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Week of Highlights for a Sacramento Realtor
What a busy week of highlights for a Sacramento Realtor. Have you ever wondered what a top producer does all week? Well, I managed to take two new listings and sell them, with all that entails. Fast strategies, professional photos, tweaking, uploading, writing, managing and publishing last Wednesday. That included promoting both listings at my midtown Lyon Real Estate office meeting and obtaining preview comments from touring agents. Which of course I passed on to my respective sellers.
There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes for a listing agent. Answering buyer calls, calling buyer’s agents, discussing the property, details, providing suggestions for offers. On Wednesday, for example, I worked from 7 AM to 8 PM; until taking off for Ella Dining Room and Bar for Valentine’s Day with my husband. Our main course arrived on plates reeking of bleach. The bleach smell was enormous. We both noticed it. When we brought this to the attention of the waiter, we were told perhaps we were unaccustomed to the smell of truffles.
Geez, Louise. Fairly insulting on so many levels. Makes ya wanna smack ’em. Ella servers should have just apologized, removed the offensive plates and apologized again. Instead we were drilled. Told we were wrong. I was unhappy with the service and vocal but my husband was less upset. Well, he is from Chicago. I would never treat any of my real estate clients that way by arguing over such nonsense.
Earlier in the day I visited a home in Carmichael to assess value and figure out why the public records do not match the configuration. The highlights for a Sacramento Realtor week always include listing appointments. The Carmichael property contains a duplex and a single family home on one lot. I also visited another home in Natomas on Thursday to assess that particular situation. Parking was at a premium when I pulled up, so I left my car at an angle in the driveway. Blocking a car that wasn’t going anywhere anyway.
The seller had another listing appointment after me, although I told her it’s fine as they will pale in comparison. Ha! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. When I left, I noticed a man and woman walking in circles in the street who suddenly made a beeline toward the house. I guess they noticed my name on my license plate, so that made me chuckle. I’d be worried if I were them. But I’m not them. I hopped in the car and stopped at a store on my way home. A place I had never been in Natomas. It was getting dark. My phone jingled when I got out of the car, so I started reading my emails as I walked toward the store.
Hey, nobody expects a handmade speed bump in the middle of a parking lot but I stumbled directly into it. Just like a cartoon character. Down I went on the pavement, knees first. Still holding my cellphone, the backside of my phone case slammed into the asphalt. Thank goodness I wasn’t wearing heels but flat shoes. Phone saved. My hands will heal. Case is still intact, too. Yay! Can’t be without a cellphone. Not and still have enjoy highlights for a Sacramento Realtor.
Friday morning, time to take our new kitty to the vet for the last of his shots. He has a name now, Ziggy. For Ziggy Stardust. The cat clinic insisted he come for an office visit before I could schedule a neuter appointment. They want to meet him first and charge me for an office visit. However, the appointments to neuter at River City Cat Clinic in Land Park are scheduled out to mid-March. Bradshaw Animal Hospital it is. Whatever happened to: here, neuter this kitten? You kids get offa my lawn.
Walking in the door with Ziggy back at my home office, I received an offer for one of my listings. Later in the day, another offer, followed by another. Working those listings, yeah! Three offers and two listings. One buyer obviously didn’t make it, but I managed to put my two listings from Wednesday into pending status on Friday. Geez, we didn’t even make it to the open house. This is what happens when everything is dialed in and systems are in place.
I also closed two listings this past week. Two condos. One at Woodside Oaks on Wednesday, the Alicante Villas, and another condo at 4800 Westlake Parkway in Natomas on Friday. Definitely need more listings. Good thing I’ve got more appointments set up for this coming week. I would hate to get bored and have to work on my taxes.
Affordable 3 Bedroom Sacramento Pocket Condo at Roundtree
802 Roundtree Court, Sacramento, CA 95831 is a condo in the Pocket.
Here is the 3 bedroom Sacramento Pocket condo you’ve been waiting for. The HOA dues are affordable and you get a community swimming pool and clubhouse. This is the Roundtree Association, just south of Gloria Drive off of Florin. The dues are $255 per month. Plus, you’ll find easy access to freeways and to downtown Sacramento, which means you will love the location. It’s one of the communities that always looks so tidy and well kept. A place you would be proud to live.
This Sacramento Pocket condo is a two-story, with all of the bedrooms on the second floor. It’s laid out more like a townhome than a condo, with a front door and a back door. There is also an enclosed patio in the front and a back enclosed patio, so you get a little bit of the outdoor environment.
