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Abalone and Purchase Offers Are Hot in Hawaii
View from dinner at the Coast Grille, Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel
All it takes in the Sacramento real estate business sometimes is to leave town and your real estate business will suddenly heat up. The reason I chose this particular time period to visit Hawaii is because of Labor Day, reasoning that things will be fairly quiet and not quite so hectic. Of course, homes that for one reason or another have been difficult to sell are suddenly HOT. I’ve received offers for 3 of those homes. And one of them has multiple offers.
It means I will lie on the beach later today and not quite so early as I normally would, but that’s perfectly fine. I can hardly complain that I’m typing away on my computer when the view just over the monitor is of those fragrant Tahiti trees and rolling surf pounding the shore.
Later today I have a lomilomi massage lined up and a crabfest tonight, so you’ll probably hear about that tomorrow, while I move into the events from yesterday. First, my room has a somewhat musty smell, no wonder since it’s located the other side of the South 40. I am as far away as a person can get from the main activities. I checked at the front desk to see if there was a better room available and was offered a room with queen beds, but the same room with queen beds instead of a king wasn’t enough to make me pack up everything and move. Besides, that room has been overly deodorized and it smelled terrible.
I can settle the issue by opening all of my windows and balcony doors and leaving them that way. Problem solved. They checked the filter and it is brand new. The carpeting is new. The room has been remodeled, and the poor maintenance guy had to listen to me carry on about why didn’t they install hardwood flooring when they remodeled or hang drapes over the plantation shutters? Well, that’s probably why this hotel is rated 4-star and not a 5-star hotel.
It seems every time I deviate from a 5-star there are disappointments. But I can find things wrong with 5-star hotels as well. LOL.
Marinated abalone sliced in the shell and served on a bed of sea greens.
Check out the abalone I had for dinner last night in the photo above. This was an incredible dish that I almost did not order because abalone are endangered and I prefer to support sustainable fishing. I was assured this particular abalone is renewable and farmed locally, not grown in the wild. It was marinated, meaning it was raw, and complemented by a spicy sauce, sliced very thin. I waited until I was down to the last forkful before shooting a photo.
I considered taking the shell with me but that wasn’t a practical thought. Seriously, what would I do with an abalone shell?
Top 7 Things You Should Know about the California Residential Purchase Agreement
There is much more to the California Residential Purchase Agreement than the sales price.
Somewhere in the early 1980s I decided to create my own purchase contract to use for sellers and buyers of California real estate. Granted, I was then as I am now a real estate broker and not a lawyer, not licensed to practice law, which writing your own residential purchase contract most certainly falls into, but it was pretty much the Wild West back then as compared to today. Today, I wouldn’t dream of doing such a thing. OK, maybe I’d dream it, but I most certainly would not attempt it. Forty years of experience teaches us a few things, which includes looking back at the idiots we once were.
The thing about writing your own purchase contracts is when a term of the contract is in print, people tend not to challenge it. It seems too official. Unless, of course, we’re talking about the California Residential Purchase Agreement and Joint Escrow Instructions. In which case, nobody even reads it, especially not many Sacramento Realtors. Oh, sure, S.A.R. offers classes on the purchase contract, or the RPA as we call it, but how completely boring — where is the sparkle and pizazz, agents cry.
I’m not sure they realize this is the document that can keep you out of court, out of litigation, and it protects your clients, which are very good reasons in my mind to know the contents of that purchase contract forward and backward. But you know how some people are, la-tee-da guys. If they can figure out where their clients should initial and sign, they figure they’re ahead of the game. Even if it’s the clients that suffer.
So the following tips are for our Sacramento clients. I advise clients to read the purchase contract. Perhaps, ask your agent to give you a copy of the contract before you make an offer on property. Often, there is not enough time for a marathon reading session prior to writing an offer, especially in the midst of multiple offers, which can happen in this seller’s market. Read it in advance. Pay special attention to the following particulars:
- Closing date. It’s noted on page 1 in paragraph D. If you can’t meet your closing date, your contract could expire and the seller might not renegotiate with you.
- Paragraph 3-J-3: By contract default, the buyer has 21 days to remove a loan contingency and cancel a contract without penalty. That time period is negotiable.
- Paragraph 7: Some fees the seller may agree to pay are based on local custom and vary from county to county. Also, realize that although it’s “customary” for a seller and buyer to pay certain fees, “who pays what” is also negotiable.
- Paragraph8: Describes fixtures and notes personal property to stay with the home. Sacramento sellers, did you just give away your refrigerator without realizing it?
