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More to a Sunday in Sacramento Than Open Houses
Weird stuff went on in Sacramento this Sunday, but not weird enough to make this city like Portland or anything. To kick off a pre-open-house Sunday morning, we are heading off to brunch at The Red Rabbit in Midtown on J Street, over by my Lyon office, when we drive by this car pile up (left). At first, I’m wondering: why is this car in front of us at a deadstop on 26th Street? Then, I realize its driver is staring at a car on top of another car. So, I did what any good citizen would do in this day and age, and I hopped out of the car to shoot a photo with my cellphone.
This is terrible, what we do, taking photos of other people’s tragedies. You can’t witness any horrible event without watching people stand there with their stupid cellphones taking pictures. It could be a bloody police shootout on Riverside Boulevard, and people would be on top of the roof shooting cellphone photos. What do they do with those photos? Send them to their uncle in Pocatello? Why would he care? Oh, right, because he’s living in Pocatello and not in this exciting metropolitan city known as Sacramento.
Which takes us to the carnivorous plant show at Shepard Garden and Arts Center in McKinley Park in East Sacramento. This is an annual show by the Sacramento Bromeliad and Carnivorous Plant Society, which we’ve never attended in the past, but after the car pileup, it called to us as a likely destination. Table upon table of strikingly beautiful and silent plants. There was nobody screaming FEED ME. Even the kids in tow with their parents were quiet.
As I was shooting a picture of this baby Venus Fly Trap (above), my cellphone rang. It was a woman who might be interested in adopting the rescue Chihuahuas (left). Well, she did hold an interest until she came home from a weekend vacation to discover her cat was not happy that she had left. I once had a cat destroy an entire bathroom — twice. Hers just ruined the sofa. However, she needed to pass on the adoption but has a friend who might be interested. Yes, we still have those rescue Chihuahuas in our back yard.
Look at how stupendously adorable they are! The little brown one is crying because she has no home. Nobody wants her. She is incredibly sweet. She does not understand. Her sister, the sad little girl on the right, is so stoic but you can see the struggle in her brave little eyes, because she’s clinging to a shred of hope that a loving home for them is just around the corner. You can call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
I came back to my home in Land Park hoping that DocuSign had sent me a signed offer for one of my recent listings. This is for a client who told me she no longer wants to deal with the Internet. She was canceling her email service and all Internet services. It’s difficult for me, as a Sacramento real estate agent, to digest this attitude, but I go with the flow. I figured I’d slip in the purchase contract by sending it to DocuSign before this momentous event happened. When I called my client to find out why she had not signed the purchase contract I had uploaded to DocuSign, she informed me that DocuSign asked if she was willing to do business on the Internet. Of course, the answer to that question for her was a resounding NO. Followed by a scream.
Maybe somebody today will come over and adopt the Chihuahuas? A girl can hope.
Going to a Sacramento Open House Without an Agent
There is a reason why a Sacramento real estate agent might be reluctant to talk about mortgages. It’s not that we don’t know anything about mortgages, because we know a great deal; it’s because we are not a mortgage broker, and what we don’t know about mortgages can be very important to a buyer. Same thing when the tables are turned. Most mortgage brokers know a lot about real estate, but the things about buying real estate that could be very important to a home buyer, a mortgage broker might not know.
I have the utmost respect for Michele Dillingham at Big Valley Mortgage. She writes about mortgages and finance for the Sacramento Bee. However, her piece this Saturday contains a confusing error. She basically told home buyers that they should not go to an open house. She says: “The problem is that if you don’t tell the agent at that house that you already have your own real estate agent, then your agent may lose out on the deal — and you lose out on having your own agent. The agent who has the property listed would be representing both buyer and seller.”
It’s not true. Not true how a Sacramento open house works. It’s true that not telling the open house agent that you have your own agent could cause bickering among agents, but you are under no obligation to write your offer with the listing agent or even with the agent who is holding that Sacramento open house. You can go to an open house without your own agent, and you’ll be OK. If you have an agent, it’s a good idea to tell the host or hostess of the open house that you are working with an agent, but that’s more for your own protection. If open house agents know you have representation, they probably won’t ask for your personal information, nor will they be likely to hound follow up with you.
Moreover, many of the agents who hold an open house are not the listing agent. That’s because many listing agents do not actively represent buyers themselves. They might prefer to focus their business on seller representation. In that event, they would allow an agent on their team or in their office to hold the home open. That way, the agent holding open the house can also pick up some residual business from home buyers. They can try to represent the open house guest by writing an offer on that home or maybe they can show the buyer other homes. But you, as an open house guest, have no obligation to work with the open house agent nor the listing agent.
The only exception to this is new home sales. Don’t even think about stepping foot on a new home subdivision or new home sales office without your agent. If you are considering a new home, call your agent FIRST. But resales and previously owned homes are a completely different story.
If you are looking for an agent to represent you, going to open houses is a good way to meet a variety of real estate agents and, in a casual way, figure out whether you might want to work with any of them. If you do, then ask that agent to be your own representation. Be prepared to sign a Buyer’s Broker Representation agreement, which is a legal agreement, a two-way-street, between you and the agent’s brokerage.
But whatever you do, don’t put off going to a Sacramento open house just because you are worried that the agent will have dibs on you. Nobody can have dibs on you without your express written permission.
Here are a few of my Sacramento open houses that you might want to visit this weekend:
- Saturday, April 13th, 2013, 6800 Bismarck Drive, remodeled for $215,000.
- Sunday, April 13th, 2013, 3627 T Street in Med Center, Craftsman for $225,000.
- Sunday, April 13, 2013, 1620 Sutterville Road, Land Park, 5 Bedrooms, for $519,000.
- Sunday, April 13, 2013, 6800 Bismarck Drive, remodeled for $215,000.
- Sunday, April 14, 2013, 576 4th Avenue, Land Park, w/addition for $375,000.
