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When the Seller is a No Show for a Curtis Park Agent
Front porch of a home in Curtis Park.
Although my calves ached like no tomorrow after our visit to Malakoff Diggins on Sunday, I showed up bright and early on Monday for a listing appointment in Curtis Park. I was to meet the owner of the home, and he had scheduled an appointment with the tenants. My husband says the reason my calves ache is due to the curse of the single-level home, but he doesn’t count our step-down family room which, if you count the step up to the living room as well as the kitchen could very well be steps.
I pulled up to the curb, crawled out of my vehicle and shouted out the address to the people sitting on the front porch because I could not see a house number. Is this the right house? I asked. Oh, yes, they replied but everything has been canceled. What? The seller had not called to make me aware of the cancellation. When he called, he said we met 10 years ago and while he did not buy a home, he was impressed with me.
I’ve come a long way in Sacramento real estate over the past 10 years, having moved from a Master’s Club member into mega-production territory, but I did not tell him that. I asked who else he was meeting with, and he told me. Asked if I had ever heard of the guy. The last time I heard of that guy was when his seller called me, no joke, and asked me to list her home in Curtis Park. She wasn’t happy with whatever he was doing and wanted to hire a different Curtis Park agent.
This realization didn’t hit me right away. It’s when I pulled up his last 12 month’s of production as a listing agent that I recognized the address of the property and looked the owner. Sure enough, same listing agent. That particular Curtis Park agent has listed and sold one house a month, whereas I have listed and sold more than one home a week over the past year throughout a four-county area. That person has been licensed for 5 years, and I’ve been working in real estate for 41 years. I believe sellers deserve a fair comparison.
I asked the tenants if I could tour the interior, since I was already there. Nope, no way, Jose, they said, tattooed arms folded. No can do. Uh uh. Not gonna happen. I continued to press and explain my situation. Because after all, there is a reason I have survived in real estate all of these years. I’m just a Curtis Park agent who would like to give the seller an estimate of value. Then I asked about something else and, voila, the doors to the home opened. Just like that. They gave me a personal tour.
The Reality of Television Characters Playing Real Estate Agents
Real estate agents are not accurately portrayed on most TV shows.
Because I have been in the real estate business since the 1970s, I have been involved in “old school” real estate, which has evolved into “new school” real estate, but many people do not understand real estate lingo nor the profession and draw impressions from previous decades. Some get false impressions from goofy TV characters playing real estate agents. Why would anybody really understand what’s going on in Sacramento real estate anyway unless they work in the business? They hear only bits and pieces from friends, and that’s not enough to put together the real story.
For example, a client asked why other agents are showing her house. Because I am the listing agent, she thought I would personally lead a parade of buyers through her home. I asked if she wanted me to practice dual agency because my recollection was she expected me to only represent her and not to represent a buyer. It became clear that she did not initially understand that listing agents who show homes to buyers typically represent those buyers and those types of agents, few and far between, work in dual agency.
Dual agency, meaning those listing agents are trying to get the seller the highest price for her home while they are simultaneously trying to get the buyer the lowest price, which is pretty much impossible. But it doesn’t stop some from engaging. They salivate over that double commission with dollar signs for eyeballs, and they are often the types shown on television sitcoms.
I reflect on the TV shows that show characters playing real estate agents — and apart from HGTV or Bravo Reality TV, which is often an embarrassment to the industry — most other television shows low-key it and also don’t really reflect reality. Who is a real estate agent on TV? Well, there’s Phil Dunphy on Modern Family. Enough said about that. I think Kramer from Seinfeld started out as a real estate agent. Yikes. In the comic strip, Hi and Lois, isn’t Lois an agent, although all she ever does is stick signs in the yard.
The public sees the abominable character assassinations of real estate agents on television and form the impression that’s how the real estate business is run. Because television characters playing real estate agents is pretty much a joke, along with the Reality TV Stars. Actually, the business is very entertaining on its own level, and it’s a shame the public doesn’t get to see what really goes on behind the scenes. But then documentaries don’t pull in the eyeballs like soap operas.
Sacramento Real Estate Woes Calmed by Trainwreck and Vampire Penguin
Sacramento Real Estate Market Snapshot through August 31, 2015
The news about the Sacramento real estate market is almost as frightening as the desserts served at Vampire Penguin on K Street over by the Capitol. I can always tell when something is happening in the real estate market because I sell such an unbelievable number of homes in Sacramento. If something is off or odd, I tend to notice it. At first I thought maybe it was due to the fact Labor Day fell in the second week of September instead of the first, which is why I elected to work from Hawaii over Labor Day week instead of from my office in Sacramento.
Usually, September is a super hot month for Sacramento real estate. But this month it has cooled off considerably. Oh, it’s still a seller’s market in Sacramento, if you can find any sellers, that is. The listing numbers have been greatly reduced, while the pending sales have gone through the roof.
What does that tell you? It shows a lot of buyer activity, and that buyers are now scrambling to get into a home before the end of the year and before interest rates go up. The median sales price has jumped from $255,000 in January of 2015 to $290,000, which remains stable from July. Inventory has been continually falling from July, which is odd. There are few listings.
I predict the trend in the Sacramento real estate market will continue. September pending sales are 2849 in residential for Sacramento County in MLS. There are only 3,079 for sale. Pendings rising, inventory falling. There is little to buy.
