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Sacramento Realtor Last Sale for 2014 Still Closed from Vanuatu
Boy with coconut in Tanoliu, Efate island
Sitting on stage with 3 other Realtors at the Zillow Summit Conference in Sacramento last fall, Brad, our moderator, asked each of us where we thought our dollar volume would end the year. I quickly did the math in my head based on my position for that particular quarter and came up with the number of $30 million. Looks like I exceeded that number this year with my last closing for this Sacramento Realtor for 2014.
Boy climbing coconut tree on Efate Island, Vanuatu
I’m pretty good at predicting outcomes and making accurate forecasts. I recall telling my assistant the exact number of closings that would probably happen while I was on my month-long vacation and how I needed her to also follow up with each of the sellers in case my WiFi went kafooey in the South Pacific, specifically the country of Vanuatu. I was correct in my prediction and a little less than half of my present escrows closed in December and the rest are rolling into January, due to buyer’s loan difficulties. Loans are tough right now.
My last home sale of the year is the third home I have sold for this client. She chose me as her Sacramento Realtor several years ago based on studying agents she found online. When I asked her what made me stand out, it was my eyes, she said. My eyes have an honest look to them, and I seem like a regular person to her, she replied. I like to think I am very direct and straight forward with people, and I also know this can make people very uncomfortable, so I use that skill to my advantage.
Grandchildren of Lietau Harry in Tanoliu, Efate island, Vanuatu
I will always tell my clients the truth, even if it’s painful for them to hear. The good news for my client for whom I closed my last sale of the year is she got a lot more for her home than she thought she would get. We argued a little over the price because I suggested a higher price, and she was happier with a lower price, or at least she thought she was happier. I guess her plumber or somebody wanted to buy the home and offered her almost $100,000 less than it was worth. She was actually asking me to represent him and put the offer together for her.
Charlie Harry’s eggs in Tanoliu
That wasn’t the best thing for her to do, though. We would get more than one offer, most likely, and eventually we did. It sold at list price without any concessions. The buyer’s loan was a bit delayed by a few weeks, but it did close. I sense overall she was happy. I sent her a text message and an email the day it closed, and she seemed relieved.
WWII Museum, Tanoliu, Efate Island
Just about the time that sale closed, I finished Neil Young’s biography by Jimmy McDonough while in Vanuatu and am following it with Young’s own memoir Special Deluxe. Sometimes we are better off not knowing the inside story of our heroes but I will say this: Neil Young, despite his follies, screw ups and drug-related future regrets, tried to keep it real. I admire him for that. I also have a regret. I regret promising an exboyfriend from Minneapolis, a recovering alcoholic whose name I no longer recall, that if we got back together I would never make him listen to Neil Young again. He was a shmuck for breaking up with me but I was a bigger schmuck to make such a promise we both knew I would never keep.
Big bananas in Tanoliu, Efate Island, Vanuatu
So, there you have it. None of us is perfect.
The point is even though I am sitting here on my humongous hammock tied by four ropes to four poles overlooking Havannah Harbor and watching ocean waves rush to shore on Efate Island, I care deeply that my clients are treated right and get what they ultimately deserve. Because if it wasn’t for them, I would not be sitting on this humongous hammock in Vanuatu with my laptop realizing it is not the geckos knocking on my door at 5 AM. It is the myna birds imitating a door knock.
Musings From A Solo Traveler in Vanuatu on Christmas Day
Villa at Havannah Resort, Efate Island
Some of the resort staff at The Havannah openly felt sorry for me last night at the Christmas Eve party. They said other solo travelers had admitted to feeling strange or out of place because they were not with another person, and they wanted to know if I was uncomfortable. While sweet in sentiment, it seems a bit chauvinistic to me to ask a woman that kind of question when they would not dream of asking a man and, in fact, would probably feel downright silly if they did.
