Email Elizabethsacramento real estate
Will Discount Internet Real Estate Bokerages Replace Local Realtor Expert?
Will discount internet real estate brokerages replace local Realtor experts? We recently took a listing as a seller found us online. She had previously been on the market three months. Poor seller made the mistake of hiring a discount internet Realtor.
She said they told her to buy a vendor combination key box, and she made flyers and showed the property. The property sat for these months while the seller made three house payments, paid HOA fees, utilities and maintenance costs. These ongoing expenses were triple the amount she potentially would have saved. If a property doesn’t sell with a discount brokerage, it doesn’t mean much. Happens a lot.
We took the listing, immediately staged the home and started our complete marketing plan. Our open houses generated several opportunities and we put the house in escrow within 30 days with a fabulous offer. The seller was thrilled and so appreciative. The best money she spent was . . . wait for it, hiring a quality local area real estate team!
Will discount internet real estate brokerages replace a local Realtor expert? Not likely. Self help real estate does not work. We were thrilled to sell this property for the seller.
If you would like to buy or sell a real property, call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors with REMAX Gold. We can be reached at 916-233-6759.
– JaCi Wallace
The Last Sacramento Sunday In June
The last Sacramento Sunday in June is fast approaching. The summer weather is upon us, and with it comes the constant need for air conditioning. The vegetable gardens are now in full swing after a slow start. A summer real estate market is bustling, and there are some excellent properties available.
This is a perfect time to list your home. The sky photographs so beautifully blue with the bright sun. The flowers are budding in brilliant colors, and the pastures have turned into fields of honey wheat. The photographs of the new listings are stunning, but then that’s another blog. A Sacramento Sunday is always busy with open houses, presenting offers, emails, phone calls and marketing. As one week closes a new one begins and there is such excitement looking forward to the possibilities of the new week.
If want to buy or list your home this is a great time to call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors with RE/MAX Gold, at 916-233-6759.
— JaCi Wallace
Can a Con Artist Swindle a Buyer and Move Her Across State Lines?
Can a con artist swindle a buyer and move her across state lines? Yes, evidently. I previously met a buyer on Zillow. She was relocating from Texas to Sacramento. We talked for months before her visit. She said both she and her husband were moving here as she had family in the area. Her husband had inherited several million dollars from outside the USA from a deceased relative. He was about to retire as an engineer on an oil tanker job at sea.
She was interested in looking at homes for sale in Sacramento. Their attorney was finalizing the transfer of funds to the U.S. What a sweet person she was. She had retired a few years prior and said that her husband was much younger with a thick accent. He was raising two young children as his wife had tragically died young, leaving his kids motherless.
In the two days of showing her property, she talked more about the situation. Several things struck me as very odd about her husband. She had never met any of his friends or family. He was virtually a ghost. She had never seen a driver’s license, a credit card, in fact, no papers whatsoever were ever observed. He left no belongings at her home on his visits, he came and went with just a suitcase.
Before driving out to Sacramento, she packed all of her belongings. The movers put them on a truck to be delivered to her husband’s home in the Bay Area. He owned a home there as his young kids were in a Bay Area boarding school. She had not yet met his kids. She drove to the Bay Area to meet the moving van. There was not a key when she arrived, so she called a locksmith and went in.
A short time later, a man showed up walked in the front door. He asked her, “Who are you; what are you doing in my house?” He showed her his rental agreement, guess what happened next? The owner was not her husband. She said there must be some mistake? The current owners did not know her husband. Wow. How can a con man swindle a buyer? Marry her and then disappear.
My buyer called her husband and he answered. She confronted him about the rental. He said it was all a big mistake and claimed he was forced back out to sea and hung up. Was her marriage legal? She doesn’t know if that is his real name. Can a con artist swindle a buyer? It’s possible.
She searched his name on Facebook and other sites. She was now sleeping in her car as she was so embarrassed. The moving company had all her worldly possessions, and she had no money to ship things back to Texas. I offered to put her up in a hotel, but she said no thank you as it was time to go home. She had her little dog and said they were leaving to go back to Texas. Luckily, her home had not yet sold.
