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Another Sacramento Home Has Closed Escrow
Want to read about a Sacramento home that closed escrow without a hitch? It’s not often in this Sacramento real estate market that I am afforded the opportunity to gush about what a smooth transaction we just closed because in squirrelly times like the present, the real estate business is typically anything but smooth. The escrow that just closed, with the exception of the document delay on Wells Fargo’s end, presented no problems at all. It was a miracle, in retrospect. I will probably close more than 100 homes again this year and, when I can count smooth closings on one hand, I consider myself and those around me fortunate.
No agent is an island in this business. I might be a rock but I am not an island. I need my team members, escrow officer, transaction coordinator, lenders, title company, appraisers, office assistants and, most important, the agent on the other side to successfully close.
The trick is to not burden the client with every little hiccup in a transaction. That’s one of the reasons home sellers and buyers hire a Sacramento real estate agent — it’s to be a buffer. This doesn’t mean we don’t disclose what’s going on, but there are some behind-the-scenes situations that don’t affect the parties and the parties might be better off not hearing about it, until it closes, if ever. There is no reason on god’s green earth to make other people miserable if they can be spared.
That’s why Powers that Be created real estate agents. We are the ones who often bear the brunt of the transaction. We take the punches so our clients don’t have to.
The agent I worked with on this last transaction was wonderful. She worked tirelessly to meet the demands of the escrow, and I would eagerly work with her again in a heartbeat. Many agents are fabulous in this business and will do whatever it takes to close. In the beginning, though, her buyer was a little bit wary and not as optimistic as his agent.
The home that sold was newer, built in 2010, so we weren’t overly worried about defects or problems, although every single home on the face of the planet will have some kind of defect. There are no perfect homes out there. But because so many escrows lately have developed problems midway through after buyers discover a small defect and suddenly wanted to renegotiate or lower the price, the seller, on advice from a legal friend, elected to be upfront about what she expected. Cut off that behavior at the pass.
In the counter offer, she explained the Sacramento home was sold in its AS IS condition. Yes, that verbiage is in the contract, but few pay attention to it. She simply asked the buyer to agree not to request repairs nor try to renegotiate, regardless of what a home inspection may reveal. The buyer was worried that he could not cancel, but after he thought about it he realized that was not really a valid concern. The seller wanted assurance of some sort that when she removed her home from the market, the buyer would not continue to negotiate.
She wanted the AS IS clause to mean AS IS. Not maybe. There are buyers in Sacramento who have no intention of closing on the sales price they offer. They know it when they write the offer. These types of buyers plan to further reduce the price after the home has been removed from the market for a few weeks. That’s a sneaky way to do business.
Some buyers don’t know when the negotiations have ended. Some negotiations, on the the other hand, never end. But this one did. It stopped at the counter offer. The buyers agreed and the escrow closed, as they say in Shakespeare, without further ado, sigh no more.
Should the Buyer or Seller Order a Sacramento Pest Inspection?
Who pays what fee in a real estate transaction is negotiable in Sacramento, but there are customary fees that the parties generally pay, and a Sacramento pest inspection is no exception. For example, most sellers would not pay for a home inspection on the buyer’s behalf. A seller might order a pre-home inspection before putting the home on the market, but the buyer will still be advised to request and pay for her own home inspection.
Like with any legal matter, there are rules and guidelines to follow. Such as the seller can’t demand that the buyer use a certain title company, because that would be a RESPA violation. Buyers are certainly free to pay for their own title insurance policy and the lender’s title policy, and then the buyer can select the title. Most buyers won’t do it because a title policy is as good as the insurance backing it, and most of the companies who have bit the dust aren’t leading others into that grave at the moment, plus, those fees can top easily $2,000.
When it comes to a Sacramento pest inspection, though, it’s a common practice for the seller to pay for it. The problem that arises is when the buyer’s lender spots a pest report inspection as a condition of the purchase contract, the lender will want to receive a copy of the inspection. If there is work suggested, again, the lender will expect the work to be completed. Who pays for the work, whether it’s the buyer or the seller, is also negotiable. More often than not, though, it’s the seller who foots that bill.
It becomes a little more complicated when the seller has agreed in the purchase contract to sign the WPA, Wood Destroying Pest Addendum. Some buyer’s agents will include this document with their contract paperwork. A seller who agrees to sign an agreement to complete pest work for which the seller has not yet received a report is a seller who could be suddenly responsible to pay thousands of dollars.
