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Finding the Address of an Off Market Sacramento Listing
Ask an agent to set up an MLS account for you to find new listings in Sacramento.
Inventory is so dramatically low in Sacramento — we have 1,735 active listings in the county at the moment — that buyer’s agents are contacting top listing agents to beg for details on an upcoming or off market Sacramento listing. They want to look at the home in Google maps or drive by or send their buyers to investigate, all before the home comes on the market. Some try to locate an old listing in the MLS archives with photographs or maybe they check Zillow where old photographs go to die.
I’m not gonna say they go so far as to park in front of the house and wait for the owners to leave for work, but it’s a possibility. They definitely want to peek in the windows. Be first. Get a glimpse. Trespass. They don’t think of it as trespassing or invading privacy because people are often too danged wrapped up in themselves and their own needs to care about how they appear to others or the consequences of their own actions. They live in the surreal world of “I want it, so it must be OK,” and they don’t give any of it a second thought.
Personally, I blame those parents and educators who tossed out awards like candy when the kids didn’t really deserve it. Because everybody in Johnny’s class is a winner! No, everybody is not a winner. Some kids are losers. Like Donald Trump, for example. Why they need to be instilled with grandiose ideas is beyond me, but I do know this, I am NOT disclosing an address of a new listing unless my sellers authorize it, and no sellers do. An off market Sacramento listing is just that, off market.
Well, except for my Elizabeth Weintraub Team members. I do share information with them. They work closely with buyers.
Negative Housing Inventory Fuels Push for Off Market Sacramento Listing
It’s not for any of the reasons some agents might presume. I do not disclose off market addresses to protect my sellers’ privacy. It’s rough enough to go on the market and be bombarded by calls to show, agents who traipse through and leave on lights, doors unlocked, flipped-up duvet covers because they were crawling around and looking under the bed for whatever reason. It’s an inconvenience, albeit for a short period of time.
We don’t need the advantages of Coming Soon in Sacramento this spring. It’s already crazy enough.
We Have More Homes Pending Than Homes for Sale in Sacramento County
We have 1,928 listings pending in the county of Sacramento today. That’s more than the number of homes we have for sale (see first paragraph). Do the math. It means we’re at a negative for “months of inventory” as compared to the pending sales. The median days on market for 3-bedroom pending sales is 10. The average days on market for 3-bedroom pendings is 27. Nobody is gonna get a jumpstart on an off market Sacramento listing until it goes on the market.
Then everybody can fight over it. Maximum exposure, maximum profit for my sellers. That’s what I care about.
If you’re interested in talking about selling your home in the greater Sacramento area, I work as a top producer and cover 4 counties. I pay attention to detail and offer personalized service. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Stick to Real Estate When Selling a Porsche Boxster in Sacramento
2011 Porsche Boxster in Sacramento is for sale at $29,999.
Selling a Porsche Boxster in Sacramento in very different from buying a new car. Some of my readers may recall my buying a new car in Sacramento blog in which I said that particular experience at the Toyota dealer was like burning in hell. Not that I have any experience with burning in hell but it seems a fair comparison to buying a Prius at a foothills dealership for my husband. On the other hand, selling a used vehicle means working outside of a dealership and having to talk to the public.
I converse with the public all day long but I was unprepared for the attitude, especially from Bay area used-car wholesalers. Andy was nice enough, even though he was offering a cashier’s check which he claimed would be drawn on Bank of America, as though Bank of America is some sort of assurance that the check is negotiable or real. Unfortunately, his pristine cashiers check was $4,000 less than my asking price.
Then along comes this joker Lee Anthony who offers $7,000 less than my asking price. When I replied that my ad on CraigsList indicated I would take the first offer OVER my asking price — which is $29,999 in case you want to buy a 2011 Porsche Boxster — and I thanked him for his interest, he got his knickers in a twist. He probably doesn’t like Realtors, although we at least we rank higher on the list of despised professions over car sales. He also must not like the fact that I rejected his lowball, yet in retrospect I was nicer than I probably should have been.
