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Perfect Spot for a Marriage Proposal at Half Dome Summit in Yosemite
This is not where the marriage proposal at Half Dome summit occurred (that photo is below) but it’s the only horizontal photo I have from Josh, and it’s too beautiful not to include in my blog today. What you see before you is Bridalveil Fall, and if you look closely, you can spot the rainbow at the bottom of the fall. It’s a short hike, relatively speaking, maybe a half hour at most, and it’s very wet along the way. Spray and mist feel great when it’s hot in the summer, in the spring I imagine it’s a bit chilly.
My husband and I have visited Yosemite National Park a couple of times, and we really should go there more often. But I can honestly say I have never received a marriage proposal at Half Dome summit, and it’s too late to start now. I’ve been proposed to instead in all sorts of weird places, won’t bore you with the details. Generally ended up getting married, too, except for one engagement when I finally wised up and started saying no. I mean, really, how many times can one person say yes?
Vika Gerassimenko and Josh Amolsch, engaged at Half Dome Summit.
When my husband and I decided to get married in the last year of the last century, it came about at the county courthouse in Minneapolis. We were there to get fishing licenses. Hey, I pointed at the posted sign for license fees, it’s cheaper to get a fishing license if you’re married. And look, right over there, we can get a marriage license! How convenient.
Not Josh. The invincible Josh Amolsch from the Elizabeth Weintraub Team. He has been talking about a marriage proposal at Half Dome Summit for a long time. Obviously played it over and over in his head, what he would say, how he would surprise his girlfriend, Victoria. Such a stand-up guy, a gentleman, he took Victoria’s parents out for lunch last week to ask for their daughter’s hand. Everybody on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team was sworn to secrecy. He brought the ring to the office to show all of us, which was only fair since we all gave our valuable input on the selection.
So, this weekend, on May 26th of the year 2018, Josh and Victoria hiked Half Dome. Josh got down on one knee and pulled out the ring. From the photo, she obviously said yes because it’s hard not to spot that gorgeous ring on her hand. This is a fairly treacherous trail, especially when it’s raining. Just last week a hiker fell off and died. Josh said if they hadn’t rented harnesses, they would undoubtedly be dead. That was the last thing I said to him: Do.not.fall.
Congratulations Josh and Victoria, wishing you a lifetime of much love, happiness and laughter.
Elizabeth Weintraub Wins #2 at Lyon Real Estate Awards 2018
Elizabeth Weintraub wins #2 at Lyon Real Estate Awards: Amy McMullan, Elizabeth Weintraub, Josh Amolsch, Dan Tharp, Shaundra Bradley and . . . Barbara Dow.
Seems once I made it into the top 1% at Lyon Real Estate, I end up ranking every year either as #2 or #3 in the company. We have about 1,000 agents at Lyon, so it’s not an insignificant accomplishment to make into the top 1% at the Lyon Real Estate Awards. Only nine agents achieve that milestone every year. Although, we used to win better prizes. Over the last 5 years or so, we just get a huge honkin’ vase, and now I have too many of those.
Honestly, I have too many awards, period. What do you do with them? I suppose they could be used as flower vases, but I don’t know if you’d want your name on them. I spotted a few awards our relocation department won, and those were pretty cool. From where we sat, they resembled figurines with a globe on top. Like a Golden Globe. You could use them to clobber an intruder.
Thankfully, Friday night, my entire team showed up for the Lyon Real Estate Awards. Usually somebody is out of town, but we were all present. I had been thinking about them as I pulled my beaded earrings from Mallorca and a tie-dyed poncho out of the closet. Hmmm . . . disco night. Well, originally I had received an email about the Awards being a 1970’s theme. I didn’t pay much attention to the flyer. Then, our marketing department sent an email to say the event was Studio 54, to come dressed ready to disco.
Well, having lived through the 1970s, I whipped off an email to our marketing department explaining that only a few years were disco years and the rest of the 1970s was definitely not disco. Therefore, since I had nothing to wear, my team and I were coming as vampires.
Our managing broker had to assure the marketing department I was just messing with them.
The good thing about the evening was I had completely forgotten how to do The Hustle. I recall taking lessons, but the rest of that is a blur in my rear view mirror.
Back to getting dressed in my tie-dyed poncho . . . What I realized when dressing for this event was every year I get up on stage by myself. But every year my team grows stronger, like AlphaBears. We operate as a finely tuned machine. They should get recognition, too. I did not get there all by myself. So, this year I dragged them all up on stage with me. I’d like to introduce you to my amazing team of truly incredible individuals.
Elizabeth Weintraub Team at Lyon Agent Awards 2018 Won #2.
Clockwise from the top, Exclusive Buyer’s Agent Josh Amolsch; Transaction Coordinator Shaundra Bradley; Mortgage Loan Officer at Guild Mortgage Dan Tharp; Exclusive Buyer’s Agent Barbara Dow; Listing Agent and Team Lead Elizabeth Weintraub; Exclusive Buyer’s Agent Amy McMullan.
