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A New Tech Gizmo for This Sacramento Real Estate Agent
Thoreau was not talking about voice recognition software when he advised us to simplify, simplify. But I am considering buying it to make my life easier. Ah, the things we can’t do without these days. As an extremely busy Sacramento real estate agent, I spend a great deal of time talking to my cell phone. The problem with that is it types the weirdest things, sometimes using swear words that it didn’t learn from me, so I don’t know where my phone got it from. It must be sneaking off to pool halls late at night while I think it is charging. Although, actually the problem isn’t so much that it types weird crap, it’s that I click so quickly that I can click send when I don’t mean to.
Uh, oh. I hate that. That’s how I get into trouble. That’s when I have to actually call the person I just sent the nasty message to and explain I did not really say: screw you and the horse you rode in on, I meant to say: she’d love to give you the refrigerator.
Much of the time when I’m sending a text message or email via my phone to someone like my Transaction Coordinator — to a person who knows me well and the types of things I’m likely to say — I don’t even fix the mistakes, though. I just let them go through knowing that she will most likely figure them out. I suppose this drives her nuts. But she does a good job at figuring out the messages I am trying to convey. If my phone types: pls ask the cellar to shove it, she knows I meant for my phone to say: please ask the seller to sign it. Or, maybe that’s why my next door neighbor just listed with ZIP Realty . . .
The other day I found myself holding my iPad in two hands and shaking it. For just about 2 seconds there, I suspect I was trying to erase the screen, like it was an Etch-A-Sketch. Even more irritating, I was ready to send an email yet nothing was typing. I talked and talked, and it just sat there. That’s because I was working so quickly I temporarily forgot the iPad wasn’t my phone. Talking to it was not going to make it type anything. Gizmos can be frustrating. They all don’t do the same thing, even though they all meet up briefly through the “cloud” together.
However, my husband shoved his phone under my nose the other day and asked me to say something I would normally say to my phone. So, I said please find out from the bank negotiator when we will receive the short sale approval letter and whether it will come when pigs will fly, and it typed it precisely. I was amazed. Dragon software. That seems to be the answer.
So, if you find yourself talking to your iPad, don’t feel bad about it. It can happen to any of us. And you kids, get offa my lawn!
If You Are Not A Weintraub Client
Just because I deal honestly with other people doesn’t always mean people will deal honestly with me, and I can live with that. I can’t change other people; I can only change myself, but I have to really want to change, ha, ha, little joke. I mean, what other business in the world can you be in that involves working with other people without a contract or guarantee that you’ll ever get paid? Apart from the state of California, I mean. The real estate business is an odd duck.
You know what else is odd? U. S. Customs. I went through U. S. Customs in Los Angeles earlier this week when I came back from French Polynesia. I filled out my custom’s form in meticulous detail, and drove my husband crazy trying to compute the value of each item I had purchased in the islands. We had to convert from Franc-er-roos to American dollars, and the conversion rate was different on different days, but we managed to arrive at a value to report.
The guy at the first window stared at my declaration and gasped, “You spent !!!! (a bazillion dollars)?” He stared into my eyes. My husband volunteered, “Hey, I was stunned, too.” I answered in the affirmative. Yes, I did. Well, then I was ordered to go to Section B. Oh, no, not Section B! I grabbed my suitcases and marched over there. Thank goodness for those new rollers on luggage that allow a person to maneuver her luggage with one finger, that’s all I’ve got to say.
I handed my declaration to the guy standing behind the sign that read Section B. He studied it. His eyes narrowed, brows crisscrossed. He, too, made the bazillion-dollar comment. Then he questioned, “These pearl necklaces . . . do they have a tie clasp?” I retracted a necklace that did and showed it to him. He asked about the others, but they were gift wrapped. He did not make me unwrap them. He said simply that he would presume they were all similar, and he exempted them, adding that he believes that U. S. Citizens should get a break. I suppose it’s because I was not a “permanent resident” but instead a U. S. Citizen. I don’t know for sure but he gave me a break, and most likely because I told him the truth.
