Email Elizabethsacramento real estate agent
Not Every Person in Sacramento Has a Sense of Humor
The subject of monkeys came up this morning during a conversation with my husband. Well, actually he brought up the subject of monkeys, which made me ask if knows that Germany seized Justin Bieber’s monkey. I only mention Justin Bieber because a) I spotted a photo of his tiny capuchin monkey in the paper and b) who likes Justin Bieber? My husband says Justin Bieber is like Hamburger Helper. Just add pre-teens, stir and voila: instant concert sensation!
You can probably see why my husband and I get along so well. We make each other laugh. I try to bring a little humor to my client’s lives as well. Sacramento real estate is a subject many of us can chuckle about. I believe everybody has room in his or her daily routine to laugh now and then. Plus, laughter relieves stress, and it makes you feel better about the world and your place in it. Even the most horrible situation, like, say, a short sale, can be made a bit more plausible if you can find a humorous aspect to it.
Every once in a while, I run across a person who doesn’t seem to possess a sense of humor. This means I have to be careful what I say and realize if my jokes fall flat, that the jokes are probably not appreciated and, in fact, could be inappropriate for the situation. A Sacramento real estate agent has a duty to be professional. Take a former client whom I asked to appear in a photograph with me. When I asked if he minded if a reporter from the newspaper shot his photo as we listed his home, he was all for the publicity. He added: I’ll remember to shave.
I wrote back: And pants, don’t forget to wear pants.
Well, he didn’t see the humor in that. That’s probably because I didn’t catch the fact that he wasn’t trying to be funny when he said I’ll remember to shave. I thought he was joking with me. He wasn’t joking. He was being serious. He actually meant that he might have to leave himself a note because it’s possible he would forget. Maybe he had to tie a string around his finger before bedtime? Because, maybe he doesn’t look in the mirror in the morning, or maybe he doesn’t stroke his face to discover something weird is growing there. Perhaps he is fearful that an electric razor will suddenly jump from his chin and race across the top of his head? I have no idea how he struggles with this.
You just don’t know about people. That’s why it’s good to take stock upfront and make sure a person enjoys your sense of humor before you lay it on them.
Photo: by Van Newland at Pecan Street Fair, Austin 2013
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.
How to Get a Sweet Deal in This Sacramento Real Estate Market
If you’ve ever required special circumstances to sell your home in Sacramento, this is the market in which to do it. As a REALTOR in Sacramento, I can tell you unabashedly that buyers will agree to do some of the craziest things just to buy your house. It’s a seller’s market. Sellers rule. I keep thinking that we can’t possibly make the restrictions and conditions under which a seller will sell any more ridiculous, but then I surpass my own thoughts and beat my wildest imagination.
There is very little inventory in Sacramento. If you’ve got a desirable home, you can pretty much write the rules, as long as you’re not breaking any laws, under which you will agree to sell. Me? I just go with the flow and try to make my sellers happy. What I think about the situation is not really important. What matters is what my sellers would like to do and whether I can accomplish that for them. I don’t run around thumbing my nose at people, telling them I know more than they do, even if I do. I just find out what the seller wants, and then I determine whether I am up to the challenge. I love challenges.
I’ll show you one nutty situation. We were ready to close escrow on an Elk Grove short sale when one of the tenants refused to move out. The tenant said he’d go when the sheriff tossed him out on his ear (code for: give me some money). Two days before closing. The buyer’s agent said the buyer was canceling under those circumstances, so I put the home back on the market, with a pending rescission modifier. The confidential comments informed agents that a buyer would have to purchase this home sight unseen and close escrow with a hostile tenant inside. I received a bunch of offers. No joke.
Realizing this, the existing buyer closed.
In another transaction that closed last month, a seller did not want to move out until he moved into his new home. He was steadfast about it, and nothing I could say would change his mind. He also lived in a somewhat difficult area because this little pocket of homes sat among others that were nonconforming. There was only comparable sale. We bumped the price by 6% above that one comp and put it on the market. We received a good half-dozen offers or so, and one of those offers was cash and 4% above the list price. That means the home sold for 10% more than the last home like it. See, it doesn’t cost to hire a Sacramento real estate agent, it pays you.