This turd sent me an email that said STICK TO REAL ESTATE in bold letters. I thought about replying: You should stick to pulling wings off flies. Which made me laugh just thinking about it. But what good would it do? It would not change an asshole into a nice guy. It would just poke the hornet’s nest. There is no upside in this world to be gained from fighting with faceless strangers, especially those who are trying to rip you off.
Then another guy came along who offered to sell my car on consignment. Where are the real buyers when you’re selling a Porsche Boxster? My car has fewer than 24,000 miles. I’ve used only premium gas, even though I didn’t have to. It’s had all of its service on time. It’s hardly been driven. It’s priced a little bit under its market value. Clean title and clean vehicle history.
A woman from Arizona said she might drive to Sacramento this weekend to buy my car. The nice thing is the Mercedes dealer said once it sells, Mercedes will give me a car to drive while I wait for my new Mercedes GLA to arrive. I’ve only been waiting since October (I must be the most patient Mercedes buyer EVER) but at long last my vehicle is on the boat and headed for Long Beach harbor. Should be here in about 3 weeks. Then, yeah, I’ll stick to real estate and forget about selling a Porsche Boxster because it will be sold by then.
How Much is My Home Worth in Sacramento Will Shock You
You will be shocked to learn how much is my home worth today.
If you’re wondering how much is my home worth in Sacramento, prepare to be shocked. Could you use an extra $200,000 of equity right now? All the market reports in the world won’t prepare you for the actual value of your own home until you talk with a seasoned Sacramento Realtor. Even Zillow won’t give you a solid number, as the estimates on Zillow are only that, an estimate and, there is no actual website available online that will give you all of the information you seek. Realtors pull data from a number of sources, and we are specialists in many areas of Sacramento.
We have the missing pieces you need.
It’s no secret that during the crash years of 2005 to 2011, I worked with more short sale sellers than any other agent in the area. But then that period ended. I still handle a few short sales here and there, but for the most part, short sales in Sacramento are basically over. Today I specialize in real estate in four counties, ranging from entry-level homes to luxury homes, designing individual marketing strategies for each of my sellers, paying enormous attention to detail, which returns maximum profits to my clients. My team members show homes, and I work with sellers. It’s a winning combination!
Earlier in the week, I ran across a folder from 2012 filled with potential short sale clients who, for one reason or another, elected not to do a short sale. They were sellers who were underwater. That was four years ago. I began looking up the market values of their homes, because it seemed to me they were not underwater anymore. I was absolutely correct. Every single one of these potential sellers now have equity, some have acquired more than $200,000 of equity since that time!
Discovering How Much is My Home Worth
What a shock to examine how much is my home worth and discover it’s not what you thought. People get busy with their lives and are not aware of how much their home has gone up value. It happens even to Realtors. I know an agent who woke up one morning in Minneapolis, realized her home had tripled in value over the past 5 years, and decided it was time to grab the money and get out of that frozen tundra. You might think the same way. You might also think if you’re not planning to sell, what does it matter how much your home is worth?
It matters because if you knew that number, you might decide to sell. To change your life. To upgrade to a larger home, downsize to a smaller home or get the hell outta dodge, whatever. Call me. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759, and I’ll be happy to answer the question of how much is my home worth. Could you use an extra $200,000 of equity right now?
The Amazing Story of a Sacramento Real Estate Miracle
A Sacramento real estate miracle does not happen every day.
No Sacramento Realtor expects her client to call, late on Sunday no less, just as The Oscars are starting, to excitedly announce he has written an offer on her listing with another agent. Yet, stranger things have happened in Sacramento real estate. Things that can make clients believe this is the way they always occur, and anybody can do it. When my client first uttered those words last night, I thought he was joking. We closed escrow in 2013, but I recall his transaction like it was yesterday, even though I’ve sold hundreds of homes since but few are a Sacramento real estate miracle.
This guy was originally a referral to me by another agent. He claimed to have overpaid for a home he owned in north Sacramento, which he needed to sell, and yes, it wasn’t worth what he owed. He also wanted to buy a home in Elk Grove during a super-heated real estate market. Selling and buying concurrently is a delicate balance, but even more so in a hot market. That scenario typically requires careful planning, including contingent offers. I took him on as a client as a favor to the referring agent, and because he needed a miracle. Fortunately, I can perform miracles.
