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Establishing Priorities from a Top Sacramento Listing Agent
Establishing priorities comes very easy to this top Sacramento listing agent. For example, after 44 years in the real estate business, I know what is important. People who rely on you. Younger agents are often all over the board on this but not me. Just like Lyon Real Estate values its agents and makes agents its #1 priority, I identify with that approach and have established my own priorities. Lyon has always been good to me (except that one time a long time ago). Everybody makes mistakes.
But I am not a drama queen.
If a loose cannon gets bent out of shape, Lyon will smooth it over because they take care of their agents. I know without a doubt that the managing broker of my office always has my back. No matter what. They know me, my personality, my quirks, as I’ve been working at the Sacramento midtown office of Lyon for 15 years now. That’s a long time not to jump ship, fly the nest. Because Lyon is a good brokerage. #1 in Sacramento. I am also its #2 agent, out of 17 offices and almost 1,000 agents.
Establishing priorities for me means I never ask my team members to do something I would not do myself for them. I screen many of our buyers, too, and will jump into any transaction if I am needed. Barbara Dow and Josh Amolsch are not just team members to me. Or only marvelous exclusive buyer’s agents, which they are. They are also my dear friends and I love them to pieces. Moving heaven and earth for either is not too much to ask.
All three of us have a method of operation identical to each other. Establishing priorities for us means one thing. Our clients come first. They always come first. Like yesterday, I caught a community theatre performance of The Addams Family the Musical. What a hoot. But a client texted and wanted to discuss a potential buyer. I shared all the information I had during intermission.
Sure, I could have gone to the concession stand and picked up a bottle of ice cold water, but no I sat thirsty in my seat (because I am demented) and texted with all of the parties involved. Primarily the seller. My sellers know everything. I keep no secrets. Because I only work with sellers I care about and, sure, some are more challenging but that does not make anyone any less deserving of stellar service. I care about each and every client.
Some of this is probably because my own immediate family, outside of my husband (also an orphan), has shriveled. My brother died a year ago, my parents are gone, and I have only a sister and niece, whom I rarely see. An aunt in New York who doesn’t write. My other sister has faded into non-existence, blended into a lonely wall in her house where she sits all alone.
In a way, the sellers I work with become my family. My team members are also family. I dunno, do you think that is weird?
How to Tell if You’re Not Ready to Buy a House
While few agents are in the business of talking people out of buying a house, some buyers are not ready to buy a house. Oh, a buyer might think she is ready but down deep she is not. For starters, if you do not have a preapproval letter, you might not be ready to buy a house. This is assuming, of course, you are obtaining financing and not paying cash. Or, perhaps your benefactor is buying the house on your behalf, in which case, no preapproval required.
Another way to tell that you are not ready to buy a house is if you find major flaws in every house you look at with your agent. Enough serious drawbacks to know that none of the houses you viewed for the past couple of weeks fit what you desire. In that event, you should reassess with your agent your priorities. Are you looking for a unicorn house? That could be a sign that you need to design and build your own house.
Few houses are perfect, except, of course, the home you build yourself. Most buyers make concessions because they know they will not find everything on their list. If you want to buy a house with a view, for example, you might need to give up another requirement to get that view. Or be willing to make upgrades to outfit the house the way you want it.
Some buyers cannot find anything to buy in their price range or they harbor unrealistic expectations about what they can get for their money. They might spot a short sale, for example, that is severely underpriced because the listing agent is an idiot. Then, they take that particular listing and fixate on it, hoping to find another priced the same way. Which they won’t because that listing is not a “real” listing.
Another way to know a buyer is not ready to buy a house is the cold feet syndrome. Especially after going into contract to buy a house. Some buyers develop cold feet within a few days. Other buyers can make it all the way to loan docs before they freak out. If you have misgivings or an inner voice pulling you in another direction, you might not be ready to buy a house.