Buyers who are not working with a buyer’s agent are at a huge disadvantage and might not buy a home at all. These are the guys who think they can find listings on their own and negotiate with listing agents themselves, and they are not gonna make it that way. You need an agent. No two ways about it.
Strawberry cheesecake shaved snow dessert at Vampire Penguin is a winner!
My husband and I stopped by Vampire Penguin to sample shaved snow desserts on Sunday. I really should have ordered the strawberry cheesecake instead of a chocolate topped with caramel, which was fairly tasteless. The strawberry cheesecake, however, burst with flavor, especially with mango over vanilla. Doesn’t the dessert look fabulously weird? I give that strawberry cheesecake 2 thumbs and 2 big toes up.
We drove to Davis to see Trainwreck before it leaves the big screen. Amy Schumer was hilarious. I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard out loud at a movie all the way through. My husband warned that I would probably sit there and fret about my website coding, and squirm over the utter frustration it has caused, but while watching Trainwreck, I did not think about my website for one minute. Too busy laughing.
My advice, if the Sacramento real estate market is causing you stress, go see Trainwreck and then stop by Vampire Penguin for dessert. And if you’re thinking about selling your home in Sacramento, come over and sit down next to me. I’ll get the job done, and I’ve got 40 years of experience in this business. Call 916.233.6759 and get on board with the Elizabeth Weintraub Team.
Therapy Dogs, Suicide and Sacramento Real Estate
Therapy dogs are calming passengers at the Sacramento International Airport.
There are no safety guarantees in life and especially none in Sacramento real estate. For example, just when you think it’s safe to walk along the sidewalk in Los Angeles, a woman can fling herself out of a window with an intent to commit suicide and land on you. Will your insurance company try to assign contributory negligence to your claim because, in addition to looking ahead, and to the right and left, you neglected to look up at the sky?
This is a true story. A man was injured after a woman landed on him. She died. The woman jumped from the 11th floor of a hotel in Westchester and critically harmed a guy who was walking outside the Crowne Plaza Hotel at the Los Angeles International Airport, according to this suicide story in the Los Angeles Times. I mean, I worry sometimes about meteorites slamming into the earth but now I might have to pause and consider the possibility of human bodies falling from the sky.
A few months ago while driving Highway 99 to list a few homes in Elk Grove that afternoon, something fell from one of the overpasses on top of my husband’s car and put a big hole in his windshield. It could have been a squirrel for all I know except it would probably have to have been a mummified squirrel because there was no blood and the object was hard. It freaked me out a little bit, and then I realized I wasn’t driving my own car, heh, heh. Just kidding. No, wait.
Dealing with freaky things and stress is part of life in Sacramento real estate, I’ve come to learn over the decades I’ve been in the business. You just never know what will happen. You can only respond accordingly and professionally. I’ve noticed for some people, and by people I mean buyer’s agents, it means yelling, exploding and alienating everybody in the transaction. That’s just never been my style, and maybe that’s why I’ve lasted for so long. I accept responsibilities for my own acts and expect others to accept responsibility for theirs, although it doesn’t work that way for the other side.
Some people really need to calm down. I see they are also bringing volunteer therapy dogs to the Sacramento International Airport to calm passengers waiting in the terminal. It’s called the Boarding Area Relaxation Corps or BARC. The dogs are trained and brought to the airport by the Lend a Heart organization. They wear cute little vests that read: PET ME. It’s a good thing the dogs are wearing the vests because otherwise you wouldn’t know if they were a guide dog, and you can’t pet those kinds of dogs or their owners will bite you. I’ve tried, which is how I know this.
If only they could bring therapy dogs to a Sacramento real estate closing.
The Million Dollar Question About Interest Rates
Interest rates are overdue for a correction.
All eyes will be on the Federal Reserve today and whether short-term interest rates will finally get the boost we’ve all been expecting for years. The government has been tip-toeing around this issue for so long nobody can really predict when it will happen except that it’s got to happen eventually. Interest rates have been suppressed for way too long. I imagine you probably are a little shocked that a Sacramento Realtor would admit this, but it’s true. Mortgage rates have gotta go up.
Initially, yes, it will be put pressure on the entry-level market, but we need a healthy economy. People forget that we have not quite recovered in Sacramento. We still have homes underwater, we still have tons of those loan modifications that are adjusting right now, and many homeowners struggling to make those higher payments may end up doing the short sale they probably should have done years ago.
Some people who bought during 2007 to 2011 and now selling are making a profit, but those from 2004 to 2007 are still hurting.
Part of the opposition to rising interest rates probably stems from a long comfort level. Once you get used to something, it’s hard to remember the way it used to be. Like having to find a public pay phone when you’re out and need to make a call rather than reaching into your pocket to pull out a cell.
I recall in 1995 when my husband and I took out a loan on our previous home and were so thrilled, absolutely tickled pink to obtain a rate of 8%. Far cry from the double digits. I don’t know about you, but less than 1% return on a money market account or a CD is horrible. You may as well pack your mattress with cash, should you have any, that is.
It’s anybody’s guess where the Fed will move short-term rates today. But experts say the prediction is up, and it seems to be more likely now than previously. We are headed toward an economic recovery, and it sure would be nice to get there. On top of this, remember, historically, people still buy homes in Sacramento in spite of higher interest rates.
