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Dolphins jumping in Tiputa Pass at Rangiroa
You think the holidays are a quiet time in real estate, but even if a Sacramento real estate agent is on vacation in French Polynesia, stuff can happen in monumental fashion. For example, I’ve been gone for only 5 days and during that period of time I’ve had:
- an Elk Grove home fall out of escrow and go back into escrow
- to rescue a pending cancellation due to changing buyer’s names on the deed at the 11th hour
- receipt of four short sale approval letters on four separate short sales to process
- a stove removal by a short sale seller that should not have been removed, times two.
- a demand for an elevation certificate spring out of nowhere
- to refer a seller to a short sale lawyer because I believe the lender lost the prom note
- and numerous inquiries about buying and selling homes in the Sacramento region
Yet, nothing insurmountable and that I can’t handle from French Polynesia. That’s because I have two invaluable things: 1) The internet. 2) The Elizabeth Weintraub Team. And quite frankly, I am completely confident my team members could handle any emergency that pops up — I think they like to humor me by keeping me involved.
I am replaceable.
What is not really replaceable is the rate at which we over-fish our oceans. The ice that is melting at our poles is not replaceable. The level at which our seas are rising is pretty alarming. The gradual warming of our temperatures around the world is disturbing. Bees and butterflies are in peril. When you put these things into perspective, my challenges seem somewhat miniscule.
We walked from our hotel about a mile down the road to Tiputa Pass in Rangiroa yesterday afternoon. I was hoping we would see tigersharks but we spotted instead dolphins jumping. This is one of the spots in the Rangiroa atoll that has broken and lets water flow from the Pacific into the lagoon and back out to sea again. A large freighter came through in the morning to dock inside the lagoon and left through Tiputa Pass in the afternoon. Below are a few more photos:
dolphins jumping at Tiputa Pass, Rangiroa, Adam Weintraub
A Day in Tahiti is One Day Too Long
You know the adage if a tree fell in the forest? If you don’t know that something exists, you might form your perceptions around that which you do know, because you’ve got nothing else to go on. Your reality is formed by your own beliefs and experiences. And in that way we all create our own reality, regardless of whether you realize it.
For example, when I was in my 20s, I used to think a great vacation experience would be to stay at a place like the Disneyland Hotel. To have room service, a real soft bed (instead of a waterbed) and peace and quiet. Today, not so much. That’s not because I’ve turned into some other weird haute person, it’s because I’ve discovered there are other options that don’t involve sharing your space with 50 million other people.
There is a place in French Polynesia that is home to one of the largest atolls in the world. An atoll is a place where the island has sunk in the middle and all that is left is the coral reef, which has long ago died and today is covered with sand, grass, plants. I swear, the weather is perfect; the water turquoise, brimming with tropical fish; and the resort boasts a small string of modernized and updated over-water bungalows.
I can see why a day spent in Tahiti is a day too long.
There is a first-time home buyer I referred from Sacramento to an agent in another town where I don’t work. The home buyer sent me a dramatic email a few days ago, begging for a new agent. The reason she did not want to work with the agent I referred to her was because the agent refused to answer her questions about the ethnic make-up of a neighborhood. No matter how we explained it to her, the buyer could not understand that federal Fair Housing law prohibits the discussion.
This is an agent to whom I will definitely refer more business.
Would You Eat Kangaroo?
One of the things about getting older is it becomes increasingly difficult to discover new experiences. Fortunately, a good way to ensure these types of rare opportunities continue to present themselves to you is to travel to foreign countries. I mean, how else would I ever get the chance to sample a roo? Yup, kangaroo was on the menu in Tahiti last night. It wasn’t described in any particular manner or its origin sourced but I imagine it came from Down Under. I’m not even certain of what part of the body my rounds of roo came from. My husband joked it was the tail, but we both know that tails, regardless of what you might think, are not very tasty.
I had some reservations about ordering the roo. Roo? Come over here and sit on my plate. Although I am not a vegetarian, I am not always comfortable eating meat. Julia Whitty, in her marvelous book about diving in Rangiroa, The Fragile Edge, says there are more carnivores in the sea than on land. Whereas, we humans eat cows and pigs that eat plants, it’s more removed in the ocean. In the ocean, apex predators can be four times or more removed as in fish that eat fish, that eat fish, that eat fish, that eat fish, that eat plants.
