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A Blast-From-the-Past Photo of Elizabeth Weintraub
Awards luncheon, February 2007, Elizabeth Weintraub and Terry Wakabayashi
Patti Martinez, a Lyon agent who used to work in our Midtown Lyon office, sent me this blast-from-the-past photo (above) yesterday from her February 2007 archives. It’s a photo of this Sacramento Realtor next to Terry Wakabayashi, another Lyon agent at our Midtown Lyon office, shot at an awards luncheon. Apparently, we all had to dress in some sort of Hawaiian attire. That was 9 years ago, and I’d only been to Hawaii a couple of times by that point. Not like 2016 after we actually bought a home in Hawaii in January.
In all honesty, I have no recollection of ever attending this particular event but the photograph is proof I was there. I look at my chubby little self, with my fatty chin, cherub cheeks, innocent sparkle in those eyes, that polite smile, and it seems like I do not know that person.
Two things stand out for me in that blast-from-the-past photo. The first is the fabulous hair. You’ve gotta admit, it looks pretty good. It’s too bad my hairdresser was so caught up in himself and exhibited way too much drama for me to deal with that he made it necessary for me to find a different hairdresser. Part of the fun of going to the salon is to chat with your hairdresser, share intimate details like you might with the guy serving you a bourbon at the bar at Ella. OK, maybe your second bourbon. In any case, a customer doesn’t really enjoy a one-sided conversation, especially when your hairdresser makes you want to shake him: put a sock in it, dude.
I have a wonderful hairdresser now, a woman I’m very happy with who, in fact, used to also work at the Lyon Midtown office as a Lyon agent but has now moved her real estate license to Re/Max. She doesn’t want the pressure of day-to-day sales, she says, and she tremendously enjoys running her own hair salon in Midtown, has been doing it for 20 years. I am also in love with her adorable dog, whom she takes to the salon. He delivered a big ol’ wet lick on my nose last week.
The other thing I notice in that blast-from-the-past photo is I am wearing a watch. Like my late father-in-law, the Chicago Sun Times reporter, loved to say, I am a professional observer. Who wears a watch today? OK, maybe if you splurged on a watch from the Rolex store in Maui, you’d wear it, or maybe an Apple Watch just to chuckle when Mickey Mouse’s feet dance, but an ordinary watch? I automatically reach for bracelets now and not any of my watches. They sit looking forlorn and sad in my jewelry drawer graveyard.
Below is a photo shot a few months ago at the Mill at Broadway Grand Opening in Land Park, as I relax with a craft beer in casual attire next to the trash cans, just for comparison purposes. This is a photo that will one day become a blast-from-the-past photo. One thing I can say is I have holding power in real estate. I started in the business in 1974 as a title searcher and have come a long way. Nobody handed me anything on a silver platter. If you’re looking for a top Sacramento Realtor, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. And, thanks for the photo, Patti.
Elizabeth Weintraub at the Mill at Broadway Grand Opening in Land Park
My Dying Brother, Bruce Springsteen, Master’s Club
Elizabeth Weintraub earned Master’s Club 2016 in February.
Two really good things happened on February 29th for me: first, my brother (who is dying from soft cell sarcoma) got to see Bruce Springsteen play at the Xcel Center in St. Paul, and the other is this Sacramento Realtor reached the pinnacle for Sacramento Master’s Club qualifications for 2016. Of the two, I’m more thrilled for my brother John. The Boss is his hero. Although he has made it to see the age of 62, he has never seen Bruce Springsteen perform in person, and he almost didn’t go. Jon Bream, the music critic in St. Paul, was very helpful to me and explained how to go about getting tickets for handicap access to the show. Thank you, Jon!
My sister Margie escorted my brother in his wheelchair. At one point, they encountered steps from the parking garage, and two passersby, without batting an eye, each grabbed a wheel of the chair and carried my brother down the steps. It’s nice to know that good Samaritans still exist in world that seems punctuated by such ugliness like Donald Trump. According to John Oliver, btw, his real family surname appears to be Drumpf. #MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain.
You can see the photo of the show below, shot on my sister’s cellphone. My brother was very touched by the show. Springsteen talked to the audience, interacted, and played nonstop from 8 PM to 11:28 when my brother decided to leave because his energy level collapsed. He pooped out before The Boss. Bruce Springsteen continued on, so we don’t know how long the show actually lasted. I am so happy I could make it happen for him. There’s so little I can do from California, except call him every week, which I do.
