might be the same thing they’ve already got. You never know. People who don’t understand the market in Sacramento and how real estate agents work, the rules we are governed by nor the things that are out of our control might believe we are capable of parting the Red Sea when we are not.
When we checked into our room at the resort in Bora Bora, it came with an upgrade, space permitting. Well, there was no space available at Christmas-time so we did not receive the upgrade. But after New Year’s, when many guests have gone home, we checked again and an upgrade was available. It meant packing our bags, which the butler offered to do, and moving across the way, so we took it.
The new house is identical to our old house. Except it’s not as new. Older flat panel TVs. Prints instead of oil paints. Weathered woodwork. Same layout, though. What’s different is the view. I suspect the resort built the front row of overwater bungalows much earlier than the second row. The second row overlooks the lagoon and the beach. The front row looks at Mt. Otemanu and toward The Four Seasons. Except when it’s foggy and rainy, you can’t see Mt. Otemanu at all; it vanishes.
There are times a new agent could be just what you need. Not all agents are the same, and some are very much different from other Sacramento real estate agents — maybe better suited to your personality. But agents have a lot more in common with each other than you might think. Sometimes, it might make more sense to stick with the guy who brought you to the dance.
Photo: Mt. Otemanu at dusk from St. Regis Resort at Bora Bora, by Elizabeth Weintraub
Types of Bank of America Short Sales
This Sacramento short sale agent closed a bunch more Bank of America short sales at year end. I seem to close more Bank of America short sales than any other kind of short sale in Sacramento, although I doubt there is a bank out there that I haven’t dealt with. It’s just that Bank of America seems to dominate. So, that means I am very familiar with Bank of America. Here are some of the variations of Bank of America short sales a short sale agent can do:
- Bank of America HAFA short sales
- The Bank of America Cooperative Short Sales
- The Bank of America Streamlined Cooperative (which are different than regular Cooperative)
- A Bank of America Fannie Mae short sale
- A Bank of America Freddie Mac short sale
- A Bank of America FHA short sale
- A Bank of America VA short sale
- A Bank of America Fannie Mae HAFA short sale
- A Bank of America Freddie Mac HAFA short sale
- A Bank of America Fannie Mae Cooperative Short Sale
- You will not be able to do a Bank of America Freddie Mac Cooperative Short Sale because Freddie Mac does not participate in the Cooperative Short Sale Series . . .
And this is just to name a few combinations.
But a few days ago, a negotiator threatened to return funds. That happens sometimes. Not that funds are actually returned, just that the bank threatens to return the wire, which means it won’t accept the final payoff and the short sale is not really closed even though the documents have recorded.
Why? Why would a bank do that? In this case, the closer suddenly noticed that a second borrower did not sign the deed to the new buyer. This was not an escrow mistake. This was done on purpose. The reason the borrower did not sign the deed is because the second borrower was no longer “on title,” meaning the borrower had conveyed her interest via a deed to the first borrower. The closer claimed legal things such as the recorded deed and the title insurance policy vesting did not matter and that the second borrower absolutely should have signed the deed out and be noted on the HUD. RESPA be damned, was the attitude.
See, this is yet another reason why banks do not belong in the real estate business. Not to mention, how did a file get all the way through the short sale process at Bank of America if this was an issue? It’s because it’s not really an issue.
Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub, tropical fish in lagoon at Bora Bora
Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act Extended
In breaking news today, for those of you who have not yet closed your short sale and have been fretting about paying taxes on canceled debt, the fear is over. As part of the Fiscal Cliff deal, both the House and the Senate passed an extension his morning to the 2007 Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act. The mortgage debt relief act has been extended to January 1, 2014.
This applies to up to $2 million of canceled debt as a result of a foreclosure or a short sale or other modifications for a principal residence to the extent the money was used to buy or improve the property. In California, purchase-money loans are exempt anyway, so this affects primarily sellers with hard money loans. Still. It’s good that the mortgage forgiveness debt relief extension passed for 2013.
NGR is Why Buyers Cancel a Short Sale
Buyers tend to cancel a short sale for NGR.
This Sacramento short sale agent rarely loses a short sale for any reason. Oh, sure, sometimes I will end up with a seller who pleads with me to put her out of misery and to let her home die a faster death through foreclosure, but thank goodness those situations are unusual and scarce. Most sellers want to do a short sale regardless of how painful. They are willing to pay the emotional toll to the troll known as the short sale bank negotiator at their lender’s bank.
My success rate is an open book. Anybody can go to my website and look at my closed short sale transactions for the year. Apart from all of my closed listings, visitors can also view the list of closed short sales in a separate link titled closed short sales in Sacramento. I close short sales from El Dorado County, to Yolo County, Placer County and all the way to the communities of Wilton and Galt in Sacramento. If it’s a short sale, you’ll probably find me there.
I attribute this success to 2 things. I don’t give up, so I don’t listen to the word No. And we try to qualify the buyers. To lessen the chance a buyer will cancel a short sale. A short sale is like juggling many different pieces with a future goal for everybody to all end up in the same place on a certain day, and yet each of those pieces is like a cat, wanting to go in its own direction. You want to juggle cats for a living? Welcome to the life of a Sacramento short sale agent.
We all want to reach that happy spot, the end of the rainbow. And yet, every so often a short sale ends up going back on the market, generally right after it’s been moved into pending status, upon short sale approval. When it does, buyer’s agents call me to ask why the buyer canceled. That’s a normal question but typically the answer is NGR. I’ve weeded out all of the ordinary objections upfront. After short sale approval, there is basically NGR to cancel.
Oh, but what if something is wrong? Like the furnace won’t turn on or god forbid should the bathtub fixtures not match those in the sink? Welcome to home ownership. The next house in 6 months could have something malfunction as well. You want the house, you buy it. You don’t want the house? Next.
I shot the photo on this page yesterday. It is the rainbow over Bora Bora on New Year’s Day. Welcome to 2013.
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