I don’t find it odd nor weird to be by myself. I spend a lot of time alone because I like it. I get along well with myself. I know my desires and how to fulfill them. It’s relaxing, if you want to know the truth, in more ways than if I was with another person because the only person’s opinion that matters about anything at all is my own. Which, when I reflect on it, is not that much different than any other time in any other place with any other person, heh, heh. While I do take into consideration the opinions of other people, often my own opinion trumps.
A woman on the plane from Brisbane to Vanuatu, trying to be helpful I suppose, suggested I download an app that would help me find people to travel with. She did not seem to understand that I do not want to find people to travel with. It’s enjoyable being a solo traveler. There are people all around me. I don’t get the opportunity enough. If my husband or friends can’t go on a trip, it’s definitely 100% OK for me to go by myself.
The feeling of independence is one of strength and courage. Not everybody has it or can develop it. You will find it most often in entrepreneurs, people who run their own businesses, which is probably why I make such a good living selling real estate in Sacramento. I can depend on myself and so can others. I feel a strong sense of duty to my clients, and they know without question that I will always be there for them. It’s the same loyalty and conviction I carry for my friends and family because I carry it for myself as well.
When I lounge on my deck on Christmas Day, admiring the multiple shades of turquoise and sapphire blues in the water, feeling the warmth of the sun on my skin, listening to ocean waves break on the beach, and inhaling the scent of Tahiti flowers in Vanuatu, I am not alone.
There is little more precious in the world than peace within yourself. Being a solo traveler can help you to get there.
Waking Up in Port Vila is Better Than the Journey to Vanuatu
A scent of wet soil is the first thing you notice getting off the plane in Port Vila, Vanuatu, at midnight. It’s an almost overpowering odor that encompasses lush vegetation, no doubt, and that island dirt. You can feel the moisture in the air, but the smell of moisture is more prevalent. I was so overjoyed to be here that I would have kissed the ground except I was too tired to get back up. The entire trip, from Honolulu to the resort in Port Vila is about 24 hours, and I’m not even sure what day it is at the moment.
We stopped in Brisbane, Australia, went through customs and back up through security again. People have odd expressions for things in Australia. A woman asked if I was in the queue instead of standing in line, exit signs are marked WAY OUT and a restaurant server asked if I would like cereal on top of my yogurt. She could not fathom that I would enjoy plain yogurt.
The one thing I am sure of is how supportive my team has been in my absence. Those guys are simply amazing. Of course, you know, all I have to do is go outside the country without cellphone coverage or WiFi for 24 hours, and everything happens at once. A home that has been difficult to show over the past 3 months suddenly sells for list price. That sort of stuff. Or multiple offers on another home.
I’ve watched everybody spring into action to help out, and I couldn’t feel more proud of how the team pulls together. Barbara Dow is going out to Natomas to meet with 3 sellers who don’t have much internet savvy to sign an offer. Josh Amolsch is meeting with another to explain how the multiple counter offers work. My valued right-hand TC has solved so many problems that they’re over by the time I hear about them. Placer Title has been phenomenal as well.
Even though I am often reluctant to let go because I always feel like my fingers and input need to be inserted into every transaction, it’s so reassuring to know that my sellers are in good hands in my absence. My team just does what needs to be done, without question. I feel like the most fortunate Sacramento REALTOR on the face of the planet this morning.
Even if I did try to heat up coffee grounds in hot water and could not figure out why they resided at the bottom of my cup, mocking me. Because it wasn’t instant coffee. I have to go now to track down breakfast. But please, enjoy the view from my Port Vila bungalow.
Sonic Highways and a Home in Tahoe Park For Sale
You might wonder what Dave Grohl’s Sonic Highways has in common with Sacramento real estate, but then you’re reading my blog so you know that it will become apparent to you. First, let me say that the show in Washington, D.C. brought a realization to mind that was a bit astonishing to me. We are all the sums of own reality, and for me, I can’t help but see portals everywhere because I do belong to a faction on Ingress, a game created by Google for your cellphone. And let me tell you, although it’s been a few years since I’ve been to Washington, D.C. lately, I am certain that it’s a mecca, a ginormous, huge honkin’ mecca for exploding portals, resonators and mods galore, within an 1/8 of an inch from each other.
