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The Value of an Experienced Sacramento Real Estate Agent
Do you ever wonder about the experience levels of some of the professionals you pay? Not to knock medical assistants or dental hygienists, but don’t those TV ads trying to lure deadbeats educate aspiring students bother you somewhat? They make me want to ask my doctor’s assistant where she went to school and what she did before she became a medical assistant. Most of us probably want to believe our doctor’s assistant went to college, earned a degree, on top of fulfilling a calling to the medical profession, a passion to help people, and is dedicated to medicine. I don’t know if you get that with a 6-month course and education financing through HSBC.
Yet many people would never in a million years ask a Sacramento real estate agent how long she has been in the business. They are about to spend or receive the most money they will probably ever see in one lump sum in their lives. Do they check out the real estate agent they are about to hire?
Not that length in the business is a sole determining factor because a person can be a real estate agent for many years and do no business at all. Holding a real estate license doesn’t make a person a real estate agent. Renewing said real estate license doesn’t make a person a real estate agent. I’m not a big fan of the alphabet letters either. The certified-whatever designations. That’s probably because many years ago I was involved in the seminar business, and I know that seminar companies are in the business of selling seminars. In other words, an agent can pay for a real estate designation. It doesn’t mean the agent learned anything. It also doesn’t mean the company that awarded the designation taught an agent anything.
Real estate agents learn on the job. End of story. They learn by selling homes in Sacramento, for example. The more homes a person sells, the better that real estate agent becomes — or you would hope. An experienced real estate agent is a different kind of real estate agent.
Every real estate transaction is different. That’s what makes being a Sacramento real estate agent exciting. It’s what motivates me to turn on my computer and go to work every single day. It’s always something new. A new challenge, new people, new events. And when you throw a short sale into the mix: an opportunity to practice patience, improve tolerance and to solve difficult problems.
Everybody is welcome to hire a novice, but why? Novices will cry and moan and say everybody has to learn somewhere. But do you want them practicing on you? You have a choice when you hire a real estate agent. We’re not all the same. I will close over $30 million in sales this year. I sell more than 100 homes a year — so I must be doing many things right. I believe experience is important. If it matters to you, let’s get together. You can read client reviews of Elizabeth Weintraub and decide for yourself. I have pages of recommendations. What you see is what you get.
Death Qualifies for a Short Sale
I suspect you’ve landed on my blog with the thought she is NOT going to talk about death and a short sale. But you would be incorrect or maybe you just don’t know me very well yet. I’ll talk about anything I darn well feel like on my blog. If you’re not interested in matters surrounding death, all I’ve got to say is you are going to be very surprised one day. That old grim reaper is hanging around and not just around us old people. You can’t escape it. One day you’re laughing and joking with friends, and the next day, bam, somebody is dead.
You just hope it’s not you.
I haven’t seen very many dead people myself. Once, driving along the Biz 80 freeway in Sacramento, I saw an upside-down Corvette. The windows were open. The driver was still in the car, shirt unbuttoned and this huge stomach was bloated and bare for all the world traveling by to see. I guess it took paramedics a long time to get there. They were probably stuck in a traffic jam on the other side of the road. Because even people on the other side of the road were slowing down to gawk. You don’t want to look but you do. It’s kind of human nature. I felt sorrow and horror for this dead person in the Corvette.
If this guy in the Corvette had a home that was upside down, the same as he was, his joint tenancy partner or tenants in common partner could sell that home as a short sale. Because death qualifies for a short sale. Even if his heirs were not on title to the property, they can use death as a qualifying factor to get rid of the house. Doesn’t matter if it’s Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or which bank is servicing the loan. There is no getting around it, death qualifies for a short sale.
To do a short sale involving a dead person, you need a recorded copy of the death certificate. It might take a while to get the death certificate, especially in Sacramento. I guess it depends on where the person kicked the bucket. If a person died in the hospital, I hear you get a death certificate a lot faster than if you came home and found your ex-husband dead in bed. That’s what clients tell me. I don’t have any first-hand experience myself.
But I do have a lot of first-hand experience selling short sales in Sacramento. I’m a competent and veteran Sacramento real estate agent. I am, in fact, working on two separate short sales this week involving spouses who have passed on. These are different than a strategic short sale or a short sale involving loss of income, for example. There is a lot of grief and bereavement. Pain. People need to talk. I listen. I’m not just in the real estate business. I’m a person, too. If somebody has died in your family and you need to sell that Sacramento home as a short sale, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759. I know what to do. Remember, death qualifies for a short sale.
Bank of America Fannie Mae Cooperative Short Sale
Why would Bank of America issue a denial for your Fannie Mae Cooperative Short Sale? It might astonish you to learn that not every Bank of America loan will qualify for the Cooperative Short Sale process simply because your home is underwater and the investor is Fannie Mae. Moreover, at any time in the short sale process, even if you’ve signed a Borrower Acknowledgement of Interest, Bank of America can still yank out that rug from under you. As a Sacramento short sale agent, you would not believe the things I witness first hand. But then, I close a lot of Bank of America Cooperative Short Sales in Sacramento. Sooner or later, I’m bound to see a lot of crap.
