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10 Days to Close Escrow on Wilhaggin Fixer House in Sacramento
10 days to close escrow on this fixer home in Wilhaggin.
When I walked through the Wilhaggin fixer house with the sellers, I saw 10 days to close escrow and the sellers saw a house that nobody would want to buy because of its condition. This home had been an eyesore in the Wilhaggin neighborhood for years. All the neighbors had their eyes on this house, hoping that someday it would be available for sale. Some had even approached the sellers with a wink-wink, nudge-nudge, offering to “help” buy.
To the sellers, this was once a home to a close family relative. They didn’t fall off any turnip truck lately and saw through the attempts to “help.” For various reasons, it had not been occupied in so long that carpet beetles had moved in, and now a bunch of them were hanging from the ceilings. When I first spied the beetles, I thought they were nails coming through the ceiling, hundreds of nails. But that would mean construction in the attic, which didn’t make any sense. The beetles were all dead, of course.
After we went on the market, the sellers called and asked if they should go over to vacuum up the carpet beetles, but the beetles were such a lively selling point, I didn’t see any reason to do it. The home would be sold AS IS. I have enough experience over the past 40 years selling homes in this type of condition, and cosmetics is the last thing anybody needs to do. I knew buyers would fight over it. They would want to close fast, probably like I anticipated, 10 days to close escrow.
Some buyers, I expected, would lowball. I don’t know why those buyers think that just because a home needs work, they don’t have to pay market value. It is my job to get the seller top dollar. We shot professional photos, although the carpet beetles didn’t show up in the photos, I made sure to include those creepy things in my description. This stirred up a huge buying frenzy, and eager buyers overloaded our Sunday open house. People just kept elbowing each other out of the way to get in.
We received 8 offers. Only one was a lowball, and that was some yo-yo trying to wholesale, which is a waste of time. Waste of his agent’s time, too. The extraordinary thing is the sellers had hoped the home was worth $200,000. They had paid for an appraisal that estimated value at $200K, which I can’t explain why or how that value happened except everybody has an opinion. Some opinions aren’t worth much.
I studied the neighborhood comps and estimated $425,000. That’s too high, the sellers thought. We compromised and listed the home at $399,000. Since the sellers were a little uneasy with an aggressive approach, listing under the $400K price-point meant we would attract many offers, so it was a good strategy to price at $399K. Well, we surpassed even my projection, and it sold at $435,000.
10 days to close escrow, all cash.
In fact, I had suggested we consider multiple counter offers, which would probably have pushed the price a little bit higher, but it was the seller’s choice to take the offer they liked the best. Not rock the boat, they said. It’s always the seller’s decision. We closed escrow yesterday. The good news is the sellers are so ecstatic with my performance, they have another listing for me!
What You Need to Know About the Sacramento Housing Market
Sacramento housing market report, square-foot prices over 15 months, 12/31/16.
We can talk about low inventory until the cows come home in Sacramento, but the biggest news in the Sacramento housing market report is that prices are slowly creeping up. You can clearly see this reflected in the average price per square foot above. What you don’t see is January 2017 average price per square foot, which is $203. Why is this relevant?
It’s important because we rarely see a price jump in January, usually it is the opposite, and January starts off a little bit slower. Our inventory is relatively the same in December as it was a year ago in December, standing at 1.1 months of inventory. This low inventory is so low if you were trying to dance the limbo under that bar, you would fall flat on the floor and likely break your back.
It’s a seller’s market in Sacramento real estate, in full fury.
This means if you are a seller, put your home on the market. Do not shuffle your feet. Get that lovely home into MLS as soon as you possibly can and start showings. Every new listing, even the ugly homes, is like tossing bird seed to starving pigeons in the park. Buyers come running from every direction to feast on table scraps. Elbowing each other.
We are seeing multiple offers on almost every listing as well. It’s not as crazy as it was at the bottom of the market, like in 2011, where we could receive 20 or 30 multiple offers on a single listing. I’m seeing more like 2 to 4 offers per listing. That seems much more manageable. If it’s a fixer property, the number of multiple offers tend to be higher.
But what difference does it really make how many offers a seller receives? As long as there are two offers, a seller can negotiate with the Seller Multiple Counter Offer, which has been known to bump up the price. Everybody wants what somebody else wants. And hey, bottom line, we only need one committed, strong and qualified buyer anyway. While it’s nice to tell your friends how many buyers fought over your house, it’s much better to say you got top dollar and no hassles.
If that’s your objective, call a top producer Sacramento Realtor with more than 40 years in the business. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Why a Desktop Scanner Replaces a Fax Machine
A desktop scanner replaces a fax machine now, our cat, Tessa, is partly to blame.
Little did I know that today a desktop scanner replaces a fax machine. It was not readily apparent to me. My entire home operation for selling Sacramento real estate was set up to be self sufficient many years ago; when a device malfunctions, I tend to simply replace it. I’ve only had 2 fax machines in Sacramento, one that I took out into my back yard and literally beat to death with a hammer, a Panasonic fax machine. And my Brother 4100e. That happened 10 years ago!
I figured something must be wrong when I looked on the OfficeDepot website and noticed that my Brother 4100e was still a top seller, after all of this time. How could that be? Something was not right. A similar fax machine, one grade higher, cost twice as much and the main difference was it held another 20 pages in its document feeder. This seemed crazy.
OK, maybe OfficeDepot just did not sell enough fax machines anymore. I clicked on a few other websites and nobody carries much in the way of fax machines. That was a telling sign, a red flag. We have fax machines at my office. Heavy duty fax machines. My husband asked what I use a fax machine for. Well, mostly to fax listing documents to myself so I can forward them to others. That is a scanning function.
