Elizabeth Weintraub’s Thoughts About Sacramento Real Estate in August

The Mushroom at William Land Park is actually a water feature.

My thoughts about the Sacramento real estate market are not necessarily everybody else’s opinion. While the market may be on fire in Sacramento real estate, it doesn’t mean that everybody is aware of what’s going on. In fact, unless you’re in the business or follow the real estate business with a burning passion, which are not equally exclusive, you might be astonished to know what really happens. The first thing I find that is a misperception among sellers, mostly, is they are underpricing their homes. They believe their homes are worth far less than their home’s actual value. I am constantly finding myself telling sellers that they can get more than they had hoped to receive. Reverse was true last year.

Some find my thoughts about the Sacramento real estate market hard to swallow. I joke around and say: whatever you think your house was worth a few years ago, just add $100,000 to it. Not in all cases, of course, but in many I am right. Especially in the $299,000 range from 2011 to 2013. Many homes in the price range are now worth at least $399,000. The upper-end price points are fairing nicely as well, too, just less demand. Much of the pressure is on the entry-level homes.

Our median price point for Sacramento County is $355,000 for the month of July, but our days on market have dropped to 18 days. Median prices mean half have sold for more and half have sold for less. When I compare this to my own production, apart from matching almost exactly median prices, my listings are doing superbly better than that. Looking over the past 5 months, from March 15th to August 15th, I’ve sold my listings on average in 7 days, with many homes selling within 4 days. My average list-price-to-sales-price-ratio during that time period is 102%. From $347,945 to selling at $354,120. That means my sellers make on average 2% more, yet I charge the same commission I have always charged for the past 43 years.

Further, most of my listings sell without any repairs, renegotiations or buyer credits, which puts even more money into my seller’s pockets. That’s what sellers have come to expect. Although, I did have a seller ask me a few days ago why we did not hold an open house all day long. What? He could not believe it was only 2 hours. I had to explain 2 hours is the industry standard for an open house and during our Extravaganza, we do hold homes open for 3 hours one Sunday every month. But I want to keep him happy, so we’ll do a 4-hour open house for him.

One of my sellers contacted me yesterday to ask about selling a home in Elk Grove, and whether I could get it sold by September. Yes, I probably can. I know her home, as I had it listed 7 years ago before she decided not to sell. I thought, oh, I have photos for this, but I looked at the pictures. Wow. My standards have changed over the past 7 years. Can’t use those photos. I’d rather be found dead and naked in the streets than publish those photos. But I did get to share my thoughts about Sacramento real estate and my incredible news that I earned number one agent at Lyon Real Estate last month. The seller replied, “I knew I liked you for a reason.” Made my day!

Photo: The mushroom at William Land Park, Elizabeth Weintraub. Last Sunday was the first time I had ever seen water pour from it. This mushroom is also a portal in Ingress.