Email ElizabethSelling a House Three Times to Get Paid Once
Undoubtedly, when I am selling a house 3 times to get paid once, I am doing it solely for the benefit of the seller. Other agents seem to intensely dislike that kind of attitude. They are used to listings agents who rollover and do whatever it takes to close a transaction. It confuses them when they discover that I am not one of those agents who will rollover.
For starters, I care deeply about my fiduciary relationship to the seller and doing what is best for the seller. How do I do that? Well, here’s a hint for ya, I don’t count my chickens before they hatch because even if they never hatch, I don’t care. I care solely about making my sellers happy. It’s a recipe, albeit a weird one for many, but it’s a successful recipe for me. I don’t really know how to better explain it than if you take yourself out of the equation and try to do only what is best for a seller (I know, strange concept), as an agent you will win in the end. And so does the seller. I won’t go so far as to say win-win because that’s not really a concept I subscribe to, and I used to be married to the guy who coined that phrase. In real estate, generally one side, seller or buyer, fares better than the other. That’s the reality.
When I first sold the fixer home I wasn’t planning on selling a house 3 times to get paid once, but it happens. It happens more often than you might think. Because I generally advise my sellers to just say NO to opportunists. It’s hard to tell who is an opportunist and who is serious when presented with an offer.
The first buyers for this particular fixer home in Sacramento appeared to enter the contract in good faith. But when we were scheduled to close in a few days, and the buyer’s agent called in the middle of the day, it was only bad news. I happened to be at my neighbor’s house in Hawaii when I saw the call come across my Apple Watch.
This is only bad news, I whispered to my neighbor, but I gotta answer. Sure enough, within a few seconds, the buyer’s agent launched into: we did our due diligence and we found a lot of problems . . .
I’ve been through this so many times. I cut her off at the chase. The home is sold AS IS, and if your buyer doesn’t want to continue with the transaction under the present terms of the contract, send us a cancellation. The agent on the other end of my Apple Watch could not believe what I said. She didn’t know I’ve heard it all before.
This is the ploy to ask for repairs or a price reduction. Not gonna happen. My seller agreed. I knew he would.
Don’t you want to know what the buyer found? She asked.
No, we don’t.
If I know what he found, I’ll have to disclose it to the next buyer. Also, it doesn’t matter. The home is sold AS IS. If the buyer doesn’t like the house in its AS IS condition, don’t let the door hit ya in the butt. I don’t care about the buyer’s reason for canceling. I care about getting the seller the money the seller deserves. I was not wrong on the sales price.
This is a perfect example of an agent who expected the listing agent to “hold the deal together,” and I won’t do it. To hold it together is to cost the seller money. I know full well I can sell it again, Sam, to somebody else. This is where experience pays off. So while agents might not understand the concept of selling a house 3 times to get paid once because they feel their time is “more valuable” or whatever, they are probably not top producers.
Enter next buyer. This buyer also goes into contract quickly. I drill the buyer’s agent. Are you sure they know what they are buying? Do you know for a fact they can handle the repairs? Well, long story short, regardless, the agent did not know a thing about the buyers as they also canceled. Criminy. OK, third time’s a charm.
Sometimes sellers get really upset when two escrows cancel. They think it’s not time to sell or the listing agent could have done something differently. Well, yes, we could do something differently, we could throw the seller under the bus. But we don’t. We have no control over buyers. None at all.
So when the third buyer came along, the seller was prepared and ready. At least they did not try to renegotiate. I really dislike the stupid strategy of buyers who think, oh, let’s just get into contract, and then when a couple weeks go by, we’ll renegotiate. We’ll find something to grind the seller over.
Nope. Not on my watch. And that’s how sometimes I end up selling a house 3 times to get paid once. I am honest with my clients. If I think making a concession is a good idea, I’ll say so. But if I think they can sell to a better buyer, I will say that, too.
We closed on January 4th. At list price.
Unfortunately, I’m kind of a dying breed in Sacramento real estate. I hope somebody else will raise the bar after me; after my time is up.
Elizabeth Weintraub Sells 3rd Home on Jefjen Way
Jefjen Way is a street in Elk Grove that backs to a school in Quail Ridge. This means the playground and the noise that goes along with that can be disturbing to residents who live on that side of the street. Fortunately, the last listing I took on Jefjen Way sold within 3 days with multiple offers, even in today’s softer buyer’s market.
We went on the market in early December, a time of the year when sales typically slow down. I would have preferred to list and sell the home in April, when our market was much stronger, but that did not happen. Oddly enough, I’ve been expecting to get the listing since April of 2018.
I’m not 100% positive, but if I recall correctly, it was one party’s parents who called me, and it was not the party who was on title. They wanted to talk with agents and help the party in title to obtain an independent and trustworthy agent. Somebody they at least knew, I suspect. And it was through those parents that I was introduced to the actual seller.