Lately, the practice has been not to include any reference to a pest report in the purchase contract. This is not to say that if the buyer’s appraiser spots a condition of dry-rot or suspects infestation, that the appraiser won’t “call it out” on the appraisal, because the appraiser might.
In the opinion of this Sacramento real estate agent, when representing the buyer as a buyer’s agent, it’s generally better to let the buyer pay for the Sacramento pest inspection report, and allow the buyer to choose his or her own pest company. Then, if repairs are noted, the buyer can negotiate for the repairs with the seller. This does not apply to a short sale, btw. Buyers are on their own in a short sale, no repairs. But with a regular transaction, the buyer has the option to ask the seller to pay for the repairs or agree to a closing credit and finish the repairs after closing, or if the seller refuses, to just suck it up and deal with it later.
Most sellers will give the buyers a closing credit because a) if the deal fell apart due to the pest repair negotiation, the next buyer would receive a copy of the pest inspection and that buyer might demand the same thing, and b) escrow won’t be delayed while everybody waits for the pest company to finish the work and c) the buyers might be able to complete some of the work themselves after closing and save a little bit.
On the other hand, if the buyer pays for the pest report and the deal falls apart, those pest inspections stay on record for two years at the Pest Control Board. The seller is now stuck with a pest inspection report from a company that the seller might not feel has done the best job possible. There is controversy around pest companies that issue reports and also accept payment for completion work.
Just stuff to think about before allowing your agent to automatically include in the purchase contract that the seller will pay for the pest report. You might want to reconsider how it has always been handled. If an agent is representing the seller, it might be a good idea for the agent to advise the seller to order the pest before receiving a purchase contract. That was the seller is in control. Likewise, if an agent is representing a buyer, the agent might recommend the buyer pay for a pest inspection as part of the inspections allowed under paragraph 14b1.
It depends on which side of the fence an agent sits.
If you take the last route, be sure to let the seller know a pest inspection is in the works. Otherwise, your pest inspector might meet that old guy out in the yard, waving his fist and screaming for the pest inspector to stop poking holes in his house.
Bazooka Joe Bubble Gum vs Dubble Bubble Gum
If my mother knew that Bazooka Bubble Gum had fired Bazooka Joe and removed the comic wrapper from the gum package last year, she’d rise up from her ashes scattered at Hillside Cemetery in Minneapolis and lead a flag-waving march all the way to Topps headquarters in New York. I was never a fan of Bazooka Bubble Gum but my mother bought that gum by the busloads, way before Sam’s Club was around. It wasn’t really acceptable behavior for a University Advisor to chew gum, which is probably one of the reasons she did it.
Bazooka Bubble Gum had kind of a nasty flavor. It was also way too much gum in my mouth. I found I had to break it off into little pieces and, when one finished chewing it, after the flavor had vanished, it was fairly uncomfortable to swallow it. Sort of felt like a big ol’ wad of rubber sitting at the bottom of your stomach with no place to go. Unlike, say, swallowing a piece of Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun, Doublemint. Is it spearmint or peppermint flavor? Nobody knows for certain. Wikipedia says probably peppermint.
Can’t say I ever spotted Doublemint stuck under a desk like the ubiquitous wads of Bazooka Bubble Gum. Kids stuck gum in their hair or maybe that memory involved my sister whose gum rolled out of her mouth at night and stuck to her pillow case, eventually winding up in her hair. Can’t scrape the stuff off the bottom of your shoes. Lighter fluid worked well for gum removal. For a short period in my life, it seemed that pink bubble gum was everywhere I traveled. Can you imagine putting lighter fluid in your hair today?
If Bazooka Bubble Gum wasn’t available where my mom sent us kids to buy her bubble gum down at the corner store, then we were instructed to bring home Dubble Bubble. But that just didn’t hold a candle to Bazooka Bubble Gum. Dubble Bubble just wasn’t the same.
If you’re looking for an authentic Sacramento real estate agent with her finger on the pulse of real estate in Sacramento, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759. Although I no longer chew gum, if I had to, I can walk and chew gum at the same time.
