Email ElizabethCriteria for a Sacramento Short Sale Client
I can astonish myself at the words that come out of my mouth. This agent doesn’t mince words. I say exactly what I mean, and I pride myself on communication. People say I can take the most complicated situation and break it down into simple words that make sense to others. It’s a gift, I suppose. Not everybody can do this. It’s probably why I was chosen to work for the New York Times and write about home buying on About.com on the side, but my primary job and focus is selling Sacramento real estate. As such, I work with people I don’t know, known as people from the public, from the subdivisions of Sacramento. They call me out of the blue.
I prefer to work with those who are referred to me because I know at least one other person has verified their sanity. Otherwise, it’s turning out this year to be a 50 / 50 proposition. I try to weed out the crazy people from my life. I know that’s terrible because they need help, too, especially those who might have to do a short sale. It’s not nice to discriminate, and I feel bad about not working with those people because it’s probably not their fault that they’re nuts. They could have been born with this defect. I mean, who are we to judge? Yet, we do judge. It’s human nature.
Not only that, but everyone of us is a little bit nuts. Especially by comparison to each other. I don’t think anybody is 100% sane. Not even me, although I probably believe I’m more rational than most. I possess a lot of common sense, and let me tell you, common sense will take you a long way particularly if you have enough common sense to wear comfortable shoes. When asked to pick my favorite sense among our 5 senses, I’ll take common sense for 1000, Alex.
I listened to a woman scream yesterday. On a Saturday, not even a week day. It’s my fault for answering the phone. She wasn’t my client. She was the girlfriend of an underwater seller who was trying to become my client. She believed that as a Sacramento short sale agent, I should represent her boyfriend to the bank exactly like a lawyer would represent him. She didn’t believe he should have to talk to the bank. There is a part in the Bank of America short sale process in which the borrower needs to call the bank. I am not a lawyer. As a Sacramento short sale agent, I cannot fill out a borrower’s paperwork, and I cannot make that customer survey phone call to the bank.
Finally, I had to say that what we have here is a failure to communicate. I don’t even like Cool Hand Luke. Now, I realize many people today are distressed. It’s difficult to figure out what to do with an upside down house. By the time a seller calls me, he or she is probably at the end of his or her rope, running out of options. I try to be sensitive to my clients’ situations and attentive to their needs. But my policy is I represent people I like and respect. This couple did not end up being one of those.
Handling a Short Sale Counter Offer
When a short sale bank issues a counter offer, it’s not really a counter offer. Except that it is. It’s just not the type of counter offer that most Sacramento real estate agents recognize. Confused? A short sale counter offer arrives in different forms. Sometimes it looks like Buddha, and other times you’d swear it’s sporting a black cloak and wielding a scythe. It can be in writing or it can be verbal. The counter can be negotiable or non negotiable.
An agent in my office called yesterday about a Chase Bank short sale. I realize that my company has managers who answer these sorts of questions, and they do a bang-up job. But agents also get antsy and don’t always want to wait for a response. Imagine that. An impatient real estate agent! So, every so often, the brave ones call me. I don’t mind helping out a fellow Lyon agent now and then as long as they don’t make it a practice, although I wish they would email and not call.
The agent who called, a super sweet guy, was bent on explaining his entire short sale woes. As I’m listening to him, I’m watching phone calls come across my cellphone screen like a CNN scroll. I ponder whether I should send text messages to the unanswered phone calls and, if so, should I choose the response that says I’m at the dentist or is it better to simply say I’m busy, or don’t they already know that since I didn’t pick up my phone? Do I have to tell them I am awake? Is it any of their business what I am doing?
I like the prepared response choice that says I’m at the dentist because it sounds more respectable than to text my real GPS location, which is I’ve got my head stuck in the frozen dessert section at Safeway, fogging up the freezer. Finally, in my distractions and attempt to focus on my fellow agent’s question, I found myself needing to pull him in that direction as well. I cut to the Chase. Ooo, a pun. I interrupted him and said, “Phone messages are piling up while you are telling me your story, exactly what is your question?”
He wanted to know how Chase issues its short sale counter offers. It felt weird to him that the short sale agent would just call and tell him the price had changed and that the buyer had to pay some other miscellaneous fee. Maybe he expected the counter offer would be white-glove delivered on a silver plate with a juicy JPMorgan Chase insignia wax seal on the envelope. Nope, it’s verbal. Chase short sales are still old school. Documents are faxed to a central location and then lost, just like the old days at Bank of America.
Speaking of which, I received a counter from Bank of America yesterday on a Cooperative Short Sale. Most of the time a buyer’s agent never knows that a counter offer has been accepted unless he or she reads my short sale updates on my website. That’s because counters don’t often involve the buyer. The bank is simply approving or rejecting fees the seller must pay from the proceeds of sale to close. The bank authorizes the expenses of sale. The lower the fees, the higher the bank’s net. It is the seller who pays the fees, not the bank.
