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The Best Place to Find Homes for Sale in Sacramento
A potential buyer from Florida called yesterday to discuss buying a second home in the Pocket area of Sacramento. I asked what made him pick the Pocket out of all the places to live in Sacramento. Turns out he used to live in Sacramento, and he likes that neighborhood. Not necessarily Greenhaven, mind you, but the Pocket; although Greenhaven and Pocket border each other, they are different.
This guy told me he was primarily interested in preforeclosures and short sales. I hear this preference stated often, and I realize what it means, even though the person who is sharing that preference may not. It means that a buyer wants to buy as much home for the dollar as the buyer possibly can. The buyer is not afraid of having to fix up a home or put a little sweat equity into it if the price is under market a little bit.
In short, the buyer wants a deal. A good deal. Reality says a buyer doesn’t really need to buy a preforeclosure or a short sale to get a good deal. In fact, most of the better deals lie in homes with equity. Short sales are no longer distressed sales; banks want market value for the short sales. Banks sometimes obtain 2 or 3 opinions of value before they will allow the home to sell as a short sale.
The pre-foreclosure properties are a myth. They don’t exist. Oh, I realize that buyers can find those homes listed on such websites as Trulia and Zillow, but those are marketing ploys. Those homes are not for sale. These websites buy feeds from all kinds of sources, even sources that report when homeowners have failed to make payments and are headed for foreclosure if they don’t bring the loan current. But it doesn’t mean those homes are for sale or will ever be for sale. It is very misleading and confusing for buyers. Although, it brings eyeballs to Trulia and Zillow, and traffic is what matters to Trulia and Zillow. The information doesn’t need to be accurate — just look those goofy Zestimates.
The best place to find homes for sale in Sacramento is on a Sacramento real estate agent’s website. That’s because those IDX feeds originate at MetroList, which is the Bible and our God in real estate. You can search for home listings in Sacramento, homes in Placer, El Dorado or Yolo counties, which include West Sacramento and Davis on my website or any other agent’s website. You will get everything that is for sale and not just my listings.
Although, I did get a call yesterday as well about where a person could find my listings. If you want to look at just the homes listed by Elizabeth Weintraub, you can watch the revolving listings on the right side of my home page. Or, to be more proactive, you can click on the LISTING tab at the top of my website. That will show you just the homes that are listed by this Sacramento real estate agent.
I promise, you won’t find homes that are not for sale, removed from the market or were never for sale in the first place. The status modifiers are clearly noted, well, except for those active short contingents, you have to read through the listing to find it. Yet, a real estate agent’s website is the best place to find homes for sale in Sacramento. You can also sign up for automatic listing emails, so every time a new listing in your desired area comes on the market, you will receive an email. If you’re not a do-it-yourself person, you can call me, and I’ll be happy to set you up. You can call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
It’s the Going Not the Getting There for a Sacramento Agent
As a Sacramento real estate agent who works with a lot of sellers in the Sacramento area, I do basically 3 things during the week, besides brush my teeth twice a day.
- Take new listings
- Scrutinize and negotiate offers, and
- Manage existing escrows to the point of closing.
The one thing I really don’t do is spend a lot of time looking for new business. I don’t hunt for it because I get a lot of new business from the Internet and from referrals. Potential clients searching for a Sacramento real estate agent read my reviews and client testimonials, maybe they read about my extensive background and then decide to talk with me. Others might ask their friends or relatives for a referral and, since I’ve been fortunate to close hundreds of homes, I have many previous clients every year with good experiences to share.
Not having to spend any time scouring for new business lets me take that chunk of time — those 30% of hours another agent would spend prospecting — and put those hours into servicing my existing clients. That’s a lot of time to look for new clients — a third of your life. I bet if you asked a seller if he or she minds if a Sacramento agent uses their listing to advertise herself, a seller would object, but that’s what most agents do. There’s nothing really wrong with it because it brings the agent more business and it promotes the seller’s house, but it’s not an approach I employ.
I’m not the kind of Sacramento agent who says look at this house I listed, I can list yours, too. Because sellers don’t want a home listed. They want a home sold. They want a home sold for the most money they can get and not a lot of drama. Clean and efficient and professional. I will custom tailor a listing plan for my sellers because every seller and situation is different. I don’t have any qualms about grilling a buyer’s agent before my sellers accept an offer to discuss potential pitfalls and lay out expectations to see if a buyer is a good fit. How many agents do that for their clients?
Engaging in these types of conversations and providing quality service for my sellers is part of what my clients get with an agent who has almost 40 years of experience in the business. My experience is not one year times 40. I am constantly learning and trying to improve because I don’t care how good you are, there is always room for improvement. My career as a Sacramento real estate agent is a journey, not a destination. Like Harry Chapin said in Greyhound: it’s the going, not the getting there.
Did You Miss the Boat to Buy a Home?
A Sacramento home buyer called yesterday to lament about her attempts to buy a home. She asked me if this was a good time to buy or a bad time to buy. It’s not as simple as that, I’m afraid. It’s a good time to buy if you can conform to the market, and if you can buy a home. That’s because interest rates are low and prices are very affordable. But it’s a lousy time to buy as well because you might not be able to buy a home at all. It’s not like a buyer can make a full price offer and expect that offer to be accepted. Come on, this is not the middle of the Mojave desert — even though that’s how Bay Area investors see us — this is Sacramento.