Just last month I encountered an odd situation. I sold a bungalow near downtown Sacramento to four different sets of buyers. Each went into contract and each group canceled without provocation. That poor seller. I felt a lot of empathy for him. Because there was no explanation. Other than the fact we can’t pick our buyers, that’s the buyer’s agent’s job, and somehow every single one of those buyer’s agents also failed.
Most committed home buyers who are ready are very excited. They are jazzed and ready to go. It is not unusual to fall in love with house after house and have a hard time deciding between a handful of homes because they are all so gorgeous. So many of those homes fit the bill of wants and needs. There is anticipation that the next house will be “the one.” Buyers who are ready can’t stop talking about their purchase.
If you feel so-so about it and are not consumed by a passionate driving force to settle down in your own house, you might not be ready to buy a house. That’s OK, too. Your Realtor is your advocate.
When Will Mortgage Interest Rates Go Down?
When will mortgage interest rates go down, the caller asked yesterday. Sure, he’s just doing construction across the street or maybe he lives in the neighborhood. Not really a buyer, he says. After a much longer discussion, turns out the caller is actually a vet with a VA eligibility. What he really wanted to know was is it a good time to buy a home?
But like so many other first-time home buyers today, he asked the question of when will mortgage interest rates go down. As though that is some kind of secret measurement of the gateway to homeownership.
Never. That’s my answer. Our days of historically low interest rates, oh, please dear, God, let them be over. Interest rates have been superficially suppressed for almost 10 years and are not an indicator of a strong economy.
You live long enough, you see everything. Why, in 1995, I recall feeling almost giddy that I was able to score an interest rate of 8%. Also, when making the transition in the 1970s from escrow officer to real estate agent, I saw first-hand the days of 18% to 20% interest rates.
So when rates hover around 5% today, which gets buyers fretting and wondering: when will mortgage interest rates go down, part of me says they have no idea how good they have it. It also makes me want to ask: hey, have you looked at your VISA card statement lately? Making the minimum payment, are we? How much is that interest rate?
Quentin Fottrell, personal finance editor at MarketWatch, says making minimum payments on a credit card is insane. He offers the following: “A $2,000 credit balance with an 18% annual rate, with a minimum payment of 2% of the balance, or $10, whichever is greater, would take 370 months or just over 30 years to pay off.”
Yet, you don’t hear anybody complaining about that 18% credit card interest rate. Instead, they focus on a 5% mortgage interest rate and wonder when will mortgage interest rates go down.
Further, what do borrowers have to show for paying on that 18% credit card rate? Not a house, that much I can tell you. Generally, it’s impulse purchases or depreciating items. For some borrowers, all living expenses are financed, like gas and groceries.
However, facts are prices are soft on many homes as inventory rises, which makes it a great time to buy. Our Sacramento housing trends for September 2018 show double the number of homes for sale since January. Plenty of selections. Just lock in that interest rate. Because every one-half of a percent drops your purchasing power by about $25,000. That means if you had hoped to buy a $400,000 home, you can only afford $375,000.
How to Decide Which House to Buy
My intentions yesterday were to list homes and not to necessarily encounter a great method for home buyers to decide which house to buy. As I sat in the kitchen of a home in Carmichael, I explained to the owners how buyers often make impulse decisions and purchase a home based on emotions. Which is why I do my darnedest to evoke an emotional attachment. My goal in marketing is to make buyers fall in love with the home.
Now, in the past, whenever I showed homes, I would ask buyers to rate the home on a scale of 1 to 10. With 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest. This helps buyers remember which homes they viewed and whether they were good candidates. One of the sellers I spoke with yesterday mentioned she bought a home a few years back and came up with her own idea of rating. It was so clever and smart that I have to share this with you. In fact, I don’t know why every home buyer would not want to use this method.
If I understand her correctly, I believe the first thing a buyer would do is make a list of things that are not negotiable in the purchase of a new home. Starting with the most important item at the top and working your way down to the lesser items. Then, assign a rating number to each issue. For example, say you have 7 things on your list that describe the type of home you hope to buy. If you gave location the highest rating of 10, you are on the right track. Next to location might be number of bedrooms. Assign a value to that. And so on.
