Email Elizabethtessa
The Ups and Downs of Selling Elk Grove Homes
Although I sell real estate from Lincoln to Galt, I certainly do end up selling Elk Grove homes as a large percentage of my Sacramento real estate business. Probably because that’s where so many homes for sale are located. And fortunately, for this Realtor, I have an office in Elk Grove that I can use, in addition to the office where I hang out in Midtown. This means my sellers of homes in Elk Grove actually get two large Lyon Real Estate offices working for them. Because I put a large panel sign with the number of our Elk Grove office on the property. For example, if a buyer is driving by the home and wants to see it immediately, that buyer can call the large number on the sign panel, and an Elk Grove agent can be there in a heartbeat to show them the home. That’s a nice benefit, don’t you agree?
One of those agents wasn’t too happy yesterday. He called me as I was in the process of taking my cat Tessa to the VCA, the Sacramento Veterinary Referral Center located just south of Elk Grove off Bradshaw. Tessa has a hard lump in her stomach that has become progressively larger. She had an ultrasound a few days ago, and the River City Cat Clinic thinks she could have a small hernia where she was spayed 4 years ago. They suggested a second opinion. VCA charges $170 for a consultation, but our pets are worth it. The surgery alone is between $1,500 and $2,000, the price of a new refrigerator. First class air to Hawaii. Couple month’s rent for some. Enough to power electricity to a large neighborhood in Puerto Rico.
Tessa, cinnamon spotted Ocicat.
After her exam, the vet suggested surgery, and we made an appointment for this morning. I stood at the checkout counter yesterday as the check-out clerks demanded a 50% deposit. Many businesses trust no one these days. They insisted on viewing my driver’s license. I wrote a check for the deposit, which was my last check. The clerk incorrectly computed the total and was off by $100. She asked me for another $100. Oh, just add to the balance I’ll pay on Thursday, I suggested. I don’t have any more checks. Nope, they wanted that hundred bucks right then and there. Really? A hundred bucks? Did I look like a deadbeat in my Hawaiian pearls? I didn’t think so. I had just given them almost $1,000. Why didn’t they take my fingerprints and X-ray me while they were at it?
That whole experience as a paying customer at VCA was not a nice customer service experience. Very unpleasant.
I handed them my credit card. I wanted to add specifically where they could shove it, but the clerks are just doing their stinkin’ job. Silver lining? I’m glad I’m selling Elk Grove homes and not working for VCA. Dealing with shit people.
Which takes me back to the agent from my Elk Grove office who called to complain in an agitated manner. It appears he had gone to preview another of my Elk Grove homes the previous week, and the key in the lockbox did not work. I don’t know why the key didn’t work. It worked when the door was locked and the key was placed in the lockbox. I called a locksmith immediately and paid for a new key. But the guy was still steaming over that because he brought it up.
Because I’m a top producer selling Elk Grove homes, I had another home on tour.
When this agent got there, as luck would have it, the seller, an elderly woman, was confused and would not let him inside. She confessed when I called that she had not read some of my emails, but she agreed they could come back. Like I told that agent in a voice mail (since he ignored my call), if he had just called me from her doorstep, I could have fixed the whole situation. Instead, he preferred to throw a hissy fit and storm off. That’s his call but it seems defeatist behavior to me.
Selling Elk Grove homes is not for the faint of heart. As I left the VCA office off Bradshaw, I realized my closing scheduled for recording that afternoon was just up the street. This was a home in Wildhawk that the seller had tried to sell several times in the past with some other Elk Grove Realtor, not me. I expect I amazed him because I sold the home at list price. It didn’t sell as quickly as homes in the Elk Grove ZIP codes because this home in Wildhawk, although in the Elk Grove School District, is in 95829. Not as many home searches in that ZIP as there are for Elk Grove. Still, it sold in 20 days, still under the average in Sacramento of 22 days, and closed without any repairs or renegotiations. My seller is happy. That’s all I care about.
I drove over to the house in Wildhawk and removed the lockbox. I could hire a person to remove lockboxes for me, but there is something about the finality of the transaction, the completion, reaching the conclusion, that I find comforting. I also called my Elk Grove office to verify that the rest of the documents, remotes, mailbox keys were waiting in Will Call for the buyer’s agent. I could hear Tessa mewing in her carrier in the back seat of my car.
This morning, she is probably cursing my very existence. She doesn’t like being alone in a strange place, and there is a fearful atmosphere at most vet clinics. Not every animal, or human for that manner, comes out of anesthesia. There is always a risk. Yet I hear the surgeons are competent, even if the doctor looked to be 12. When I first saw him, I jokingly wanted to ask if he was old enough to drive, but that wouldn’t help matters. I know when to keep my mouth shut. And, when not to.
Did You Know Ringworm is a Fungus?
Every four-legged creature in my house hates me, even though what we are doing is for their own darned good — kinda like when I have to explain to a seller why she needs to fix up her home to sell or when I have to tell a buyer’s agent that the bank says her buyer needs to pay more to buy that Sacramento short sale, and the reactions I receive. It’s a familiar feeling. I’m like that walnut in Plants vs. Zombies when you give it plant food, though. Holding power.
If you’ve never had to deal with ringworm, you’re fortunate. I was fortunate for 60-some years until a few weeks ago. The vet says our new Ocicat, who came from a breeder in Auburn, is most likely the carrier — but you know how small some people are; things like this, they would never own up to it unless we forced the issue, and it’s just not worth the hassle we’ve already got. Little Tessa is the only new thing in the house.
Ringworm is a fungus and not a worm, which is a fact I wish I did not have to know, but now that I do, I’ll share that bit of information with you. I first discovered it because I looked in the mirror a few weeks ago. Polka-dot city was all over my face. I looked like a kid with measles, only really large 1960’s type of polka dots, as though the ghost of Andy Warhol broke into the house and painted my face while I slept. Was counting my lucky stars, believe you me, that I have a dermatologist who could immediately see me and take care of this. But the cats take longer to clear up.
We had to wash every piece of cloth material in the house. Thank goodness we don’t have carpeting. We threw out all of their toys and scratching pads, thoroughly vacuumed and recovered the 3 cat condos (which we’ll eventually discard) and closed off the formal living area of our home from the rest of it. The Ragdoll, Jackson, who is most susceptible, has to live in a back bedroom and bath, while the other two Ocicats are isolated to the family room and kitchen.
All 3 cats receive terbinafine cream twice a day and pills once a day. The vet shaved their infected areas. The highlight of yesterday was giving all 3 cats a medicated bath. They are now bathed once a week. I have a lot of experience with bathing cats because I used to live in flea city on Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, so my poor husband is spared this chore and now must admit something good came out of living in Orange County. While all of this is going on, I’m talking on my Bluetooth to sellers from Elk Grove, Sacramento and West Sacramento who want to put their homes on the market this week and next.
It was like yesterday was the aftermath explosion from Thanksgiving dinners all over Sacramento, during which family members said, “Hey, you should sell that Sacramento home and call Elizabeth Weintraub.” I don’t have any other rationale for this sudden burst of listing activity. Good thing I can do a fairly decent job at multitasking and am organized.
As for the fungus, well, I’m almost wishing I had kids with nits.
