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Getting More Money Out of a Low Appraisal in West Sacramento
When the seller of a home in West Sacramento contacted this Sacramento REALTOR, he already had a different listing agent in mind, an agent who would charge less than the commission that agents like me charge and he was just about ready to hire this other real estate agent. See, this is where some sellers typically go off track. They tend to focus solely on the commission and not on results. They don’t know any better. They think about saving 1% of the sales price, for example, and don’t look ahead to how much they are probably losing during escrow because they’ve hired an inexperienced agent who can only sell herself by discounting her fee.
Getting into escrow, into contract, is just the beginning. There are home inspections, disclosures, repair requests, and more negotiations that happen during escrow, including dealing with shaky buyers who can’t get a mortgage.
Fortunately, this seller listened to his friend who had referred him to me, and he listened to my advice. He decided it was worth it to hire the best Sacramento REALTOR he could find, a top producer. I explained what I would do and how I would do it, and then he asked me how much his home was worth. The comparable sales reflected, let’s say for practical illustration purposes, a price of $650,000, tops, and that was stretching it. Because any agent worth her salt realizes an appraiser will use comparable sales within a 1/2 mile radius of the property and within the past 3 months. Appraisers are supposed to compare condition, location, age, upgrades, size, etc, and pick similar homes. But every appraiser is different, just like every real estate agent is different.
I didn’t ask the seller how much he wanted because in most cases how much a seller wants is immaterial; instead he shared in no uncertain terms that he expected to get, let’s say, $675,000. Would I take such a listing? Could I get him $675,000? I licked my finger and held it in the air to confirm which way the wind blows. Yup. I could. I shot terrific digital photos that showcased the home in all of its glory, and it was a stunning home. I tell stories with my pictures. If the photos speak to me, they will speak to the buyers.
This home in West Sacramento sold at, let’s say, $675,000. Then, the appraiser, an old-school dude who has his own way of doing things, submitted his final estimate of value. $650,000. Market demand is not a value. We got a low appraisal in West Sacramento. We were $25,000 short. This is NOT what the seller desired. I asked the buyer’s agent to discuss the situation with the buyer and put forth in an addendum the buyer’s best cash contribution.
The buyer offered an additional, let’s say, $12,000 in cash to bridge part of the gap. This was a good workable situation because now we knew the buyer has access to additional funds. We were in negotiation, not at the final step. We countered the buyer’s contribution, and the buyer’s countered back. We countered again. The seller asked if I could find additional money anywhere else. Ha, ha, ha. No, there are no other pockets. Oh, wait, we didn’t talk to the lender.
For a small adjustment to the interest rate, the lender was able to find more money that suddenly became available to pay much of the seller’s closing costs. By transferring a large chunk of the seller’s closings to the buyer’s side of the settlement statement and allowing the lender to pay it, the sales price did not need to increase by the full $25,000 to net the seller his desired amount.
Was this worth hiring an experienced agent who charges more than a discount agent? You betcha. I could not ask for a more ecstatic West Sacramento home seller. At closing the seller called me a “Real Estate Rockstar.” I go that extra mile for my clients. Would you like to be my client? Let’s talk. Call Elizabeth Weintraub, Broker #00697006, at 916.233.6759.
The Housewives of Homes in West Sacramento
The names and places in this story have been changed to protect the innocent, and it did not really happen in an HOA like The Rivers at West Sacramento, but that’s as good as place as any to depict the true events. Because it could have happened there, even though it didn’t. If you’ve ever lived in a community with restrictions and come into contact with unreasonable homeowners who have chiseled the 10 commandments of the HOA onto their dining room wall, you’ll probably recognize some of the emotional content.
There I was, sitting in a chair on rollers at the nail salon in Land Park, drying my manicure at the station under fans and purple blacklights. My bluetooth jangled and I carefully reached up with one wet finger to depress the button and greet the caller. I barely got my name out before the woman on the other end of the phone began screeching the address of one of my listings, let’s say it’s in the West Sacramento gated community, The Rivers, but it’s not. I have a couple listings there, but this is not either.
My first reaction was to tell her the home is in escrow, which it was. Sometimes I don’t admit that fact that right away, especially if it’s a buyer calling to inquire about a property, because if the home is pending I might have another home that would work or be able to locate another like it. I don’t want potential buyers to hang up without talking with me a little bit so I can get better acquainted with their needs and perhaps help. But this woman was not one of those. I could tell by the way she screeched and the hostility in her voice. She was definitely on the rampage.
