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A Title Insurance Background Helps a Sacramento Real Estate Agent
Most people don’t know that this Sacramento real estate agent got her start in real estate in the early 1970s as a title searcher at First American Title. After a few years of standing for hours in 6-inch heels at the courthouse (without A/C) and hoisting up those heavy Grantor and Grantee books on the counter, I changed career paths and eventually became a Certified Escrow Officer. This meant using carbon paper to type from scratch escrow instructions, preparing grant deeds and explaining truth-in-lending statements to buyers — much the same duties an escrow officer handles today, sans the typewriter.
Back then I handled about 60 escrows a month. Ordering beneficiary demands, obtaining pest completions and appraisals. Since I worked in Southern California, which handles escrows differently than Northern California, much of the work in an escrow was and still is completed upfront. Sellers and buyers came to my office to sign escrow instructions shortly after contract acceptance.
My days were filled with phone calls and face-to-face interaction with customers. That meant I generally didn’t get any actual work done during business hours, so I would stay late to catch up on the paperwork. It seemed to me back then that I was doing all of the work in a real estate transaction by helping agents structure owner financing and earning a pittance of what real estate agents made. So, I switched careers in 1979 and became a real estate agent in southern California, and later a Sacramento real estate agent.
Now that I’m handling a huge volume of paperwork as a Sacramento real estate agent, though, I’m finding that my days are about the same as they were 30-some years ago. That title and escrow background has been helpful because I learned how to be organized. Because the vast amount of paperwork that is required in any given transaction for an agent today is enormous.
I wonder how other agents deal with all the paperwork without an escrow background? I suppose they hire an assistant. I won’t go down that path, though, because I feel the need to personally touch every document myself. I know, it’s anal and crazy. My transaction coordinator handles the disclosures, but I still look at them.
For example, I read every preliminary title report and appraisal for my buyers. I caught a cloud on title last week and called the title company. Turned out the back portion of an alley was never properly conveyed to the present sellers. Without a deed from that owner of record, my buyer would not receive the proper conveyance. Fortunately, the title company has now taken steps to obtain a quitclaim deed from that former seller but only because one of the present sellers knew that person.
Otherwise, we could have been up a creek. But, let me tell you, being a Sacramento real estate agent beats standing in high heels at the courthouse.
While Elizabeth is on vacation, we are revisiting her favorite blogs from previous years.
Is it the Size and Length That Matters?
A seller whose listing I canceled accused me anonymously on a website of sending snippy emails. She has no idea what she’s talking about. I mean, does she realize how hard it is to type on your cellphone when you’re in the middle of sex? Do you? No? Well, you try it, then. First, in the middle of all this heavy breathing and clawing of your partner’s back, you’ve got to make sure you scroll to “reply” and don’t accidentally hit “forward” instead .
I hate it when I hit forward by mistake and start typing in the forward-to box instead of the text box. Because then you have to cancel the message, and my phone always asks me if I am sure that I want to do that. That makes me stop to think, do I? Do I really want to cancel this message? Or, will I delete it from my phone if I do? Where do deleted messages go on my phone? These are thoughts I’d rather not have but they could save your butt someday.
Unless your butt is naked and in the air in the middle of sex. At that point, I don’t want to ponder canceling my message, but for a seller in the middle of a crisis, I would. My clients are very important to me. Even those clients with whom I have had a listing for only 24 hours before they went off the deep end. Most clients wait at least a couple of weeks before they have a mental breakdown. But for those who lose it early in the process, my heart goes out to them because they have truly special needs. I try to answer every client’s question with care and promptness.
So, while my husband is screaming YES YES YES, I’m typing a reply as to why we can’t take the address out of MLS without deleting the listing. Now, I know you might be thinking why didn’t I just talk to my phone instead of typing? Two reasons. First is my phone cannot spell MLS even though it’s in my dictionary because MLS is a word I frequently use. In fact, the way I say it makes it come out as profanity. It’s bad enough my email is snippy, I don’t want to offend a client with a profane word, especially a loose-cannon client.
Second, there’s another innocent person involved here, my husband. He puts up with enough as it is, poor guy. Not to mention, it takes raw talent to respond to emails in the middle of sex. I don’t believe I deserve that bad press. But my husband is a smart person. His advice is: don’t poke the hornet’s nest. He’s right. There is no need to point out the error of this client’s ways. Somebody else is sure to do it for her along her journey through life. It doesn’t have to be me. I don’t have to be the bad Sacramento real estate agent. I just need to spell things correctly and get on with my life.
While Elizabeth is on vacation, we are revisiting her favorite blogs from previous years.
A Sacramento Agent is Not Always Sitting Behind Her Desk
The last few days have been so weird in Sacramento real estate. I’ve got sellers saying they don’t know if they should accept an offer, even though most of their two-dozen offers are more than list price, and I’ve got buyers on other transactions saying they don’t know if they want to close. Why, it’s enough to want to make a Sacramento agent want to write an article about an Affidavit of Death. OK, I couldn’t help it, but I hope you like that link. 🙂
It would be easier if the next time I decide to plan in advance for months and months a vacation somewhere wild if I would just move the date up just one day early. Then, everybody would think I was leaving on, say, a Monday, instead of a Tuesday, which would give me one whole extra day to take care of last-minute problems that have a way of being very last-minute, up to the point of when I’m boarding the freakin’ plane.
