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Ever Wonder Should We Sleep On It?
Should we sleep on it is a common question in real estate.
Lots of people struggle to make big decisions like buying a home and might wonder “should we sleep on it” before committing to the purchase. The reasons run the gamut but often can stem from fear. They don’t want to make the wrong decision. They hope that sleeping on it will turn their brain into a Magic 8 Ball and give them the answer: To buy a home or not to buy a home.
The problems with this kind of strategy are myriad. For starters, whether to buy a home is a decision a buyer should have made before ever going out to look at homes. If you’re looking at homes with a Sacramento Realtor and you don’t know if you want to buy a home, please just stop. Go to open houses on Sundays or look at homes for sale online that are not really for sale on some of those popular websites that buyers who don’t know any better go to.
Should we sleep on it, it turns out, is a good strategy for figuring out answers to a complex situation. Buying a home, however, is a fairly simple situation. You either want to buy a home or you do not want to buy a home. If you do want to buy a home and you find a home that you love, then you should buy it. If you do want to buy a home and you cannot find a home that you love, then do not buy a home until you do.
Don’t fall into the trap of feeling obligated. Every so often I’ll go shopping at Nordstrom, for example, and I can’t find a single outfit I like. Nothing speaks to me. Nothing fits right. And I might feel like I should make some sort of token purchase because I’ve invested all of this time trying on clothing and not finding anything, and that’s a stupid reaction. Don’t buy a home just because you’ve spent a long time trying to find a home to no avail. Instead, regroup and re-strategize with your buyer’s agent. Maybe you need to look in a different neighborhood or a different price range?
If you feel like you are “settling” for a home because you wonder should we sleep on it, then you probably are settling for less and should not buy that home. Sleeping on it has a way of opening that window of opportunity for the non-indecisive home buyer. You know, that other couple you spotted getting out of their agent’s car at the home showing.
Despite what your parental authorities told you when handing out all of those awards in grade school, you’re not that special or different from anybody else. Neither am I. Other buyers have the same hopes, dreams and fears that you do, and the same parameters. If you are attracted to a home, other buyers are, too. If you don’t buy it, they will, and when you wake up in the morning feeling refreshed, energized and fully committed, that home will be pending.
On the Fence About Buying a Home in Sacramento?
If you’re on the fence about buying a home in Sacramento, this blog is for you. How often have you said to yourself, I would like to do this other enormously fun and hugely rewarding thing, but I have to work or perform some other pure drudgery I don’t really want to do, so I’ll have to pass? Yeah, I’ll have to do the responsible thing. Make the adult choice. And then later you regret it? I once passed on a trip to London with my mother because I spent the money I would have used for the trip on fixing my car, a 1965 Mustang. I should have gone to London, even if it meant borrowing the money.
When faced with choices of do or don’t, this is where analyzing risk comes in. You’ve got to ponder what would happen if you did it anyway and whether you could live with the possible downside of those results. I’m not saying you should do something stupid like run out into the freeway at rush hour because the likelihood is you would get killed. But what if when faced with an unusual decision, you did something nice for yourself or someone else instead, something that was out of the ordinary for you?
People spend so much time trying to plan for the future. As though we have all the time in the world and nobody can take that time away from us when everything can change overnight with the snap of a finger. We’re so busy with our noses stuck in our cellphones that we don’t see the here and now. We can’t be here and now if we’re elsewhere. The future most likely will come regardless of our plans, but the here and now will be gone tomorrow.
Why not give yourself permission to enjoy something different or just be happy? There is innocence in happiness, and as we grow older sometimes we forget about that innocence, but it’s still there. We tell ourselves that we’ll be buying a home in Sacramento when we have secure jobs (ha, ha) and have socked away a big down payment, but that day might never come. Emergencies pop up, stuff happens, things change. Life gets in the way. Before you know it, you’re in your 40s and have never owned a home. You get into your 50s and your bucket list gets longer and longer.
If you want to take tomorrow off work and head for the beach, just go, follow your heart. If you’re thinking about buying a home in Sacramento, talk to a mortgage broker and find out what you need to do to clean up your credit report or apply for down payment assistance. Think how you’ll look back at your situation 5 years from now. Try a different perspective. For guidance, call a Sacramento real estate agent like Elizabeth Weintraub, 916.233.6759.
Is it Bad for Sacramento Real Estate to Sell in One Day?
Do you believe that you bought that home in Sacramento too quickly or, as a seller, do you believe that you were too fast to accept an offer for your home? Is it bad for Sacramento real estate to sell in one day? Welcome to the club of anxiety. Lots of people harbor those kinds of thoughts, but that’s all they are, just thoughts, passing thoughts, bubbles of self doubt, short moments of questions that should be allowed to pop through your brain to briefly make an appearance, bow, and then slink away somewhere to quietly die.
