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Does Your Sacramento Agent Want to Buy Your Home?
I’ve heard from a couple of buyer’s agents lately who have been, in one agent’s own words, “hoarding” homes in Sacramento from their buyers. This is such a great real estate market in Sacramento right now that some agents are saying forget buyers, I want that house! Is your agent in competition with you? You might want to ask. Does your agent want to buy your home?
This is not to say anything bad about another Sacramento real estate agent because real estate agents have always had first shot at homes, and some of them go into the business strictly to get an upper hand. They want the best deals. There is nothing wrong necessarily if you find an agent who wants to buy your home, just like any other investor. But a buyer might not want to compete with an agent. Especially a first-time home buyer.
Heck, I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t say sometimes I was tempted to want to buy my own listings, but I don’t do it. It’s a conflict of interest to me. I don’t know how other agents do it. How can you tell a seller that you are trying to get the highest offer and then make it your own offer? We’re not that generous. People believe whatever they repeat to themselves long enough, I suppose.
Do you want your agent’s leftover crumbs? The homes your agent couldn’t buy at an attractive enough price? You might want to ask before hiring a buyer’s agent if you’ll be expected to compete. This is a strange market and strange times.
Road Rage and the Sacramento Real Estate Agent
I have a frame around the license plate on my car that features my name and the name of my brokerage. Other agents ask me if I don’t worry that identifying myself on the road could have consequences on my real estate business if I were to do something so rude as to cut off another driver in traffic. See, that thought never occurred to me because being rude on the road is not something I would do. I’d much rather be rude in person, thank you very much — just kidding!
The fact is if I see people waiting to cross the street, I stop my car and let them cross. Especially if they are standing in the crosswalk because pedestrians have the right-of-way in California. It also gives me 5 seconds to check email. I move far away from people on bicycles when I drive past them. When I spot a vehicle merging on the freeway, I either speed up to get out of their way or I slow down to let them in, but I don’t try to impede the merge. I am not an angry driver. Other drivers don’t make me mad unlike some people I know — whom I won’t name because I want my dinner served hot and not cold tonight.
My focus is to get from Point A to Point B in one piece. It’s nice if I enjoy the journey along the way but it’s not a requirement. It’s the same sort of focus I bring to my real estate business. There is no reason to let personalities clash when trying to focus on closing a transaction. I don’t let obnoxious people rile me up. The big picture is in my radar at all times. Just because I might have your number doesn’t mean I’ll dial it.
Like yesterday a neighbor from one of my listings called, very irate. He was spitting mad. He claimed the sellers’ kids were breaking into a house to party before they went to school. I guess it used to be their house. I think he wanted me to storm over to the house, rip my sign out of the yard and beat the kids over the head with it. He wasn’t happy when I suggested he call the police and pointed out I could not call the police because I am not a witness to the alleged crime. I could hear the venom spitting into the other end of the phone. I suspect when it comes time to put his home on the market, he won’t call me.
And that’s OK.
I passed along his story to the sellers.
If you’re thinking about putting your home on the market and need an experienced Sacramento real estate agent, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759. You won’t get drama out of me. Just hard work.
Nationstar Bank Short Sale and Down Syndrome
I woke up this morning with a Nationstar short sale and Down Syndrome whirling around in my brain. I don’t know why. See, this is what being a Sacramento real estate agent does to you. I didn’t dream about Shameless — that Showtime series about my family when I was a kid. No, seriously, my father was not nearly as sweet nor endearing as William H. Macy’s character. Yet, I couldn’t help but wonder if that baby on Shameless with the Down Syndrome really has Down Syndrome. I don’t mean on the show; I mean in real life. Because that would be really tacky. The NDSS would be all over that.
Unless the baby could talk. Then, it might be a way to better understand those born with Down Syndrome, we could develop empathy and this would be considered acceptable. Except the kid can’t talk. But if the baby could talk, I bet he could speak more clearly and distinctly than a negotiator at Nationstar.
A kid at Nationstar told us yesterday that the bank will no longer let sellers pay for a natural hazard disclosure when selling as a short sale. They don’t want to see that crummy little $99 fee on the HUD anymore. Yes, they realize it is state law that a seller must give a copy of the natural hazard disclosure to the buyer. Yes, they realize it is also against state law for the seller to pay for a natural hazard disclosure out of the seller’s pocket because all fees must be paid through the short sale. California Civil Code 580e says the seller is not allowed to pay for anything.
So, on the one hand, you’ve got Section 1103 in the California Civil Code that says the natural hazard disclosure must be delivered to the buyer as part of the sale. On the other hand, the Civil Code says sellers can’t be required to contribute or the bank is breaking the law. And then you’ve got a group of managers at Nationstar Bank deciding it won’t allow the seller to pay this fee from the proceeds of sale.
I realize every $99 adds up. Hey, I sell real estate in Sacramento and not in Newport Beach or I’d be retired by now. But, really, Nationstar. My TC sent me a copy of the email from the negotiator who told us to read the California Civil Code again, although it still says the same thing it said the last time we read it. Nationstar might be making her go sit in the corner for lunch, but that’s not our M-O.
Here is part of that email: “There is nothing to check with my managers as they are the ones who told us to no longer accept the NHD on the HUD. Guidelines change all the time, you cannot expect things to always stay the same. Malyssa”
All over ninety-nine bucks.
