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Elizabeth Weintraub Top 1% Agent for 2018
This top 1% agent for 2018, namely yours truly, is not in this photograph as more beautiful women are. And why not? Josh Amolsch, Elizabeth Weintraub Team exclusive buyer’s agent (on the left), accepted the award on our behalf because yours truly is still hanging out in Hawaii. Oh, don’t worry, I’m finally coming home to Sacramento next week. Three and a half months of running amok on the Big Island is coming to an end.
In the middle, we have Sparkles (fits her personality to a T), who is the sister of the drop-dead gorgeous woman on the right, Victoria Gerassimenko. This summer, Victoria and Josh are getting married, and I could not be more excited for them. In fact, my own sister is a bit peeved with me, I suspect, because I had to switch around travel arrangements to make sure I would be available to attend their wedding in Lake Tahoe. Which meant my sister had to change her travel plans to come to Sacramento from Minnesota. I can hope she forgives me.
Last year was a bit tough in Sacramento real estate. We faced escalating prices, softening demand from buyers, and higher interest rates. Yet, we still placed as the top 1% agent for 2018, and I am proud of that fact. It is due to our well-oiled machine that keeps right on ticking when others drop the ball. I’ve got the best team members in the entire world, and I thank my lucky stars every single day. They are not just team members, they are my friends.
Here, from the left, is Dan Tharp, mortgage loan officer from Guild Mortgage, Shaundra Bradley, our wonderful transaction coordinator, and Josh Amolsch, exclusive buyer’s agent extraordinaire, accepting the top 1% agent for 2018 from the president of Lyon Real Estate.
Thank you, Dan, Rose, Shaundra, Josh, Vika, Sparkles, and everybody else who showed up on Friday to support the Weintraub Team at the Lyon Awards. I really enjoyed the hello video from Josh, too. Made me feel like I was there even though I’m relaxing on my lanai. Mahalo!
Elizabeth Weintraub’s Thoughts About Sacramento Real Estate in August
The Mushroom at William Land Park is actually a water feature.
My thoughts about the Sacramento real estate market are not necessarily everybody else’s opinion. While the market may be on fire in Sacramento real estate, it doesn’t mean that everybody is aware of what’s going on. In fact, unless you’re in the business or follow the real estate business with a burning passion, which are not equally exclusive, you might be astonished to know what really happens. The first thing I find that is a misperception among sellers, mostly, is they are underpricing their homes. They believe their homes are worth far less than their home’s actual value. I am constantly finding myself telling sellers that they can get more than they had hoped to receive. Reverse was true last year.
Some find my thoughts about the Sacramento real estate market hard to swallow. I joke around and say: whatever you think your house was worth a few years ago, just add $100,000 to it. Not in all cases, of course, but in many I am right. Especially in the $299,000 range from 2011 to 2013. Many homes in the price range are now worth at least $399,000. The upper-end price points are fairing nicely as well, too, just less demand. Much of the pressure is on the entry-level homes.
Our median price point for Sacramento County is $355,000 for the month of July, but our days on market have dropped to 18 days. Median prices mean half have sold for more and half have sold for less. When I compare this to my own production, apart from matching almost exactly median prices, my listings are doing superbly better than that. Looking over the past 5 months, from March 15th to August 15th, I’ve sold my listings on average in 7 days, with many homes selling within 4 days. My average list-price-to-sales-price-ratio during that time period is 102%. From $347,945 to selling at $354,120. That means my sellers make on average 2% more, yet I charge the same commission I have always charged for the past 43 years.
Further, most of my listings sell without any repairs, renegotiations or buyer credits, which puts even more money into my seller’s pockets. That’s what sellers have come to expect. Although, I did have a seller ask me a few days ago why we did not hold an open house all day long. What? He could not believe it was only 2 hours. I had to explain 2 hours is the industry standard for an open house and during our Extravaganza, we do hold homes open for 3 hours one Sunday every month. But I want to keep him happy, so we’ll do a 4-hour open house for him.