Nobody is an island and nobody gets where she is in Sacramento real estate without the support of others. In my situation, I rely heavily on my team for support. We have each other’s backs. We pitch in when needed. And I could not possibly provide the type of superior service I strive to achieve for my clients nor handle the volume of listings that I sell if I focused on buyers. My TC Shaundra is like my right-hand person. Our loan guy Dan Tharp is brilliant and treats every client like they are the only client he has.
We share the same values and principles. And above all, we always put our client’s interests first. Over our own. That’s our secret for success. I am incredibly honored and proud to share the stage with my team at the Lyon Real Estate awards for 2018. Can’t say it any louder, I love these guys!
Home in South Land Park Sold With Multiple Offers
This home in South Land Park sold quickly with multiple offers.
This cute cottage home in South Land Park sold with multiple offers and closed escrow on Friday. The sellers, like most homeowners, had all sorts of concerns about why their home might not sell. They worried about things that most people never worry about, and some they do. Like a dripping faucet. Yes, if a faucet drips, it should be fixed. I know we all get busy and can’t always attend to small things but small stuff turns into big stuff, I lecture, er, remind them. They laugh.
The sellers called me because I listed and sold another home in South Land Park at 1407 Carrousel Lane, not far from their house. By the time they toured the home on Carrousel, they could only enter a backup offer because it was pending. Basically, a seller has options in this market when they want to sell a home and buy another home, but trying to buy on a contingent basis is one of the most difficult. I explain it this way: just think if this was your home and you received 3 offers. Two were from buyers who did not have to sell a home in order to buy yours. Which offers would you consider?
When the shoe is on the foot, it makes sense. It’s not impossible to buy contingent, and we do it, but you might not get your first choice in a seller’s market, is all I’m saying. So while I’m going through the seller’s home, taking notes, completing my agent visual inspection, the sellers are sharing all the things they don’t like about the home. I steer them away from that conversation, just in case they tell me something horrible that I’ll be forced to disclose to the buyer, which I obviously do not want to do. Instead, we discuss all the wonderful attributes about their home, the pluses, the emotional pull it will have on other buyers.
This is the problem with studying the market too much as a seller. You start to pick up on the negative vibes and those thoughts take over, consume you, and that stuff begins to color your viewpoint.
I introduced the sellers to my extraordinary team member, Josh Amolsch, to help them to find a home to buy. After meeting with Dan Tharp at Guild Mortgage, the sellers discovered they did not have to sell their home in order to buy. This freed them to make a strong offer on a home in the Pocket, and they won that bid. They bought a home across from one of the last buyers I ever worked with before I switched to seller representation.
The home in South Land Park quickly sold. We chose a full-price offer, all-cash, no appraisal contingencies. That was the sellers’ biggest worry, whether the home would appraise, and with their winning offer, that concern was eliminated. It was a nice, smooth, easy escrow for a change, thanks to the wonderful agents who represented the buyer.
I thought about this closing yesterday when I visited another seller in South Land Park whose home will be ready for the market sometime in the next year. When I studied the comps for the seller, I noticed a different home in South Land Park that was listed by an agent from out-of-area, and realized this was a home I was supposed to list. At the last minute, that seller had canceled her appointment with me because a friend of hers introduced her to a “most wonderful listing agent.” Wha? Was I chopped liver? I forgot about it until I saw the home had only a couple of photos and no showings without calling the agent. Hmmm . . .
That’s OK, I’ll list the other home in South Land Park and be happy. This is a great market, and it’s a good time to sell. I’ve learned that a positive attitude will take you places others only wish to go.
Short of Having the Seller Present at the Home Inspection
If a home inspector doesn’t leave the home in the same condition as he found it, the buyer’s agent should.
It is certainly understandable, even though it is unadvisable, why you might find a seller present at the home inspection. That’s because there are certain types of tradespeople who traipse through a home without regard for care and consideration, and they don’t always return the home to its original condition after they finish with their inspections. Fortunately, this type of inconsiderate and unprofessional behavior is rare. But when it does occur, who is responsible? Directly, it’s the inspectors, but indirectly it’s the buyer’s agent who recommends and continues to endorse bozos.
I described a situation like this yesterday to my Elizabeth Weintraub Team member, Josh Amolsch. The inspectors, both a home inspector and a pest inspector, managed to leave a bit of a mess in my seller’s home. The buyer’s agent was present, of course. This goes beyond the usual comments I hear, such as the bed spread corner was turned up because prying eyes had been peeking under the bed. Oh, no, the audacity! Especially if there was a battery-operated item under there. Or a closet door was left ajar, or a bathroom light on, a towel on the floor. Small infractions but irritants all the same. No, this was much bigger such as the front door was left unlocked and the gate unsecured. In addition to a string of other issues.