When you come in the back door, you’ll enter the kitchen area, with granite-looking counters and it is fully equipped. This means you get a free-standing microwave on the counter, a built-in refrigerator, electric range and a dishwasher. You will find a dining bar on the other side in the formal dining area. The living room is enormous. Plus, there is a half bath on this level. Perfect for entertaining.
The master bedroom is bigger than the other two bedrooms, and each features newer carpeting and ceiling fans with light fixtures. There is a full updated bath on this level, with a separate tub, a separate shower, and a long vanity.
You get a covered parking spot right outside the back door, so it’s not too far to carry groceries to your Sacramento Pocket condo from the car. When I was there preparing my inspection, it was very quiet for a Saturday afternoon.
What else can I say? How about this? You owe it to yourself to come to our open house on Sunday, February 18th, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM, hosted by Josh Amolsch from the Elizabeth Weintraub Team. If you like, you can see the virtual tour here.
802 Roundtree Court, Sacramento, CA 95831, is offered exclusively by Elizabeth Weintraub and Lyon Real Estate at $210K. Please call Elizabeth at 916.233.6759 for more information.
Overview of Sacramento Housing Market for January 2018
Sacramento housing market for January 2018.
January has barely left us, and the snapshot of the Sacramento housing market for January 2018 mirrors pretty much what I have been experiencing. Some of you know, of course, that I spent the months of December and January working from my house in Hawaii. Not on Hawaii real estate as some incorrectly assume. I am not licensed to sell real estate in Hawaii. No, no, no, I am a Sacramento Realtor, and I work on Sacramento real estate from our vacation house.
I do such a bang-up job of it that I placed as the #1 Agent at Lyon Real Estate for January, and I wasn’t even in town. To put this into perspective, we have around 1,000 agents at Lyon.
Our Sacramento housing market for January 2018 is still red hot. One of the ways I can tell is buyer’s agents are calling me to ask if I will share details of upcoming listings. Complete strangers out of the blue. Most of these agents I don’t even know, but they know who I am. They also know I answer my phone, and I’m always working. I tend to sell a couple of homes a week. And last week I completed 5 listing appointments. I have others in the pipeline waiting to go live in MLS. Buyers are out there.
I’ll put it to you this way. When I have a pending listing that is a bit difficult to sell and we also hold a back-up offer on that listing, it’s a hot market. It’s a hot market for sellers because, get this, we are still getting showings for that home. Why, you might task? Because that happens to be in the best interest of my sellers.
We had a slight uptick of inventory in the Sacramento housing market for January 2018 as compared to the same time last year. However, that surplus was wiped out almost double that amount by the pending sales. Our inventory for all residential properties in Sacramento County increased 9.4%; yet our pending sales in year-over-year comparisons jumped by 18.1%. The closed sales, which resulted from pending sales over November and December remained at seasonal numbers, about par.
If you’re wondering about the Sacramento housing market for January 2018 and whether this is a good time to sell, it doesn’t get much better than this. Well, it will be more frantic in April, I predict. But if you own a home that you want to sell which has any kind of drawback, put it on the market now! Today! Buyers will overlook bad locations, defects, even high prices . . . if only, if only they could buy a home today.
Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 44 years of experience to work for you.
Used with permission from Trendgraphix, January 2018 Sacramento Housing Market Trends.
When Is a Sacramento Seller Entitled to Receive the Buyer’s Appraisal?
Under most instances, a home seller is not entitled to receive the buyer’s appraisal.
My basic method of operation is not to worry too much about the buyer’s appraisal when I list Sacramento condos in our hot seller’s market. In other words, I don’t always base the sales price on how much the home will appraise for as much as I suggest a price based on what the market will bear. Meaning, what a buyer will pay. Especially a buyer who might have a big ol’ wad of cash at her disposal. Buyers who don’t need financing can pay whatever the seller will accept.
Condos tend to command lower prices than single-family homes, sometimes as much as 50% less. This means they make a good investment for some investors. Investors often pay cash. So do many 1031 exchange investors. No buyer’s appraisal with these kind of buyers.
Consider a condo I sold in the Arden area a while back. A still slightly underwater condo. Priced it high enough and marketed it in such a way to attract multiple offers. Every top listing agent’s dream. We hoped a buyer would pay cash, and could push the price even higher. That happened. I changed the financing terms to cash. No loans.
But today’s market also includes buyers with financing. Sometimes the buyer’s appraisal will come in at the sales price, even if we can’t find decent comps. The appraiser finds a way. But not all appraisers go to such lengths, and available comps within a 2 mile radius to support the sales price might not exist in this market.
