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Crucial Tips for Buying New Homes in Sacramento
Modern kitchen of a brand new home. © Big Stock Photo
Are you wondering about buying new homes in Sacramento? You’re at the right place for Sacramento real estate. In my life thus far, I have bought and owned a wide assortment of homes. I once bought land and built a tri-level spread on the beach in San Felipe (Mexico). My very first home was older, 8,600 square feet with an indoor pool in North Tustin that I bought with owner financing and no money down. I’ve owned in rough, crime-ridden neighborhoods, too. I bought a tiny home of 800 square feet where my bed fit wall-to-wall, remodeled a Cape Cod under an airport path, finished off a half-constructed split-level on a pond in suburbia, and renovated a Victorian, built in 1898, just to name a few. For many people, the choice in a home often comes down to buying a new home and ordering custom upgrades or buying an older home, and those choices in Sacramento now range from new construction to more than 100 years old.
How do you know which to choose? What type of home is best for your lifestyle? A newer home vs an older home? Certainly, newer homes in Sacramento hold a huge appeal to certain home buyers. No immediate repairs, no updates, no improvements and less maintenance. Plus, the good news is you no longer need to decide whether you want to live in the city limits of Sacramento or out in the country to get those choices because many new home builders are picking up construction in Sacramento. Building had come to pretty much a halt in 2007. Even homes in Natomas stopped construction, although some of that was related to other issues than the market crash. More good news, the top-rated Elizabeth Weintraub Team has the answers for you.
For almost a decade in Sacramento, new home construction has not been a competitor to resale homes. In fact, many real estate agents and Realtors might have no experience whatsoever in dealing with home builders because they weren’t licensed back then. These agents might stare at you oddly, cock their heads sideway when you mention that you might want to look at buying new homes in Sacramento. But the day is here and new construction most certainly is a competitor to resale homes. Many buyers are now interested in buying new homes in Sacramento. If you’re one of those buyers, you’re reading the right blog and the Elizabeth Weintraub Team is up to speed on new homes in Sacramento. We can help you!
A couple hug each other outside a new home. © Big Stock Photo
The one thing you do NOT want to do is visit the home site or contact the builder without us. If you do, we can’t help you. The builder will register your name and we will not be allowed to represent you. So make sure you call the Elizabeth Weintraub Team first. Not only will the builder pay us to represent you, but we will represent only YOU, your best interests, not the builder. We have the experience to help you to make those all important choices. Whether you are interested in homes in Natomas, homes in Midtown, or even the new Creamery at Alkali Flat, we can assist.
I can tell you one of the important mistakes I have learned from the market crash of 2007. The sellers who elected to do short sales after buying a new home all said the same thing. When we walked through the home, they remembered EXACTLY how much they paid for EACH upgrade. That’s where builders make a big profit. And they regretted it. They didn’t ask a Realtor to represent them. They went to the builder directly. And now they were doing a short sale. I’ve seen enough dull and dingy homes for a lifetime that were once all sparkly and new. I can tell you whether it’s likely your new home will still look fabulous in 10 years or if you, too, will regret that decision. You can rely on us.
Call the Elizabeth Weintraub Team at 916.233.6759 before you start looking at buying new homes in Sacramento. We stand by ready to serve and ready to assist with decades of experience behind us.
Dim Sum at New Canton and a Major Homebuying Mistake in Sacramento
Sacramento homebuyers face as many choices as dim sum at New Canton.
Sundays are usually busy days for Sacramento real estate and dim sum at New Canton. It’s a struggle to find time for an after-breakfast nap, even on a rainy day, when prized packages of savory gems of dim sum await just down the road from Land Park and my cell phone keeps ringing. I realize lots of agents just let calls go through to voice mail, but I answer to save myself the hassle of having to call back. It’s opportunity ringing. However, many of the phone calls I’ve been receiving lately are from Sacramento home buyers who do not understand how real estate works. They think they do, but they do not.
When presented with a situation like that, I have several choices. One of course is to tell them the listing they are calling about is already pending and hang up, but that’s a waste of an excellent opportunity to share. The first homebuying mistake many home buyers make is thinking that because they see a home without a pending sign on top of the sign post that the home is available. About half of the time, by the time the sign post goes into the ground, we’ve already got offers from buyers. Many agents do not bother anymore with pending signs. The second homebuying mistake many home buyers make is presuming that because they see a home in Trulia or Zillow, or any of the other popular online websites that feature homes for sale in Sacramento, that the home is available. Much of the time that home is either not for sale, maybe has never been for sale or is pending / sold.
The third homebuying mistake is calling the listing agent and presuming that listing agent is eager to work with the buyer. A home buyer told me yesterday that the only reason he was calling me, even though he had his own agent, a personal friend he has known for years who, by the way, is retired from real estate and no longer active, is because, wait for it . . .
listing agents have twice the incentive
Sorry, no, listing agents don’t have twice the incentive. The implications are insulting. We are not sleazes. Top Sacramento listing agents do twice the business because they list and sell twice as many homes. Not because they hope to “double-end a deal.” If you could somehow find a listing agent solely focused on double-ending, why would you ever desire to hire an unethical person like that? Taking a home buyer who doesn’t know quite as much as he thinks he does and pairing him with a sleaze bag is a recipe for disaster on both ends. Maybe those kind deserve the muck, but you, YOU, dear home buyer on my cellphone, you deserve much better.