Using Common Sense in Sacramento Real Estate
Common sense mixed with the truth must be a wild concept to some. I wish people would quit thanking me for being honest with them, because the message they’re really sending is they expected that I would lie. It’s not that I couldn’t lie if I wanted to because, let’s face it, I sell real estate in Sacramento and just to be successful in that profession there is a certain amount of enhancing the truth to push product; it’s the spin. Can’t be in marketing without the spin. But it’s that I don’t go out of my way to make up crap because a) it’s stupid and wrong, b) I’d have to remember it, and c) it’s easier just to tell the truth.
Years ago I had a girlfriend who was a pathological liar. You couldn’t believe a word that came out of her mouth. I don’t know if she lived in a fantasy world or just liked to fool people but she’d tell the most outrageous stories to complete strangers, and none of it was true. We’d meet cute guys at a party and she’d tell them we were flight attendants or we lived in Japan. There was no reason for it. Guys who are 22 don’t really care what you do for a living when they are seized by hormones.
Personally, I find being truthful rewarding. It’s second nature. It’s not that I don’t know when to keep my lips zipped, because I do, but the older I get, the more I enjoy telling people what I think. I say things at times that other people wish they could say but they haven’t yet given themselves permission to do so. This is one of the freeing benefits of aging. We give ourselves permission to speak our mind. They don’t tell you about this in Sunday school.
Not that I’m out there in my yard waving my fists at kids and yelling get offa my lawn you hoodlums, and that little pooping chihuahua with you, too. Reality and protocol are still embedded. But I will tell people what I believe.
Of the five senses, common is my favorite.
Like this guy yesterday from somewhere in the Northeast, maybe New Jersey. He wanted to know when he should do a price reduction on this home. It was listed with an agent. He poured out the entire listing history in his email, including suggestions made by his agent, which he had been ignoring. My-oh-my, whatever should he do?
He should listen to his real estate agent and stop asking for direction from strangers on the other side of the country.
Then, an elderly fellow called to talk about his friend whose husband had died, and he thought maybe his friend should do a short sale. I looked up the information in records that are not accessible to the public and easily sized up the situation. Yes, his friend was upside down but there was no reason for her to short sale. She wasn’t responsible for the mortgages. She should get out of title. I suggested he obtain legal advice. I was looking at it from his friend’s point of view, which was why go through the hassle and misery if you don’t have to?
See, common sense pertains to so many things. And it applies to Sacramento real estate as well. While it would be nice to lounge about and dispense sage advice all day while being fanned and fed seedless grapes, the fact is my job is to sell real estate.
Why Buyer Feedback From a Sacramento Agent is Crucial
An agent who sells real estate in some other state said that he doesn’t “waste time” anymore responding to agent requests for feedback. His position is if an agent didn’t know enough about his marketplace or his listing, it was not that agent’s job nor anybody else’s job to educate the guy. You know, that kind of thinking seems sort of narrow minded to me. I’m glad he doesn’t sell real estate in Sacramento.
Agent feedback is often crucial on so many levels. Take for example the seller who thinks her home is worth more than it is actually worth. Watching days on market accrue might mean little to the seller. The seller might point her finger at the listing agent and demand to know why the agent isn’t doing more to market her home, when the real problem is the sales price is too danged high. Well, agent feedback, email after email after email, filled with buyer’s agents all saying the same thing speaks volumes.
Sometimes, an agent will point out a defect that nobody else can put a finger on. The listing agent might suspect there is something odd about the home, but neither she nor the seller can readily identify it. Not every person looks at a home in an identical manner. Take pet owners, for example. We don’t often notice smells from our own pets, but a person who doesn’t own a pet, bingo, they’ll immediately notice a scent.
Other times an agent might tell me that it was beginning to rain, so she closed a window. I can pass on that information to let the seller know we are looking out for her. It’s not just me, it’s my coworkers, the agents with whom I am proud to associate. We can all make each other look good and watch out for each other.
My clients appreciate the fact that I send them comments from agents who have showed their home. Is it too much to ask a buyer’s agent to share her buyer’s thoughts with a fellow agent? Especially when a seller has gone that extra step and allowed strangers into her home via a lockbox while she was at work. Lockboxes are a convenience for buyer’s agents, and sellers don’t have to utilize them.
I always try to provide buyer feedback to a listing agent if I am asked for an opinion. It only takes a second to click “reply” and type a line or two. I figure it’s a small thing, and it can mean so much to a listing agent. We’re all in this business together. No agent is an island, and I don’t care how successful she is. I hope the agent who refuses to give buyer feedback never finds himself in the position of listing a home.
