Email Elizabethhome in Land Park
Update on the Amazing Breeze Cat Litter Boxes
If you haven’t tried the new Breeze litter boxes, you are in for an amazing discovery if you do. I don’t know why every pet owner is not using this product except for the fact that perhaps they haven’t heard of it or don’t believe it works. We have a lot of pet owners in the country. For starters, the number of households in the United States where pets live is unbelievable. It’s staggering numbers, like 83 million dogs and 95 million cats, according to HSUS. And it’s only been recently that the number of cats have been outnumbering the number of dogs. That just means more cat boxes, and I have a followup report for you on those innovative Breeze cat litter boxes and pellets.
You know, if I wasn’t a top producing Sacramento real estate agent and not around enough to take care of a dog, I would certainly adopt a dog. I will get a dog when I retire. My husband is not much of a dog person so he would not take care of her. The only pets we can barely manage to accommodate in our house are cats. They are fiercely independent and capable of caring for themselves for the most part. For example, if it wasn’t for the cats jumping up on my desk, wedging themselves between my eyeballs and my monitor and staring me in the face at dinner time, I imagine they would go hungry for a while. But cats have a way of making their needs known. Dogs are so much more polite.
These cats never ordered me to change the litter boxes but my common sense did. When I listed a home in El Dorado Hills, the occupant of that home showed me his cat boxes, which were filled with Breeze pellets. I’d never seen anything like it. So I decided to try it at my own home in Land Park. And Eureka, it worked. Of course, there was that long period between not cleaning the cat boxes and hoping they will use the Breeze, but eventually they made that choice, and I won. It was less than a couple of weeks.
The trick is to give your cats that choice. You can’t make demands of a cat and say, use this litter box or I will cut off your allowance of unlimited catnip. Nope, you’ve got to be sneaky and just stop cleaning their original boxes. Cats aren’t stupid. Sooner or later, they come to their senses and use the Breeze boxes. Then you can remove the old litter boxes.
There is no odor. I change the pellets once every 30 days and the pads once a week. The pads slide right off the tray and into the trash can. Best of all, there is no litter tracking of dust or granules all over my laundry room floor. I can walk through that room barefoot now. If there is a downside, it’s that the pellets make a noise when they are moved around in the box. Sounds a little bit like a box of nails spilling onto the floor. Small tradeoff for not having to scoop balls of urine or sweeping the floor every day.
I love this new litter box system and, evidently, so do the cats. They haven’t gone on strike, so that’s a good sign, and it’s been a few months now. Try it. You’ll be amazed. It’s cheap, too; if you have only one cat, it will cost $30 to set it up and $6 for a bag of 4 pads.
Selling Homes in Sacramento is Like Herding Cats
Working in real estate and selling homes in Sacramento is somewhat like herding cats. Just for the record, I don’t run a cat ranch or anything, but there are 3 cats who live in my home in Land Park, so I know a little something about herding cats. Cats will do whatever they want to do. They are somewhat predictable, but there are times a cat will completely freak you out, and the Sacramento real estate market is a good comparison. Just when you think that cat is headed for the litter box, it will abruptly stop and throw up on your feet.
I always look for trends because, as a Sacramento real estate agent, it helps me to properly advise clients. You know, just because buyers were wild and crazy last spring doesn’t mean that activity carries through to August. August is typically a slowing down month. A time for families to finish vacation plans, shop for back-to-school clothes, and prepare homes for winter which, in Sacramento, means closing the garage door.
I’m looking forward to the Sacramento Autumn Home Selling Market. It’s generally spectacular every year, and it shouldn’t be any different for 2013. About a week after Labor Day, the flood gates will open. That’s my prediction. But getting into escrow and closing are two distinct things. Any monkey can get into escrow. Closing is another story.
There are signs of increased listing activity right now. Sellers are calling and asking about selling homes in Sacramento. From just yesterday, I have 3 new listings in Elk Grove on the horizon, a home in Roseville will hit the market today, and I’m meeting with another seller in Citrus Heights this weekend.