This was unusual because the accepted sales price exceeded the preapproved listed price of this Cooperative Short Sale. We had received a number of multiple offers on this short sale. We picked the best offer, which is not necessarily the highest offer. I imagined the buyer would be somewhat stunned to receive an addendum increasing the price and paying a few additional fees. But the bottom line is we want to close this short sale. The bank’s investor has guidelines.
Bank of America stresses that in a Cooperative Short Sale, the preapproved short sale price is precisely that: preapproved. It doesn’t say it will accept that list price. The bank’s investor calls the shots. The buyer, naturally, wanted to know if she could negotiate with the bank, and see, this is the thing. Will another buyer pay that price? In a heartbeat. I know this; it’s not speculation. So, the buyer accepted the Bank of America short sale counter, which is a good thing. Smart buyer, smart buyer’s agent. You know what we call a buyer who doesn’t want to accept a bank’s counter offer like this one? Let’s just say the term doesn’t have buyer attached to it.
Who Will Buy My Home in Sacramento?
It doesn’t matter where you live in Sacramento, there is a buyer for your home. Every Sacramento real estate agent knows this fact but sellers aren’t always certain. Home sellers often worry that their home will not sell. It’s their biggest fear. It’s even a bigger fear when that home needs to be sold as a short sale over a traditional sale, but every home in Sacramento has a buyer waiting somewhere to buy it. I guarantee it.
How can I be so overly confident? Because I’ve been in the real estate business for more years than I care to admit, and I’ve never yet found a home that somebody, somewhere would not buy. Never said to myself that I can’t sell this. It’s just not a possibility. That attitude does not exist.
Now, that’s not to say a home seller can’t help the process along because he or she absolutely can. There are small improvements that can be made to help sell. Often tiny things. Ask your agent. It helps to start by sitting or standing in each room and looking at it. Clear out the noise and the distractions. Focus on the room and the view to the room. Think about how it makes you feel. Is there anything irritating about it? Are there things you love about it? The secret? Get rid of the irritation and accentuate the love.
When I talk to sellers about listing a Sacramento home for sale, I ask why they bought it. I also want to know why they are selling. I might come across as a nosey real estate agent but that information helps me to do my job. For example, I had couple of sellers in Elk Grove tell me that they bought their home because they were standing in front of the door to the pool area in the family room doing a 360. As they spun, they grabbed each other in excitement because they could not believe that they could afford to buy this home. I asked them to show me the exact spot where they were spinning when this happened.
During the open house, I found myself talking to a young couple. This would be their first home. They definitely wanted to buy a pool home. I took their hands and said: Come with me. I positioned them in the spot where the present owners had stood on the day they decided to buy. I said to them, turning in a circle and holding out my arms: Can you believe that you can afford to buy this home? And I reaffirmed it. Yes, you can buy this home. It is true. Believe it.
And you know what? They bought it.
They bought it because the buyer for your home is a person just like you.
Let’s Talk Like a Pirate About Sacramento Short Sales
What do you say to a biker whose motorcycle is blocking your car? Probably the same thing you’d say to a short sale negotiator, but then I’m not Myrl Jeffcoat. And Myrl Jeffcoat would most likely not be talking to a short sale negotiator regardless of how great of a Sacramento REALTOR Mryl might be because Myrl doesn’t particularly want to do short sales. Myrl is not a Sacramento short sale agent like insane REALTOR Elizabeth Weintraub, but that doesn’t mean she can’t appreciate the horror stories.
Since it was International Talk Like a Pirate Day yesterday, Myrl and I went to lunch in Land Park to celebrate. We parked in front of The Golden1 over on Broadway. The security guard made me re-park my car more efficiently because it was his job to stand in front of The Golden1 to ensure that there are at least 3 parking spaces at all times in front of The Golden1. I suppose he’s also there to shoot the little old ladies from Target who might try to rob the credit union. I hear that bank robberies by women are on the rise, and I’ve got to say you’ve come a long way, baby. Or, maybe men just want things done more efficiently. Hard to say. I’m not gonna argue with a security guard who gives me a free parking spot in front of The Golden1. I deal with short sale negotiators day in and day out, and you just give them what they want. You don’t argue.
Although, yesterday, a negotiator at AMS called; she was a bit flustered. AMS is a third-party vendor for Bank of America, which is my favorite, favorite, short sale bank. Oh, say what you will about B of A, maybe it’s simply the devil I know, but I love doing Bank of America short sales. This negotiator had asked previously for the seller agency. It had not been uploaded to Equator because there was no task for it. She had opened tasks for 2 other things but not the seller agency.
I thought this for a minute, and it dawned on me that this negotiator most likely had no idea what a seller agency was, so why did she want it? I asked her. She wanted it because the buyer’s agent had sent an extra copy with the offer, and the extra copy was not signed. Her job is to get signatures. I took the time to explain agency disclosures. How they work. Why we sign them. And asked if the seller had signed agency disclosure on a document with the buyer and the buyer’s agent. Yup, they had. So we were good, and she did not need another document. Once the negotiator understood this, she withdrew her request. This short sale was submitted for approval.
