Email ElizabethThe Last Sacramento Sunday In June
The last Sacramento Sunday in June is fast approaching. The summer weather is upon us, and with it comes the constant need for air conditioning. The vegetable gardens are now in full swing after a slow start. A summer real estate market is bustling, and there are some excellent properties available.
This is a perfect time to list your home. The sky photographs so beautifully blue with the bright sun. The flowers are budding in brilliant colors, and the pastures have turned into fields of honey wheat. The photographs of the new listings are stunning, but then that’s another blog. A Sacramento Sunday is always busy with open houses, presenting offers, emails, phone calls and marketing. As one week closes a new one begins and there is such excitement looking forward to the possibilities of the new week.
If want to buy or list your home this is a great time to call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors with RE/MAX Gold, at 916-233-6759.
— JaCi Wallace
Is Smart Home Technology a Wise Investment?
Is smart home technology a wise investment? When you’re thinking of selling your Sacramento home, you may be wondering if adding a bit of smart home technology will make your home more desirable. Likewise, when you’re thinking of buying, you may be dreaming of the convenience it would bring.
What is smart home technology?
Many things, as it turns out. The most basic and most wanted features are whole house WiFi, wireless security systems, programmable thermostats, lighting control systems, wireless home audio systems, and multi-zone HVAC systems.
But of course, that’s not the entire list. You can also purchase a smart refrigerator that will practically organize your whole life. Your doorbell can come with facial recognition, so you know whether or not to answer the door. With a “smart plug” you can use Alexa or Google home to turn the coffee pot on when you get out of bed, so coffee will be ready by the time you reach the kitchen. You can also use it to turn on devices with your phone when you’re on your way home.
One of the popular selling points for smart home technology is the ability to control the systems in your home from your phone when you’re away.
- What better way to fool would-be intruders into thinking someone is home than to turn lights on and off randomly, rather than at pre-set intervals? How about turning on some music when no one is home? And of course, you should draw the blinds when darkness falls.
- Wouldn’t it be nice to turn the heat or air conditioning on an hour before you arrive home?
- How about turning on the washing machine to do a load of laundry?
- Of course it would be convenient to take a peek inside your refrigerator or accessing its automatically generated shopping list to see if you need to stop at the supermarket on your way home from work?
Another popular feature is being able to look in on your home while you’re away.
Perhaps you want to check on the babysitter, hear what guests in your home are saying when you’re in another room, or interact with your dogs and cats via video while you’re away. Whatever your reason, being able to see and hear does bring a level of comfort.
Is all this convenience worth the price?
While some of these devices, such as home security systems, are not expensive, others are. For instance, programmable window blinds can cost several hundred dollars per window. On the other hand, smart refrigerators are now priced on par with any other top-of-the-line refrigerator.
Will your house sell for more if you install some of these devices? Will the house you buy today have greater resale value later if it has smart home technology? Only time will tell.
The drawbacks of smart home technology
Since the biggest selling feature is being able to control your whole house from your phone, it’s important to note that unless all of the technology in your home comes from the same manufacturer, you may need multiple apps. The systems are not known for their compatibility.
Next, learning to use the features is a demanding and time-consuming process. Worse, there is little support available. If you’re not innately techie, you may be sorry you invested. Perhaps most troubling is the vulnerability. These interconnected devices have an inherent risk of security breaches. Hackers can reach into them and thus gain access to your entire Internet system.
To learn more about purchasing a smart home or selling one, call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors with RE/MAX Gold, at 916-233-6759.
— JaCi Wallace
Home Buying With Pets
Home buying with pets is a blog previously written by Elizabeth for another website over a decade ago. I love when words have the same meaning today as they did long ago. This article is close to my heart as pets are a huge part of my lifestyle, ENJOY.
— JaCi Wallace
Whenever I set out in the past to buy a home, one of the qualifying criteria for the home, was to find a place where I could hide my cat’s litter box. Putting the box in a closet with coats and other odor absorbing garments did not appeal to me. And I’m not a person who enjoys stepping on traces of cat litter scattered about the bathroom with my bare feet. Nope, cat boxes require their own special place in the home.
I always ask buyers if they have pets before we start looking at homes, just so we can accommodate those pets in the plans to buy a new home. For example, if a buyer has a dog or wants to adopt a dog, it’s a good idea to buy a home with a fence — or at least be prepared to put up a fence.
