Email Elizabethselling Sacramento real estate from hawaii
The #1 Agent at Lyon for January Earned Ranking from Hawaii
Elizabeth Weintraub, #1 Agent at Lyon for January, earned ranking from Hawaii
If you want to be the #1 agent at Lyon, all you have to do is spend a couple of months in Hawaii. That’s my message for today. Because that’s the only way I can figure out how to explain the surprise announcement yesterday from Lyon Real Estate. I am not making this up. Yup, Elizabeth Weintraub was named #1 agent at Lyon for January, 2018. It was a big shock to me. January was a slow month. Just like December. Seasonal sales typically slow a bit in December and January, which is why I go to Hawaii to work from our vacation house.
Further, leaving Sacramento when it gets cold makes sense. The thought occurred to me that I could work from Sacramento and watch the trees lose their leaves. Alternately, I could go to Hawaii and eye sailboats on the horizon. Bonanza idea! Let warm breezes wash over me every morning when I park myself on the lanai to work from my laptop. Well, you know which I picked.
It wasn’t easy, either, for the #1 agent at Lyon for January. Hey, I had to cook for myself, shop for myself and figure out how to work the TV. Did my own laundry. Washed my own car. Figured out how to buy a Paddleboard, a touring Lahui Kai, which I loaded on top of my car, removed by myself and hauled to the beach. Oh, and I shipped said new vehicle and picked up the Subaru at Kawaihae Harbor. Big accomplishments.
Wow, those two months were busy. I also made 2 trips to Oahu from Big Island in January. Celebrated New Year’s Eve with Hella Rothwell, dinner, show and dancing. Then, went back with my husband when he came out in January to visit Pearl Harbor. Learned how to cook on gas grill, a new thing for me. Murdered many geckos. Killed a cockroach. Fixed our sprinklers. Harvested red ginger. Eradicated termites.
Along the way, I closed 5 listings in January. I also listed 6 more and put 5 of those into escrow. Out of my 5 listings that closed, only one was a dream sale, no hassles nor challenges. Two of those listings I sold 3 times due to crazy buyers who could not commit. Another was a nightmare of epic proportions dealing with unreasonable idiots. But all idiots are pretty much unreasonable. I don’t like to play hardball but will when circumstances warrant.
So, see, if you want to be the #1 Agent at Lyon, all you have to do is spend a couple of months in Hawaii. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Selling Sacramento Homes From Our Vacation House in Hawaii
Fresh flowers invigorate Sacramento Realtor to sell Sacramento homes from our vacation house in Hawaii
My husband was not really surprised when I proposed buying our vacation house in Hawaii last year, but it wasn’t really on the radar for me, so I was a bit astonished that we actually did it. I spend so much time focusing on Sacramento real estate that I don’t spend a lot of time day-dreaming about the future, like most other normal people. But when the opportunity presents itself, I do tend to yank open that door without hesitating.
To me it seemed simple. I could sell real estate in Sacramento during the month of December from Sacramento, just like any other day in my life. Or, I could sell Sacramento homes from our vacation house in Hawaii. Given the choice between the two, well, you know which one I picked. That’s because I don’t want to wait for retirement (whatever that is) to pretend that I live in Hawaii. I’d rather do it right now.
Since my specialty is representing sellers and selling my listings, it’s a lot easier to do that from a remote location long distance than it is to, say, haul buyers around. Working from our vacation house in Hawaii only works because apart from shaking the seller’s hand, there is really no reason to have to meet in person. I have a laptop, iPad, cellphone, internet service and a wonderful support team. Wired and connected.
In fact, I listed a home in Sacramento that had been listed by another agent without success and sold it almost immediately, it’s closing next week from Hawaii. I never met the seller. Not only have I never met the seller, I never talked to the seller by phone. That’s because my foreign sellers don’t really speak English very well. They can write English, so we communicate via text and email. How about that?
I listed another home in Elk Grove on December 22 and sold it with 5 offers on December 23rd. Not only did I sell it, but the seller received about $15,000 more than his last unsuccessful agent had it listed at. Who buys a home the day before Christmas Eve? Lots of buyers; the Sacramento market is on fire. I sold that home from our vacation house in Hawaii. It’s even easier to sell homes in Sacramento from Hawaii in some ways because I have no distractions at the house.
Although I did stop at the grocery store today to replenish supplies and bought flowers pictured on this page. The flowers are a gift to myself. For a job well done. Today I sent out 3 comparative market analysis estimates and should be picking up a listing this week, another next week and one is for April. I love selling Sacramento homes from our vacation house in Hawaii. This was a good idea!
The Fastest Draw Often Wins the Sacramento Listing
This is a gecko in Kailua-Kona, and nobody seems to like the critters except the teeny ones.
Apart from yours truly who likes to win the Sacramento listing, you know who is really fast? Geckos. I opened my door in the rain too fast and caught a gecko about to slip into the house. I slammed the front door so quickly I almost sliced it in two. Geckos are not my favorite thing. In fact, in my list of favorite things, geckos are not on it. They don’t rank down by the bottom. Except for that cute gecko selling insurance. But that is not a real gecko. That’s a cartoon gecko, I hate to point out.
So now when I open my front door, I run my nails over the security screen to warn geckos to get the hell outta the way. They are more afraid of me than anything. I’m not telling them how terrified they make me. And don’t you go telling them, either. Keep your lips zipped.
I think of geckos now because they are all around me at my house in Hawaii. They spend lazy afternoons lounging on MY leaves in the yard. I’m not sure what or how to send them elsewhere. The previous owners said the little ones are OK but they kill the big ones because the big geckos eat the brown geckos or maybe it’s the other way around.
