Email Elizabethselling over market value
Valentine’s Day In Sacramento Real Estate, $weet For $ellers Or Buyers?
Valentine’s Day in Sacramento real estate, $weet for $ellers or buyers? February is a month when we think about Valentine’s Day. Typically, we see sellers preparing to put homes on the upcoming spring market. Buyers are generally slower to start a re-entry in the home buying search. After reading the January 2020 Sacramento Housing Report, the buyers are out home shopping in full force. They are rapidly buying up the available inventory of homes. Many sellers are receiving multiple offers, and selling very close to list price or over list price, across the board.
The answer to Valentine’s Day in Sacramento real estate, $weet for $ellers or buyers; it is “See’s Candy” sweet for both. The buyers do not have as much inventory to choose from as they did a few years ago. Buyers need to wake up and write winning offers, as this appears to be our new normal. There is such high demand; homes are selling very quickly. The buyers that were successful and closed escrow are thrilled. It is an excellent time for buyers as interest rates are lower than in over two decades. Don’t delay, get out there as you still have nine days left to purchase in February. March is going to be an even higher demand from the historical data.
Buyers, our recommendation to you is to hire an exclusive buyer’s agent that is highly skilled in negotiation. Also, they should possess impressive continuous years of successful closings. Our team has over 100 years of successful experience in listing and selling real estate. Our 5-star reviews give you confidence that we deliver outstanding results. If you would like to buy or sell, call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors with RE/MAX Gold. We can always be reached at 916-233-6759.
— JaCi Wallace
How an Interspousal Deed Can Delay a Closing in Elk Grove Florin
Many married couples do not realize they can’t close escrow without an interspousal deed.
My sellers just closed yesterday on a home in the Elk Grove Florin area of Sacramento that was scheduled to close on July 5th. The buyer’s offer contained provisions for a hard-money loan with a 15-day closing period. One would figure this would be an easy transaction to close without any hiccups, regardless of the buyer feedback we received. I always ask buyer’s agents to share their buyers’ thoughts after showing a home, and I pass on that information to my sellers, just so they know what buyers are saying and thinking as they walk through the home.
That kind of feedback is often very interesting. For example, we had several agents tell us that home was overpriced and they did not like the condition, felt it needed too much work. Pretty much zero upgrades. It was built in the mid 1980s and looked like it. The owners at one time had installed laminate flooring but the flooring itself was curling up at the edges and pulling away from the quarter rounds.
The kitchen is open to the living room, a nice feature many buyers appreciate and it’s hard to find in these homes, but I imagine most buyers would want to tear out the cabinets and start over with a complete kitchen and bath remodel. Tiles in the entry showcased cracks. One of the tiles had been broken into pieces, and when I went over to meet the gardener to clean up the landscaping, I methodically replaced each piece of the puzzle that some buyer or agent had removed. It could use paint throughout and new carpeting in the bedrooms.
Originally the sellers had intended to do a lot of fix up work for the house. They had been thinking of a price around $225,000. After my inspection, and drawing on my 40-some years in the real estate business, I suggested a price of $235,000 and advised them not to fix up the house. This price was on the high end but given demand, I felt we could get close to it. Buyer after buyer trudged through during the first 9 days for sale and turned down the house. We received a bunch of offers, too, ranging from $225,000 to $230,000.
We countered the $230K offer but those buyers refused to budge. They felt they knew market value and were not willing to pay list price. Well, those guys were obviously not buyers for this home, and I suspect their agent was disappointed for the communication failure. Then, along came an offer of $238,000 from our hard-money buyer who purchased the home AS IS. I do not push my sellers to take offers and often advise them to wait for what they deserve to get.
Yet, we could not close escrow on time. We obtained 3 extensions and, at one point, made the buyer release her earnest money deposit. The hold up was the buyer did not realize that because she was married, in order to receive title insurance to close escrow, she would need to obtain an interspousal deed from her husband. He lived in China. We asked her husband to go to the American Embassy and get the deed notarized. Instead, they notarized the deed in a Chinese dialect, which was unacceptable. Needs to be in English.
If a buyer is married and obtaining title insurance to buy a home in Sacramento, either the spouse goes on title or the spouse signs an interspousal deed in front of a public notary, in English. I had faith we would receive the interspousal deed because I see this happen a lot. Buyer’s agents don’t always ask about a buyer’s marital status, and they should. The sellers were somewhat nervous. Yet, the deed eventually arrived and we closed on the sale of this home at one of the highest square foot prices in that neighborhood for a home without updates.
If you need to sell your home in Sacramento, better call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
This Elk Grove Agent Sold a Home $40K Over Comparable Sales
Rumor has it that this seller’s market in Sacramento started this spring, but from my perspective, it began last fall with the September market. We have two very strong markets in Sacramento: Spring and Fall. If you can’t make the spring market, sometimes it is better to wait until fall. Although, in this seller’s market, anytime seems to be a good time to go on the market because all the guidelines and rules and everything you know about real estate have been tossed out the window.
For example, we have been taught since day one to examine the comparable sales when pricing a home. But the comparable sales mean jack squat today, which is why appraisers are having such a tough time trying to appraise. Sales from 3 months ago are not relevant to the market today. It’s the pending sales and the active sales that are predicting which way the wind is gonna blow in this marketplace. That, and a little bit of fairy dust mixed in.
When a seller called me last winter to list her home in Elk Grove, she was concerned that it might not sell right away because it was so close to Christmas. She didn’t live in the home, so it wasn’t upsetting HER Christmas, so it made perfect sense to put it on the market. I looked at the comparable sales and with my then-innocent eyes said: “Oh, look, they substantiate a price of $240,000. Tops. The market movement will let us stick $20K on top and we should do it to see what happens!” The seller liked that strategy. $20K over the pendings was a little risky. We put her home on the market for $259,000.
I did my usual marketing. Promoting that home everywhere that is conceivable online. Shot impeccable photos. Networked the listing like crazy. Within a week, we received an offer that the seller accepted for $275,000! But a few days later, the buyers developed cold feet and canceled. Buyers are a little wobbily right now, I’m finding. This isn’t the first buyer to cancel on one of my sellers due to cold feet or due to writing multiple offers, which is unethical if not against the law.
You will hear agents say that the first offer is always the best. That’s another widely accepted real estate axiom that doesn’t necessarily apply to our present market. The following day, the day before Christmas, we received a second offer of $290,000. It involved financing. The buyers, upon hearing their offer was about to be accepted, changed it in haste to all-cash at $280,000. See what I mean about buyers being a bit unsteady? But $280,000 and all-cash was still better than the first financed offer of $275K.
This Elk Grove home closed in January at $280,000, all cash.
The seller told me when we closed that she was very happy she chose me as her Elk Grove Agent. Even though I don’t live in Elk Grove, I sell a lot of homes in Elk Grove, and I know the Elk Grove neighborhoods very well. Because I am a top producer in Elk Grove, I routinely pop up on those lists from outside referral companies. They look for agents who sell the most homes in any given area, so they have something of value to offer to their sellers.
Well, you can get something of value by calling me directly: Elizabeth Weintraub, 916 233 6759. You can trust that I’ll always give you the straight scoop and put your interests first.