- Paragraph 9: Is the buyer an investor or a person who will live in the home? On what specific day and time do the sellers or tenants have to move out?
- Paragraph 14-B1: By contract default, the buyer has 17 days to complete home inspections and cancel the contract without penalty. That time period is negotiable.
- Paragraph 31: How long does the seller have to accept an offer and at which point is the contract considered accepted? Many agents forget to enter their own name in this spot, which means the contract is not legally delivered until the buyer receives it.
This list is by no means comprehensive, but it hits the highlights of the top negotiable items in the California Residential Purchase Agreement. The devil is in the details. It extends beyond the purchase price.
Listicles, Drones, James Taylor and Rude Home Sellers
Drones are the hottest thing in aerial photography for homes in Sacramento
For some labrador-squirrel-jerk reason, I found myself distracted the other day by 9 Things James Taylor Will Never Understand, and laughing myself silly. Oh, wait, I do recall why I ended up on that website when I have so many other more important tasks at hand: real estate-related stuff to do for my clients and also to research how to become a Known Traveler (from Sacramento, you have to go to San Francisco) to avoid those long lines at U.S. Customs.
I googled the term “listicles” because I have been asked by About.com to write such a thing for a new campaign.
Turns out I’ve been writing listicles all along for years and never realized it. Listicles are helpful content that is short, sweet and easily digested, generally numbered with subheads.
For example, I could write about the top 5 things to love and hate about drones. I love drones because they definitely help to market my listings in Sacramento. I get aerial views not otherwise available unless I were flying overhead myself in a helicopter and clutching a puke bag. The photos show geography surrounding my listing, including whether the roof needs to be replaced. Obviously, I would not include drone photography if the home backed up to a school or a commercial building.
I also have this vision in my brain of the future of drones, when Amazon and Pizza Hut begin employing drones, and how they might fill the airspace over your house, buzzing about like annoying dune buggies on the beach. Bite my shiny metal ass, you’ll probably mutter as you stare up at the skies in amazement. Drones can be irritating.
It would be nice, though, if drones could carry your packages without the packaging. Because we order so much stuff online nowadays, the recycling centers have got to be bulging due to all of this excess cardboard and packaging materials. Right now we have 9 boxes sitting on the floor at our living room entrance, delivered by UPS from a pet food supplier. Trying to find time today to unpack those boxes will prove as difficult as trying to find space in our recycling can for the waste packaging.
Much as I moan, you’ve got to agree, though that a guy who writes I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song; I just can’t remember who to send it to, surely should win the prize for Top 10 Stupid Song Lyrics. Plus, if I had a drone handy, I could have it sent over to south Sacramento yesterday to verify my listing appointment with certain Sacramento home sellers. Instead, I tossed my jeans, dressed up and prepared a listing package for a seller who couldn’t even open the door wide enough, as I stood on her front steps juggling a Supra iBox, my camera equipment and her listing paperwork, to properly explain over the noise of her barking dogs why the appointment was canceled and she forgot to mention it.
I can count with 2 fingers, not the peace sign, mind you, but the poke-in-the-eyes two fingers, how many times that has ever happened in my Sacramento real estate career. Those sellers don’t realize it, but they need me more than I need them. This woman today is on her own.
Saying Goodbye to Minneapolis with Brunch at Nicollet Island Inn
Elizabeth Weintraub, Adam Weintraub, Margaret Burgard and Laura Burgard at Nicollet Island Inn
When one wakes up late in the morning, still on California time, with only a few hours left to spend in Minneapolis before flying home to Sacramento, she has a few choices to make. One includes lunch. The other is trying to see her brother — the guy who stopped communicating shortly after their mother died in 2002 and, for reasons known only to him has, ever since he stopped drinking in 1974, always kept his distance, but is now dying from 4th-stage lung cancer. Don’t feel sorry for me, this type of family dysfunctional behavior is not entirely uncommon.
Before we landed in Minneapolis two days earlier, I had asked my sister to try to set up a time that we could get together with my brother, but that didn’t happen. Believe it or not, I did not have my brother’s phone number in my cell. I also could not find it online until I searched under his wife’s name and finally called him myself on Sunday. We talked for a half hour. Some childhood recollections came up, between treatment and outlook. About the permanent lead dot in my left arm –where he stabbed me with a pencil because I blurted out he received a prize he didn’t deserve, which I had expected to win, as my self esteem was higher. He worked into the conversation his new dental bridge, which replaced a crown covering the tooth he had broken off in my forehead.
