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No Guarantees in Sacramento Real Estate for a Seller
It seems that Sacramento sellers are wanting a lot of guarantees in a sale these days, some of which they just can’t get. That’s a recipe for a few frustrated sellers. For example, I’ve had sellers tell me they want 100% assurance that the buyer can get the loan. Well, I’d like to be 29 again, too, but it ain’t gonna happen. OK, maybe not 29, maybe 39 instead. Yeah, like Jack Benny and 39. A perpetual 39, never a day older.
We can get a preapproval letter from a lender, and we can do all the due diligence possible about that letter, but it’s still not worth a damn thing. Lenders are not required to guarantee that the buyer can get a loan. Some of them don’t even run credit reports, if you can believe it, and I do because I see this sort of thing all the time. Many don’t even complete a loan application, because it’s too much work for a buyer who might never get an offer accepted, or whatever.
We can demand a DU (desktop underwriting) but even that is not a guarantee. It will disclose FICO scores, but that doesn’t mean that one of the parties doesn’t have a lien filed against her or an ex-husband has had a foreclosure in the past or that a buyer won’t lose his job midstream. Anything can and often does happen during escrow. Buyers change their financial situation and ruin their chances of buying a home, all on a whim, as they seem to undergo a temporary lapse in judgment. But it was so pretty, sparkly, dangly, fast, sleek, new, modern, um, they forgot. Oops.
I recall a couple of sellers who demanded that I lay out for them every situation that could possibly affect them during the term of escrow. What? Do you want to sleep at my house while I do this? Then, they asked if I would recite line-for-line each page of the 10-page purchase contract and explain each sentence as though I am a lawyer. In the middle of another escrow, sellers decided they no longer cared for the buyer and asked to replace the buyer with a new buyer, as though I have the power to magically unwind a contract. Abracadabra. I do my best to anticipate problems and head them off before developing, but I can’t possibly predict every scenario that could pop up during escrow.
Some things are surprises because, well, they are a surprise.
Like when a buyer drops dead. I don’t always expect that to happen. But it does.
But I know what it is. It’s fear. It’s fear that sellers are doing the wrong thing or making the wrong call. If one little problem pops up, there are sellers who will try to find a way to pin it on the listing agent. And that’s OK, really. You could pin a tail on this donkey, and I wouldn’t feel it. I don’t force them to take responsibility for their own actions. I’m not their mother. My job as a Sacramento Broker is to move them from Point A, which is putting the home on the market, to Point B, which is to closing and pocketing a big ol’ wad of cash in the seller’s bank account — at which point, they forget all about the drama.
I can’t guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong, but I can promise to try to fix it.
Call Elizabeth Weintraub, Broker #00697006, at 916.233.6759.
Don’t Ask a Sacramento Real Estate Agent about Grocery Shopping
When sellers tell me they have a California real estate license, I don’t pay too much attention to it because unless you’re in the business full-time, it doesn’t mean much to have a real estate license. If an agent hasn’t closed a sale in a few years, it means even less. As I am fond of quoting, and I don’t know how factual it is, but a while ago the number of real estate agents in California amounted to about 1 in every 35 people. Having a real estate license and being a real estate agent are two completely different things.
I like working with real estate agents as my clients because it makes my job a little bit easier. They understand the lingo. I also like working with lawyers. I know many Sacramento real estate agents do not like lawyers at all. I’m not sure if it’s because they worry they’ll get sued or they’ll mess up and be ashamed, or if they just feel intimated or if they believe all lawyers are assholes, no idea really. Could be any of those reasons.
I attract a lot of lawyers as clients because I work in Sacramento real estate, ha, ha, and lawyers are very busy at the Capitol and all over Sacramento. It’s rare that I get a lawyer who specializes in real estate as a client, but those guys probably think it’s a good idea to represent themselves, ha, ha. Which means I get only the smart lawyers as clients, and that’s just fine with me.
It was at the grocery store at Safeway in Midtown over the weekend when a certain thought process began to dawn me. Because I am very busy in my career as a Sacramento real estate agent, I don’t spend a lot of time doing other things that many normal people do such as going to the grocery store, for example. I’m very out of touch with how that process works.