Today, there are more than 400,000 individuals people with Down Syndrome living in the United States. I hope none of those people ever have to subject themselves to Nationstar.
Paying More Than List Price to Buy a Home in Sacramento
When I was a kid and allowed into a grocery store with my parents, I used to beg them to let me play the fishing game. This was a contraption set up by the entrance in Applebaum’s, close to the mechanical horse, a machine with four walls of glass, filled with little toys. A fishing line with grabby-like tongs dangled over the toys, and for a nickel, you could try to grab one. Some were worth more than others. Generally, I failed, but it was fun to play because if I won, I got a toy that cost more than a nickel. The focus was on the hope of winning and not on how many nickels I lost.
Does paying more than list price to buy a home in Sacramento get your goat? Welcome to the club. I completely understand how that can bug you. To some people, it’s a totally foreign concept, and they might believe they are paying more than they have to to buy a home in Sacramento, yet I can assure they most likely are not. Because it probably comes down to a home buyer either offers over list price or a home buyer might not buy a home at all. If you think that’s discouraging, wait until I tell you that even if you offer more than list price, you probably still won’t get the home.
Why? Because the list price you offered most likely won’t be high enough or the competing buyer is utilizing better financing methods or cash. If often comes down to the numbers.
I recall a long time ago thumbing my nose at a property because the agent suggested I pay more than the seller was asking for the home. I thought she was nuts. I could not fathom forking out another $5,000 — even if it was rolled into the loan and the difference in my monthly payment was fifty bucks. As a result, I didn’t get the home. This is how most buyers learn that painful lesson. This practice still goes on in seller’s markets, and it will continue in your children’s children’s children’s seller’s markets.
Although all home buyers are ultimately responsible for choosing their own offer prices, a Sacramento real estate agent can guide and advise you. Listen to your real estate agent. If you don’t like or trust your real estate agent, hire a different agent, but don’t try to buy a home in Sacramento without a competent advocate by your side.
Why Did That Sacramento Home Sell for Less?
The question arose at my midtown office this week about whether all offers are presented to the seller when it seems a Sacramento home sells for less. The reason the caller questioned whether it happened is because the final sales price was so much less than the caller’s purchase offer. This buyer could not fathom any other reason why a home would sell for less than the price this buyer offered for it; therefore, this buyer concluded that there must be have been monkey business going on. It’s amusing that when a buyer doesn’t understand, the accusing finger is automatically lobbed toward the Sacramento real estate agent. It’s also sad because it tells you what some buyers really think about us but are afraid to voice.
First, all offers are always presented to the seller. I don’t know how other listing agents handle their processing, but I immediately forward offers when I receive them, and I imagine other agents follow suit. Offers are logged in my records 3 different ways to mitigate mistakes. Whether the seller reads, acknowledges or accepts which offer in which order is up to the seller. I don’t care if you write an offer on a roll of toilet paper and deliver that roll to my office, that roll of toilet paper will end up in the seller’s hands. You can offer $1.00 and write it with a bloody finger, and that offer goes to the seller. Not that I’m giving anybody any suggestions, mind you. Just making a point.
But I get asked the sell-for-less question so often that I thought it’s probably a good idea to explain some of the reasons how it can happen that an offer for more money is not accepted in favor of an offer for less. There are legitimate, behind-the-scenes reasons:
- The seller has taken a personal shine to the buyer, regardless of price.
- The offer was originally for more but the appraisal came in less.
- The offer was originally higher but the buyer negotiated a price reduction based on yada-yada.
- The home was vandalized and the seller adjusted the sales price to allow for the damage.
- The higher offer was written incorrectly and was missing pertinent documents.
- The previous offer was pending rescission and that original buyer elected to move forward.
You will notice that nowhere in those reasons is a line item that says the listing agent did not send your purchase offer to the seller. More often than not, it is the last reason, especially in a short sale situation, that is the actual reason why the home sold for less. Whenever I am faced with a buyer whose agent tells me is planning to cancel, I will put that home back on the market, with a pending rescission modifier.
I’ve had several of those lately. One last year comes to mind quite clearly because that particular buyer had been in escrow on a short sale in Elk Grove for almost a year. Why so long? It was a Bank of America HAFA, that’s why. When the buyer’s agent told me the buyer wanted to cancel, I put the home on the market at the pre-approved HAFA price, which was about $20,000 higher than the price the buyer had offered and the bank had accepted. I immediately received a handful of full-price and all-cash offers. I gave the buyer one more chance not to cancel. I explained that if the buyer wanted to cancel, he was a fool. Because a bunch of other buyers were waiting in the wings to step right into his shoes and pay $20,000 more.
That buyer saw the light and closed escrow. Sometimes, a listing agent has to show them the light. If often happens this way. Happened that way last week, too, on several transactions. Buyers tend to want what others want. A home can sit in escrow for weeks without any offers as an active listing before it turns into a pending sale, but as soon as “pending rescission” is added to the modifier, the offers roll in like crazy. If there is an existing offer pending on a listing, priority goes to that buyer. Another buyer could offer a bazillion dollars and a Lear jet, and the seller couldn’t sell to that buyer.
If you want to know why your offer wasn’t accepted for a home that may sell for less than your offer, ask your agent.