But I don’t always get the truth out of potential clients who approach me. I ask if they are working with another agent. Most of the time, a person will say no, she is not. Perhaps in her mind she is telling the truth because her agent is not standing next to her. She has her own definition of what working with an agent means. If the agent believes you are her client, then you are working with an agent.
The problem with working with an agent is this Sacramento real estate agent can’t work with a buyer who has an agent. It’s not ethical. It is against the Code of Ethics if a buyer or a seller is in contract, in escrow, with no intention of canceling and just wants advice, for me to respond. If a person has signed a purchase contract and not yet canceled, that person has a fiduciary because the agency most likely has been signed as well. Once a person is under contract, a person should not try to get advice from another REALTOR without first canceling the existing relationship.
Yet, all the time I see buyers and sellers on Zillow and Trulia and other websites seeking advice from REALTORs. Most of these buyers and sellers are in contract. They also contact me directly. They email or text or leave me voice mail messages, and they ask for my help. They probably think I am being a witch when I don’t respond or say I cannot help them, because they don’t know any better. They don’t know how agents work. It’s not that I don’t want to help, it’s that to do so would violate the Code of Ethics. On top of that, I am paid to help clients. That’s how I earn my living. If you are not my client, then you must either become client to get my assistance or find help elsewhere. I don’t make up these rules. But I do believe that what goes around, comes around.
If you are working with the Elizabeth Weintraub Team, you can get help from me or any of my team members. But you have to first be working with us. If you are working with another agent, you need to get your help from your own agent.
Photo: Gift shop in Bora Bora, which was probably sued by the owner of the rights to Fantasy Island, by Elizabeth Weintraub
A Cash Offer to Buy a Home is Not Always Cash
A South Pacific reef lobster-related cut still smiles on my thumb. That and a few no-see-um bites is all that remains from my 3-week vacation in French Polynesia. At least that’s all I spot as I do a full body check, heading out the door this morning to my Midtown office. Eyeballs have contacts. Check. Keys. Check. Pants. Check. I’m good to go. The life of a Sacramento real estate agent never really stops, it just slows down a little bit over the holidays. It’s like my life goes into slow motion and all the seas are calm. As a reminder, I give you this red hibiscus found on Bora Bora.
There will be more listings to take this week. Which is good because the inventory is so low in Sacramento right now that buyer’s agents are emailing and asking me to notify them before a listing goes on the market. That won’t do anybody any good though because there is no “first shot” at a property. All listings are exposed to the widest pool of buyers possible, which means complete mayhem in this market but that’s the way it goes. It doesn’t matter if the listing is a regular home for sale by a seller with equity or if it’s a short sale, every seller deserves equal opportunity among the vast number of buyers.
Sellers don’t want limited exposure. The short sale banks don’t want side deals going on, either, or buyers sneaking in the back door. Everybody gets a chance to buy. I realize it’s super tough to buy a home in Sacramento; it’s tough for many buyers in this market. That’s because some buyers are waiving cash around. Cash offers tend to get priority. Few buyers can compete with a cash offer.
I recall a few weeks ago a buyer’s agent emailed me while I was in Bora Bora. She asked if she could write an offer as all cash and yet reserve the right for her buyer to obtain a hard-money loan. That’s kind of back-door way to write an offer, and while I understand why a buyer would do it, it’s not really a true picture. The true picture is the offer is a hard money loan with the right reserved to pay cash. If you want to be honest about it. So, that’s the way she wrote it, and the seller accepted it.
You don’t need to play games to buy a home in Sacramento.
Photo: Adam Weintraub
Know Your Area Before Home Buying
Overwater bungalow at St. Regis Resort at Bora Bora.
The water is very still this morning, unlike the turbulent waves and constant ripples of the past week. I can see the sun barely begin to poke through the clouds. Even the air is hushed. There is some kind of creature rustling the palm fronds over my head. I prefer to think that it is a bird and not a rat. I have not seen a rat. Plus, a rat up on the roof would probably have to be a water rat since my structure was built over the water, and I don’t know if there is any such thing as a water rat in Bora Bora. But there are birds.
