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Lake View Laguna West Home Sold in 6 Days Over List Price
Upgraded lake view Laguna West home at 9200 Bearint Way.
No matter how many times I prove it, sellers often wonder whether it is worth it to hire a full-service Realtor, especially to sell a desirable lake view Laguna West home. It’s OK that they might be doubtful. Adding to their incertitude, if they have never worked with an Elk Grove listing agent like me whose sole practice is based on seller representation, coupled with a strong focus on maximizing profit potential, I can see why they might raise an eyebrow. I could just be some ol’ agent who sells houses, but I am not.
When I first met with the seller of this lake view Laguna West home, she had been renting her home for several years after moving to Carmichael. Based on the comparable sales at that time and the condition of her home, which was a little beat up, her value was estimated at about $50,000 less than the amount at which we eventually sold her home. The location was excellent, with a view of the lake from the second floor master suite. But the house itself was rather ordinary.
The carpeting was a sea green, almost bluish. Trendy at its time but it did not hold up to today’s standards. First I had to separate the seller from her love affair with this carpeting. To be respectful about the fact she had chosen this unfortunate color. The walls were painted builder-grade light cream. All of the wood trim in the house was oak, the cabinets and railings. There was nothing really special about it, except it had a good layout, with a highly desirable first-floor bedroom. Although the back yard featured alley access for RV, the yard was sloped downhill and rather small.
I had a vision for the seller, though.
I shared my vision of rich chocolate cabinets. She could hire a painter to spray the weathered wood. We could spruce up the kitchen further by installing an oversized pre-rinse faucet and hanging a couple of pendants over the island. We traded the first floor carpeting for hickory wide-planked engineered wood. I made several trips to the house to check on the progress of the upgrades. We discussed precise positioning of the pendants. Colors for the walls.
Next up, we staged the home. The seller was undecided about spending another $300 to $500 for extra accessories and window coverings. She was looking at the small picture instead of the big picture. Sometimes it is the little details that make a huge difference, so she opted for the full home staging package. It was magnificent. I hardly recognized the house when she was finished.
People don’t know this about me, but at a juncture in my 40+ years real estate career, I stopped selling houses and instead bought homes to fix up and flip. I moved into the houses and did all the work myself, starting out with a small two-bedroom home and working myself up to tri-level 1898 Victorian, which almost tripled in value upon resale. I have a good eye for detail and know how to present a home in its best light. I also understand the hands-on aspects of remodeling, how to create beautiful illusions on a budget.
We had initially met in November of 2016, the seller and I. After touring the home, I suggested we walk around the lake to chat. I laid out our plan as we strolled in the brisk fall sunshine. The seller took her time to finish the house and completed the remodeling jobs by the end of February. It was an extraordinary makeover. She was delighted. She was even more delighted when we sold the lake view Laguna West home for $50,000 more than its initial estimate. It took us 6 days to settle on an offer because we were involved in multiple-offers. Just as we were about to settle on an offer, I received a call from a Bay Area agent. Could she show the home? Could her buyer submit a bid and, if so, how much would it take?
I received written permission from the seller to name a number. The buyer met that suggested price and beat the multiple counter offers. Then, during escrow, after the inspections, the buyer’s agent sent a Request for Repair. Bear in mind we sold the home to the buyer with the understanding it was sold AS IS, meaning without any additional repairs nor credits. I especially pointed out the large window over the stairs that was defective and cloudy. We do not want to hear about this window after the home inspection, I cautioned the agent.
But like buyers often do, they want to try to squeeze more money during inspections. Even though they agreed to buy the home AS IS, they asked for a concession. This is the part where the buyer’s agent can either help a buyer to move forward or encourage a buyer to ask for a concession because they believe the adage, “You never know.” Well, you DO know when it’s my listing. The agent’s reason for asking for the concession was based on the fact the buyers paid $12,000 over list price and now they would like some of it back.
What? Is that a negotiation tactic?
I suggested to the seller they reject the Request for Repair. They are not obligated to repair anything. The answer to the buyer’s agent was no.
A day passed and the buyer’s agent called again to plead. Couldn’t the sellers please give her buyers SOMETHING, anything? Maybe just $500? Seemed to me like she had gotten herself into a pickle. What does the seller look like? A charity? This is why agents need to engage in lengthy conversations with their buyers long before any offers are created, and to thoroughly educate their buyers. It’s more work, yes, but then they could avoid these complicated situations they set themselves up for. It’s much better to establish expectations early on.
Our answer to the buyer’s agent was no. Now, if the buyer’s agent elected to contribute $500 toward her buyers’ cause, to ease their awful pain of buying a gorgeous lake view Laguna West home, that was her prerogative. And this is why happy sellers hire Elizabeth Weintraub at their Sacramento Realtor.
This is the third home I have recently sold on this street. 9200 Bearint Way, Elk Grove, CA 95757 sold at $487,000 on April 3, 2017. We went on the market March 3rd and closed escrow exactly 30 days later.