On the other hand, after lunch at The China Buffet, Myrl and I started to walk back toward my car. Myrl stopped at the bar, adjacent to The China Buffet. She stuck her head in the open door and announced that the owner of a motorcycle was blocking a vehicle in the parking lot. She demanded they remove it. At first, I wondered why Myrl cared about somebody else’s car. It seemed like she was about to provoke a biker who was drinking at noon inside a bar. Myrl is a lot smarter than that. I looked again at the vehicle. It was a Mercedes. I used to drive a Mercedes but I bought a new car last year; although German, it is not a Mercedes.
Oh, wait.
Well, I pondered the situation and decided I did not know Myrl. Nope, I believe this woman is a complete stranger to me, and I would keep right on walking. Yes, I believe I will walk across the street and stand on the sidewalk to see how this plays out. You know, she watched me park in front of The Golden1. She watched me walk back to my car and move it to a spot that made the security guard very happy. And now she was yelling at a biker in a bar. Perhaps she should talk like a pirate about Sacramento short sales and that will get her out of that bar alive.
This is one of the reasons I really enjoy hanging out with Myrl Jeffcoat. There is never a dull moment. Unlike this other short sale with Bank of America. It’s an FHA short sale, so it’s not in Equator and is a whole other animal. We’ve been working on it since February. Let’s just say the HUD procedures at B of A are a tad flawed but they can’t be the king of all short sales. I’m grateful for the traditional and the Cooperative Short Sales. The FHA short sales are the price to pay for those. It’s a tradeoff.
Our negotiator at Bank of America promised after all of these months she would approve the short sale on Wednesday. Said as soon as we got her the extension from Citimortgage (there is a second loan who approved months ago), she would issue the approval. We were so excited. We emailed her to remind her of her promise to send the approval letter. In exchange, we received this email (I kid you not):
I will be out of the office starting 09/19/12 for an undetermined amount of time. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact New Negotiator assigned to the file. Customer Service phone # 866.880.1232.
I can see that it’s time to Tweet the Bank of America Social Media Team. Arrr, me mateys and drunken sailors. Yes, let’s talk like a pirate about Sacramento short sales.
How to Buy a Pending Home in Sacramento
Sometimes, a Sacramento home buyer is in the right place at the right time. Or, better put, sometimes their Sacramento REALTOR is in the right place at the right time, and that means having her finger on the pulse of MLS. You’d be amazed at how few times during the day any given real estate agent gazes upon MLS, but that’s where one will find all of the action. Ya gotta cruise the news. If you think you can’t buy a pending home in Sacramento, think again.
Say, for example, that you are a Sacramento listing agent, and you’ve got a buyer who isn’t exactly cooperating. You might think: oh, who would do that in a seller’s market? A person like that would have to have a screw loose. But you would be surprised. Maybe it’s the buyer’s agent who has stopped responding to emails or phone calls. You might be astonished at how many agents struggle with communication issues or simply ignore attempts to reach them. There might be a contractual obligation that needs discussing such as putting an earnest money deposit into escrow, and maybe that hasn’t happened. That’s a warning sign a contract is about to be canceled and you might be able to buy a pending home in Sacramento. Or, maybe the buyer needs to release contingencies, and his 17 days has come and gone. Another warning sign. If you’re that listing agent, how would you get the word out to buyers that a listing might be coming back on the market soon?
Personally, I favor those big lights in the sky myself. Those honkin’ beams. Our days in Sacramento are getting shorter. Maybe with a bat insignia, like Batman. But I don’t have any of those. Can’t remotely run a scroll across the bottom of anybody’s iPhone like a CNN ticker tape. So the next thing that’s available is to do two things:
- If the purchase offer was more than the list price, raise the price in MLS and
- Slip “bring backups” next to the pending status in MLS.
It’s like going fishing. (Increased sales prices tend to gather more attention in MLS than a price decrease.) Minutes after that’s done, low and behold, this Sacramento REALTOR got a bite. I received an email from an inquiring buyer’s agent. She had shown a particular home in Sacramento to the buyer, and the buyer was very disappointed when it suddenly went into pending status, like they’re all doing right now. The buyer wrote an offer as a backup offer. Tip: To write a backup offer a seller can legally sign, one needs to submit a document that puts the offer into backup.
The seller signed the backup offer and issued a Notice to Perform to the buyer’s agent. The buyer failed to perform, so strings were cut and the new buyer slipped into place without this home ever going back on the market. So, if you are a Sacramento home buyer you might ask your buyer’s agent to glance over at MLS inventory several times during the day to see if there are any homes in pending status in which the seller wants a backup offer. This just might be your lucky day to buy a pending home in Sacramento.
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