It’s enough to give a normal Sacramento agent a heart attack. But no heart attacks for me. When I go, it will be something much more horrendous. I was lounging about at the doctor’s office yesterday in my underwear, waiting for almost 40 minutes on the examining table before the doctor popped her head in the door. We just have to do a little biopsy, she says. Nurse, oh, nurse, where is my razor blade? I can’t do a a biopsy without a razor blade. Flipping her gloved fingertips in the air. Twirling. Waiting.
Conditions aren’t always quite so comforting while I’m lying on my back and trying to answer emails on my cellphone. Doctor sticking a numbing needle in my stomach. Ouch. Slicing off pieces of skin with razor-sharp, um, razors (who knew?). What is astounding to me is when clients sometimes say my emails are too short. They have no idea what this Sacramento agent is actually doing while I’m attempting to respond quickly to their concerns. People who know me are groaning. People who don’t are wondering what I’m talking about.
No matter what, I still try to give first-class service to my clients. I have systems in place, team members from the Elizabeth Weintraub Team who will jump in to help, and even then, I have a really hard time going on vacation. I don’t want anybody to think I have abandoned them, because I haven’t. Not really. Not ever, if I can help it.
F-Bombs and Sacramento Real Estate Agents
An agent from Davis called yesterday and dropped F-bombs left and right. Said she had moved here from southern California. She wasn’t upset or anything, it’s just the way she apparently talks to other people. People she doesn’t know. People she’s not even mad at. She seemed angry with the world and complained a lot about how we sell real estate differently in Sacramento than agents do in southern California.
I’m not so sure about that. I used to sell real estate in Newport Beach in Orange County several decades ago. Escrow is handled a little bit differently from north to south in California, but agents are still pretty much the same. In southern California, escrow instructions are signed right away after an offer is accepted, and the escrow officer is on top of the file from day one. In northern California, most of the documents are signed at closing.
As a veteran Sacramento real estate agent, I’ve been selling real estate in Sacramento for so long that I’ve grown very accustomed to the way we handle our processing in northern California. It seems to be a bit more civilized and makes more sense. Why go to all of that work when the file might not close, seems to be the premise in Sacramento.
Because after an offer is accepted, the appraisal still needs to be completed, the buyer has to conduct a home inspection — during which problems could arise, nothing that requires F-bombs — not to mention, a buyer might not make it out of underwriting. It just seems to make sense that most of the paperwork is consummated after the borrower has lifted the contingencies and the loan is ready to fund.
But regardless of my opinion about whether selling real estate in northern California is easier than in southern California, I don’t believe agents should swear at each other. Sheesh. It was ##$^@ this and *&%$# that. Plenty of F-Bombs. I wanted to ask that agent what pool hall she had rolled out of that morning, but I figured why irritate her further.
Buying a Home in Sacramento in AS IS Condition
AS IS — two simple words that seem to cause so much confusion in Sacramento real estate. I can say AS IS over and over until the cows come home and it doesn’t seem to sink in. My sellers can ask me to draw a counter offer or an addendum to a purchase offer that clearly states there are: no repairs, no credits, no renegotiations, as the home is sold in its AS IS condition, and buyers can sign that document, yet soon as their pen leaves the page, their memory of this contractual agreement vanishes. Did they dip a feather quill into lemon juice? Have a lobotomy?
My heart goes out to buyer’s agents who have to deal with the AS IS Condition issue day-in and day-out. They can explain that a seller will not give them a credit nor make any repairs but the buyers will still push. I realize that sometimes it’s not the buyers who are the problem — it can be their relatives or their coworkers or their drinking buddies: Hey, when I bought my house, the seller painted the entire interior, bought me all new appliances and threw in a Mercedes. The implication being that the buyer is a wuss or a nitwit. The self-important braggers neglect to point out this was 20 years ago or in a different city but the point is it is not this transaction. All transactions are different.
When I receive an email from an agent with a single sentence attempting to defy the AS IS, I know what happened. The sentence might say, my buyer is requesting a $3,000 credit to closing costs. Or, my buyer would like to know if the seller will split the cost of a new roof, which might have been a talking point during negotiations. So, the agent feels a little silly having to ask that question because the agent had already discussed it with the listing agent and the buyer prior to the offer. I know the agent pointed out the roof and said it was the buyer’s responsibility. And I know the buyer understood. And we both know that I know.
Still, the buyer’s agent must ask the question if the buyer poses it.
If the buyer’s agent thinks the buyer has half a chance of obtaining any of these requests — which the buyer had made after the buyer promised not to make them — the buyer’s agent will try to build a case for the buyer. But when there is no case presented, just the request, I know the poor agent is feeling the pain.
Buyers often don’t stop to consider that they might be irritating the seller with these types of requests. Especially when they tripped over the sidewalk walking up to the front door. They should not come back later after promising not to ask for repairs and demand that the seller replace the sidewalk. It makes the buyer look like an idiot (or conniving), none of which sets well with the seller. Any special requests the buyer might need down the road, such as an extension to close or any gifts such as refrigerators or washers and dryers are unlikely to be granted when a buyer attempts to break a promise.
If a buyer doesn’t want to handle the consequences of purchasing a home in its AS IS condition, then maybe the buyer shouldn’t try to buy a home under those conditions in a hot Sacramento seller’s market. It’s all a part of home ownership anyway. Things break, malfunction and stuff need to be updated, repaired and maintained — all during the life of a home buyer. It’s scary for a buyer starting out, and that’s where the buyer’s agent can be an invaluable tool.