As fate would have it, another woman had posted about him on a website. She posted a warning to beware he was a fraud. He had reportedly told this other woman he was in the Black Sea of Mexico and found a bag of cash on a ship. He asked her for money to pay the fees to move the cash. Red flags. This other victim immediately became suspicious and tracked down the URL on his email address; it was in Africa.
Mary (let’s call her) and I are ongoing Facebook pen pals. She is doing fine now and much more careful. Caring for the people we help is an ongoing responsibility we take seriously. As Realtors, we may not always sell a home on every appointment, but perhaps we have an opportunity to show compassion. Weintraub & Wallace Realtors with RE/MAX Gold look forward to helping you with your real estate dreams. We can be reached at 916-233-6759.
–JaCi Wallace
Wordless Wednesday in Sacramento
A Wordless Wednesday in Sacramento.
If you would like to hire a team of real estate professionals who use every ounce of energy in a given day to ensure your home closes escrow, call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors at RE/MAX Gold, 916-233-6759.
— JaCi Wallace
Real Estate Contracts Using Digital Signatures Like DocuSign
Real estate contracts using digital signatures like DocuSign can be an excellent tool, or it can be a real pain. Yesterday was a prime example. We received a purchase contract on one of our listings in the morning. We sent it out for digital signatures. Our seller had signed it but evidently didn’t click on the finish button. This stalled the entire process. I contacted our seller, but he said he had completed the process and could not finish it. I logged on to DocuSign, and it was not complete. What to do?
Though he was the only legal signature required for his corporation, he also has a silent partner. He informed me he wanted them both to sign the agreement as well. We uploaded the second signer and sent it out again for signatures. Still, no completion alert came in the email. The second attempt had also stalled yet again. Also, the purchase contract had now expired. It is feeling a bit like Groundhog Day at this point.
Signing real estate contracts using Digital signatures like DocuSign was undoubtedly proving to be a challenge for our sellers. DocuSign email also can only sign one person at a time before it is automatically sent to the next person to sign. I always sign first, so I know it went out. The second signer, the managing partner, seemed to be having issues. Or, perhaps he wanted to see his partners’ signatures before he signed? I decided to upload the purchase contract yet again and add my extension of time addendum, which included verbiage: “this is an as-is sale, the roof and pest damage would not be repaired.”
Third time is the charm. I decided to place the second partner of the corporation into first place as a signer, so the managing partner would sign last. it is now 6 PM as the partners were busy during the day. This time It worked like a charm. The purchase agreement came back fully signed. We are now in escrow. Technology is helpful, but it can not replace human interaction. DocuSign could not know to add on another buyer. It does not resend when stalled with the second party. Also, it is not intuitive, so it could not figure out what was needed as there was another factor that had not been communicated; the managing partner needed to see the second partner’s signature, before feeling comfortable to sign.
Maybe someday DocuSign will be able to ask questions and complete the process without human intervention. These are not new glitches, and they’ve not corrected this glitch in the last 17 years. I was the first Realtor to use a laptop and digital signature in my office. I had a buyer friend, Jason Smith, and he worked in the technology field. He wanted to buy a home in the Phoenix Field area of Fair Oaks. He said, ” You do use digital signatures, right?” I replied, ” I do now.” I logged on and used it for the first time. Jason signed the offer, and within two hours, including showing the property, I had the proposal sent to the agent’s email. The offer was accepted within 10 minutes. I knew at that moment, my life as a Realtor was about to change in a big way.
Before DocuSign-type technology was available, I had been delivering offers in person or by fax. I no longer use a fax machine. My transaction coordinator has e-fax in the event a client who is not comfortable with digital signatures needs to fax. The moral of this story, technology can expedite; however, in this case, I could have driven to the two partners’ homes, obtained the signatures and scanned them to the buyer’s agent in less time than the digital process had taken yesterday.
If you want to buy or sell using digital signatures, call us as we never give up. We will sign you in person or use fax if needed, whatever it takes. Call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors at RE/MAX Gold, 916-233-6759.
— JaCi Wallace