Bruce Springsteen show at Xcel Center in St. Paul, MN, Feb 29th, 2016
The 29th of February was also my qualifying day for Master’s Club through the Sacramento Association of Realtors. There have been years when I have qualified as early in the year as January, but it took an extra month this year. I think back to when I first earned Master’s Club, and it seemed like such a struggle all those years ago. To qualify now, an agent needs to have closed a minimum of eight homes with a combined dollar volume of four million. With the median price still under $300K in Sacramento, that can add up to a lot of sales to achieve that mark. But I finally crossed over that four million threshold on February 29th, which is fairly remarkable in such a low inventory market like Sacramento at the moment.
I am also an Outstanding Life Member of Master’s Club, having achieved that particular status through last year’s 2015 production. Nobody probably cares about this stuff except other agents. To my clients, though, it means they can expect excellence, coupled with decades of experience. If you’re looking for a Sacramento Realtor, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Just don’t expect me to say anything nice about Donald Trump.
The Amazing Story of a Sacramento Real Estate Miracle
A Sacramento real estate miracle does not happen every day.
No Sacramento Realtor expects her client to call, late on Sunday no less, just as The Oscars are starting, to excitedly announce he has written an offer on her listing with another agent. Yet, stranger things have happened in Sacramento real estate. Things that can make clients believe this is the way they always occur, and anybody can do it. When my client first uttered those words last night, I thought he was joking. We closed escrow in 2013, but I recall his transaction like it was yesterday, even though I’ve sold hundreds of homes since but few are a Sacramento real estate miracle.
This guy was originally a referral to me by another agent. He claimed to have overpaid for a home he owned in north Sacramento, which he needed to sell, and yes, it wasn’t worth what he owed. He also wanted to buy a home in Elk Grove during a super-heated real estate market. Selling and buying concurrently is a delicate balance, but even more so in a hot market. That scenario typically requires careful planning, including contingent offers. I took him on as a client as a favor to the referring agent, and because he needed a miracle. Fortunately, I can perform miracles.
I sold his home in north Sacramento for a lot more than it would likely appraise at to a cash buyer from San Francisco. That buyer’s agent did not know the neighborhood. Negotiated a 6-month rent back at less-than-market rent for him, so my client did not have to move. At the same time, I helped him buy my short sale listing in Elk Grove through my team member. The sellers received a number of offers for this short sale but they decided to take my team member’s offer for this client because they believed, even though it was contingent upon selling his home, that I would sell it. They had faith in my abilities. Some other agent, maybe not, but I perform. I can do a Sacramento real estate miracle.
Ordinarily, you cannot submit a contingent offer for a short sale to the bank because the bank will say come back when the home is sold. But I calculated by the time the bank raised that particular objection, I would have sold his home. And that’s what happened. Basically, this was a guy who was underwater, and I moved him from north Sacramento into a four-bedroom, two-story home in Elk Grove. All the stars aligned. It was a Sacramento real estate miracle.
You can imagine my shock when this guy said he had written an offer through another agent on one of my listings. The agent is his buddy, a long-term friend, says he, the guy who had initially sold him the home in north Sacramento. Then he apologized, said he was sorry. Well, that makes two of us. Of course, I immediately realized that he did not write an offer for any of my listings. I’m not sure which home he is trying to buy, but it’s not one of my listings, and he confused me with some other top Sacramento agent. Not only that, I checked MLS and his home was not on the market, it is not for sale, so he is not buying anything. Sellers generally do not accept offers from contingent buyers if that buyer’s home is not for sale.
I don’t see a Sacramento real estate miracle happening here.
I am very successful with selling and buying a home at the same time, in part because other listing agents in Sacramento know I will perform as well. They know my reputation. If you need to both sell a home and buy a home, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Why Agents Can Not Fill Out Real Estate Disclosures For Sellers
Real estate agents are not allowed to complete seller real estate disclosures.
Even in today’s world I still need to explain why I cannot complete the California real estate disclosures for my clients. Because they don’t know the reason. In fact, some Sacramento Realtors don’t know, either. Not everybody knows that when I was first licensed by the state of California to sell real estate in the 1970s, I had also enrolled in law school. I am intrigued by law still; it’s fascinating. Although accepted into law school, I did not go. As I sat in the conference room filling out my paperwork, a law student stopped by, poked in his head and hissed, “Don’t do it.”