Last April, I would have pegged the home to sell for a lot more money because buyers were more willing to overlook homes that needed work at that point. However, by the time the home became available to sell, in early December, we had moved into a remarkably different market.
Homes without updates, such as certain homes in Elk Grove that feature oak cabinets, white tile counters, white appliances and laminate floors, are not in high demand. Throw a little deferred maintenance, a badly needed paint job that wasn’t gonna happen, on top of stained carpeting, and the price needed to come down even more.
I looked at the homes for sale in that neighborhood, in particular a similar home on Jefjen that was not selling, even though it was priced exceptionally well. It was about the same size but it had a much smaller lot than our subject property. However, it presented the same dilemma of no updates. But it was in better condition and it had a 3-car garage. My listing was a 2-car.
The last home I sold on Jefjen Way took almost two months, and the present competing home had already been on the market for two months without selling. My advice to the seller was to price it tad under the competition, which theoretically should attract a lot of attention. We also made it clear the home would be sold AS IS, and to sell AS IS in today’s market, it absolutely MUST be priced right.
My point is always to maximize seller profit potential. The strategy we use is different depending on the competition, the recent sales and the overall temperature of the market.
Sure enough, within days we received an offer. Followed by another offer. They were close in price to each other. However, the second buyer wanted the house a lot more than the first buyer and suddenly bid several tens of thousands of dollars more. Much more than the first offer.
This pleases me to no end to get more money for the seller. Especially when my strategy pays off. It can be a bit risky when moving into uncharted territory, when the methods used over the past 10 years no longer work. You adapt to the marketplace or you get left in the dust.
In the end, the buyers were ecstatic, the seller was thrilled and the home sold for exactly what the market would bear and then some. You can play this market to your advantage. Which it felt good to prove.
This was my first closing of 2019. Tomorrow I’ll tell you about another 2019 closing, a home that I sold three times.
The Deal With the Halekulani Pool
This is my friend, Hella Rothwell, relaxing by the Halekulani pool in Waikiki. It was not always like this. We had to struggle to secure a spot at the pool. Like, when there are so many other things to do in Honolulu over New Year’s but we became obsessed with the pool.
Why? Because the Halekulani, like just about every other hotel in Waikiki, has overdeveloped its property to the point where the hotel cannot accommodate the needs of all of its guests.
At first blush, it seemed nutty. When a guest pays 4 figures a night for a hotel room, one would think a guest would have a right to a chair at the pool. Yah? But one would be mistaken. There is no distinction at Halekulani between a guest in a garden courtyard room or a a guest in the Diamond Head ocean front room, much less an ocean front suite.
The Halukulani pool enforcers are fierce. We went to breakfast for an hour at Orchids and they gave away our chairs. When asked why they shrugged and said they cannot time every chair accurately. They are supposed to give you an hour and fifteen minutes before they snatch your belongings and turn over the chairs to another guest.
We didn’t even want to spend time near the pool until we were told we could not be there. It would make sense for Halekulani to charge for chairs, assign them to guests who can afford to pay, like at the Moana Surfrider. But even at the Moana Surfrider, there are chair wars among the guests.
I simply sigh and recall all of the wonderful stays I’ve enjoyed at the Four Seasons and The Fairmont. However, the hotels in Waikiki are not necessarily resort hotels, and they don’t seem to cater to guests who expect luxury. It’s another world where people would stab each other in the eyes with chopsticks to get a pool chair.
We finally figured out we needed to tip the Halekulani pool attendants to get decent pool chairs. By decent I mean in the proximity of the sun with an umbrella.
When we stopped by the pool attendant’s desk to discuss the pool chair situation at Moana Surfrider, the guy there seemed confused as to why we were complaining about the Halekulani. Why don’t you like the Halekulani, he asked. It’s the best hotel in Waikiki.
They would not deliver a coffee pot to our room. I was ready to catch an Uber and find a Target to buy a coffee pot. Just not our policy (because we can make you pay for room service), says Halekulani. Besides, we have free coffee near the pool at Orchids. Yes, Orchids where we had to endure the antics from the creepy English toad at Halekulani’s Orchids.
That means I would have to get dressed and not lounge about in my robe. Not only would I have to get dressed, but I would need to insert my contact lenses because I can’t walk around in reading glasses. Then I would need to dig up my room key. Walk out the door. Find the elevator, go down 16 floors, walk across the open area in the rain. Grab two coffee cups, fill them, and try not to spill the coffee as I make my long trek back to the room.
Or, I could wait 30 to 45 minutes for room service. Since I don’t know what time I will wake up, I cannot pre-order room service the night before. Because this is supposed to be a vacation.