Buyers, on the other hand, are a bit slower to submit offers now. They are spending more time thinking about it. Not every transaction that every agent has in escrow will close. I’m seeing more fallouts from buyers with cold feet, buyers who can’t qualify, buyers who probably should not have been trying to buy a home in the first place. There are also buyers who can’t understand that a rising market means if they’re buying a short sale, that price might be higher after waiting a few months.
What we need are incentives like my cat Pia’s freeze-dried chicken treats that we can throw in front of these guys. We need to continually check in with our buyers and make sure they’re still on board and headed for closing. Remove obstacles from their path. Keep the positive vibe going. Because I tell ya, it’s not easy herding cats when you’re selling homes in Sacramento.
Would You Like to Adopt Two Rescue Chihuahuas from Land Park?
You know what’s really great about working as a veteran Sacramento real estate agent who has extensive short sale experience? There is a certain amount of respect for my short sale knowledge bestowed upon me by my clients. Everything else real-estate related? Forget about it. Forget about all of decades I have worked in real estate. Forget about the fact I sold $32 million last year. Forget about the fact media recognizes this Sacramento real estate agent as an expert to regularly interview. Forget about the fact that I write about Homebuying for About.com and have for years. None of that matters to some people. But talk about a Sacramento short sale and my name lights up the sky.
There are some days that I feel just like Rodney Dangerfield because let’s face it, the public, on the whole, are often led to believe that being a Sacramento real estate agent is easy-peasy work and anybody with a cellphone could do it because hey, look at their aunt, their cousin, their next-door neighbor! If a person is hoping to be respected and valued, a person should not search for those kinds of accolades in real estate.
If you want to be unconditionally loved, get a dog. In fact, get two of them. Twice the love. Have you ever thought about adopting a couple of Chihuahuas? I happen to have a pair living in my back yard, and we’re going on Day 4 of the rescued Chihuahuas now. You will see those dogs are no longer considered “lost Chihuahuas in Land Park” or even “found Chihuahuas in Land Park,” they are rescue Chihuahuas. And they are available for adoption to a good home.
We took the rescued Chihuahuas to the Sacramento Animal Shelter yesterday, filed a Found Dogs report and brought them back to our home in Land Park. Also, had them scanned for microchips, but like no collars, no microchips. Come to think of it, two of my cats are microchipped and one is not, so next visit to the vet, guess what? None of the cats venture outdoors. But there could be an busted-open screen, a door left ajar or they could encourage a passerby to break-in and trade our big screen TV in exchange for freedom, you just don’t know.
As we were going through the July Lost Dogs book, which is a big book filled with pages for every day of the month (4th of July was a really busy day) I noticed my clients’ name in the book. These are wonderfully genuine people, the kind you don’t forget. I represented them as buyers when they purchased a home in Land Park 7 years ago. It was a case of not overlooking the overpriced home. They were also my sellers, and I represented them as their listing agent on the sale of their existing home. I managed to sell their home in Elk Grove in the nick of time to fund the purchase of an overpriced home in Land Park. It was a complex escrow for both selling and buying, but they listened to me, trusted me, and I got the job done. Which is what they said when I called them to ask if they ever found the lost Chihuahua they filed the report about.
The husband said he did not want to talk about two rescued Chihuahuas, so I asked him to put his wife on the phone instead. Not going for it. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759, if you would like to adopt a couple of super cute and lovable Chihuahuas. If you want to buy or sell your home in the four-county area of Sacramento, well, you can call me for that, too.
Found Chihuahuas in Land Park
Words my husband does not want to hear as he’s heading out the door to pick up sushi for dinner: We need to get the chihuahuas. It happened because I was jumping on my bike to take my before-dinner bike ride through William Land Park when I received an email. I do admit that my cellphone is strapped to my handlebars, for those biking purists who could not imagine themselves hauling along a cell when riding. But then those biking enthusiasts are probably not a Sacramento real estate agent.
The message came through my email that two chihuahuas were loose and running in the street about a block away from my home in Land Park. I belong to the neighborhood website Nextdoor for the area where I live in Land Park. A kind person posted that the dogs were darting about his garage. I pedaled my bike over there. It was clear that the poster was not in a position to take care of the dogs; however, he did give them some water.