The portals in Washington, D.C. are probably so inter-connected, cross-linked and fused in such a small space that your tiny little fingers are unlikely to even find them in the stringy blurriness of it all. It also makes me wonder how many portals are controlled by the Resistance and how many belong to the Enlightened, and the correlation between Republicans and Democrats. By simple logic, the Democrats would be blue, the Resistance, and Republicans, green, except that I’m betting no Republican wants to be associated with the word Enlightenment, so it’s probably the other way around.
We all draw conclusions from the world based our own experiences. If you never play Ingress, watching Dave Grohl’s Sonic Highways in Washington, D.C. would probably let you focus completely on the music. His concept is to travel the country and document how various regions, cities, influence the music from those areas, and to create new music while he is there. To absorb, inspire and generate based on his surroundings.
It’s the same in Sacramento real estate. The way I would handle listing a home in Antelope, for example, is completely different from the way I sell homes in Land Park. And each home I walk into has its own energy level, as foo-foo and odd as that might sound, which has nothing to do with the Foo in Foo Fighters. I listed yesterday a home in Tahoe Park. This home was built as a bungalow in 1916. It has character, arches, wood floors, large spaces, original light fixtures and many architectural details that take you back in time.
It’s a very happy house. It’s the kind of place that when a buyer walks up on the front porch, patiently waiting for her Sacramento REALTOR to get the key out of the lockbox, she will feel anticipation and excitement, perhaps fidgeting, and she might not know why. That feeling is generated because when she walks into the home, her first step into the living room, and her eyes fall upon the open space, all the way through the kitchen to the back yard, she will fall immediately in love with this home. I am hopeful my photographs and listing will convey this and help to motivate the buyer to call her agent and proclaim: I need to see the home at 4864 11th Avenue in Tahoe Park! On the market today at $249,000. Granny flat in back with separate utilities.
You can call the Elizabeth Weintraub Team, Lyon Real Estate, at 916.233.6759, for a private showing.
Photos of Sacramento Homes for Sale are Tricky in Rain
Shooting photographs in the rain of Sacramento homes for sale can be very tricky. Apart from my camera getting wet, which is never a good thing, I really don’t want raindrops in my photos or, heaven forbid, sheets of rain. There is hardly a week that goes by when I don’t need to take photos for a new listing. When we have rain every single day, I need to find those breaks in the clouds when I can run over and shoot more photographs with the sun out.
I tried to explain my professional standards regarding real estate photographs yesterday to a lawyer who kept insisting that my photographs of an old listing made the house look too appealing. The seller is suing his ex-wife for destroying his property. Although my agent visual inspection disclosed the defects, the photographs didn’t showcase it. No joke, why would any Sacramento REALTOR want to call attention to the drawbacks?
We want to get buyers into the house, not drive them away or give them an excuse to look at some other home. You ordinarily don’t buy a home in Sacramento if you don’t go inside. I’m not trying to sell the house online; I am trying to entice buyers to go see it. That’s the entire point of online photos of Sacramento homes for sale.
Of course, some buyers I hear print them out and hang those pictures on their ‘frig to daily admire the home during escrow. And sometimes sellers, for personal and sentimental reasons, want me to send them a CD of the photos at closing, which I do.
I care about how my photos appear, which is why I got into my car and raced over to Tahoe Park yesterday to shoot sunny photos of the exterior of a home coming on the market. They looked great on my viewing screen but when I uploaded and opened the photos to correct in Photoshop, I noticed the sun’s glare on my lens. I will go back. (Besides, it gives me an excuse to create more control mind fields along the way and blow up a few more Ingress portals. I got back Jamba Juice on Broadway yesterday after Blame Canada swiped it.) It was a good day for taking photos of Sacramento homes for sale, even though some of it was in the rain.