That behavior makes a seller feel violated. It trickles downstream, too. Hope the buyers weren’t planning to ask for any favors.
Josh says he’s had a couple of occasions when driving away from a home that he has wondered if he turned off a light. Rather than wonder about it, though, he turns around, drives back and checks. Because that’s what a conscientious Sacramento Realtor would do.
Further, the seller is a professional in the trades himself. He goes to great lengths to show respect for the homes he works on. He is the kind of guy who wears booties or wipes his feet before entering a home. You can imagine his disappointment to come home from a weekend away and discover his front door unlocked, among a myriad of other events. He expects other professionals to treat his home in the same manner he treats his customers’ homes. He probably wonders if we allowed the seller present at the home inspection, none of this would have happened.
We Sacramento Realtors have it drummed into our heads to observe the condition of a home upon entering and to leave it the same way. If lights are on, we leave them on. If a door is locked, we lock it when we leave. We don’t do stupid, careless things like lock the garage door between the house and garage if the door is unlocked. We also don’t want the seller present at the home inspection — we want our buyers and their respective inspectors to enjoy free reign, to complete due diligence, and fully understand the product our buyers are purchasing.
But gosh, guys, to enjoy that benefit, you’ve got to leave the home the way you found it. Seize responsibility. Because regardless of how you might appear, we know your mother didn’t raise you in a barn.
Elizabeth Weintraub Team Welcomes Spring at Hawks in Midtown
Dan Tharp, Josh Amolsch and Amy McMullan pause from eating at Hawks in Midtown.
Preparing for the next 3 months in Sacramento real estate required a visit last night by the Elizabeth Weintraub Team to Hawks in Midtown for dinner and drinks. Hawks Public House is the restaurant, and Hawks Provisions is the delectable to-go-side (take-outs and sandwiches). You’ve probably driven past it on Stockton / P Streets on Alhambra plenty of times, saw the place was jam-packed and wondered about it. Or, maybe you read a review in the Sacramento Bee by Carla Meyer. Or, perhaps you’ve been to Hawks in Granite Bay and are curious about the spin-off in Midtown.
Whatever your reason for thinking about stopping at Hawks in Midtown, you should go. Be prepared for plenty of noise, though. It’s very loud, and your throat might feel a little sore by the end of the evening from screaming across the table, but it’s all part of the ambiance and a seriously small sacrifice in exchange for such luxurious food.
I had a super busy day, this last day in March. First, I replaced a crown yesterday morning. My dentist in Midtown thought it was a 20-year crown until I corrected him. That crown was done 40 years ago. It was the first crown I ever received, and it was a shock at that tender age, my early 20s, to acknowledge that an original part of my body was defective. I had cracked my molar. There was no turning back. I had to accept a foreign element as a fix for it. I was no longer unadulterated. Getting my first crown was worse than the aftermath of lost virginity or a first, second, third or fourth divorce, those other milestones in life.
Adam wishes his wife would stop poking his radiatore at Hawks in Midtown.
Of course now, now that I’m turning 64 in a few months, my attitude has shifted. I’m almost willing to change out all of my body parts for better ones. Although my jaw was still sore from the novocaine injection, it didn’t stop me from celebrating with my Weintraub Team at Hawks in Midtown. We indulged in a feast of appetizers and snacks before our entrees. You can see the photo with my patient husband, wondering when he might get to eat as I’m stabbing his radiatore with my fork.
The next 3 months in Sacramento real estate will be crazy nuts this year. We might not get another chance to hang out for at least 90 days. This is the time to be on the market in Sacramento, not July or August. Now. Today. And the listings are trickling in . . . in fact, I just listed a new home in Carmichael and had to rush to Hawks in Midtown to make our 6:30 reservation.
Barbara Dow and Dan Tharp at Hawks in Midtown chose the burger and fries.
But we didn’t really talk much about Sacramento real estate. Not to mention, we were busy eating. The steak tartare was fabulous, but the asparagus salad was pretty skimpy to share. The Ciccioli was a delightful surprise as I was not expecting to like a pressed terrine of pig fat (served with sour cherry mustard and toast made it even better than I had imagined). I also devoured in like 30 seconds the trout with black-eyed peas, and the skin was crisp, seasoned and perfect.
Dan Tharp (from Guild Mortgage), and REALTORS® Amy McMullan, Barbara Dow and Josh Amolsch, all ordered the Wagyu beef burger, served with gruyére and caramelized onions on a brioche bun. The french fries alone were superb. I don’t know how we managed to survive dessert because we had entered the state of mind where it just doesn’t get any better than this.
If you go to Hawks in Midtown, enter from the Stockton Street side, directly into the Sutter parking lot and head off to your left. They take reservations for parties of 6 minimum, and there is basically one huge round table that will support a party of 6 to 8 people comfortably. Although, Hawks should consider installing screens to block some of that late afternoon sun from shining directly into the eyes of their diners.
