Almost Everything Buyers for Homes in Land Park Need to Know

Land Park agent Elizabeth Weintraub works from home in Land Park.

One thing about buying a home in Land Park is afterward you get the local gossip and all the neighbors know what is happening, which is why I suggest that buyers talk to the neighbors, for that matter, before buying a home here or anywhere. Yesterday, for example, I was sitting on my front porch in Land Park with my laptop, cellphone, paperwork spread out and working in MLS. When I saw my next door neighbor approach, I removed my Bluetooth device from my ear (because that’s only polite).

My neighbor had wondered what all the noise was at my house and came over to see if somebody was breaking in; although, what would she do if they were? Poke them in the eye with her house key? She’s in her 80s. Or, maybe she carries a gun in her shorts — she did go on and on about how much she likes the pockets in her shorts, which, btw, matched the type of shorts I was wearing: OMG, old-lady-shorts. The “noise” was a team of four women vigorously cleaning my home: bleaching the ceramic, brightening the stainless, rubbing film off glass block, polishing marble and hardwood. It costs $500 to get this sort of cleaning done properly, and I needed to be out from underfoot when they cleaned my home office.

I was in MLS analyzing listings of homes in Land Park. I used to focus only on homes in Land Park, but I have since over the years branched out to offer my specialized real estate services as a top Sacramento Realtor to sellers and buyers in a four-county area. This is how I sell hundreds of homes now instead of only those I can count on two hands here in the city core of Sacramento. But I still carry a soft spot for my own neighborhood of Land Park. I see buyers come into town from out-of-area, in tow with their out-of-area agents, and pay tens of thousands over market value for a home, and appraisers don’t know any better, either. Land Park is a difficult place to appraise if you don’t possess intimate knowledge.

You can glean an incredible amount of information from MLS, though, even if you don’t know the neighborhood. One home in particular struck me odd because a) the price was too high for the street and b) the upgrades seemed disjointed and peculiar, and c) there were no window coverings in the master bedroom. That last clue meant nobody lived in that home. At first glance, I thought maybe it was an overhaul made by an homeowner who later decided to sell, which is the best kind of home to buy in Land Park. But it smelled to me like a flip.

Clicking on the APN number, sure enough, it was owned by an LLC. Looking further into the history, I noted they bought the home through probate and tried to flip it immediately without doing any remodeling. When that didn’t work, they remodeled it to within an inch of its life, stripped much of the character and vintage and then stuck it on the market. The cabinetry throughout is missing the magic, too. They took it off, put it back, took it off, put it back, yada yada. The square footage doesn’t match the public records, which makes appraisals of homes in Land Park even more difficult.

The street where that home is located is also not nearly as desirable as, say, Marian Way, where another home came on the market this morning for a whole lot less money. Plus, the Marian Way home is a Squeaky Williams home, which makes it even more valuable. But if you lived in Land Park, you would know that. If you’re looking for a Land Park agent, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.