I already have a ScanSnap portable scanner that I bought years ago when short sales were hot. I could take that baby to seller’s homes and scan all of their tax returns, sensitive personal documents, directly to my computer. But since short sales pretty much dried up in 2012, I haven’t used my portable scanner. Fugitsu also makes a desktop scanner. A desktop scanner replaces a fax machine, and I never realized it.
Fortunately, I have several eFax services at my disposal, one of which is free. Why have I been paying AT&T $40 a month for a fax machine? The things we put up with when we’re a busy Sacramento Realtor. For starters, the document feed roller tends to stick and sometimes I have to stand there and manually feed each of my 30-some pages into the fax machine by hand. Not to mention, our cat, Tessa, long ago batted off and destroyed the document feeder guide plate.
The copy function isn’t working correctly because I need a new cartridge, and since I’ve never replaced the drum, that could explain why copies have a big long black line streaming down the front. To buy a new drum and new cartridge would cost more than to replace the fax machine. It makes sense to me that a desktop scanner replaces a fax machine.
Ah, the old days of those 1980’s thermal paper fax machines and how we could not live without them. It meant we didn’t need to drive our client’s houses, we could fax documents to their offices and later to their homes. How high tech. Now, we can’t live with a fax machine at all, not even a laser fax machine. Outdated, and of no use.
Realtors Willing to Pay the Price Become Top Producers
Many top producers are always digitally connected to clients.
Top producers in Sacramento real estate generally get to that spot two different ways. Either they know a ton of people or they pay the price by working super hard. It could be a combination of those two things but usually it is not. We all know the guys whose lives are a continual party; who rarely return phone calls, seem to subsist on scotch and cashews, yet are rolling in the dough. It’s only human nature to want to gravitate toward that HGTV lifestyle. Who wants to work that hard?
There are always those handful of agents who mess up again and again yet continue to be top producers. They’re just lucky, I think, that the business that falls by the wayside due to their lack of attention doesn’t matter in their overall scheme of things because they can afford to lose clients. Their relationships shower business on them. Or, maybe it’s their charm that continues to open doors. I’ve been married to a few ex-husbands capable of that.
Many top producers work a system. When top producers find something that works, they rinse and repeat. When the fish are biting, they don’t move the boat. I’ll share with you that my system is very simple. Answer the phone, respond to email, reply to a text. Focus on doing what I say I will do.
But you pay a price to do that. It means being connected. I try to stay connected from 7 AM to 7 PM every day. Very few Realtors seem to do that, and I don’t know why. Well, I suppose they have family they pay attention to, hobbies they enjoy, and they probably do normal every-day things like preparing meals, cleaning the house, raising children, which I don’t have time for. Although my fabulous TC does those things, and she’s always available, so go figure.
My number one priority is my business. I gladly pay that price because the real estate business is rewarding and immensely fun. But it doesn’t mean I work in a vacuum or sit in the closet, because who sat in front row seats at the Crest Theatre last night with her husband when Timothy B. Schmit performed? The point is if you want to be part of the top producers in Sacramento real estate, then you’ve probably got to establish a system. That system for me is answer the phone, respond to email, reply to a text.
I found a way to make my lifestyle blend. Wherever I am, whatever I am doing, I communicate. A seller told me yesterday that she is not concerned if if I take off for Mexico to see the butterflies, because she knows I will stay in touch. You know the adage, if you want it done right, ask a busy agent. I tallied my production for 2016, and I still rank in the top 10 agents in Sacramento. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Stunning South Sacramento Remodeled Home for Sale at $215,000
2163 Vollan Way, Sacramento, CA 95822 is for sale at $215K
Earlier this year I listed another south Sacramento remodeled home for sale that was not far from this new listing. Although I don’t happen to specialize in this neighborhood, it is a lovely area very close to The Pocket, right where Pocket Road merges into Meadowview. The first south Sacramento remodeled home for sale had buyers fighting over it, and I imagine the motivator is the price range. It is very difficult to find an updated home in Sacramento right around the low 200’s. Our median price in Sacramento today is $360,000.
This home is completely fenced, front and back, so it’s very suitable for protecting small children by preventing kids from wandering into the street, and containing dogs. Which makes it great for families and people of all ages. It features laundry in the two-car attached garage. Many of the homes on this street show pride of ownership.
New carpeting throughout and in the living room.
Tile graces the entry and leads you into the living room. Isn’t this a charming room? Plenty of space for your big screen TV — no restrictions on space for that wall! On top of this, the home has 3 big bedrooms and 2 baths; it’s got everything you need, like an artist and you don’t look back.
Kitchen features granite counters and a new gas range.
Dark wood cabinets and granite counters is on every home buyer’s wishlist nowadays, and this home presents both. Plus, check this out, it’s got a brand new gas stove, never been used. Look at that beautiful double stainless sink and matching faucet. Dual pane window and newer cabinets in a luxurious dark-roasted coffee finish.
Covered patio is off the kitchen, with an even bigger back yard around the corner.
The back yard is huge. You’ve got a covered patio for outdoor dining and entertaining that is accessible right off of the kitchen, with a southern exposure. The yard is oriented toward the east and receives the morning sun, cooling off by the evening. Space for gardening rounds out the perimeters of the enclosed fences.
Come to our open house on Sunday, from 1:00 to 4:00, hosted by the amazing Amy McMullan. 2163 Vollan Way, Sacramento, CA 95822 is offered exclusively by Elizabeth Weintraub at Lyon Real Estate at $215K. Psst: haven’t you always wanted to adopt a dog? Now you can have the perfect house for a pet.