True story. Although that wasn’t the reason I decided against a second career in law. Basically, I couldn’t live on the salary of a lawyer, and that plan was simply to supplement my real estate income by doing legal things for my real estate clients like divorces, wills and estate planning. Turned out I didn’t need supplementation, so I dropped out. But it doesn’t mean I don’t have respect for the profession because I do. I pay attention to the new lawsuits that pop up in real estate, and many cases focus on real estate disclosures. A properly prepared real estate disclosure can be the catalyst for a dismissal.
I am also cognizant of the fact that I am not a lawyer. Nope, didn’t finish law school, didn’t get a law degree and I am not licensed to practice law. Completing real estate disclosures is not a real estate function of a Sacramento Realtor. Can’t so much as touch my pen to that paper. Even when I am tempted to speed things up or make the process easier for all of us. And an agent can be tempted when she is working with an elderly client who might have difficulty reading or writing or maybe struggles with DocuSign.
It is why I invested 2 hours yesterday to verbally “walk” a client, question by question, through completing the forms over the phone. This client recently sold a home in the Bay area. His Bay area agent had filled out the disclosures for him, he insisted (which probably did happen, not all agents are on the ball). Well, if anything, this client will remember that this Sacramento listing agent did not, LOL. Although, I spent several hours explaining what the questions were, why he needed to answer them, and we discussed each question over the phone. I am hopeful he has a sense of relief now that he has completed his real estate disclosures. It is his house. He is the individual who needs to disclose.
This will probably be a seller who will never get sued. Lots of sellers are never served with a summons, even in our litigation-prone world of real estate in California. Non-disclosure or inappropriate real estate disclosures are often the source. If you eliminate that from the equation, odds are in a seller’s favor. This does not mean that I can assist another seller through his own set of real estate disclosures if I do not represent that seller. THAT, I’m afraid, would be practicing law.
About Being a Sacramento REALTOR First
This Sacramento Realtor receives a lot of unsolicited mail at the office.
Because I write a daily Sacramento real estate blog, which often contains consumer awareness information, exposes criminal wrong doings, real estate scams and the slippery slope of masked intentions behind the ways some companies try to take advantage of Realtors, I seem to have built a fan base across the country as a compassionate Sacramento REALTOR who leads a double life as a consumer advocate. This means people send unsolicited letters and packages through the U.S. mail to my office, sometimes anonymously, like I’m going to take issue with other evil doings and write about it.
First and foremost, my job in Sacramento is that of a Sacramento REALTOR. I list homes and sell those homes, and my Elizabeth Weintraub team member agents show homes. We hold open houses. We network with other California agents, employ extensive marketing, hire at our expense professional photographers, consistently create new techniques to sell Sacramento real estate and, well, the list goes on and on. The point is I am a Sacramento REALTOR first. A writer second. And, although I am paid to write content about homebuying for About.com, that is not my primary occupation and my writing is not pro bono work.
Some of the stuff I receive in the mail is interesting but that’s about as far as it goes. To write about any of it, I would need to be fair, to call the offender to report that side of the situation and, frankly, I’m not about to do it. So please stop mailing me stuff, well, unless it’s Kistler chardonnay. I will accept any free contributions of Kistler Vineyards chardonnay to our wine collection that anybody would like to send for nothing in return.
Besides, I have enough of my own crazy stuff to discuss. Like next month I plan to write about a wild scheme I discovered going on right here in my own back yard, perpetrated by one of those individual brokerages; like if I’m gonna find a problem with an agent, that might be the place to look, at the guys who are unsupervised, versus the larger brokerages, which routinely update agents about real estate law and procedures. If you think I am unfairly pointing to the one or two-person operations as problematic, I can tell you I used to work in those ranks, so I know first hand. Further, full disclosure, not every single mom-and-pop shop is that way.
When I started in real estate in the 1970s — yes, that’s not a typo — I worked for almost 9 years at my own company, which I immediately bought after obtaining my own broker’s license from the broker, an electrician by trade, IIRC. I erroneously believed that holding a real estate broker’s license meant I could do just about anything my mind could conceive. That real estate practice, looking back, often bordered on practicing law. I’m lucky I emerged a better agent from that period, to say nothing of the fashion, egads, those shoulder pads and hairstyles . . .