On top of this, I put the seller into a contingent purchase for a short sale in Elk Grove. Elk Grove, one of the hardest places in town to buy because buyers can stand 30 deep. The contingency period didn’t last very long because I sold and closed his existing residence in 7 days. The buyer of his residence agreed to let the seller rent-back for a period of up to one year at about a $500 reduction from the monthly market rent. He has the right to move out during this one-year period with 30 days’ notice. If that’s not a sweet deal for that seller, I don’t know what is.
If you’ve got a home to sell in Sacramento, go ahead and call your Sacramento agent Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 39 years of experience to work for you.
Sacramento Real Estate is Not About Crossing Bridges Twice
A client emailed to say he admires my optimism. As a Sacramento real estate agent, I am pretty much required to be optimistic because if I let every little thing get to me, I’d be a mad woman. Without optimism, I’d be crouching in a corner, knuckles dragging the ground, frizzy hair in my face, licking the asbestos and giggling to myself.
Not only am I an optimist, but I am a problem solver and am paid to anticipate problems before the happen. If a problem slips past me and blows up into a full-blown “situation,” I am responsible for deflating it, managing expectations and resolving issues. Happy endings, that’s what I strive for.
I want my real estate clients to be happy when we go into escrow, during escrow and when escrow closes. I want no doubt in their minds that I did my job to the fullest of my abilities, and that I performed a good, no . . . a GREAT job.
Selling a house is stressful for sellers. First, they worry nobody will buy it. Then they worry buyers won’t pay enough. After that, it’s whether the buyers will really qualify for their loan or if the lender will find some reason to deny it, whether the home will appraise at value, if the buyer’s home inspection will reveal some ugly truth that requires resolution or renegotiation. There are a million things to worry about. Or not.
When clients ask me what can go wrong, thinking they can prepare themselves, my answer is there is no reason to cross a bridge a twice. Especially when one may never cross that bridge at all. There is no reason to bring heartbreak or anxiety into a transaction if it doesn’t belong there.
Do You Have to Tell a Sacramento Real Estate Agent She’s Not Hired?
This Sacramento real estate agent focuses on her own business. I don’t spend time worrying about my competitors in Sacramento (i.e. other real estate agents) because they’re gonna do whatever they’re gonna do, and whatever that may be doesn’t really concern me. So, sometimes, it’s a bit astonishing if a seller tells me that I have a won a competing situation in which I did not know I was actively competing. It’s not really any of my business if a seller is talking to other real estate agents before they hire me, just as long as the seller hires me. I usually don’t even ask.
When a seller calls to discuss selling her home or wants me to pop by for an estimate of value, I presume the seller is interested in selling her home. Hey, guess what? I’m in the business of selling homes. How lucky is that? I go over, help sellers figure out what price to list at, and then I list the home for sale, bring an offer, and I sell it. Last month I had a very upset agent call and ask why I listed a home she had worked on for half a year. Well, first, the seller didn’t tell me anything about that and, second, that’s what I do for a living. Maybe the seller thought it was OK to call a bunch of agents and pick the agent’s brains or that no agent would want to list the seller’s home, but that would mean the guy was insane.
If a seller calls this real estate agent and is planning to sell, it’s my job to do it. When one of my sellers from last week called to say she was ready for me to put her home on the market, she mentioned that she had specifically chosen me among several other agents in Sacramento County and Placer County. She wanted to know what she should say to the agents she did not hire. How should she break the news to them that she hired a different Sacramento real estate agent or should she break the news at all?
Yes, I believe so. I let her know that the professional way for an agent to respond when informed that the seller selected somebody else is for the agent to say, “Thank you for telling me; you have chosen a good agent.” Because that’s what I would say if the tables were reversed. Doesn’t mean I would be happy about it, but I’d accept it because what else can you do? Being in sales means sometimes you’re rejected. Sellers have all kinds of reasons why they choose an agent.
