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Affordable 3 Bedroom Sacramento Pocket Condo at Roundtree
802 Roundtree Court, Sacramento, CA 95831 is a condo in the Pocket.
Here is the 3 bedroom Sacramento Pocket condo you’ve been waiting for. The HOA dues are affordable and you get a community swimming pool and clubhouse. This is the Roundtree Association, just south of Gloria Drive off of Florin. The dues are $255 per month. Plus, you’ll find easy access to freeways and to downtown Sacramento, which means you will love the location. It’s one of the communities that always looks so tidy and well kept. A place you would be proud to live.
This Sacramento Pocket condo is a two-story, with all of the bedrooms on the second floor. It’s laid out more like a townhome than a condo, with a front door and a back door. There is also an enclosed patio in the front and a back enclosed patio, so you get a little bit of the outdoor environment.
When you come in the back door, you’ll enter the kitchen area, with granite-looking counters and it is fully equipped. This means you get a free-standing microwave on the counter, a built-in refrigerator, electric range and a dishwasher. You will find a dining bar on the other side in the formal dining area. The living room is enormous. Plus, there is a half bath on this level. Perfect for entertaining.
The master bedroom is bigger than the other two bedrooms, and each features newer carpeting and ceiling fans with light fixtures. There is a full updated bath on this level, with a separate tub, a separate shower, and a long vanity.
You get a covered parking spot right outside the back door, so it’s not too far to carry groceries to your Sacramento Pocket condo from the car. When I was there preparing my inspection, it was very quiet for a Saturday afternoon.
What else can I say? How about this? You owe it to yourself to come to our open house on Sunday, February 18th, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM, hosted by Josh Amolsch from the Elizabeth Weintraub Team. If you like, you can see the virtual tour here.
802 Roundtree Court, Sacramento, CA 95831, is offered exclusively by Elizabeth Weintraub and Lyon Real Estate at $210K. Please call Elizabeth at 916.233.6759 for more information.
Presenting a Sacramento Home in the Best Positive Light
Every so often, I get an agent complaining that I am guilty of presenting a Sacramento home in the best positive light. They want to know about all the drawbacks and icky things about it. Some of them can’t even see the forest for the trees. They automatically call a house a dog or otherwise trash it because they feel it doesn’t measure up to their incredibly picky standards. Some say their buyers feel duped because I said the home was beautiful and the agent doesn’t think it’s beautiful.
You know what I say about that? I say they are probably those Sacramento real estate agents who drive around town like their kids live here. I hate that. You know what? Your kids don’t live in that neighborhood. In fact, our world is overpopulated as it is. What is wrong with you guys? Try to drive the speed limit, for crying out loud. There are those of us behind your vehicle who have to be somewhere on time. Ha! Go wear your helmets while riding a bike, why doncha?
Also, I say every home is beautiful. Just like every baby is beautiful, even the ugly fat babies. Show me a mother who thinks her kid is ugly. You can’t. No difference with buying a home. Every homeowner picked their home for one or more reasons. To that person, the home is beautiful. Our ultimate buyer will believe the home is beautiful, too. Have you ever heard a person say she hated her stinkin’ house but bought it anyway? Didn’t think so. Everybody knows their own poop doesn’t stink.
My job as a Sacramento listing agent is to find the buyer who loves the home I have to sell. It is presenting a Sacramento home in the best positive light. I can always find stunning features to describe, no matter how small or insignificant to a buyer’s agent. Further, I try to minimize any drawbacks or not-so-nice features. If I describe the home as beautiful, it is beautiful. Carole King would agree.
You betcha, spread the beauty around, is my motto. In fact, I bet you didn’t even know that the most effective word in a real estate description is the word beautiful. It makes my sellers happy because I acknowledge the positive features and admire their home. It makes buyers happy because I reaffirm what they already know. Presenting a Sacramento home in the best positive light is what marketing is about. There is no downside to this except the agents who persist in driving down a street like their kids live there and making the rest of us slow down for no good reason.
Why a Listing Agent Specialist is Like a Public Prosecutor
A listing agent specialist is to a public prosecutor as a buyer’s agent is to a defense lawyer.
My prediction is it’s the wave of the future: a listing agent specialist in Sacramento and an exclusive buyer’s agent versus your average Joe Blow Sacramento Agent. When you think about this, it will make more sense if you consider the way public prosecutors and public defense lawyers operate. They are both lawyers who passed the Bar. They might have had the same training and attended the same law school. But they are different from each other.
A public prosecutor works for the state, usually. The prosecutor’s job is to obtain a conviction. The defense, on the other hand, could be a private lawyer or appointed by the court to raise reasonable doubt and get the defendant out of jail. Opposite goals.
You would never see a public prosector state a case against the defendant and then run over to the other side of the courtroom and try to present a defense for the defendant. Hold on Your Honor, I have to take off my prosecutor’s hat and put on my defense hat. But you see this happen in Sacramento real estate all the time. It’s the goofiest way to do business. Based on greed, mostly.
I recall an elderly woman who called last year while I was furniture shopping. She demanded to know if I had sold a home on her street. She planned to hire only an agent who sells on her street. Even if that agent had no real experience, if the agent sold a home two doors down, that’s good enough for her. That seemed a bit narrowly focused to me. Around the corner is not good enough? She did not want to hire a listing agent specialist. But that’s exactly who she needed.
