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Sacramento Realtors Are Found on Google Today For Other Things
This Realtor might walk under a ladder, and I don’t care if a black cat crosses my path just as long as I am found on Google. I’m not really superstitious, but just to be safe I think I’ll knock on wood when I type the next sentence. I have not received a speeding ticket for years. It’s not because I don’t speed. I suspect it’s because I am lucky.
I bought a new car a while back with a weird quirk. When I exceed 75 MPH, a spoiler popped up to keep the car stable and on the road. Not that I probably needed this spoiler at 75 MPH — maybe 100 or 120 MPH. I’m not an engineer either but I’m thinking as long as I keep my MPH around 80, that car will stay on the road without an extended spoiler. So, I am trying to figure out from the manual how to lower the spoiler while I’m driving.
The reason I don’t want it extended is because if a police officer spots my car with the spoiler up, it’s a sure sign that I am speeding. Don’t need radar for that. I could call the dealership, I suppose, and ask, but I’m a person who prefers to figure out things for herself.
Like everybody who wants to be found on Google these days. It’s no secret that if you’re searching for a homebuying related term, you will probably find an article that I wrote ranking in the top 10 Google hits for your search term. Although, this is not always a good thing. There are definite drawbacks to ranking near the top to be found in Google for search terms about homebuying. One of those drawbacks is people don’t always click on the link they find, especially if a phone number or email address appears in the brief description of that link.
A few weeks ago I received a phone call from a guy insisting that he had reached a Surewest office in Sacramento. He wanted to drop off a friend’s cable equipment. You were found on Google, he said. I assured him that I was not Surewest — I am a Sacramento Realtor — but he wasn’t buying it. So, I went to Google and found him an address for Surewest over on Marconi. I went to Google maps and told him how to get there.
Later on in the afternoon I received a text message from him.
He was lost.
He asked in his text message who he had reached. I replied, “Not Surewest.” But I helped him out anyway. He says he will now call me whenever he needs directions. He called me his Google Lady.
Thanks, Google.
Elizabeth is returning to Big Island from visiting Pearl Harbor on Oahu with her husband. This blog was originally written in 2011 and is still pertinent today.
December 2017 Sacramento Housing Report Shows Steady Prices
December 2017 Sacramento Housing Report
Welcome to the December 2017 Sacramento Housing Report. The first thing that strikes me about the numbers for last month is the fact the pending sales have increased over the same month a year ago. The pending sales for this December are up by 14% over December of last year. This indicates a much stronger demand at the end of the year than the demand that existed a year ago.
The second thing I noticed is inventory dropped in December by 24% over November. But most of that is people saying, what the heck, I want to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas without people traipsing through my house. It’s seasonal and typically more people take their homes off the market over the holidays.
Our inventory is still very low in Sacramento, per the December 2017 Sacramento Housing Report. There was an uptick of inventory in the fall but by December all of that pretty much vanished. Demand seems to remain constant. I keep wondering whether buyers will back off as interest rates rise, but I suspect they are doing the opposite. If I were a couple of first-time home buyers right now, I’d be worried about being priced out of the marketplace in the upcoming year. There is no slowdown in sight for appreciation. Prices keep climbing.
It’s a double whammy because interest rates are increasing and prices are increasing. However it doesn’t mean the market will fall because demand is so strong. If we had tons of inventory and very little demand, we’d be singing a different tune but that is not what’s happening in the December 2017 Sacramento Housing Report.
All I can say is 2018 will be an interesting year. Whatever happens, I’m prepared to serve my clients equally well if not better than last year. If you’re interested in more information about the Sacramento real estate market, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759 and put 44 years of experience to work for you.
When the Only Thing Left to Do is Climb the Fence
We suspect many Sacramento Realtors climb the fence when necessary.
Here is the thing, if a Sacramento Realtor does not want to climb the fence, then she should not put her lockbox on a gas meter behind the gate. Further, for sellers, if you think that by locking your gate you are keeping intruders out of your yard, think again. Maybe you’re keeping wild turkeys at bay, but if somebody really wants to get into your yard, they will. Like even a gym-challenged Realtor who is 5-feet tall. I studied the situation. Yes, anybody can probably scale that fence, if she was smart about it. Determination counts, too. I am typically a pretty determined person. Tell me I can’t do it, and I’ll do it.
A client asked if I would withdraw her listing from MLS last week. We had sold her home for $15,000 over list price because at the time we received an offer, she was ready to take her home off the market. You know human nature and how some buyers are, right? Sometimes they don’t want the home until they find out they can’t have it. Which is how this particular home ended up selling for $15,000 over the sales price. I figured the appraisal would come in low, but also believed the appraisal would at least meet list price and we could renegotiate later, if we had to.
Turns out, due to lovely HVCC, we got saddled with some yo-yo appraiser. He decided he could not figure out how to adjust the comps to allow for using updated homes that were smaller and on smaller lots. He didn’t know how much to allocate for those minor kitchen remodels, so he ignored those comparable sales. As a result, the home appraised for $50,000 less than the sales price. It was for an FHA loan, too, so it had a case number, which would be pulled for the next FHA buyer. Any new FHA buyers were stuck with the low appraisal.
The seller promised to leave the gate open so I could retrieve the lockbox. Sure enough, the gate was locked. The fence was a bit over 6 feet. Yup, a situation where I would have to climb the fence.
If you’re ever wondering about which way to nail the boards on a fence you’re building, consider this. If the vertical posts are on the outside, you would provide a stepping place for a person to put her foot before heaving herself over your fence. However, this fence had the good side facing out and the bad side on the inside. There was no place to put my foot. I don’t do pull-ups for an exercise and therefore could not pull myself up the fence. Free-weights, that’s the ticket.