Then, when you believe you have found your dream home, you need to decide which house to buy. There might be another home on the list that fits all of your parameters. What you would do is add together all of your assigned values and divide by the number of non-negotiable items. This will give you a weighted average.
If you cannot decide which house to buy because you are madly in love with the first house, this method will show you which is a better choice for you. Because if the weighted averages of non-negotiable items is considerably larger for the second-choice house than the averages of the home that tugs on your heart strings, this is a way to see through the emotional pull. Who can argue with logic? OK, don’t answer. Because we all know who that person is.
Amazing Home in a Gated Community in Arden Manor Sacramento
Are you a first-time home buyer hoping to find an amazing home in a gated community in Arden Manor at an affordable price? Look no further. Homes in the Villaggio gated complex do not come up for sale very often. All around this neighborhood, you see so much new construction. Developers are building $750K to $900K homes in Arden Manor. When the seller bought this home in 2005, it offered a gated community in the middle of an older, established neighborhood. Today, that community is revitalized with many remodeled homes and quite a number of upper-end luxury homes. This is an excellent opportunity from an investment or long-term hold point of view. You will love the price, too.
The first thing you should consider when buying a home in a gated community in Arden Manor is parking. You don’t have to be rocket scientist to figure out the garage is a one-car. However, look at that space in front of the front door. What is that? I’ll tell you what that is. It’s a carport. And then over on the left-side of the house is a bricked yard with space for two more cars. Yes, you can park a minimum of four cars at this home. More, when we figure out how to stack them on top of each other.
You can’t see the home in this photo because this is shot from the street (Jonas). The home is located all the way at the end on the right, nestled in the evergreens. It’s a very private location. Not only that, but it’s one of the largest lots in the subdivision. The last two homes on the right are set back from the street with a much larger area of street in front. Nobody has verified this, but the seller thinks the property line for each of the houses runs to the middle of the street. If that is true, that definitely makes her particular lot much bigger than the others at .0933, according to the Sacramento County Tax Assessor. That could be wrong, though. Although most of the other lots are .06.
Check out the entertainment space. This room is around the corner from the sheltered entrance. Beautiful oversized ceramic with variances add drama to the travertine around the fireplace. The owner of this home has impeccable taste, wouldn’t you agree? Look at those oversized Hershey’s Kisses on the floor in front of the fireplace. Perfect accessory, no?
If you haven’t guessed it by now, the first floor of this home is for entertaining. There is a half bath around the corner by the entrance, but the rest of the layout is kitchen and family room. Of course, the cabinets are a beautiful maple, and all of the black appliances stay. Over on the left is the area the former owners used as a dining space, but our seller prefers a table in the middle. What do you think? Middle like this? Or dining area in the corner?
Last year the seller painted to keep everything fresh. All of the rooms are the same color for consistency. You will find three bedrooms and two full baths upstairs. The seller uses one of the bedrooms as a TV room and it offers a balcony as well. This is a photo of the master bedroom at the back of the home. You will love the master bath, complete with a separate shower and a soaking tub.
Plenty of time in the day to relax outside. There are many areas around the perimeter of the home to curl up and read a book, due to its remote location. Much of the exterior was remodeled by the seller, including the pergola, patio surround and walkways. It’s a place you really need to see in person because it’s even better than the photos. Why not come to our open houses on Saturday and Sunday, both from 11 AM to 1 PM, September 29th and 30th? If you can’t wait, here is the virtual tour.
2729 Via Villaggio, Sacramento, CA 95864 is offered exclusively by Elizabeth Weintraub and Lyon Real Estate at $365K. Call Elizabeth at 916.233.6759 for more information.
The information in this advertisement, including, but not limited to, square footage and/or acreage, has been provided by various sources which may include the Seller, the Multiple Listing Service or other sources. Lyon Real Estate has not and will not investigate or verify the accuracy of this information. Prospective buyers are advised to conduct their own investigation of the Property and this advertised information utilizing appropriate professionals before purchasing this Property.