I spent several hours yesterday tracking down the types of birds we have seen. Two in particular. I researched them online until I was satisfied that I had located the correct birds. You might wonder why a person would spend an inordinate amount of time on her vacation to do this, and I guess there are two reasons. I like to be aware of my environment, and I am inquisitive. If you are aware of your environment, it heightens your enjoyment of said environment. You feel more connected to it, part of it.
It’s no different than how you might feel about your neighborhood or your home. If you are unfamiliar with a place you might want to move to, then hire an expert who can advise and assist, such as a Sacramento real estate agent to help you before home buying. If your agent doesn’t have the immediate answer, she has the resources at hand to get it for you.
Buying Sacramento real estate is not only an emotional decision for most people, it’s also somewhat logical and based on each person’s individual lifestyle. How will you know if your lifestyle is a good fit for an area if you don’t ask questions of your real estate agent? You don’t really need to know if an area will fit you, you need to know if you will fit in to a neighborhood. Doing homework before home buying pays off. I had a lengthy conversation before I left for my vacation with a fellow from Hawaii. I could sense instinctively that he would most likely be happier living in Curtis Park than in Land Park, and I didn’t draw that conclusion from anything tangible.
I present to you on this page a couple of Chestnut-breasted Mannikins (Longchura Castaneothorox) above. They were brought to Bora Bora from Australia and are not endemic. To the right are Red-Vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus Cafer). One of the bird sites lists the bulbul as one of the top 100 most invasive species as it has established itself in the wild not only in South Pacific islands but all the way to Dubai.
That bird on the roof just flew off and landed on another roof down the way. It is definitely a Chestnut-Breasted Mannikin. Whew.
Happy New Year From Bora Bora
Our beach view welcomes a Happy New Year from Bora Bora.
This is the day to begin learning where the lucky 1 and 3 keys are located on the keyboard and how to write 2013 on my checks. That still leaves the other two components of the date to mess up, though: the day and the month. I often get all 3 wrong. I have no concept of time. Probably because I have no children, no little benchmarks to tell me how old I am getting and how much time has already elapsed. Not to mention, being a Sacramento real estate agent means every day is fun, exciting, challenging and new. So why make a New Year’s resolution?
Why not resolve every day to do your best? To make the changes daily in your life that bring you the most rewards and happiness because if you’re not happy, what is the point of wallowing in unhappiness? What purpose does misery serve? Who needs adversity? If you’re not happy where you live, then make plans to move. Call a real estate agent.
How would you like to be Michael Schoonewagen, the general manager of the St. Regis at Bora Bora? We enjoyed cocktails with Mr. Schoonewagen last night, alongside 100 other guests at the St. Regis as we kicked off New Year’s Eve celebrations. Mr. Schoonewagen says he gets to move to a different country every few years. We approached him after his introductions and speech to hand him a card. On the card, we commended our butler, Kostantin, and our room service fellow, Sebastian, both of whom has provided exemplary service during our visit.
My husband started to say that he felt it was important to share a different kind of voice, apart from those who complain, but I’m not sure it came across the way it was intended because Mr. Schoonewagen responded as though my husband was saying the St. Regis must receive a lot of complaints. Mr. Schoonewagen began to defend that allegation. See, this is the problem when one person speaks two languages against a person who cannot. But what was interesting was the happiness ratio. Mr. Schoonewagen said 97% of the guests at the St. Regis are very happy. All of the time.
Even though, as he pointed out, there is no cinema, no theatre, no entertainment on the level to which we are accustomed in the states. I grabbed Mr. Schoonewagen’s arm and asked him to please shush up and stop filling my husband’s head with those thoughts. But it was too late. My husband had already figured it out. He’s a smart guy. It’s no secret that there is no city life here in French Polynesia on Bora Bora. So, it just means one needs to have two homes, that’s all. If you have to live in a city. As Mr. Schoonewagen pointed out, Bora Bora is only 5 hours by air from Hawaii. This time next year, you could be saying Happy New Year from Bora Bora
