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Just Listed Starter Home Near Consumnes and Elk Grove
Cute starter home at 8375 Holly Jill Way, Sacramento, CA 95823
Ooooo, la, la, what a cute starter home in such a nice neighborhood near Elk Grove. This is a brand new listing for sale in Sacramento, and it’s affordable. This beautiful ranch would make a great place to call home for a first-time home buyer, an investor or even for retired people who are downsizing. It’s been meticulously maintained by the seller for over 30 years.
The seller painted the walls at some point, not a mark that I could find on them. The carpets are in great shape. Even the ceilings seem perfect, no cracks or imperfections. The roof is fairly new, maybe 10 years or so. This seller has kept on top of her home maintenance, and her family has helped her as well throughout the years.
This darling starter home features 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. The living room is huge and seems even bigger because of the floor-to-ceiling mirrored wall. Take a gander at that gorgeous stone fireplace. That’s the identical stone that is used in the exterior of the home, which lend it that additional curb appeal. One look is all it should take to fall in love with this home.
The kitchen is open at both ends, and the seller recently updated the cabinets. You will love the solid state counter tops and all of the room for cooking. It features a dishwasher, built-in microwave and free-standing gas range, plus the refrigerator can stay, if you like and remember to ask for it in the offer. You’ll find the washer and dryer in the attached garage.
This starter home will be held open on Sunday, March 12th, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM. 8375 Holly Jill Way, Sacramento, CA 95823 is offered exclusively by Elizabeth Weintraub at Lyon Real Estate, at 916.233.6759, at $245K. Call for more information. See more photos below:
Beautiful bright white flooring with nary a mark.
Long kitchen open at both ends with plenty of cabinets.
Pergola covered patio and lush green lawn in the back yard.
Selling a House Four Times Means Getting Screamed At
An agent who is selling a house four times is only paid once.
A seller’s partner recently exploded over selling a house four times. It’s not unusual that this can happen in a real estate transaction, especially when the seller’s partner is not involved in the day-to-day particulars of the escrow and, let’s face it, who else is a seller gonna blame? The listing agent is the only other person available. I suppose the seller could blame the escrow officer or title officer, and that would make about as much sense, but no, getting screamed at can come with the territory of being a top producing Sacramento listing agent.
Sooner or later, an agent will encounter a seller who doesn’t realize that when an agent is selling a house four times, it’s not because the listing agent wants to or isn’t doing her job. In fact, many listing agents would bail after the second buyer cancellation. Those agents would figure there is something wrong with the house because having two buyers in a row cancel is pretty peculiar. But it does happen. And sometimes it is the house. Sometimes it is a quirk in the market.
Sellers do not realize that listing agents cannot talk to the buyers in the transaction. The listing agent does not meet the buyer at all. There is no communication between the listing agent and the buyer. Often, the listing agent engages very little with the buyer’s agent as well. Our purchase contracts allow a buyer to cancel for pretty much any reason without penalty within the first couple weeks.
Listing agents cannot predict whether a buyer will cancel. When an agent who wants to write a backup offer asks if I have a solid purchase offer, I have to honestly respond: I do not know. It seems OK, all the correct boxes are checked, the lines are filled in, the preapproval is received, but is the buyer committed? No Realtor alive has the foggiest clue. There is no way to get a clue about it. Buyers often flake out. A buyer’s agent won’t warn anybody.
Although it would be nice if they did. Can you imagine a buyer’s agent submitting an offer and saying: “Hey, my buyer is a squirrel. She has made other offers and canceled. I don’t trust her to close.” No, of course not. They all say “my buyers LOVE your home.” They include dozens of heart emojis with their text. Give me a break.
But when I am selling a house four times and getting paid only once, it means I am committed to the transaction. I am not bailing on the seller. I am loyal. I work on that sale diligently until it closes. When a seller’s partner calls — a person I have never spoken to or had any contact with — to scream that I am the worst real estate agent ever because I sold his house four times and it closed, I don’t know what to say.
The Price a Sacramento Buyer Will Pay Can Exceed Market Value
Examining comparable sales is not the only way to establish market value.
Real estate 101 teaches us that market value is the price at which a seller is willing to sell and a buyer is willing to buy. However that doesn’t always apply to the amount a home will appraise for, and when you’ve got a lender involved at 80% of the value or greater, that lender will rely on an appraisal. And appraisals are an opinion of value, not fact. This is what can get Sacramento sellers in an uproar.
They know what their home is worth. I, as their Sacramento Realtor, also can generally accurately predict how much a buyer will pay, based on how I will market the property. Another agent might not get the same result; in fact, I know other agents don’t. Because they won’t take the listing. They think they know more than anybody else in the universe about Sacramento real estate. When they don’t.
I read a lot of blogs by agents who claim to walk out the door when sellers are “unreasonable” about their hopeful list prices. They act like it is beneath them or unprofessional not to take a listing at the market value they deem. Seems a bit arrogant to me. There are other ways to deal with this than to say adios, and don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.
In hot seller’s markets, it is not unusual to sell a home for higher than its appraised value. I often get that result from my real estate marketing efforts. In those instances, the buyer can sometimes soften the sting of a lower appraisal by contributing cash to the transaction, and some buyers absolutely will accommodate that seller request. They realize market value is just one person’s opinion.