This is how Sacramento real estate happens today. Sometimes you sell in one day. If you are lucky. We are ensconced in a real estate market of low inventory. Lots of buyers are scouring the new listings every day, looking for that special gem. If your new home listing fits those requirements, bam, it’s sold. There is no shame in selling a house in one day.
Last week I put a bunch of new listings on the market, and one property in particular, well, the first few days were a little slow. No phone calls, not much activity for 24 hours. Then, out of the blue, an offer arrived. It was the sole offer. Not really astonishing given the fact that there were no inspections nor opportunity to view the interior until after offer acceptance. While this did not sell in one day, it still sold fairly quickly.
The seller asked if he should take the offer. It was over list price by a few thousand, which to this experienced Sacramento real estate agent is a sign of urgent and serious commitment by the buyer, followed by perhaps a hope harbored by the buyer that the few thousand extra will be recouped upon inspection — the answer to that game-playing strategy when I’m the listing agent is generally NO, because I bring that possibility to my seller’s attention at inception. Plus, I hail from Minnesota; I expect people to stay true to their word and don’t much care for those who lie. The seller could not believe that we received an offer so quickly. The implication was should he wait to see if a higher offer would arrive?
We had received no phone calls and no inquiries. I suggested he take it. When opportunity presents itself, you can be cautious, but you should proceed. I had that lesson engrained in me when I was a kid — only fools kick the door of opportunity closed. Sure enough, though, a few days later, we received another offer not as attractive. The first offer is usually the best.
Selling is just the beginning. Closing is another journey.
Once Upon a Time There Were 3 Homes in Escrow
One would think it was an April Fool’s joke the way things seem to be going this morning in my Sacramento real estate business, but I can assure you that it’s entirely coincidental that 3 properties are going back on the market today pending rescission through absolutely no fault of the sellers. It’s those buyers. Once we had 3 homes in escrow and then not.
You would think buyers would have received the message by now that we have limited inventory in the marketplace, and they are pretty much lucky to be in escrow on any home. But with any strange market comes strange buyers as part of the mix. The problem is as a listing agent, we don’t meet the buyers face-to-face and we have no idea really whether they face mental challenges or are just drunk or stoned. The scenarios seem so similar at times.
I want to suggest hey, buyer’s agents, why not rifle through your buyer’s personal belongings to see if they have stashed illegal drugs in their coat pocket and better sniff that water bottle, does it contain vodka? Because I don’t see any other explanation for such absurdities. I know for some people it’s a lot of fun to be in escrow and picture what life would be like after closing, but for some of those people, it pains me to say, well, they can harbor no intention of closing. Some of them don’t realize it at the time, I’ll give them that much; but others are fully aware, they’re just playing in some other kids’ sandbox, one that the cat visited.
Just seems like a big case of buyer’s remorse sneaking into town on slipper-clad feet. Like that purple smoky haze cast as a curse by Maleficent over Storybrooke. Three perfectly good homes in escrow back on the market today. It’s unbelievable. Enough with the negative, let go of that — time to focus on the positive. These will sell again. They always do.
If you need a turnkey home in Elk Grove at $225,000, or a model home condo in West Sacramento by the Lighthouse Marina at $195,000, or a huge upgraded home with hardwood floors and a fabulous view in Natomas around $300,000, please give this Sacramento real estate agent a ring today at 916.233.6759. I’ll be more than happy to help you find that perfect home and slip you into backup position as we await the processing of the inevitable. No April Foolin’, I promise. When we put homes in escrow, they generally stick.
HGTV: Cancel This Escrow
I’d like to see a new show on the cable network HGTV called “Cancel This Escrow.” They could film three different buyers during the escrow period — after the contract is signed but before the deal closes — and viewers could guess which one of them is likely to have cold feet and cancel this escrow. I mean, all three of them could threaten to walk away from a home closing, but only one of them actually will. Then we could listen to their excuses for buyer’s remorse and reasons to cancel this escrow:
- The palm tree tree in the back yard doesn’t have any flowers.
- The garage floor has four quarters divided by cracks.
- This house is painted brown, yuk.
- The street isn’t wide enough.
- One of the electrical outlets doesn’t work.
- It doesn’t have a built-in microwave.
- There’s no exhaust fan in the bathroom.
- I don’t like the way the light reflects on the ceiling fan blades.
- The garage door springs are missing a safety latch.
- Somebody left an empty can of paint on the roof.
While Elizabeth is on vacation, we are revisiting her favorite blogs from previous years.