I realize some condo dwellers in New York use those indoor dog pad thingies, but I’m dealing with a cat who is in renal failure right now, and I could not imagine dealing with a pad for a pet day in and day out. If you are buying a single family home in which to live with your dog, a fenced yard will be appreciated by both of you.
If you are buying or selling a home do you want to work with Realtors who care about home buying with pets? We list and sell pet-friendly homes. Call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors, with RE/MAX Gold, at 916-233-6759.
— Elizabeth Weintraub
Is Your Sacramento Realtor Like A Smart TV?
Is your Sacramento Realtor like a SMART TV? Well, a smart tv knows its job. You can ask it to respond to your requests. It will learn the things you like and suggest other items of interest. You can rely on your smart TV to offer you endless smart options when you ask questions. If you ask your TV to recommend comedy movies, up comes a list. Ask it to save you time by recording programs you enjoy and immediately your request is granted.
Does your Realtor know her job? Can she respond to your requests with competency? Does she learn the things you like in a home and does she suggest other qualities in a home that you might like? Can you ask your Realtor endless questions and she provides you smart answers? These very basic and necessary abilities are what’s expected of a smart TV, a robot and indeed of your Sacramento Realtor.
I was speaking with a new client yesterday. She is an exceptionally bright young woman. In my conversation with her, she seemed to be questioning what expectations were reasonable to expect from a Realtor. She has another property listed with another brokerage and expressed frustrations with the process. It was clear she wanted assurances that my services would be superior to her past Realtor experiences.
Our client began to ask me various basic questions about my efforts and plans for selling our new listing. I offered her several ideas and options. Immediately, I could see in her facial expression she was stunned that there were so many solutions to her questions.
She was very impressed. It was not my intent to impress her as I was answering what seemed to me very basic questions. Any competent, experienced Realtor should be able to answer these type of questions quickly and effortlessly. All Realtors are not, however, created equal.
Experience alone does not make a top producer. Skillful execution, an ability to solve problems and deliver results year after year, decade after decade are not imitations of success. Rely on the tried and true hundreds of posted 5-Star reviews for our team.
If you want to list or sell a property and need an agent who exceeds your expectations, call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors with RE/MAX Gold, at 916-233-6759.
— JaCi Wallace
Are Real Estate Photos Misleading?
Are real estate photos misleading? Should you rely on them? When you begin your search for a new Sacramento home, you’ll no doubt browse through all the Sacramento listings on real estate websites. You’ll pay attention to the real estate photos. Perhaps you will even imagine yourself in those rooms or on that property. Then, if you’re like most home buyers, you’ll choose the homes you wish to see based on those real estate photos. You’ll also dismiss homes based on their photos.
If you’ve already begun looking, you know that while pictures say a thousand words. Sometimes those words aren’t truthful. A skilled photographer can make rooms appear larger than they are. He or she can also be selective in what goes into each frame – in order to omit faults that might make you choose not to visit the house.
It doesn’t make sense to deceive you and other home seekers in this manner, because you’ll see the truth once you visit. Meanwhile, you may have wasted your time and perhaps gotten excited over the idea of a house that doesn’t really exist. But that’s not the entire problem . . ..
Real estate photos can also cause you to overlook perfectly good houses. It is an unfortunate truth that not all agents are good photographers – and not all agents are willing to hire a professional real estate photographer. Thus, some real estate photos can lead you to believe that a house isn’t worth seeing when it could be exactly the one you want.
Some agents post dark photos, so you can’t see the house or the rooms. Some post fuzzy photos. Several take pictures of all the wrong things – like a toilet or an unmade bed. Others fail to educate their sellers on the value of de-cluttering. What you often see in real estate photos is all the homeowner’s “stuff,” instead of the house. That doesn’t make it a bad house. It just makes it a poor presentation.
Go ahead and look at the pictures on real estate websites and give your agent a list of homes that interest you. Then rely on that agent to tell you if the houses really are worth taking time to see. At the same time, give your agent a list of “must have” and “would like to have” features. She can search both MLS and her own “knowledge banks” to find houses that will please you. A buyer’s agent, working to help you accomplish your goals, is the most valuable tool you can have when searching for a home.
The solution is easy: Work with an experienced Sacramento REALTOR®. Your home will be filmed by our highly skilled professional photographers. Call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors with RE/MAX Gold, at 916-233-6759.
— JaCi Wallace
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