Sacramento — a severely distressed real estate market that is beginning to rebound. Prices are inches up. Prices are not kissing the sky like Jimi Hendrix. Yet home buyers are making crazy offers like Charlie Sheen on a bender. I can quietly list a home and slip it into MLS and within 24 hours, I’ll have a pile of offers on my desk for $20,000 to $50,000 more than list price. If this isn’t madness, I don’t know what is. If those Charlie Sheen offers were cash, I’d be dancing naked on my desk, but they aren’t. They are financed offers, and if the property won’t appraise to get that loan, they may as well be offering us a cart filled with gold bullion, which we all know will never leave the vaults at the U. S. Mint.
I can’t tell you if this a good time to buy a home. It depends on how much stamina you have and your appetite for rejection. It depends on your type of mortgage, too. It depends on who you are working with, which Sacramento real estate agents you choose to represent you. I can tell you the Elizabeth Weintraub Team is closing deals. I can tell you that some of the largest real estate companies in Sacramento tend to list most of the homes for sale in Sacramento. Some of the real estate companies do not put every listing immediately into MLS. If you are lucky enough to be working with a top producer in Sacramento, you might gain a bit of an edge.
It doesn’t mean that going to the listing agent ensures that buying edge because no reputable listing agent in Sacramento would put her seller at a disadvantage. No way, Jose. We want our sellers to get the highest and best offer; there are no compromises. No favorites. Everyone has an equal chance. But you might get a chance, and that’s the important part.
In this seller’s market in Sacramento, hitching your wagon to a top producer might be the wiser decision.
Canceled Sacramento Home Listings
Nobody loves Sacramento home listings so much as when you take your home off the market. This is sort of the dirty little secret and underbelly of real estate. Almost the minute your home listing is canceled in MLS by your real estate agent, your phone will start to ring. It’s a fact, jack. And it’s not the fault of your Sacramento real estate agent. So, don’t blame her. She will have already removed your telephone number and your name from MLS, but there are ways for others to find it.
You might wonder, wow, how did my home become so danged popular all of a sudden! And why didn’t I know about all of these top-notch real estate professionals who can sell my home in record time for top dollar? Where have these real estate agents been hiding? They sound so wonderful and competent and aggressive. Why, they say my former Sacramento real estate agent was a lazy-ass jerk who didn’t do jack-crap, which is why my home did not sell and why I was forced to hang my head in shame. But if list my home with them, I will be showered in gold and riches beyond my wildest dreams. Holy toledo!
I know it might be tough for you, dear reader, to realize that some real estate agents might prey on sellers of canceled Sacramento home listings. It’s how they make a living. And there’s nothing wrong with it; it’s the approach that many sellers object to. These agents figure at least a canceled seller wanted to sell once so they should call them when the listing either expires or is withdrawn or canceled from MLS. In fact, there is an entire industry built around canceled listings. Real estate agents can attend seminars and take special training on how to approach a seller of a canceled listing.
When these agents call sellers of expired or canceled Sacramento home listings, often they have a prepared script in front of them. The agents are doing telemarketing calls and reading the script to you. It’s persuasive, and it works or these agents wouldn’t do it. They are focused on one thing. Talking you into listing with them. They may or may not have any experience, as you get both experienced and brand new agents making telemarketing calls to sellers of canceled listings.
My advice to you is to realize these chasers of expired listings are likely to do exactly what your agent already tried to do — they aren’t offering you anything new or revolutionary. If you like your agent, list again with your real estate agent. If you don’t like your agent, call another agent who has been referred to you, but don’t fall victim to empty words.
What It’s Like to Be a Sacramento Home Buyer
Where does a Sacramento home buyer get her information? She talks to friends, family and coworkers. Maybe she dabbles around at the Sac Bee website on her cellphone but she’s pretty much focused on her life, her own situation. Just like anybody else. She puts on her pants one leg at a time, brushes her teeth, worries about her job, feeds the cat or walks the dog and doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about the state of the real estate market in Sacramento. That’s because she is not a real estate agent. She is a Sacramento home buyer looking for Sacramento homes.
It’s up to real estate agents to explain to potential home buyers what the market is like in Sacramento. Tell them what they can expect. I tell it to them straight. I figure it’s better that they be prepared than shocked. Don’t need anybody having a heart attack and dropping dead at my feet. Maybe this is NOT the time for them to buy a home. I know I would NOT want to be a home buyer in Sacramento today. That’s the truth. Because there is tremendous competition for the same homes. It’s an extreme seller’s market. Many buyers, little inventory. Many all cash buyers who will outbid an FHA or VA buyer. Multiple offers are normal right now. This is a sizzling hot market!
I spoke to an agent yesterday who told me she had submitted an offer for her buyer and the listing agent said her offer was #18. The funny thing about this situation is the listing agent was holding out for more offers. Why? Why on God’s green earth would a seller or an agent need to collect more purchase offers than that? Talk about misery. If one can’t find an acceptable offer among 17 offers, I hate to say this, but something has gone horribly wrong with the agent, the seller or both. Another agent lamented that he had not had an offer accepted for any of his buyers for more than 30 days, and he writes 4 to 5 offers a week.
Sacramento buyer’s agents are suffocating.
I’ve had buyers call me directly and ask if they can get an edge by working with a high producing Sacramento listing agent. I guess they figure they’ll go where the homes are rather than waiting for the listings to come to them. It’s a desperate situation. Buyers need to prepare for disappointment. A Sacramento home buyer might not be able to buy her first choice or even her 10th choice. She needs to slap on that steel armor and keep her eyes on the horizon. Above all, don’t give up. Align with an experienced Sacramento REALTOR.
It is possible to buy a home in Sacramento. I see happy home buyers go into escrow every week! In addition to hitting refresh on that MLS link, home buyers can also check my Sacramento short sale updates to see which listings are coming live. Voodoo dolls, prayers on your knees, salt over your shoulder, whatever you’ve got — use it.
