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Working Sacramento Real Estate in the Cloud Means Hello Hawaii
Working on Sacramento real estate in the cloud can give you this view in Hawaii.
Many Sacramento Realtors nowadays work real estate in the cloud and they don’t even realize what they can actually do. When you look at my background, the fact I started in real estate in the 1970s, you would not think that I might readily adapt to working real estate in the cloud, but then you might not know me. I might be an old fart, yet I adapt to technology easily. I’ve been online since 1991. My entire Sacramento real estate business is pretty much handled not person-to-person but computer-to-computer.
If a client needs to see my cheerful face, I can use FaceTime. I work with many people I’ve never met. Some of my clients I’ve never talked to, never heard their voices. I manage my files and tend to exceed the expectations of my clients without ever shaking hands. My team members can carry me through a home via an iPad, showing me the big picture and the small details, if I need it. So, it’s no small miracle that as I’m about to take off for our house in Hawaii, the day before I ended up taking several listings.
That’s all it takes, you know, it’s the forces of nature. Soon as I haul out a suitcase, sellers who want to sell their homes are dinging my email and ringing my cell. That’s OK. I handle it. Like the sellers who emailed me late Tuesday night to say they wanted me to list their home in Tahoe Park. Said they had been trying to sell it for 6 months and the listing expired. Wha? In this market? Turns out it was previously listed by the same discount agent my Curtis Park seller fired before hiring me. What are the odds of THAT? I squeezed an inspection into my day before leaving and got all the paperwork signed within 24 hours.
Most agents would not list several homes the day before a 6-week getaway to Hawaii. They would be stressed out packing, making sure they didn’t forget anything. If I forget an item, I’ll buy it in Hawaii. My clients come first. In fact, I am betting my clientele won’t even know where I am, unless they are reading this blog. Because they’ll get the same expedient service whether I am in Sacramento in front of my desktop or whether I am lounging on my lanai staring out at the ocean with a laptop in my lap. I love my job.
This is one of the best perks of investing 40+ years in a real estate career and working real estate in the cloud. An organized Realtor can do it from anywhere. Given a choice between 6 weeks of rain and fog in Sacramento or warm ocean breezes, with all other things remaining relatively the same, I sure know which one I’ll pick.
Selling a Home in Sacramento on Thanksgiving
Selling a home in Sacramento on Thanksgiving is reason to celebrate.
Because the county assessor’s office is closed in Sacramento today and tomorrow, selling a home in Sacramento on Thanksgiving happens the day before, on the eve of Thanksgiving. The story of this sale is extraordinary, not in part because the amount of money I ended up with from the sale after taxes and overhead is barely enough to cover the cost of Thanksgiving dinner at The Firehouse today, but because the tale is really more about the seller. The 4th escrow was the charm.
I threw in that part about the commission because I happened to look at my ledger when I entered the sale as closed this morning and am astonished at how little I earned, particularly in relation to the amount of work I put into it, which was 4 times as much as any other sale. You know how they say don’t think about the money and it will come to you? Well, it’s true. Most of the time I make a good living because I am free not to care about how much I make. In comparison, though, this check was just so tiny in terms of income but it was huge, enormously so, in terms of relief for my sellers.
The sellers were nervous enough about hiring me because they erroneously believed that an agent of my caliber would not help them. They had this impression that top producers don’t work on lower priced sales, and nothing could be further from the truth. At least not for me. I work on all sales. Million dollar homes to condemned tear downs. Little did I know I would be selling a home on Thanksgiving when I started in mid September.
This property was a triplex that had been in the family for years under a trust. One of the trustees is scheduled for cancer surgery next week and might not make it. His wife spent thousands to clean up the property plus she hired a full-time security guard to patrol it. They can’t afford that kind of money. They are people of modest means. I listed the property and we received multiple offers. The sellers do not own a computer, so every time we received an offer, I drove over to their house to present it, just like in the old days.
We went into escrow 3 times, with 3 different buyers, and all 3 buyers flaked out eventually. Every week or two, a buyer canceled, and I had to start over. News at 11: Sacramento Realtor found wandering the streets naked, yelling at the sky. Who knew we would be selling a home in Sacramento on Thanksgiving to our 4th buyer?
I would tell buyer’s agents this is a teardown, buy this knowing this is a teardown, buy it for lot value and salvage, but still, their buyers would tie up the property at one price and then try in vain to renegotiate before they finally would just throw in the towel. They didn’t want to believe it was a teardown. The city was pressing my sellers about filing a lien after tearing down the structure itself, so I called the city and talked to the guy in charge. Pleaded with him to give us more time. It wasn’t my seller’s fault their family members had destroyed this property.
Finally, an agent I know came along with an offer. This was the 4th offer. How hard is it to sell a teardown in Sacramento? It’s brutal because the buyers for this are often very difficult to deal with. Every time I appeared on my seller’s doorstep, I would apologize for the bad behavior of the buyers and by extension, their agents. They would hug me, “That’s OK, honey, these things happen.” Yet I felt guilty, like I should be doing something more productive like holding the buyers hostage at gunpoint and not freeing their asses until it was time to close. I promised the couple no matter what this would close.