Then, I spotted a woman walking her dog, and the two little chihuahuas dashed over to greet her. I tried to tell the woman that the chihuahuas belonged to her now, but she was not about to claim any kind of ownership. She pointed to the house at the end of the street and indicated that she believed that guy owned the dogs. Even after I explained that he does not own those dogs and they are loose, she still did not take ownership. I’m not blaming her, but I was hopeful that she would. Nobody would take these dogs.
See, this is the thing. You can’t leave 2 dogs loose in the streets in Land Park. Certainly not around dinnertime when many people are coming home from work and there’s a lot of traffic. This is what I told my husband as he was carrying a big cardboard box and heading toward the street where the dogs were bouncing about. Not only that, but what if it was one of our cats who was on the loose and scared? He said somebody probably dumped them because they could no longer feed them. I countered that chihuahuas are so tiny, I mean, how much can they possibly eat?
The guy at the end of the street spotted our box with Macy’s printed on the side. Are you taking them to Macy’s, he asked? Nope, just to our yard until we can locate the owner. The chihuahuas survived the night. The skunks, possums and raccoons could not get to them because we enclosed them in a portable dog pen. My husband picked up dog food for them on his way back from Akebono.
If you are missing a couple of chihuahuas, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759. These dogs have no tags, no collars. My husband says you don’t have to describe them, but you do. Size, color, dimensions and characteristics. The photo on this page is not of the actual chihuahuas in our yard.
Two Sacramento Homes Closed on Tuesday
As good fortune has it, I managed to close two more escrows yesterday, which resulted in another two Sacramento homes closed. I’m on a streak this week. One closing was a home in Land Park, a cottage in Upper Land Park. We weren’t too certain that the buyers were closing when they signed the purchase contract. I’m not sure what the hesitation was about, but when I have that gut feeling, I listen to it. The sellers had made a deal with the buyers that we would not change the status in MLS from active to pending until the buyers removed their inspection contingencies. They had already been there and done that when a previous buyer had developed cold feet a few days into escrow. So, we left the listing as active, pending rescission, for a few weeks.
The strangest thing happens when a buyer spots pending rescission as a status modifier on an active listing. It’s like a switch goes off in their heads. Like, maybe they ate Chinese food and an hour later are starving. They might not ever want to look at this home, but the minute they see somebody else might want it, they are desperate to buy it, and it doesn’t seem to matter what it is or where it is located. As a result, we had a decent back-up offer within days, just in case the existing offer went sideways.
But the offer didn’t go sideways. The buyers removed their contingencies and we closed, just like clockwork. The sellers are ecstatic and so are the buyers.
In the second escrow, well, what can I say? It was an Elk Grove short sale that had emerged from bankruptcy. It was a short sale that should have closed last year. We received a perfect offer, after a few others blew up, and our new buyer was willing to mow the lawn, turn on the utilities, and even replace the electrical meter and A/C unit, which had been swiped. The only problem was we could not close because we did not have the final discharge from a previous bankruptcy. The bankruptcy was discharged two years ago, but it was never closed out in the court.
How much of a problem can that be? Huge.
The lawyer told us it would take 30 days. Every month, she was hopeful the file would close out. Except it did not close out. We finally tracked down the Trustee of the Court to get the straight scoop. The trustee had to send out notices, wait 3 months for checks to clear, along with a bunch of other court-related stuff. It took us 8 long months to close out the bankruptcy, which had already been discharged. If a lawyer tells you a bankruptcy will close out in 30 days, you might want to get a second opinion, just sayin.
The buyer was a trooper. He really wanted this house. So, did a bunch of other people who continually wrote and called and begged to be a back-up offer. We’ll pay cash, they cried. We’ll wash your car for a year. No, not really, but that was the unspoken sentiment. I waited for the chocolate-covered strawberries to arrive at my office, along with a bottle of champagne, but it never came.
I’m pretty lucky, when our buyers go into escrow, they tend to stay there.
Every Sacramento real estate closing is different. That’s what makes this business so much fun and exciting. Some closings you pull out your hair. Some, you don’t. But at least these two Sacramento homes closed without any further drama.
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