Just last week, I accepted a counter offer in Equator for a Bank of America Fannie Mae Cooperative Short Sale. Typically, this is the point in the short sale when, shortly thereafter, the approval letter arrives. I thought the short sale was finished and we were about to close. Nope, next thing I discovered Bank of America denied the Cooperative because, low and behold, Fannie Mae released Bank of America as a servicer. Now, Fannie Mae has supported Cooperative Short Sales at Bank of America in the past. This was an odd move, from where I sit. So, since Bank of America was no longer the servicer, the short sale will have to start over through the new servicer, which is no stranger to short sales, Seterus. Don’t even get me started on Seterus. That’s another blog.
In another Fannie Mae Cooperative Short Sale, we have a problem with the second lender, which won’t back down to Fannie Mae’s demands. This is another file in which Fannie Mae is about to release Bank of America as the servicer and hand over the file to somebody else. Why is Fannie Mae dumping these Bank of America files? One would think that files in the middle of a short sale would receive some kind of priority. In any case, this is one reason your Bank of America Cooperative Short Sale could be denied — because Bank of America is no longer the servicer.
It’s just been the last 30 days in which I’ve noticed a change in the Fannie Mae Cooperative Short Sales at Bank of America. Generally, Fannie Mae will authorize a higher payment for the relocation incentive than a traditional Cooperative Short Sale, which is $3,000 vs $2,500. Then, if you get the HIN Incentive, that could bump up the cash payment tremendously. I have some clients who qualify for both incentives and are getting paid $15,000 or so.
On the other hand, the other GSE, Freddie Mac, does not participate in Bank of America’s Cooperative Short Sale. You would think whatever guidelines Fannie Mae comes up with would be followed by Freddie Mac, but it doesn’t always work that way. It doesn’t work that way in a HAFA short sale. A Freddie Mac HAFA short sale is very different from a Fannie Mae HAFA. This means if your loan is held by Freddie Mac and serviced through Bank of America, you cannot qualify for a Cooperative Short Sale.
I discovered an Elk Grove short sale would not qualify for a Cooperative as well because the investor was Aurora. The homeowner thought that Bank of America was the investor. Morever, Aurora says it has a policy that if the homeowner has filed for bankruptcy and completed a bankruptcy, it won’t let the homeowners participate in HAFA. The devil is in the details. The devil is always in the details, which is why it’s a good idea to hire a Sacramento short sale agent with experience. Why take a chance on a denial letter for your short sale?
And be careful if you’re trying to pursue a Cooperative Short Sale through Bank of America in which Fannie Mae is the investor. Although, this is only a few short sales in which Fannie Mae has released Bank of America as the servicer, it could be the initiation of a new policy. Even scarier is the fact there is a huge profitable market for buying and / or insuring bad loans. Not much has really changed, you know. But that’s a blog for another day.
Elizabeth Weintraub Earns Top Agent at Lyon Real Estate
The managing broker of Lyon’s downtown office called me yesterday to report the Elizabeth Weintraub Team is #1 in the company for August. That makes me the top agent at Lyon Real Estate, number one. I can’t believe it. She says my production is over $5.3 million for last month. That’s a lot for 30 days of work. That’s especially a lot when my average sales price is less than $300,000. Sometimes, I sell condos for $50,000. I can’t verify that number because, to be honest, I’m too busy and it’s not a top priority. Who has time to count pennies?
I figure August must be a good month for everybody in Sacramento real estate. I know August is the month that all the agents at Lyon Real Estate have to pay for Errors and Omissions insurance, plus legal representation, and those fees are pretty hefty. So, if I was the head of Lyon Real Estate — which I need to point out I am not — I would probably charge agent’s statements in the month that agents are likely to have the most closings. That would ensure a more likely payment.
Squeezing money out of agents is probably harder than it sounds, knowing agents like I know real estate agents. So, that would mean the month of August is probably the biggest month of production for most agents in Sacramento.
If that’s the case, then it’s pretty cool to earn status as the top agent at Lyon Real Estate for August. I don’t know how many agents work at Lyon. I’d guess it’s around 1,000. I have to give the credit to my Elizabeth Weintraub Team members, though, and I’m not just saying that because that’s what you’re supposed to say. The truth is I could not do what I do without Barbara Dow, Linda Swanson and Shaundra Bradley. Not to mention, my escrow officer, Dawn Herlache and her assistant Jennifer Baranoff, at Placer Title. And of course the guy who closes mortgages for our buyers, Dan Tharp, at Comstock Mortgage, is incredible, and I often receive glowing reviews of him. There are also behind-the-scenes players, the office assistants and managers who cover my butt every single day. I suspect they also take care of crap that I never even hear about.
Funny thing yesterday an agent whose offer was accepted on one of my Sacramento short sales called me the No Drama Agent. That’s his nickname for me. We closed a transaction a few years ago, and I guess my demeanor struck a chord with him. I don’t have any respect for drama, and drama is unproductive and a stupid waste of time. Maybe that will be my new motto: the No Drama Agent.?