Last Friday, we signed the offer. By pulling strings, calling in favors, and pushing, even with our escrow officer on vacation, we closed this sale yesterday. This means my sellers can now celebrate Thanksgiving with one extra thing to be grateful for. They’ve gotten rid of the thorn in their side. The nastiness is over for them. Selling a home in Sacramento on Thanksgiving is not for everybody and rarely happens like this, but for these sellers, it was a miracle come true. Just to hear the relief in my seller’s voice and feel her joy when I called to wish her a happy Thanksgiving and confirm the sale had closed made the whole transaction worthwhile.
Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen, RIP. Here is to clinging to your own personal gratefulness this Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
Sacramento Real Estate is Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh, My!
Sacramento real estate encounters lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh, my! That pretty much describes the Sacramento real estate market over the past couple of weeks this fall. It also probably explains why I sat up with my husband last night watching the Cubs, which ran way past my bedtime. Then, with “just 2 outs to go,” as my husband put it, I gave up the ghost and retired. I’m not from Chicago like he is, so although I may root for the underdog, I’m just not a big baseball fan — not like I was when a kid and the Twins came to my Midwestern town. Although, I’ve got to admit that grooving on baseball, especially the last game of the World Series, is a good distraction from some of the weirder things happening.
Lately, in my little neck of the woods, we’ve had our unfair share of business that cancels, extends and dies, oh, shit, which is the Sacramento real estate equivalent of lions and tigers and bears, oh, my! I listed a home in East Sacramento the day I returned from a vacation in Barcelona around Labor Day, struggled through 3 days of negotiations between the seller and potential buyers. At one point I even said to the seller, “How is it we have two good offers over list price and we can’t come to an agreement?” This seemed completely bizarre to me. Little did I realize that the seller did not want to sell. Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my!
We helped this same client to buy a million-plus home overlooking the American River. Truly a spectacular setting. Before I even listed the home in East Sacramento, which is pretty much unheard of in a contingent situation. When clients ask for clarification about whether they can cancel and be at no expense, that can be a red flag. Inspections dragged on for weeks. We renegotiated the supposedly good-faith contract and the sellers of that river-front property agreed to an unheard of $100K price reduction. The clients offered no reason for canceling, no apologies. Since it was contingent, they canceled the sale of the home in East Sacramento as well and shattered that poor buyer’s heart.
Further, three escrows that were on schedule to close this week are getting pushed to next week, all for a variety of reasons, mostly related to the buyer’s mortgage. Those sellers had expected to close on schedule, and now those hopes are dashed. Our sole recourse is to make the buyer compensate. Perhaps it’s the fact we are so sick and tired of seeing Mr. Tangerine Man on the news and in the paper? The 2016 presidential election has been gnawing at our souls like rats feasting on shit. November 8th can’t get here fast enough for most of us. Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my!
I am also selling homes in Sacramento more than once. We do our best to vet the buyer, make sure they have the cash or the qualifications to obtain a mortgage, we listen to their buyer’s agent sing their dubious praises with a grain of salt and verify, verify, yet they still buy and flake. It makes little sense. They negotiate so hard and when they win, they cancel. Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my! We just go with the flow. It’s bound to get better after next week.
The difference between me and a few other Sacramento Realtors is perseverance. I do not get discouraged. I do not throw in the towel. I never ever give up, and I’m always there for my clients. It’s how I’ve stayed true to the real estate business for 40+ years. Even though I did not catch the end of the World Series, I care about the Sacramento real estate business far more.
Reasons That’s The Way We’ve Always Done It Does Not Apply
Don’t ever say that’s the way we’ve always done it.
That’s the way we’ve always done it is an excuse. And it’s a damn lazy excuse at that. Stupid even. I know this because as a Sacramento Realtor, I’ve used that line myself when maybe the situation wasn’t important enough to employ a better tactic. But I certainly know better. It makes me cringe when I hear an agent use that lame line. Yet just the other day, that’s the way we’ve always done it popped up in an email. Without going into details, let’s just say the agent who originated the email works in a closed environment, sort of how San Diego is considered a test environment because it’s an isolated metropolitan city that is fairly self contained. If this place were a family, it would multiply through incest.
Since using that argument holds no water with me, I didn’t particular care. I am not a Realtor who believes in the premise that’s the way we’ve always done it. It just rubs me the wrong way because it’s such an idiotic thing to say. Everything changes all the time. The world continually evolves and what was true today is not necessarily true tomorrow. There might be a better way to accomplish a directive or goal. A different way that produces better results. And I’m constantly searching for it.