Well, she announced that she didn’t give a rat’s patootie that the home was in escrow. She lived behind my listing in West Sacramento and was calling about the #*#%(@! camellia trees in the back yard. The woman who was sitting next to me edged a bit further away because I imagine she could hear my caller screeching and probably thought somebody was dying. What was wrong with the camellia trees? Usually irate neighbors call to yell about camellia flowers falling in their yards because maybe they think the real estate agents should be standing in the back yard holding out nets to catch errant tree waste before it blows over the fence.
After much hoopla, her problem seemed to be that her gardener proposed that perhaps my seller’s camellia tree roots were invading the yard and interfering with the neighbor’s sprinkler system. One of her sprinkler heads broke and she immediately pointed her well manicured finger at her neighbor. Not only that, she hissed, but she called The Rivers and the HOA told her that camellias are not allowed under association rules. So, Miss, what are YOU gonna do about THAT? I can stop your closing of escrow.
She doesn’t possess that power. I let her know I would contact the seller and asked if the number she was calling me from was the best number for the seller to reach her. This released even more rage. What? She thought I was the seller. Wow. But I was not the seller; I was just the West Sacramento real estate agent. No, she spit, the number on my phone is NOT the number the seller should use. The seller should call her cellphone. I asked if she could please call me back and leave her cellphone number on my voicemail, explaining that I could not write it down at the moment.
More yelling.
Was I on Candid Camera? I glanced around the salon.
Listen, seriously, I pleaded, I am at a nail salon with my wet nails under a dryer, and I cannot write down your cellphone number; I’m sorry.
Well I am in my kitchen drinking coffee, she retorted, and I’m just as busy as you are!
What is this, Housewives of West Sacramento? She promised to call me back in 15 minutes but did not. It’s too bad you can’t physically slam down a cellphone or she would have done it. People. Sometimes they are their own worst enemy.
How the Request for Notice of Default Lost a West Sacramento Seller Her Home
Filing a Request for Notice of Default is common practice for second lenders.
That Request for Notice of Default came in handy. A lawyer from Beverly Hills called yesterday to try to figure out how to save her home in West Sacramento from a trustee’s sale. I am certainly empathetic to those in this situation, but why do people call real estate brokers on the date of an auction? I can actually help if they were to call me a month or so before the sale date, but on the date of the sale, there isn’t much that can be done. For starters, I don’t give legal advice but I do have a lot of knowledge about foreclosure proceedings, primarily from my early days in the 1970s working first as a title searcher and later as an escrow officer. Many laws today are still similar.
This homeowner seemed confused as to how a credit union was able to grab her property and sell it at a trustee’s sale. It’s the Request for Notice of Default that did it this case. She had taken out a business loan, and used her home as collateral. I’m not sure if she understood that when you use a residence as collateral for a loan, the lender records a deed of trust, and that loan becomes a junior loan. When she fell behind on her payments on the existing mortgage, the Request for Notice of Default allowed the existing lender to alert the junior lien holder. Foreclosure laws give the second lender the right to make up the back payments and then file their own foreclosure proceedings under a Notice of Default.
The second lender can simply add the back payments to the amount they are owed and then foreclose for non-payment. That’s what this particular credit union did. The seller had filed a number of bankruptcies and tried to do a loan modification. In fact, she was in the middle of the loan modification when the credit union brought current the payments on the first mortgage. Goodbye loan modification.
Now, I received this phone call between two events yesterday. The first event occurred when our new cat Horatio elected to race after our Ocicat Tessa and, in the commotion, leapfrogged over the sofa and barreled our Christmas cactus to the floor, shattering the vase and sending dirt flying everywhere. Later, right after this call, while talking to a team member, I heard a loud crash in the sunroom. My hanging planter, which holds 4 elephant foots, had catapulted to the floor, banged into one of the litter boxes and smashed the plastic box into smithereens. I guess Horatio tried to hang from the plant. He can leap, that cat. Geez.
Those were not situations I could have foreseen. Our other 2 cats have never destroyed plants or vases like this. When a person stops making mortgage payments, though, that is the time to talk to the specialists who can explain how foreclosure works and what you can do to prevent a trustee’s sale. Not on the date of the trustee’s sale.
Anybody can file a Notice of Request for Default Notice. Even a tenant. If you’re a tenant renting from a homeowner, it might be a good idea to record a Notice of Request. It’s not difficult to obtain the trust deed information, and you can get it from a County Courthouse. It costs about ten bucks to record.