I won’t work directly with a home buyer, and I list and sell so many homes in Sacramento that I rank among the top 10 agents in 7 counties, and guess what? I don’t want to directly represent you. My seller would prefer that you work with a buyer’s agent as well. Here, I have several buyer’s agents I can refer you to who will gladly show you homes and negotiate a purchase offer on your behalf. No cost to you. Many of the top listing agents in Sacramento work this way. The response then is, wait for it . . .
Uh, I wanna do it on my own.
If you do it on your own, you will miss many of the homes for sale that fit your criteria and parameters. This is not your mother’s real estate market from 10 years ago. You can’t drive around a neighborhood and wait for a sign to be pounded into the ground. You can’t wait for a home to show up on a website. You need a direct feed of MLS listings directly from MLS that is instantly delivered to your email inbox the minute that home hits the Sacramento real estate market. And you can’t get that information on your own. You need a dedicated agent working with you to find homes that are not yet for sale as well. So, give me your name and phone number, and I’ll get a top-notch buyer’s agent to find your dream home and close it for you.
Or, you can keep driving in circles and calling listing agents who don’t answer the phone about homes that are sold. Your choice.
Then I slide into my chair at New Canton and begin to point at dim sum dishes I desire from the steaming carts rolling by. My husband orders oolong tea. I dig around on my plate to grab a delectable shrimp fun with my chopsticks, my husband asks for jellyfish and beef shins. As I survey the New Canton dim sum delights laid out before me on the table, I wonder why Sacramento home buyers limit their choices. It’s because they don’t know any better. They think they are doing the right thing but they are not working in the Sacramento real estate business, and they just don’t understand. Times have changed.
If you need an excellent buyer’s agent, call the exceptional Barbara Dow at 916.761.7398 or the amazing Josh Amolsch at 916.224.2756. Both on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team. Or, call that guy who is retired, out of touch, likely to screw up. Here, try a sesame ball.
How We Celebrated Halloween in Sacramento at Ella
Beef tongue at Ella Dining Room and Bar
We celebrated Halloween in Sacramento last night by locking up our house in Land Park, snapping off the lights and heading downtown to Ella Dining Room and Bar, banishing the bowl of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and individually wrapped Twizzlers to the pantry. The question, seriously, is not really who will tear into the bag of Reese’s, it’s when. And how long it will take for the Twizzlers to vanish. I vote that my husband take all the candy to his office at the State, which would clearly help to light the fuse on any escalating situation through a sugar high.
I can picture my husband saying: “Do you really want to say that to the press? Here, have a Peanut Butter Cup, Mr. Peanutbutter.”
Fortunately for me I had already reviewed online the exceptional cabernet choices available at Ella prior to our arrival. You know, sometimes for balance you’ve got to have a little food with your wine. Since this was the last day of the month, it was also the last day of October Steak Month at Ella. It seemed only fitting to start with the grilled beef tongue, which is pictured above. This is the most incredible dish. I could have licked clean the plate with 3 more servings, it was that mouthwatering and delectable. Not at all the way my mother used to make it, and let me add that the only reason we ate beef tongue when I was a kid was because it was cheap in the 1950s.
What I did not expect was the spicy kick from the togarashi and the sweetness of the egg finish. I was still plucking the mustard shoots off my plate with my fingers and sucking them into my mouth as the server whisked away my plate. I paired this dish with a 21-year-old French Bordeaux, the 1994 Chateau Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, from Pauillac. A super cumbersome name but awesome experience. This blend of merlot and cab truly soared, zinged, snapped, chopped and could no way be mistaken for a Napa Cabernet, with an exotic rich taste of earthiness and beautiful black fruit.
Grilled Romanesco with Manchego Cheese
My husband chose the grilled romanesco, which is sort of a green, pointy vegetable, similar to cauliflower but a bit more root-ness in flavor, accentuated by a smidgeon of chili and a generous dollop of creamy, grilled Manchego cheese. This is the cheese of sheep, originating in a specific region of Spain, and yet another reason to look forward to our visit to Barcelona next summer. Incredible aged sheep cheese! We shared both of our first courses, including the roasted mushroom and chestnut soup that followed because we still needed to finish our entree, which proved impossible anyway.
We both ordered the 28-day dry aged grilled American buffalo ribeye because we honestly could not help ourselves. It was right there on the menu in front of our faces. Medium rare. The only thing that could have enhanced this dish was the 2012 Ghost Block Estate cab from Napa, and it did not disappoint. Fruity, bold and big flavors rounded it out. 14 ounces of beef proved to be a bit much for a woman who tries to limit her intake to 2 – 3 ounces, so we boxed it up to take home. Which was not tee-peed due to Halloween in Sacramento, thank goodness.