I sold his home in north Sacramento for a lot more than it would likely appraise at to a cash buyer from San Francisco. That buyer’s agent did not know the neighborhood. Negotiated a 6-month rent back at less-than-market rent for him, so my client did not have to move. At the same time, I helped him buy my short sale listing in Elk Grove through my team member. The sellers received a number of offers for this short sale but they decided to take my team member’s offer for this client because they believed, even though it was contingent upon selling his home, that I would sell it. They had faith in my abilities. Some other agent, maybe not, but I perform. I can do a Sacramento real estate miracle.
Ordinarily, you cannot submit a contingent offer for a short sale to the bank because the bank will say come back when the home is sold. But I calculated by the time the bank raised that particular objection, I would have sold his home. And that’s what happened. Basically, this was a guy who was underwater, and I moved him from north Sacramento into a four-bedroom, two-story home in Elk Grove. All the stars aligned. It was a Sacramento real estate miracle.
You can imagine my shock when this guy said he had written an offer through another agent on one of my listings. The agent is his buddy, a long-term friend, says he, the guy who had initially sold him the home in north Sacramento. Then he apologized, said he was sorry. Well, that makes two of us. Of course, I immediately realized that he did not write an offer for any of my listings. I’m not sure which home he is trying to buy, but it’s not one of my listings, and he confused me with some other top Sacramento agent. Not only that, I checked MLS and his home was not on the market, it is not for sale, so he is not buying anything. Sellers generally do not accept offers from contingent buyers if that buyer’s home is not for sale.
I don’t see a Sacramento real estate miracle happening here.
I am very successful with selling and buying a home at the same time, in part because other listing agents in Sacramento know I will perform as well. They know my reputation. If you need to both sell a home and buy a home, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
About Being a Sacramento REALTOR First
This Sacramento Realtor receives a lot of unsolicited mail at the office.
Because I write a daily Sacramento real estate blog, which often contains consumer awareness information, exposes criminal wrong doings, real estate scams and the slippery slope of masked intentions behind the ways some companies try to take advantage of Realtors, I seem to have built a fan base across the country as a compassionate Sacramento REALTOR who leads a double life as a consumer advocate. This means people send unsolicited letters and packages through the U.S. mail to my office, sometimes anonymously, like I’m going to take issue with other evil doings and write about it.
First and foremost, my job in Sacramento is that of a Sacramento REALTOR. I list homes and sell those homes, and my Elizabeth Weintraub team member agents show homes. We hold open houses. We network with other California agents, employ extensive marketing, hire at our expense professional photographers, consistently create new techniques to sell Sacramento real estate and, well, the list goes on and on. The point is I am a Sacramento REALTOR first. A writer second. And, although I am paid to write content about homebuying for About.com, that is not my primary occupation and my writing is not pro bono work.
Some of the stuff I receive in the mail is interesting but that’s about as far as it goes. To write about any of it, I would need to be fair, to call the offender to report that side of the situation and, frankly, I’m not about to do it. So please stop mailing me stuff, well, unless it’s Kistler chardonnay. I will accept any free contributions of Kistler Vineyards chardonnay to our wine collection that anybody would like to send for nothing in return.
Besides, I have enough of my own crazy stuff to discuss. Like next month I plan to write about a wild scheme I discovered going on right here in my own back yard, perpetrated by one of those individual brokerages; like if I’m gonna find a problem with an agent, that might be the place to look, at the guys who are unsupervised, versus the larger brokerages, which routinely update agents about real estate law and procedures. If you think I am unfairly pointing to the one or two-person operations as problematic, I can tell you I used to work in those ranks, so I know first hand. Further, full disclosure, not every single mom-and-pop shop is that way.
When I started in real estate in the 1970s — yes, that’s not a typo — I worked for almost 9 years at my own company, which I immediately bought after obtaining my own broker’s license from the broker, an electrician by trade, IIRC. I erroneously believed that holding a real estate broker’s license meant I could do just about anything my mind could conceive. That real estate practice, looking back, often bordered on practicing law. I’m lucky I emerged a better agent from that period, to say nothing of the fashion, egads, those shoulder pads and hairstyles . . .