I challenged the agent who sent me that email. Explained that we are taking a different approach. Against the grain, against the way we’ve always done it. Discussed how that particular action is certainly allowed in the purchase contract. It’s another way of looking at the situation, a way I had not previously considered, and it made a lot of sense. Bucking the norm. It’s a way of life for me.
The agent was not happy with that outcome. The agent was used to doing business a certain way and this was not that way. The agent said that’s the way we’ve always done it, and then even sent statistics from MLS as evidence that, on average, many sellers responded in a similar manner. I put little credence in the way average works. Average is for average people. Average means there are people who do better and people who do worse, and when that accumulated result is divided by the number of participants, that calculation produces an average.
I strive to do better than average. I strive for superior performance. But some of us are wired this way, I suspect, and other Sacramento Realtors are satisfied with the status quo. How do I consistently move $30 million of inventory year after year? I don’t subscribe to the premise that’s the way we’ve always done it. I blaze new trails. I recognize that door of opportunity and welcome change. Change is constant. If you prefer creative innovation over the same-o same-o from your Realtor, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
An Autumn Lunch at Firehouse Restaurant for Many Reasons
Asters are the perfect fall flower for the table tops at Firehouse Restaurant in Old Sacramento
An autumn lunch at Firehouse Restaurant accomplishes many things for this Sacramento Realtor. It’s a lovely and befitting way to say goodbye to summer as we make our transition into winter through the all-too-brief season of fall in Sacramento. The rains in Sacramento have already begun. An autumn lunch at Firehouse Restaurant in the courtyard also features a delightful, magical atmosphere — dining outside on a cobblestone patio, surrounded by looming old trees, scurrying squirrels, a bubbling water fountain adorned by a floral arrangement, safe and secure tucked inside the walls of what seems like an old fortress, an enchanted secret garden, quiet and snug in Old Sacramento.
A far cry from shoveling food into my mouth from a microwaved tray as I usually sit huddled in front of my computer, reading the newspaper. Or trying to chew quickly so when I answer my ringing cellphone, I don’t sound like I speak German. I could just not answer my cell while I’m in the middle of lunch and send a text message, but I’m sitting right there in front of my phone and I can’t stand the suspense. It could be a call from one of my favorite reporters like Ken Harney at the Washington Post. It could be a call from a seller in East Sacramento who needs a Realtor to list her home. It could be a call from an agent in San Diego who is referring a buyer for homes in Granite Bay. That’s the thing about Sacramento real estate, you never know what kinds of opportunities pass you by when you don’t answer your phone — which is not my dilemma, thank goodness.
I answer my phone because the odds that it’s a crazy person stoned out of his mind, screaming about buying foreclosures with food stamps, is only about 1 in 10. I’ll take those odds.
Myrl Jeffcoat and Elizabeth Weintraub lunch at Firehouse Restaurant on a crisp fall Wednesday.
An autumn lunch at Firehouse Restaurant offers me the chance to meet friends, like Myrl Jeffcoat, whom I rarely see enough. We met online through an agent website many years back. Although Myrl is a Realtor in Sacramento and a life-long resident, she is partially retired and doesn’t really sell real estate anymore. But just because she is not 100% active in the business full-time, well, it doesn’t mean that real estate has left her body. The spirit of real estate steadfastly clings to many of us who have found a calling in Sacramento real estate. Cannot shake it. It’s embedded forever. When you’re a busy agent, the business aspect can completely consume. Yet, Myrl and I do not converse much about real estate at lunch.
I called Myrl about a month ago to suggest lunch at Firehouse Restaurant. She couldn’t do this week, I couldn’t do next week, so it became an issue of we need to put it on the calendar or life will sweep us up and we’ll never do it.
Elizabeth Weintraub holds an aster at Firehouse Restaurant
If you would like to get away, perhaps pretend that you’re in Europe, then I suggest lunch at Firehouse Restaurant. The three-course Courtyard Prix Fixe is offered 11:30 to 2:30 Monday through Friday at $25 per person, among regular menu choices. We had a goat-cheese green salad featuring thinly sliced ribbons of butternut squash, and the waiter actually asked us if we wanted coarse or fine ground pepper. How many waiters ask that question? We both prefer coarse pepper. In fact, my husband constantly complains that I unscrew the top to the pepper grinder to the point it goes flying off when he tries to grind pepper. I like my black pepper big, crunchy, flavorful and spicy. Finely ground has its place in hot-and-sour soup but I prefer to enhance my dishes with larger cracks.
The next course, seared pork tenderloin medallions, over bacon bits and braised greens, topped with chestnut butter that melts in your mouth was a bit more than I could finish. The sweet sauce begged to cover the last medallion, and I could not leave a lone piece of pork on my plate, abandoned all by itself, looking forlorn and unwanted. Just when we were way too full for dessert, along came dessert. A caramelized wonderful toffee confection over a type of brandy pudding cake nestled by a generous dollop of Chantilly cream. Because, you know, we all need to eat lunch. What better place than an historic converted firehouse in Old Sacramento?