It’s bad enough some sellers consider hiring only a neighborhood agent. That neighborhood agent might sell one home every couple of months, on a rinse-and-repeat procedure. Whereas, a listing agent specialist might sell a couple of homes a week. Each with custom designed marketing plans designed to produce top dollar.
Long ago I decided against working with both buyers and sellers. I chose to become a listing agent specialist. Now that my focus is solely sellers, I have developed far superior skills than I used to possess. I see it in my results. I also chose the entire Sacramento area to be my territory. Thinking big. And now it is my territory.
My team members have been trained by me to work exclusively with buyers. Imagine the stellar service they provide when they’re showing 30 to 40 homes a week! They don’t give a hoot about sellers because their focus is buyers and what is in the buyer’s best interest. Just like my job is to protect seller’s equity. My focus is getting top dollar for sellers in very creative ways. We have opposite goals. As it should be.
We have developed highly refined ways of doing business because we specialize in client representation. Completely different experiences and strategies. Listing a home is not like buying a home. And buying a home is not like listing a home.
So the next time your agent wants to represent you as a seller and also work with you to buy a home, think about whether you would like a prosecutor to also be your defense lawyer. You truly deserve complete service with undivided attention from a professional. To learn more, call The Elizabeth Weintraub Team at 916.233.6759.
Why is My Phone Number Still in MLS on an Expired Listing?
Client asking, why is my number in MLS when my listing has expired?
Like an expired listing, my time in Hawaii has now expired and it’s time to come home. I received the gift of a few more unexpected days in Hawaii when last Tuesday I missed my flight on Hawaiian Airlines. However, I was able to rebook for Friday without much trouble. Which is how I came to find myself sitting on my lanai enjoying my last 24 hours in Hawaii when a new client called. She asked: “Why is my phone number still in MLS on an expired listing?”
See, wherever I am, I answer my phone. Especially when a client calls. Yet another simple way to minimize or eliminate client frustrations. It’s the little things, like answering your darn phone, that keeps people happy with you. Happy clients = 5 star reviews. This particular property, I should point out, is not MY expired listing. I don’t have expired listings. My listings sell. This was an out-of-area listing agent who let the listing expire.
I smiled at my cellphone. Explained I probably won’t find her number in MLS and offered to check for her. We take out personal info as standard protocol when listings move from active to sold (or to expired listing). She wanted to know: Well, then how are they calling me? Sure enough, no publication of personal information. No phone number on the expired listing.
Then I launched into my explanation of the expired listing ambulance chasers. These can be experienced agents, but generally not. It is usually a brand new agent trying to find business. The rationale is the seller wanted to sell at one time, so why not go after that dead business, just lying in the bushes? These agents buy personal information data through brokers who sell it. They can also buy that information online. Everything is available for a price.
To work expired listings, they use an aggressive approach. Agents know the the tough competition from those who chase expireds. Aggressive behavior like that is often a turnoff to sellers. It’s a different approach to selling than focusing on what is best for the client. It’s more of an approach of what is best for the agent.
I always warn my sellers about what will happen if we pull a new MLS number to reset the days on market. It’s like a flood gate opens. Once a listing is re-listed, sellers in Sacramento can expect their phones to blow up because agents don’t bother to check if it’s back on the market. Some of them don’t check the National Do Not Call registry, either.
When Is a Sacramento Seller Entitled to Receive the Buyer’s Appraisal?
Under most instances, a home seller is not entitled to receive the buyer’s appraisal.
My basic method of operation is not to worry too much about the buyer’s appraisal when I list Sacramento condos in our hot seller’s market. In other words, I don’t always base the sales price on how much the home will appraise for as much as I suggest a price based on what the market will bear. Meaning, what a buyer will pay. Especially a buyer who might have a big ol’ wad of cash at her disposal. Buyers who don’t need financing can pay whatever the seller will accept.
Condos tend to command lower prices than single-family homes, sometimes as much as 50% less. This means they make a good investment for some investors. Investors often pay cash. So do many 1031 exchange investors. No buyer’s appraisal with these kind of buyers.
Consider a condo I sold in the Arden area a while back. A still slightly underwater condo. Priced it high enough and marketed it in such a way to attract multiple offers. Every top listing agent’s dream. We hoped a buyer would pay cash, and could push the price even higher. That happened. I changed the financing terms to cash. No loans.
But today’s market also includes buyers with financing. Sometimes the buyer’s appraisal will come in at the sales price, even if we can’t find decent comps. The appraiser finds a way. But not all appraisers go to such lengths, and available comps within a 2 mile radius to support the sales price might not exist in this market.
Not surprisingly, a low appraisal allows the seller to receive a copy of the buyer’s appraisal. When the appraised value does not support our pending sales price. Otherwise, if the home appraises for more than the sales price, which is unlikely, the seller would never know.
Unless . . . there is always a big UNLESS. Unless it’s pertinent to the sale. That’s a kicker for ya. Last month a buyer’s appraisal showed different square footage than the number in the public records. It was higher. So, I asked the agent for the appraisal. Turns out the home appraised for more than our sales price due to the increased square footage.
Da-da-DAAAAA. Long-story-short. The buyer paid the higher price.
Of interest to note: the seller is entitled to all reports and inspections a buyer pays for during escrow. Except for the buyer’s appraisal. The seller is generally not entitled to receive the appraisal. Except under limited conditions.