The conversation was like we had just spoken yesterday.
He would not be joining us for brunch. We would not be visiting him. He is hopeful about his chemotherapy. My sister says we all know how Breaking Bad ends.
Icon of Grain Belt Beer on Hennepin Bridge
After that, a woman from Alameda called who is planning to move to the riverfront in Sacramento and wanted to talk about options. I referred her to my team member; we checked out of the hotel and hailed a cab to the Nicollet Island Inn.
Life goes on.
Many people do not know that there is an island in the Mississippi near downtown Minneapolis. Even people like me who are native to the area. They just drive over Hennepin from Northeast heading downtown and cross the river, little stretch of land and cross the river again, oblivious. If you stop, there you will discover the Nicollet Island Inn, a quaint and charming restored restaurant, bar and hotel, originally a door company in the late 1800s.
Reception area at the Nicollet Island Inn, Minneapolis
The brunch at Nicollet Island Inn is fairly reasonable, $20 for 3-course brunch and $29 for 5-course. In my opinion, there is no better brunch in Minneapolis. The food is excellent, the view is unbeatable, nestled on the riverbank with a view of two bridges. It’s near a place by Saint Anthony Falls where my sister, brother and I used to go, a place where kids would throw firecrackers into the water to blow up the fish. We had discovered in the 1960s a tree log lying on the ground at a spot nicknamed Lost Park and the three of us dragged it home to make a cat tree for our Siamese.
My niece, Laura, joined us for brunch. I tried to tell her she would do well in real estate as she seems a bit directionless at the moment, having just finished her 2-year AA. She has this notion, though, that one needs to conform and “sell out” to do well in real estate, and well, let’s just say her aunt is a solid example that the idea of sacrificing your identity is a falsehood. I am a top producer in Sacramento real estate. You don’t have to compromise who you are to succeed in real estate.
Real estate does teach one, though, how to cope with life’s disappointments.
Reasons to Review Sacramento MLS Before Showing
Always review MLS for status before showing
The good news is this morning the elk head that was sitting in my family room has gone to its new home at the Elk’s Lodge in Sacramento. Sometimes I feel like my life is a TV sitcom. As though I am but a mere viewer, sitting on a stool at a bar, glass of bourbon in hand, neat, and watching the goofy antics of some other Sacramento Realtor and not myself.
The bad news is I had 2 cancellations to deal with before the sun rose, but like my blog of yesterday, good news is often on the tail end of bad, and one of those cancellations is back in escrow with a new buyer. That home never saw the light of day back in MLS because I keep meticulous records of interested parties. When one collapses, another can slide right in.
My client who shot the elk will get a nice donation letter from the Elk’s Lodge, which she can most likely use as a tax deduction on her income taxes because she technically made a contribution to a charitable organization. Even if the elk did park itself temporarily to live on my family room floor. And thousands of US Service women and men can now appreciate Elkie daily. It is a fitting home for him.
I wish I could solve all of the problems we face in Sacramento real estate like this. The most pressing issue lately has been real estate agents and Sacramento REALTORS who do not read the MLS property information sheets they print. It seems like such a simple thing to do, just read the property data and the confidential remarks. If there are attachments to MLS, download them by clicking on the paperclip. Yet, I’d venture to guess that at least 1 out of every 3 agents do not.
The worst violation is showing instructions. They don’t seem to know that Call First Lockbox means call the seller (and not the agent) when the seller’s name and number are listed. If we meant Call Listing Agent, then that box would be checked instead, and the instructions would be Call Listing Agent. But that can be ambiguous if the listing agent doesn’t complete the listing correctly as well. The worst showing instruction violation, though, is when the buyer’s agent just sails into the house without calling, and it’s occupied. Hello?
I want to get down on my hands and knees and plead, please please read MLS showing instructions. Don’t use the Supra lockbox and unlock the door if you haven’t read the instructions for showing. Because you know who the seller blames when this happens? I lost a listing last week because a seller completely freaked out when an agent did not call and tried to enter his home unannounced. It almost makes me want to go back to the days of no lockboxes, when you had to pick up a key at the listing office.
If in doubt, review the MLS before entering a home. It’s that simple. Just double check yourself. While you’re standing near the lockbox, read the instructions one more time. I realize the MLS app for the iPhone 6 Plus seems messed up but it can work in a browser window like Safari. Believe it, many buyer’s agents are using worthless apps to access information from their mobile devices (like Trulia and Zillow), but only MLS shows the correct information. Please use it.
