A Cash Offer to Buy a Home is Not Always Cash

A South Pacific reef lobster-related cut still smiles on my thumb. That and a few no-see-um bites is all that remains from my 3-week vacation in French Polynesia. At least that’s all I spot as I do a full body check, heading out the door this morning to my Midtown office. Eyeballs have contacts. Check. Keys. Check. Pants. Check. I’m good to go. The life of a Sacramento real estate agent never really stops, it just slows down a little bit over the holidays. It’s like my life goes into slow motion and all the seas are calm. As a reminder, I give you this red hibiscus found on Bora Bora.

There will be more listings to take this week. Which is good because the inventory is so low in Sacramento right now that buyer’s agents are emailing and asking me to notify them before a listing goes on the market. That won’t do anybody any good though because there is no “first shot” at a property. All listings are exposed to the widest pool of buyers possible, which means complete mayhem in this market but that’s the way it goes. It doesn’t matter if the listing is a regular home for sale by a seller with equity or if it’s a short sale, every seller deserves equal opportunity among the vast number of buyers.

Sellers don’t want limited exposure. The short sale banks don’t want side deals going on, either, or buyers sneaking in the back door. Everybody gets a chance to buy. I realize it’s super tough to buy a home in Sacramento; it’s tough for many buyers in this market. That’s because some buyers are waiving cash around. Cash offers tend to get priority. Few buyers can compete with a cash offer.

I recall a few weeks ago a buyer’s agent emailed me while I was in Bora Bora. She asked if she could write an offer as all cash and yet reserve the right for her buyer to obtain a hard-money loan. That’s kind of back-door way to write an offer, and while I understand why a buyer would do it, it’s not really a true picture. The true picture is the offer is a hard money loan with the right reserved to pay cash. If you want to be honest about it. So, that’s the way she wrote it, and the seller accepted it.

You don’t need to play games to buy a home in Sacramento.

Photo: Adam Weintraub