In any case, I am still working while I am in Hawaii, this is my wor-cation. My Sacramento listing inventory has tripled over the past few days. Just yesterday I received a referral lead from a popular website. I immediately called the seller. She was pretty much taken a back. Wow, she said, 20 seconds and you were on the phone. Well, I ‘ve learned a thing or two during my 40+ years in real estate and that thing or two is RESPOND NOW, people! I can’t impress it on my own Elizabeth Weintraub team members enough, and they’re probably tired of hearing me say it.
When I shared with the seller I am in Hawaii, she wondered how I could sell her home. I explained it to her. I don’t live in Hawaii all the time. She wanted to see my face. No problem, you can see my face, I offered, have you an Apple product? Voila, in like Flint. Well, a team member is also going by in a few days to take me on a FaceTime tour. All of this technology lying at our fingertips and yet the most important thing is to respond. Right away.
That’s how you get a Sacramento listing. And I’m like those geckos. Too fast for many other agents. Further, I don’t stop there. You won’t get terrific service upfront only to be disappointed later by a lack of enthusiasm, oh, no, no, no, no. I continue the thread, my communication skills continue to exceed expectations. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. You’ll be so thrilled!!
Working Sacramento Real Estate in the Cloud Means Hello Hawaii
Working on Sacramento real estate in the cloud can give you this view in Hawaii.
Many Sacramento Realtors nowadays work real estate in the cloud and they don’t even realize what they can actually do. When you look at my background, the fact I started in real estate in the 1970s, you would not think that I might readily adapt to working real estate in the cloud, but then you might not know me. I might be an old fart, yet I adapt to technology easily. I’ve been online since 1991. My entire Sacramento real estate business is pretty much handled not person-to-person but computer-to-computer.
If a client needs to see my cheerful face, I can use FaceTime. I work with many people I’ve never met. Some of my clients I’ve never talked to, never heard their voices. I manage my files and tend to exceed the expectations of my clients without ever shaking hands. My team members can carry me through a home via an iPad, showing me the big picture and the small details, if I need it. So, it’s no small miracle that as I’m about to take off for our house in Hawaii, the day before I ended up taking several listings.
That’s all it takes, you know, it’s the forces of nature. Soon as I haul out a suitcase, sellers who want to sell their homes are dinging my email and ringing my cell. That’s OK. I handle it. Like the sellers who emailed me late Tuesday night to say they wanted me to list their home in Tahoe Park. Said they had been trying to sell it for 6 months and the listing expired. Wha? In this market? Turns out it was previously listed by the same discount agent my Curtis Park seller fired before hiring me. What are the odds of THAT? I squeezed an inspection into my day before leaving and got all the paperwork signed within 24 hours.
Most agents would not list several homes the day before a 6-week getaway to Hawaii. They would be stressed out packing, making sure they didn’t forget anything. If I forget an item, I’ll buy it in Hawaii. My clients come first. In fact, I am betting my clientele won’t even know where I am, unless they are reading this blog. Because they’ll get the same expedient service whether I am in Sacramento in front of my desktop or whether I am lounging on my lanai staring out at the ocean with a laptop in my lap. I love my job.
This is one of the best perks of investing 40+ years in a real estate career and working real estate in the cloud. An organized Realtor can do it from anywhere. Given a choice between 6 weeks of rain and fog in Sacramento or warm ocean breezes, with all other things remaining relatively the same, I sure know which one I’ll pick.
Brrr . . . Time to Work from Hawaii
Elizabeth Weintraub in Oakland holding mandarins to her ears for no good reason.
It was chilly in the Bay area over Thanksgiving, as evidenced by the photo of me with the mandarins in Oakland. Yet, as the cold snap heads into Sacramento and Christmas lights are springing up, it can mean only one thing for this Sacramento Realtor: it is time to work from Hawaii. Yup, due to state-of-the-art technology, I can list Sacramento real estate just as easily from my home office in Land Park as I can from a cabana on the ocean at Big Island, so I am off to Hawaii this morning.
After trying to stuff my snorkel gear into my smaller luggage, it dawned on me that not only would it fit oh-so-much better into my larger luggage, but because I’m not traipsing about the South Pacific this year and won’t have to maneuver my own luggage by myself at all, I can pack a much LARGER suitcase. Eureka. Packing is done. No rolling of clothes and sitting on my luggage, tugging on the zipper, ripping the skin off my fingers in doing so. Plop, plop, plop, all packed. Yup, time to work from Hawaii.
Then I realized I had not yet received an email from Hawaiian Airlines announcing the time to check in. That was odd. I went to the Hawaiian Airlines website to print my boarding pass, and it wouldn’t let me sign in. A banner noted the airline had unilaterally decided to change customer passwords. I chose a new password and tried again. Nope, they required more digits, more letters and a weird combination. I hate being told what to do. But if I wanted to sign in to Hawaiian and get my boarding pass, well, must conform. I’m pretty irritated with them by now, when the horrifying thought occurred to me what if the reason I didn’t get an email was because I booked a flight for 2016 and not 2015?
My ergonomic keyboard sometimes causes me to mistype because the 5 and 6 are within the same reach on the left, and no matter how long I’ve had this keyboard, I can’t adjust. I want to type a 6 with my right finger. It’s embedded in my brain. What if I royally screwed up? But my luck is pretty good, and no, I did not make a mistake. I found my reservation. What I did not realize was the airline had changed the departure time. I had chosen a leisurely time to depart, a time that would let me sleep in, but no, Hawaiian changed it, and now I have to be at the airport at 6 AM.
If that’s the worst thing, it’s OK. Because it’s time to work from Hawaii.