There I was, at the cash register, wondering which way I should insert my plastic Safeway card into the card reader contraption. At least I have a Safeway card. I held off for a long time because I was against the principal of this corporation forcing me to give it my personal information so it could track my buying habits and try to sell me more shit. I find that kind of creepy. The fact that I even had a Safeway card was pretty much incredible, and I was feeling smug about it, and even better about the fact that I had managed to insert it correctly.
Yay, points for me. I was also astonished that nobody asked whether I wanted paper or plastic. They unilaterally chose plastic. Maybe they have a big supply to get rid of before that law goes into place. The check-out guy rotated my plastic bags tied with twisty ties and with cucumbers and bell peppers to count each item and tallied all of my groceries. Voila, $250 please. Sticker shock. Ah, the days when a full cart meant I had reached $25. Long gone.
I glanced at the display thingie and noted options for credit, debit cards, some unfamiliar icons, and asked the clerk which was used when a person writes a check. You’d think there would be a little piece of paper with a pen next to it as an icon.
He just laughed at me and said none of the options apply. Just write the check. I handed the check over to him, and he punched a bunch of keys, his eyebrows furrowed, a look of frustration crossed his face. I asked if there was something wrong with the check. He stared me in the eyes and demanded, “How many checks do you write at Safeway?”
Oh, I dunno, maybe I wrote a check a couple years ago. I don’t recall. Maybe last year. Why, what difference does it make? Well, he claimed if I don’t write at least 5 checks at year at Safeway, then Safeway will not recognize nor accept my check. The thing is how do you write one check if you have to write 5 checks before one check will be accepted? How much wood can a woodchuck chuck? Hmmm? He didn’t have an answer for that.
This situation just goes to prove that something people do every single week, which is go to the grocery store, is kind of lost on me. But ask me a question about Sacramento real estate and selling your home, and I’ll take all the time in the world to explain my answers. Because I know not everybody sells real estate.
Agents Should Call the Listing Agent Before Writing an Offer
A buyer’s agent made me laugh out loud yesterday when he said, “You’re so famous I can’t believe I’m talking to you; you’re everywhere online.” I get a big kick out of that kind of reaction because I truly don’t see the celebrity perception that some people form. I’m just a Sacramento real estate agent who writes about real estate every day and sells a bunch of homes in Sacramento every year. It’s not like I’m on TV or anything. I’m not a best seller at Amazon. I put my pants on one leg at a time like most people — mostly because I’m too old and cranky to jump into them with two feet like some 20-year-old surfer dude.
I call a lot of buyer’s agents these days, especially when I see they have showed my listing, for example, on which almost every buyer who sees it wants to write an offer. I figure it’s better to discuss the situation upfront. Text messages and email are all too easy to ignore. But a phone call is kinda jarring to many agents; it’s too personal, I sense, whoa, what is this sound? My phone is ringing and I’m in the middle of playing Plants vs. Zombies, the new Beach wave. What the?
I call agents because I figure it’s better to talk to them before they write an offer. So many never call the listing agent to get more information or glean insight. If I don’t talk to the agents, they’re left staring at their buyer’s bright and shiny face who asks, “How much should I offer?” And the answer appears to be: Whatever you want. I get offers all over the board these days, and some are pretty wild.
Much of this confusion, not all of it, unfortunately, would be resolved if the buyer’s agent would just call the listing agent before writing an offer. One question to ask is how many offers do you have or have you received? That would shed a lot of light on the situation. Without breaking fiduciary to her seller, a listing agent can also help guide the buyer’s agent to writing an offer that is likely to get accepted.
There is always more behind buying a home than numbers and pictures. There are people involved. It’s not just an address with four walls and a roof.
My focus is to make the seller happy and get the seller into escrow and closed. I don’t mind calling buyer’s agents and talking. It’s how we used to do business in the old days before agents threw offers at the wall to see if anything sticks and then resumed reading Facebook.