Depending on how hectic today evolves around my Sacramento real estate business, I might need to steal an hour to find the best online wine prices for that Bordeaux. After all, I acquired an extra hour last night due to the time change, right? See, much as I resist the time change to fall back and all, there is a silver lining.
What the Beach Ball in Newport Beach Has to Do With Challenges
The Beach Ball in Newport Beach is a landmark.
A standing practice on Friday night when I was in my 20s was whether I could kick persuade a guy to move off a particular bar stool at the Beach Ball in Newport Beach, CA. I’m not sure if there was any better time to be a young adult than in the 1970s in Newport Beach, before everything became so developed, and many of the wetlands were still just wetlands, and you could find a place to park with ease. At that time, I was an escrow officer, and my escrow office was on Lido Island. Every Friday night, my girlfriends and I would go out to listen to music around Newport Beach and, invariably, we would end up at the end of the evening at the Beach Ball at the Newport Pier.
Being goofballs in search of adventure, my girlfriends and I used to take bets and make up challenges for ourselves. Like the day we removed all of the living room furniture from a stranger’s apartment and placed it on the sand at Balboa Pier in broad daylight. But we were just kids, doing kid things because it made us laugh. Our imaginations did not stop us and, in fact, they encouraged us to do truly outrageous things. Stuff that rule abiders probably can’t fathom.
When I first entered the Beach Ball in Newport Beach, I quickly sized up the best spot to sit to watch the musicians, which about the 5th bar stool from the wall in the front row. It was like making up my own game to seize that bar stool. I enjoy challenges. Probably good training for my career today, selling Sacramento real estate. My method was to approach the person sitting there, which fortunately for me was almost always a person of the opposite sex, and talk him into giving me his bar stool. And I always got it. Without fail. Whomever occupied that seat would vacate and offer it to me.
The downside, though, just so you know, is when you always win at the same thing, after a while the self-imposed challenges it used to present are not so exciting anymore. You have to fail to succeed every now and then to keep things interesting — not that I prefer adversity because I do not.
Yet, I never forgot the concept of location. Optimum placement equals optimum experience. It’s just put to better use today in my travels and in selling Sacramento real estate.
I am reminded of this blip on my radar right now because my team member and buyer’s agent extraordinaire Josh Amolsch just came back to Sacramento from a cruise that stopped in Long Beach on the way to Ensenada. He and his charming girlfriend caught an Uber in Long Beach to Huntington Beach and then rode bicycles down the oceanfront into Newport Beach, finally all the way to the Balboa Pier. Along the way, he stopped to shoot a photo of the Beach Ball in Newport Beach for me. Even after 40 years, it still looks the same. It’s one of those landmarks that might never change. Thanks, Josh.
A True Story About Setting Priorities for the Self Employed
Setting priorities is paramount to succeed in an business not just Sacramento real estate.
Setting priorities and establishing procedures are two secrets for success in any type of business, not just Sacramento real estate. Everybody is different, too, which is the beauty of how this works. You get to pick what works well for you and discard the things that don’t. For example, I have elected to answer my phone when it rings. Of course, it is with extreme rarity that I would ever in a million years hang up when another phone call comes in, although other agents do. Like last night for example.
Here, I found myself engaged in a conversation with a buyer’s agent who was about to write a purchase offer for one of my listings. We were discussing the framework of that offer when he suddenly expressed an extreme urgency to have to hang up. He had to, to, to, to “go do some things.” Well, I guess it beats dropping your cellphone into the toilet, was my immediate thought. Then he called back to continue our conversation when all of a sudden, once again, he blurted, “I have an extremely important phone call I have to take,” and here I thought that was what we were doing, engaging in an important phone call during business hours. This agent’s idea of setting priorities was different from mine, but what the hey.
When he called back a third time, he explained that he had to take that call because that was fiancée. His fiancée? Unless his girlfriend just fell off a ladder and broke her back, couldn’t he let the call go to voice mail? Of course, that’s just me and my way of setting priorities. And somebody did fall off a ladder, but it wasn’t his girlfriend. It was my friend in Texas. She sent me a text message that I spotted just as I was about to go out the door yesterday morning. I hadn’t yet tapped my messages and just read the message on my phone. I fell off a ladder, broke my back and both my legs. There was a telephone number for the hospital.
My immediate thought, given my cynical nature, was my web guy will do anything to get out of finishing the footer work on my home page and find an excuse for delaying it. Love him to pieces, but he seems too busy for me, and I’ve expressed that sentiment to him. But then, since there was a phone number, it must be something real. From whom? I quickly opened the text. And my heart fluttered. Freak out. How could I have possibly thought it was my web guy when it was my best friend from junior high who was in the hospital? Point being, this was the type of call to get off the phone for. That’s where I would be setting priorities.
Then, yesterday afternoon, another woman called about selling her home. When I answered my phone, she stuttered and said she thought she had reached voice mail and was ready to hang up. I replied, “No, no, no, you can’t hang up, you have to talk to me now because I answered my phone. Now that you have a live person, you are required to stay on your phone and talk.” I suspect she was stunned, before bursting out in laughter.