But the one thing that everybody forgets when they are riding on that high horse of they-know-the-market-better-than-anybody is what about cash? Huh? What about those cash buyers? There is no appraisal with a cash buyer. Many buyers from the Bay area pay cash. I market to buyers from the Bay area by networking with those agents, mostly foreign agents and their foreign buyers.
I had such a situation close escrow recently. I won the listing battle and had to call the rejected agent to ask him to remove his lockbox because he ignored the seller’s request to take it off. The agent appeared a bit snippy and sassy, saying he thought the price was too high above market value, and he didn’t want to take such a bad listing. Well, that listing sold after our open house at our list price for cash in 2 days and closed in 6 days. Sucks to be that agent right now.
There are many meanings to market value in Sacramento real estate, fine nuances. I’d also like to see the day the banks require two appraisals to justify market value. Why do they rely on the opinion of one appraiser anyway? If you’re looking for a Sacramento Realtor who uses her 40 years of experience to attract offers at maximum value, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
What Happens After Escrow is Opened in Sacramento?
After escrow is opened, buyers should stop looking at homes.
After escrow is opened in Sacramento, any number of things can happen. What is supposed to happen is the buyer is excited and wires funds for her earnest money deposit, and the listing agent changes MLS to pending. But that doesn’t always occur like it should and, even if it does, there is more that can go haywire. Especially if the buyer is not counseled by her agent and is not fully committed to the transaction.
Buyers are not supposed to be online combing through other houses and wondering if there is something better to buy. I hate to say this, but there is not something better. There are hardly any homes at all available for sale.
I’ve got a home closing this week that I had to sell four times. Four times. And why? I was kidding with the seller and saying, Oh, third time is a charm, and then that buyer canceled, too. It’s generally nothing to do with the property. Mostly, it’s the buyers. If buyers did uncover some small defect, it’s often blown out of proportion to such an extent there is no piecing it back together, regardless of how much sense a listing agent might make for the case.
We had an offer accepted on Thursday for another of my listings. I discussed with the seller at length about whether we should accept backups and whether we should change MLS to pending. MLS rules grant listing agents 3 business days to change a status, so with an offer accepted on Thursday, we don’t have to change the status until Tuesday. By changing the showing instructions to call listing agent, it means I am inundated all weekend with calls. That’s the downside.
I did it for the seller. Kept the listing active and let callers know we are pending but welcome a back-up offer. Sure enough, though, just as soon as we changed the listing status to pending, the buyer canceled. That’s not how it is supposed to go. Buyers are supposed to be completing the documents their lender requires to process the loan, reviewing the loan estimate and preparing for a home inspection.
Instead, after escrow is opened, buyers are canceling and then we’re selling to somebody else. It happens so much lately it’s becoming the norm. Criminy, I don’t care who buys the home as long as the buyer is prepared to close. One thing is: I do not bail on my sellers. No matter how many times I have to sell that house, I’m in this to close this.
Sellers Who Get Presale Home Inspection Slit Own Throats
A presale home inspection is a bad idea for a seller.
An an exclusive seller’s listing agent in Sacramento, I can preach until the cows come home that getting a presale home inspection is lousy idea but I still get resistance from other listing agents who disagree. They are confused about what doing the right thing means. Doing the right thing means protecting our seller’s liability and profit, and paying for a pre-sale home inspection is overkill. Not only that, but it can come back to bite. Such a disclosure can cost sellers tens of thousands and could even destroy their chances of selling a home.
California real estate law says a seller is required to disclose what a seller knows, which includes material facts. It does not say a seller is required to dig up every defect about which the seller has ZERO knowledge and then present those unknown findings on a silver-plated platter to buyers. It makes no sense in any sense of a logical argument to obtain a presale home inspection, except maybe to a home inspector who stands to profit.
Buyers are required to do due diligence. Buyers are required to obtain their own inspections, any and all that they choose to do. If a buyer fails to perform due diligence or fails to uncover a defect (about which the seller had no prior knowledge), that is not the liability of the seller. It falls squarely on the shoulders of the buyer. That’s the beauty of California real estate law and seller disclosures.
Case in point of ignorance. Barry Stone is a certified building inspector who syndicates a column about home inspections. He suggested in a recent article that banks selling REOs (real estate owned), which are foreclosures, should be required to obtain presale home inspections. This is a good example of a person focusing only on one part of real estate without looking at the bigger picture.
Banks are not required to disclose defects in a foreclosure when they have no knowledge, just like ordinary home sellers are not required to disclose defects about which the have no knowledge. Banks are even more off the hook since they never lived in the house. They sell the house AS IS because they don’t want to invite liability, either. Just like regular sellers.
To try to impose a law that requires home sellers, banks or otherwise, to obtain a list of defects to present to a buyer is ludicrous. Sellers are not required to discover factual information to present. Mr. Stone implies banks are dishonest and unfair because they don’t give their innocent home buyers a list of defects and they allow buyers to purchase their foreclosures without insisting buyers get a home inspection either.
If buyers are naive enough not to pay for a home inspection, and their real estate agent is bad enough not to suggest a home inspection, how is this the fault of the seller? Buyers are accountable to themselves. Our purchase contracts requires that buyers perform certain duties, and sellers give them ample time to complete those duties.
It makes no sense for a seller to go looking for trouble. Not to mention, no two home inspections are ever identical. A presale home inspection could show a defect the buyer’s home inspection would not and vice versa. Just don’t do it. Don’t think about it. Don’t act on that impulse, either. Your California purchase agreement states your sale is AS IS. Just leave it alone.