Reason #57 to Hire a Sacramento Real Estate Agent
Possessing the foresight to avoid problems down the road in a real estate transaction is a crucial trait my clients come to expect from an experienced Sacramento real estate agent. My real estate practice is built on trying to anticipate crap that can go sideways and fixing it before that happens. Sometimes I astonish even myself when I look at an issue in hindsight. It’s not enough to just make sure all of the initial spots on a contract are initialed and the signatures lines signed in full, an agent really needs to study the purchase contract and figure out what can possibly go wrong.
When other agents are excited to go into escrow, I look for reasons we won’t close or situations that can upset the seller. I’m sort of the opposite of an excited Sacramento real estate agent. Selling a home is stressful enough. Sellers and buyers don’t need to face additional frustrations if we can help it, and my experience has shown me that we often can. It’s my duty to my client.
Of course there are things that can pop up that we could never anticipate but after you’re in the business for a while, you make mental notes to yourself. For example, when your clients live out of town, and you’re moving closer to receipt of loan docs in title — which is what sets the closing process in motion — sometimes it makes sense to get most of the documents signed prior. Especially the grant deed. Because that needs to be notarized and title needs the original document to record.
This is the typical process: First, the title company emails documents to the mobile signer, but generally, depending on the time of day of receipt and the time of the appointment, the fastest the mobile signer can return the documents is to ship overnight the following day. Then, it takes another day to land back at the title company, so 3 days at a minimum. When you’re hoping to close on a Friday so the buyers can move in that weekend, timing is crucial. You can’t have loan docs hit escrow on a Thursday and expect to close on Friday when the principals to the transaction live out of area. Unless the sellers sign the essential documents early. The title company can pre-draw upon request.
Who is gonna think of this solution beforehand? Not the mortgage lender, most likely. It’s up to the Sacramento real estate agents in the transaction to make sure it happens and closes smoothly. If every moment is precious to you, call Elizabeth Weintraub Broker and ask her to be your agent: 916.233.6759.
In Defense of Open Houses in Sacramento
Open houses in Sacramento work for many reasons, and are mutually beneficial to a seller and a Sacramento Realtor, even though I realize there are some agents in the business who do not believe that open houses work. By working, I mean an open house brings potential buyers who may buy the home, and it also brings buyers who might not buy the home. Those “leftover” buyers, the buyers for whom the home does not meet their needs, are often wandering about without representation. For them, the open house provides an excellent opportunity to interview agents and for agents to interview buyers, in a non-threatening, casual atmosphere.
How can open houses in Sacramento be bad? For anybody? Yet, there are agents who just don’t want to do an open house. I suppose these agents have a ton of clients and don’t need any more buyers to work with. Maybe they don’t enjoy talking to buyers, which can make a person wonder why they are in real estate. Or, maybe they feel that they will be dissatisfied if the open house produces just one buyer for them to help?
Buyers find out about open houses through 2 main methods: homes for sale on the web and by following open house signs placed in the street. Some weekends, traffic is slow; other weekends, brisk. The success of an open house can be influenced by the weather, holidays, weekend events, but rain or shine, successful Sacramento real estate agents work.
I hear from a few other agents that open houses are a waste of time, but if an agent finds a great buyer every other open house, that’s an investment of four hours. If four hours isn’t worth investing to find a buyer, I’m wondering how far an agent will go in the real estate business.
Not only that, but holding an open house allows an agent to become more familiar with a neighborhood, its people, traffic patterns, positives / negatives, market values — all of which is beneficial information to a real estate agent developing her career.
On top of this, although not every buyer will buy a home on the spot at the open house, for a large number of buyers, viewing the home at the open house is often their first exposure to the home, and they do eventually buy. They might look at the home on a Sunday, think about it for a few days, get a preapproval letter and eventually call a real estate agent to show the home to them a second time. Many homes that sell today were first viewed by the buyer at an open house.
Due to our busy schedules nowadays, most people look at the weekends as a time to a) do chores and b) to relax. They can squeeze in an open house or two that they might not be able to schedule during the week. People also make impulse purchases, and real estate is not immune. How often have I heard, “Oh, we weren’t in the market, but then we drove by this open house . . ..”
It’s too easy when there’s little traffic for an agent to decide that open houses in Sacramento don’t work. The real estate agents who make it in the real estate business are those who view every open house as an opportunity to engage with people and to sell a home. Open houses in Sacramento is a necessity.