After much moaning and sweet-talking, we finally got a hot water dispenser in our room, which stayed hot all day long. You know those packets of coffee you find in most hotels, those without a pod machine? Hella had a huge supply of them, like she recently ripped off a Holiday Inn. Stick one of those coffee filters into a paper cup, fill with water, and voila. Coffee.
I’m not after a Starbucks’ experience. Just the caffeine.
And a pool chair at the Halekulani pool. Is that too much to ask?
Miyako Restaurant at New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel
The Miyako Restaurant at the new Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel in Honolulu amazed us to no end. Just when you think you’ve dined at all the best Japanese restaurants, this one soars to the top of the list. Even the Otani Kaimana Hotel was a unique and amazing discovery.
It wasn’t as though I had planned to discover this place. My trip to Honolulu for New Year’s to see Hella Rothwell involved returning to Kona on Thursday. But then my husband pointed out that Patton Oswalt was on vacation at Oahu. Apparently, Patton posted to Twitter announcing a show at the Blue Note in Waikiki, located next to the Outrigger, the day after I would have left.
Hey, hey, there is a benefit to Pualani Platinum status on Hawaiian Airlines. I changed my return flight from Thursday to Saturday at no charge. We had to check out of the Halekulani on Thursday, so Hella suggested I get a room at the Otani. I went online and booked a corner room with ocean views.
However, when I checked in and saw the room on the 6th floor, it was NOT a remodeled room. It is called the New Otani Kaimana for a reason. I asked the front desk for an upgrade, and the photo above was shot from my new room at the Queen Kapiolani Suite, room 914. The difference between the two rooms was like staying at a Motel 6 versus Four Seasons.
Look at that view of Waikiki. You can see the Royal Hawaiian (the pink hotel) in the distance. Not only are the views spectacular from the top floor of the Otani, but you can also view the mountains from its floor-to-ceiling windows that open to a lanai. I have two words for you. Toto Washlet. I had to work on Friday, selling Sacramento real estate, but did not object to working from my room one little bit. And, it was only $72 more than the Motel 6 room.
The location is also next door to Michel’s at the Colony Surf. You can walk to Waikiki, and I have done it on previous trips, never realizing the Otani was here.
Hella started the dinner at Miyako Restaurant with a trio sake sampler. I stuck to sparkling wine. The only remarkable thing I recall about Hella’s sake sampler was the Cherry Blossom sake, which was incredible. This was January 4th, and the Japanese New Year had ended.
I know I’ve said this before, how I used to believe the French had cornered the market on how to enjoy life by enhancing simple daily activities. But when I got older, I realized my mistake. It is the Japanese who have refined the art of living well. It didn’t even bother me that when we were at the Halekulani, except for that creepy English toad at Orchids, we were about the only white people there. Everybody else was Japanese, the staff and the guests. I felt right at home.
The staff at Miyako Restaurant wore traditional kimonos. Reminded me of my uncle who served in Okinawa when I was a kid. He sent me a Japanese doll dressed in a kimono, which my mother refused to let me play with. She said I could admire her in my shadow box on my bedroom wall, but I was not allowed to touch her.
What an idiotic thing to tell a child. Her attire was bright yellow and beautiful. So of course I eventually removed the pins, and took her entire outfit apart, without being able to piece it back together.
We ordered shabu shabu. But with wagyu beef. We were served many courses of small dishes, starting with seaweed, followed by sashimi, then pickled vegetables, rice, miso soup. I’m probably forgetting something. It was so much food.
I tried my best to finish my wagyu beef but I could not. The shabu shabu featured cabbage, green onions, emoki mushrooms, tofu, carrot, rice noodles — served with a ponzu and another dipping sauce. You could have rolled me out of there. Just shoved me onto the floor and rolled me to the elevator.
After dinner, we drove to the Blue Note, which is next to the Outrigger Hotel in Waikiki. I was able to score premium tables to see Patton Oswalt. Patton is a bit of hero to my husband and me. His humor is wicked smart, delivered with a touch of humility. I was only sorry that my husband could not be in Hawaii with me. But somebody’s gotta feed the cats. He would have enjoyed it.
Especially the part where Patton said he doesn’t really do Trump jokes because our president has that covered all by himself. He compared his presidency to a busload of monkeys on PCP running into a mountain of diarrhea. The jokes are all there by themselves. Nobody has to help that.
Patton, of course, did his part where he involved the audience in his banter. That’s about the time I was wishing we hadn’t chosen a booth with Tiffany, I forgot her name, and her husband. But she did show us how to use the filters in Messenger to create the photo you see above you now. I need more friends with children.