But that wasn’t helping me deal with the fact that I was about to eat a kangaroo. With brow furrowed, lips pursed, I turned to my husband who was busy studying the menu — trying to decide between ravioli with prawns or lobster stew — raised my forearms with fingers curled into what could best be described as gesturing a pathetic rabbit and whimpered. He immediately began to mimic a kangaroo, bouncing his head forward with force and thumping the table. See, this is why I married the guy.
I can tell you that kangaroo, even when accompanied by foie gras with a carmelized crust, and prepared medium rare is a bit tough and chewy. Very dense texture and intense taste. From its initial spot in my mind, sitting quietly and innocently as a hot appetizer option on the dinner menu at the Tahitian restaurant Le Lotus, to its appearance in all of is grand glory on my dinner plate, I could not help but think about it as an animal joyously hopping about while carting a little baby joey in its pouch. Not that I have ever seen a kangaroo in person, mind you.
So, I gobbled it.
When the Short Sale Bank Says No
You know the people I have empathy for? Is it my inlaws stuck in Chicago or my sister and niece in Minnesota who are enjoying those not-so-balmy temperatures? Or, is it the house sitters who are taking care of our home in Land Park? Nope, it’s those buyer’s agents in Sacramento who emailed some 20 offers yesterday for a home in Elk Grove. I answered email after email late last night after we landed in Tahiti. Explaining how many offers we received and how the seller is leaning toward accepting a cash offer. But the best news I got was not the short sale approval on yet another short sale in Elk Grove (which also arrived via email), it was the fact we received an extension from CCO Mortgage for my seller who is dying.
Short sale bank CCO at first said it would issue no such extension and would, in fact, start the short sale over if we could not close by December 20th. Sometimes it does not pay to take NO for an answer. I wrote a letter to the negotiator, set forth a plea for an extension, and the “absolutely no extension declaration” turned into a yes, here is your extension!
My Elk Grove seller is not a short sale though, which is another reason that buyers are climbing all over each other to buy that home. The dilemma is should the seller take a cash offer without an appraisal contingency or a financing offer? That’s a decision she needs to make. A cash offer will probably not yield as much cash as a financed offer as buyers who choose financing will pay more. They’re not forking out hard cold cash; they are financing that price increase. Of course, if the home doesn’t appraise for a ridiculous price, it doesn’t matter what a buyer offers to pay if it won’t close due to a low appraisal.
But how many offers does a seller need? Excuse me, there seems to be a large pelican-like bird on my deck that I need to check out. This is the view I woke up to this morning. Helps to put some of these dilemmas into perspective. All I have to say is Thank You, RBS Citizens Bank . . . and I hope my Elk Grove seller makes her decision soon.
Sacramento Home Buyers Need a Reality Check
How does a seller today know if she has a real buyer who has made an offer? There are a lot of Sacramento home buyers wandering around who apparently look like a buyer, walk like a buyer, squawk like a buyer but they are not buyers. I wish there was some kind of test we could give them. As a buyer’s agent there probably is, but there is not from the listing agent’s point of view. That’s because the listing agent has no conversations with the buyer and no direct contact. We can obtain a preapproval letter, many of which are useless, and an earnest money deposit, but it still doesn’t mean the buyer is a buyer.
Now, you would think a real estate agent would engage in a lengthy conversation with a potential buyer, but the truth is most do not. A buyer calls an agent, asks to see a property and then writes an offer. In some ways, the agent is an order taker. Doesn’t question. Doesn’t probe. Just writes the offer and keeps her lips zipped.
You know, that’s not the way I was trained in real estate many years ago. I was always taught that we as real estate agents should form a relationship with our clients, counsel and advise them, ask questions, try to do what is best for the client, not just say “press hard, third copy is yours.”
Keeping buyers in escrow is a difficult job, even in a seller’s market. You might think that a buyer would not cancel escrow simply because there are so few other properties available. To cancel is to take a chance on buying nothing for a long, long time. Because there is not much available for sale in Sacramento. Pickings are slim and few between.
There are a lot of Sacramento home buyers but there doesn’t seem to be very many who are actually performing. The fallout rate seems to be much higher than it needs to be. We’ve got a lot of buyers begging for a home but shortly after they go into escrow, they cancel. For no other reason than cold feet. I eye them more suspiciously now. I question the quality of prospective buyers at the moment.
It would be nice if we could put potential Sacramento home buyers into an X-ray machine like the ones at the airport. Step in, put your feet on the footprints, raise your hands over your head and hold still. BZZZT. Nope, you’re not a buyer. You’re not going through Security to escrow. You can stuff your passport back in your pocket, grab your luggage and go home.
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