I had prepared a comparative market analysis for the seller. She had equity and stood to make about $20K from the sale. But it was not meant to be. The auction happened and the trustee refused to postpone it again.
If you’re in trouble on your mortgage and falling behind in your payments, call a Sacramento Realtor for help before it is too late. You may not need to lose all of your equity. You can call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Short Sale Buyers Closed on Antelope Home With Free Equity
Happy short sale buyers are even happier after closing on a home in Antelope.
The short sale buyers who purchased my seller’s home in Antelope really lucked out on a terrific deal in several ways. As the top Sacramento short sale agent, of course I represented the sellers. The buyers were represented by someone else. We went on the market at the end of March, yet it took us 3 weeks to get an offer for this short sale. Even in a limited inventory market, there were still other homes in Antelope to buy that could close right away, so many buyers passed by this gem. Few want to look at short sales when there is an abundance of regular homes for sale.
Sitting quietly by itself in Antelope Trails among many grander and larger homes, this home seemed larger than it is. And it is larger. The strange thing about this home’s square footage actually affects many other homes in newer subdivisions. Not just in Antelope, mind you, but I have encountered this particular situation in homes in West Sacramento, homes in Lincoln, including homes in Elk Grove. The square footage can often be published incorrectly in the public records because builders made final changes to the floor plans without updating their own records.
This happens because maybe a builder offered a design plan that included a three-car garage but the buyers chose a two-car garage so they could utilize the extra interior space for an office. Or the plan called for soaring cathedral ceilings, and the buyers chose a master-suite retreat option that enclosed some of that space. Enclosing space on the second floor can also add square footage to a home. It’s an inexpensive option.
You might think: what is 300 square feet? These short sale buyers will find out when it comes time to sell. A simple way to figure the square footage benefit is if certain homes in Antelope, say, sell at $160 a square foot, an additional 300 square feet could mean another $48,000 in equity. The short sale buyers didn’t think about that when they trespassed on this property, poking around, peeking in the windows and then claiming the sellers had removed fixtures. You hear a lot of horror stories about short sales, but like I informed their agent, I don’t work with sellers like that. My sellers clean up their homes the best they can and are responsible people.
The short sale buyers who bought this home gained an extra 300 square feet or so on top of receiving a slight discount on price due to the waiting period. Free equity. With two loans, it can take 90 days to get short sale approval. These buyers also had a home to sell, but since most banks will not accept a contingent offer, I suggested that the buyers keep the sale of their existing home, if at all possible, out of the short sale offer.
Lots of moving parts and trust on both sides go into making short sale buyers close escrow. At least these guys didn’t mess up their credit report while they waited, like other short sale buyers I won’t mention.
Working With the Best Sacramento Realtors Means Recognizing the Worst
You’ve got your good buyer’s agents in Sacramento, and you’ve got your lousy ones, and sometimes it’s hard to tell which is which from the inception. If you believe who the buyer’s agent is doesn’t make a difference in a real estate transaction, then you’re most likely not a top-producer listing agent in Sacramento. Because we see it all.
The first sign I’m working with a screwball is when I receive an offer from out-of-the-blue with no preceding phone call, no email, no text message, no voicemail, no prior notification whatsoever about the offer nor the buyer. To add insult to injury, these often are sent directly from a digital online signing service, without a single one-line sentence from the buyer’s agent to explain its existence.
Other signs the buyer’s agent could be a loser, or not one of our best Sacramento Realtors, are as follows:
- The purchase offer itself is a disaster (partially completed).
- The offer is missing crucial accompanying documents (such as a preapproval letter).
- The offer includes unusual demands such as requesting title and escrow.
- The buyer’s agent’s voicemail is full.
- The buyer’s agent is also the mortgage broker (it’s hard enough to wear one hat much less two).
Which means when I am working with a top-notch buyer’s agent, one of the best Sacramento Realtors, it can make the entire transaction, regardless of what happens, a pure pleasure. I closed several homes in West Sacramento last month that were smooth as silk, even though there were points of contention. We negotiated through them and closed; both sides were happy. The buyer’s agents for both of these sales were experienced, professional and a sheer delight. I hope to work with them again!
It takes working with the best Sacramento Realtors to realize how agonizing it can be to work with the worst.
When it comes to multiple offers in Sacramento, you can bet I disclose to my sellers any and all experiences I’ve had with buyer’s agents whose offers we receive. Ultimately, the seller makes the choice of which offer to accept. I give my sellers the tools to make that decision.