Most of Patton’s skit had to do with turning 50, ha, ha, ha, such a baby he is. You’re not really living until you pass age 65. And his marriage, dealing with the complexities of an invitation to tour the Millennium Falcon or attend his daughter’s 2nd grade art show. This is why I don’t have kids. But humor comes from your life. You talk about about what you know and experience. And if you can’t make fun of that, what’s the freakin’ point?
A Creepy English Toad at Halekulani’s Orchids
Before I tell you about the creepy English toad at Halekulani’s Orchids restaurant, I need to explain my photo. Also, I have no photos of Orchids. Nothing was really unusual enough to take a picture of except maybe that creepy English toad at Halekulani’s Orchids. So these are not oysters from Orchids. However, they are the most delectable oysters I have ever had in my life.
Look at how fat, juicy and huge they are!
The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things. Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, cabbages and kings.
Hella and I ordered these oysters at Michel’s at the Colony Surf the night after we dined with the creepy English toad at Halekulani’s Orchids. Our waiter at Michel’s could only tell us they came from the state of Washington. So the name of these oysters remains a mystery. I suppose I could call Michel’s and ask what type of oysters they served on New Year’s Eve but that would involve picking up the phone.
On to creepy English toad at Halelulani’s Orchids on the night before New Year’s Eve. This was our first night in Waikiki. Hella and I really haven’t talked much over the past year so we were anxious to catch up on all of the important events in our lives. We’ve both enjoyed a fabulous 2018.
We shared jokes, stories. And we laughed and laughed. In retrospect, we both agree that we were not loud enough to be disturbing. However, I did not notice the creepy English toad at Halekulani’s Orchids right away because I was focused on Hella’s conversation; although, he sat with his back to us about 8 feet away. His dining companion, we later observed, looked like a domestic abuse victim.
She sat erect in her chair staring at their table, eyes downcast, knees together, clutching an upright purse in her lap. Not moving. Occasionally reaching for a glass of water. We wondered afterwards if she cut her hair herself or if the creepy toad did the honors. They seemed a strange couple. Was she a wife? A caretaker?
As we were nearing the end of our dinner and considering a dessert wine, I launched into my humorous and unbelievable tale about the remodeling project in process at our house in Kona. I had just reached the part about how Lowe’s did not deliver all of our cabinets, which delayed part of the install, and how Lowe’s also did not tell me our new cabinets had been discontinued. Which I discovered only by calling Shenandoah.
At that part of the conversation, the creepy toad at Halelulani’s Orchids spun around in his chair. He looked at Hella and then directly at me, rolling his fat arm over the back of his chair and leaning in, as though he had something confidential to say to us.
My first impression was he was about to commiserate. That perhaps he had done a remodel through Lowe’s as well. I mean what else could it be? I thought I heard him say the word Lowe’s. He spoke so softly it was hard to hear. Like he could be a child molester or some other type of pervert, Hella later pointed out, because that’s how they speak. Perhaps she’s thinking of Hannibal Lecter?
Due to his English accent and soft voice, it was difficult to understand him, but we were also in a state of shock when we realized what he had said. He began by saying we needed to pull our lives together. He called us out of control.
Who knew what a story about remodeling with Lowe’s could bring out in a stranger? I don’t recall what else he decided to share with us because we were both so stunned that he was still speaking in such an accusatory tone. We were speechless. He ended his brief tirade by suggesting we immediately seek the services of a psychiatrist. It was a really crazy and bizarre encounter.
I glanced at Hella and asked if she wanted a dessert or a dessert drink? She said we should go. She did not want to be near this ugly, creepy toad. Neither did I. He made our collective skins crawl.
What do you say when you’re accosted out of the blue? Well, we’ve thought of many things much later but at the moment it happened, all I felt for him was pity. Such a sad lonely creature. I stood up. I think Hella thought I was gonna punch him in the face, ha, ha. But instead I walked over to his table, slapped the table edge to get his attention and said, “I hope you both manage to have a Happy New Year’s.”
Turned on our heels and left.
Where were the waiters at Halekulani when their customers were being assaulted by a weirdo?
This photo above was shot at House Without a Key at Halekulani on New Year’s Eve. After dinner at Michel’s, we enjoyed the Bill Maher show at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, and then we took off for the Daijingu Temple for a blessing from a Shinto priest. And to buy our golden frog amulets and a variety of other New Year’s treasures. By the time we made it back to Halekulani, it was fifteen minutes to midnight.
Hella sweet-talked her way into crashing the party underway at House Without a Key, and a waiter brought us each a glass of champagne to toast in the new year. We survived 2018 and New Year’s Eve in Honolulu. But we will probably for years still laugh about our odd encounter with the creepy English toad at Halekulani’s Orchids.
He meant to be mean. But why? Why are people so unhappy that they try to make themselves despicable to complete strangers? I do not have an answer to that.
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