Not surprisingly, a low appraisal allows the seller to receive a copy of the buyer’s appraisal. When the appraised value does not support our pending sales price. Otherwise, if the home appraises for more than the sales price, which is unlikely, the seller would never know.
Unless . . . there is always a big UNLESS. Unless it’s pertinent to the sale. That’s a kicker for ya. Last month a buyer’s appraisal showed different square footage than the number in the public records. It was higher. So, I asked the agent for the appraisal. Turns out the home appraised for more than our sales price due to the increased square footage.
Da-da-DAAAAA. Long-story-short. The buyer paid the higher price.
Of interest to note: the seller is entitled to all reports and inspections a buyer pays for during escrow. Except for the buyer’s appraisal. The seller is generally not entitled to receive the appraisal. Except under limited conditions.
How a Sacramento Realtor Had to Sell the Same Home Seven Times
No Sacramento Realtor in her right mind sets out to sell the same home seven times. Especially not over the course of the last 5 years. But that’s exactly what happened with this particular home in Sacramento. Yup, I had to sell the same home seven times. The first escrow happened in 2012, and it was a short sale at that time. The roof leaked terribly, lots of dry rot and it was difficult to find a buyer. That was basically the last year in Sacramento for short sales. People were turning to buying homes with equity by then.
Naturally, this meant I had to weed through 3 different sets of buyers, three different escrows, just to get to closing. You get the first buyer just to put the bank on notice that you’re doing a short sale. The second buyer replaces the first when the first buyer runs off to buy something else because they can’t wait. Then the second buyer waits long enough for the bank to respond before that buyer bites the dust. Finally, the third buyer piggybacks off the previous work, and that buyer closes escrow. That buyer was a flipper.
You’d think I would be done with this house, right? The flipper is gonna hire his own agent to sell when the work is finished. But no, along comes a buyer who calls and was dying to see the house. By now, the roof had been replaced, and an addition jumped the square footage from 1,400 or so to over 2,000. We warned the buyers not to buy a flipper, but they did anyway. The sellers had to tent the house prior to closing. So this is how I sold the house 4 times so far. Three more to go.
Fast forward to last fall when the buyers called and needed a larger home for their family. We sold them a home in El Dorado Hills, IIRC. We came on the market in November and went pending almost immediately, within one day. The buyers were madly in love with the house, and everything was going really smoothly. You did not think I would have to sell the same home seven times, but these 5th buyers, alas, were not our buyers. In the end, they couldn’t qualify for a loan.
Back on market again. I pulled a new MLS number to reset the days on market and make the listing more appealing to eager buyers. Because it was close to Christmas, this next go-around took a week to sell to the 6th buyer. We had 2 offers, one from the agent from hell. Fortunately, I don’t work with very many agents from hell, but this one, let’s just say there wasn’t any disappointment when we sent the Withdrawal of Counter Offer because the second offer was better. A well known colleague in my office represented the 6th buyer. What could go wrong?
Plenty, it seems. We never found out really what the buyers’ problems were or why they canceled. After a couple of weeks in escrow, they seemed to have developed cold feet. I rarely point the fickle finger of fate at the buyer’s agent when this happens because I doubt the agent was thrilled with the change of events.
My sellers were simply devastated. I felt their pain, and it made me pretty sad, too. I want my clients happy and excited, not depressed and desperate. I cheered them up the best I could and tried to paint a rosier picture of the future. I assured them, absolutely without doubt, I would sell it again, and it would close the third time. They know I don’t make promises I can’t keep. We pulled a new MLS number to reset the days on market again. Keeping up my sellers’ spirits when the unexpected happens is a huge part of my job. It’s emotional management. Not every agent is good at it.
Sure enough, within 24 hours, back in escrow. The 7th set of buyers, thank goodness, were represented by a strong Team in Sacramento. There were plenty of issues such as why we couldn’t find a building permit. Why the shower floor needed to be torn up. Why several of the pest reports contained conflicting information. But I was able to explain everything in such a way that the buyers accepted the home in its AS IS condition and still agreed to pay list price.
This home closed escrow last week. It’s how I ended up having to sell the same home seven times. I made no money on the first sale because it involved 6 months of work and it was a short sale. I didn’t make much on the second sale because my buyer’s agent got the biggest cut. But I finally got paid on the third sale after 2 failed escrows. This is how an agent can sell the same home seven times and not really make any money. Now that I reflect on it. LOL.