I could have called the seller, but that would have entailed waiting 30 minutes or more for her to get over there. I could have gone back to my home office and come back another day, but what the hey, I was already there. My outfit consisted of sheared corduroy pants, an Eileen Fischer silk shell, topped by a Merino wool sweater. My shoes? A cranberry patent leather with heels. Did I let that unsuitable ensemble stop me? I walked around the home but found no good access points.
The fact that the neighbors might call the police did cross my mind. But like a driver who often spins U-turns in the middle of the street by offering the excuse, “Hey, I’m allowed because I’m a real estate agent,” I figured that excuse would also work for crawling over a fence. If I needed more of an explanation, I suppose I could also add that I sell a lot of Sacramento real estate. Surely, the police would have pity on me then.
I finally decided to climb a juniper tree in the corner. Put my toe on a protruded nail halfway up and literally pulled myself to the top of the fence by using a tree limb as support. The important thing here was I elected to rest after I was perched on top of the fence. I didn’t care what passersby thought. Too busy enjoying the satisfaction that I could actually climb the fence. Catching my breath, too.
Getting down was actually pretty easy, and I didn’t scratch my shoes or tear my clothes. Best of all, my display key for my lockbox was still intact in my pocket. Bonanza.
The next time this happens, I will do the smarter thing. The smarter thing, instead of trying to climb the fence, is to go to a neighbor’s house and borrow a ladder.
This blog was previously published elsewhere 7 years ago and is provided for your reading enjoyment as Elizabeth makes her way back to Kona from New Year’s in Honolulu.
Christmas in Kona is a Celebration of the Aloha
Elizabeth Weintraub shoots a selfie on her lanai in Kona on Christmas Day.
Christmas in Kona seems to be a ritual in my life that I didn’t really set out to do. But when I look back at the places where I’ve spent Christmas over the past 10 years, more than half of those places have been in Hawaii. Mostly on the Big Island. So we bought a house in Hawaii. As a result, spending Christmas in Kona has been different than staying at a resort. At our house, I have the opportunity to connect with neighbors and make new friends.
My husband could not come for the holidays this year, but Christmas in Kona is not a big deal to him because he is Jewish. He can eat Chinese food any day. LOL. Pizza is just fine with him.
Even without him here, I’ve got a sense of community. Not to mention the Aloha. It’s a way of life. Peaceful and respectful. Warm and content. A couple of my clients sent me Christmas greetings yesterday by text, which was welcome as well.
While spending Christmas in Kona last year, my husband and I were invited to our neighbors’ house for Christmas dinner. Without him here this year, I went to my neighbors’ alone. As you may know, I am from Minnesota, and so are my neighbors and their family. Buzz, Jean, Joe and Jennifer. You know what that means? Green bean casserole with fried onion rings. Yum! And of course, I brought my liliko’i opera cake. We had so much food. Roasted turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, salad, a nut roll (that name escapes me) and a variety of sweets.
Clockwise, from front Elizabeth, Buzz, Jean, Jennifer and Joe.
I can’t put my finger on exactly why this Christmas dinner was so much fun, but the company was entertaining and amusing. I love these people! Plus, just as we were discussing ways to remove geckos from your house, Buzz mentioned they have not had any geckos for a long time. He spoke too soon. Just as he said that, we all turned around to catch a baby gecko crawling up the wall. Oh, well, more liliko’i?
Looks like this Sacramento Realtor has 5 more days of work, two more escrows to close, and then it’s off to Honolulu for a New Year’s Eve party. Where did this year go?
My Christmas in Kona sunset on Christmas Day.
Why Agents Should Explain all Home Selling Documents to Sellers
Explaining all home selling documents to sellers helps to avoid confusion later.
Home selling documents are not as simple and straight forward as some of us like to believe. Especially when you’re been in the real estate business for as many decades as I have, I have probably forgotten about more documents than the existing home selling documents we use today. We Sacramento listing agents can become complacent and assume sellers know everything when sellers usually know very little.
Even if the seller has sold homes in the past, almost every transaction is different, unique in some way. The home selling documents can also vary from transaction to transaction.
My client reminded me of this yesterday. I was working away on my computer set up out on my lanai, often pausing to look out at the white sail boats on the horizon when my phone rang with the song Sigh No More from Much Ado About Nothing. That’s my clue that I have a text. I love that melody. It makes me receptive to text messages. See how I set up those things?
My client had just arrived in Boise, Idaho, brrr. She texted me photos of the snow and remarked about the cold weather. We talked about a few things and then she said she was working on fixing an electrical problem and correcting something else in the house. I wondered why. So I asked her. She said the buyer put defects on the home selling document so she was fixing them.
Hmmm . . . I reminded her that the buyers did submit a Request for Repair, but that was for pest work, and we rejected it anyway. Her home is sold AS IS without any repairs. Certainly no electrical. My client said she found the repairs noted on the CR. That did not make sense to me. I asked for an explanation.
Well, she sent me the buyer’s agent AVID (agent visual inspection disclosure). The agent noted a few things that he knew did not work properly. This is why my client thought she needed to fix those things.
No, she doesn’t need to fix anything. I explained the home selling document is simply a disclosure. Sure, there have been times when a seller has argued with me over my listing agent AVID, demanding I change disclosures I made, and it can’t be done. Each agent makes his or her own disclosures and they stand on their own merit. It’s not a request for work. It can even be wrong. It’s just an agent’s observation.
I cannot begin to tell you how relieved my client sounded in her text message. I’m glad that I probed and discovered which of the home selling documents she misinterpreted. We Sacramento Realtors can’t take any document for granted. Sellers don’t work with these daily like we do. We need to stop and explain more. Nobody is ever offended when an agent tries to help.