One of my sellers contacted me yesterday to ask about selling a home in Elk Grove, and whether I could get it sold by September. Yes, I probably can. I know her home, as I had it listed 7 years ago before she decided not to sell. I thought, oh, I have photos for this, but I looked at the pictures. Wow. My standards have changed over the past 7 years. Can’t use those photos. I’d rather be found dead and naked in the streets than publish those photos. But I did get to share my thoughts about Sacramento real estate and my incredible news that I earned number one agent at Lyon Real Estate last month. The seller replied, “I knew I liked you for a reason.” Made my day!
Photo: The mushroom at William Land Park, Elizabeth Weintraub. Last Sunday was the first time I had ever seen water pour from it. This mushroom is also a portal in Ingress.
Elizabeth Weintraub Picks Up 2 Top Agent Awards at Lyon Celebration
Elizabeth Weintraub Team Roaring 20s Style: Josh Amolsch, Shaundra Bradley, Elizabeth Weintraub, Dianne Slutsky and Barbara Dow
The truth is no matter how many awards Lyon Real Estate gives to Elizabeth Weintraub, the very best award was having a rollicking good time with my Elizabeth Weintraub Team members, kicking up our heels on the dance floor and sprawling all over the 1920s gangster car, well, until the photographer kicked us off the vehicle. Never behave yourself if you don’t have to is my motto. Last night was the Lyon Top Agent Awards dealie-bop at the Hyatt downtown Sacramento. The brokerage handed out awards and recognized its top agents at Lyon Real Estate for our 2014 production, which was so last year I barely recall the harried haze.
Dinner at the Lyon Agent Awards
When we arrived, my husband swore he had spotted a waiter toting a tray filled with glasses of champagne. Try as we might, weeding our way through the neck-to-neck crowd, we could not find that guy. But we did find several bars and chose the less crowded bar. Soon as we popped into line, the bartender took off for the bar next to us. We slid over to that bar, and the bartender dashed back to his original position. It was beginning to look like we could not get a glass of champagne. Wha, were we chopped liver? I nabbed the guy back at the bar and ordered a glass of bubbly.
“I’ll have to charge you for it,”the bartender warns, mentioning that there is a guy with a tray of champagne glasses wandering about. Well, I suspected champagne guy wandered into the kitchen, where he slipped and broke his neck, or maybe he scooted out to the sidewalk for a smoking break. Actually, it didn’t matter where he vanished to, the fact remains I was standing there in all of my Roaring 20s get-up and my fingers were not wrapped around the stem of a glass of champagne. That situation needed to be rectified, and I did not particularly care if I handed over a 20-dollar bill to fix it.
Presenting Top Outbound Relocation Agent Award to Elizabeth Weintraub
With drinks in hand, we began to wander back to the front of the entrance when suddenly the ballroom doors flew open and the crowd poured in. All of the Lyon agents and their guests looked glamorous and spectacular; not to mention, there were feathers and sequins scattered all over the dance floor by the end of the night.
I picked up the Top Outbound Relocation Agent Award from Lyon, as I refer many potential out-of-area sellers and buyers to our Lyon Relocation department. People call me from all over the country to ask if I will help them to sell or buy a home. The problem is I work in Sacramento Valley, and although I can sell real estate anywhere in California, I prefer to stick to areas that are my specialty.
Elizabeth Weintraub, Top 1% of Agents at Lyon Real Estate
The president of Lyon Real Estate handed me the top agent award and said, “I didn’t recognize you tonight; you look beautiful.” OK, maybe you would have scuffed up his spats or kicked him in the shins, but he was trying to be complimentary.
Toward the end of the top agent awards ceremony, which was short and sweet this year, thank goodness, they began the countdown to the top 1% of all Lyon real estate agents. It’s always hard to know exactly where I might place every year at Lyon because they calculate the numbers internally in an odd way. I might rank in the top 10 agents in a 7-county area in Trendgraphix for number of homes sold or sales production, but not end up in that ranking at Lyon. Still, I placed in the top 1% of Lyon real estate agents, and am named to the top 3 agents in the brokerage out of almost 1,000 agents. I’ll probably pick up more top agent awards for our downtown office but, like I said, none of that compares to rocking out with my team.
I love these guys to pieces. Trust me, we know how to have a good time.