Why Home Sellers Should Not Pick a Sales Price
What home sellers don’t know about listing prices can fill a book. What makes a home sell immediately while another lingers on the market? How many days should it take to sell a home in Elk Grove, for example? It depends on which part of Elk Grove and the sales price ranges, but if we look at 95757 for the past 30 days, the average days on market are 53 and 63 cumulative, and the average listed price is $384,794 versus average sales price of $382,061, with an average size of 2,377 square feet. But that’s all homes up to a sales price of more than $600,000. The variance between list price and final sales price is about $1.00 per square foot, not much.
However, if you narrow the search criteria to homes under 1,500 square feet in 95757 over the past 30 days, you will see the smaller, entry-level homes are selling in 12 days over list price. It’s subjective. It’s why home sellers should not pick a sales price without this kind of information.
This is the sort of analysis I prepare for myself when I’m getting ready to list a home in Elk Grove or Sacramento. I also study the competition, meaning homes for sale now, as well, because those are the homes that buyers will see. Buyers won’t see the homes that are sold and, in fact, many of their agents will not share those comparable sales, for a variety of reasons. Home buyers tend to have limited vision because they compare homes that are for sale to other homes that are for sale and then try to discount the sales price from that inventory, which is really an ineffective method to use to buy a home.
That’s not to say that positioning is not important because it is paramount. But in the end, it is always what the market will bear. It’s the figuring out of what the market will bear that separates the struggling real estate agents from the top producers. It’s also a reason why home sellers should never pick a sales price by themselves without input from a seasoned agent.
Sure, sellers own the home and enjoy a vested interest, but they really don’t know how much that home is worth. Being right on the nose is an art developed by experience and backed by numbers. If you’d like to hire a top listing agent in Elk Grove or Sacramento, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Some Homes in Elk Grove Sell 3 Times Before Closing
There are ten million stories in Elk Grove, and this is only one of the homes in Elk Grove that has been sold several times before the buyer stuck with the program. The listing in Elk Grove closed on Friday, a mere 21 days after going into escrow. The buyer’s agent was on the ball, efficient, reachable by cell and text, and an all-around pleasant guy. I’ve been so fortunate lately that I’ve lucked out with such great buyer’s agents to work with because they can make the entire experience memorable or forgettable.
I tend to put fresh hell situations out of my mind. There is no sense in dwelling on them. But I do want to revisit this particular transaction because it is indicative of other listings of in Elk Grove. It is not an anomaly.
First, this home was initially listed by a property management company. To me, this like a mortgage broker trying to sell real estate. Or an Elk Grove listing agent deciding to manage rental property. We all have our specialities and should not try to wear 2 hats. The qualities that make a person a good property manager does not equate to making a person a good listing agent. The seller lived in the Bay area and didn’t know the difference. She thought a property manager could sell her home, but the property manager tried for 3 months and didn’t get anywhere.
The main problem with this Elk Grove home was the carpets were filthy. Why didn’t the property manager notice this? When buyers spot dirty carpeting, the first thing they think is it will cost $20,000 to replace, or some other crazy number, and they pass on buying the house. I recommended an excellent company that specializes in cutting out and replacing damaged portions so it’s invisible. They also do a bang-up job of removing spots.
I listed the home in mid September and we eventually received 9 purchase offers. The first offer was 10% under list price from “a throw offers at the wall and hope they stick” cash buyer. Unacceptable and we countered, no response. The second offer was a bit under list price, we issued a counter and the buyer accepted. A few days later, for no reason, the buyer canceled. We went into escrow with a second buyer near the end of September, and a few days later that buyer canceled. Then came 5 more offers, most with closing cost concessions, and another offer I couldn’t open because the file was corrupted and I had to wait 2 days for the agent to fix it.
I was a bit worried that the seller might be getting discouraged or start to believe that all buyers for homes in Elk Grove were off their rockers. In actuality, she was very happy with my performance and continued to comment all through the transaction that she had wished she had found me in the first place.
Then came the offer the seller could accept. It was clean. No concessions. No mistakes. No lowball offer. We zinged through escrow in 21 days with no request for repairs, just like it should be for a fairly new home in Elk Grove built in the last decade. Eureka, we closed. It was a relief but it wasn’t easy to close on this home in Elk Grove. It just goes to show that one can easily put a home under contract; it’s not so slam dunk to get it closed. This is when you need a professional, an experienced Elk Grove agent who doesn’t give up and doesn’t quit until the keys are dangling from the buyers’ hot little fingers.
Why You Want to Hire a Top Sacramento Agent
My month of June closings for this top Sacramento agent were enormous and totaled more than $5 million for the past 30 days in the Sacramento region. Lest you think I sit around sipping champagne while cabana boys dangle grapes over my lips and fan me cool in our summer heat let me explain that it only happened once in Maui last month; I actually work very hard to accomplish feats like this. I don’t sell one or two homes a month, that’s not my method of operation. I don’t focus on only one area or one type of million-dollar seller.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I sold more homes last month than a person can count on two hands and my listings outnumber all of a person’s digits. The sales prices of my June closings ranged from $131,000 for a condo in Woodside to $475,000 for a home in Curtis Park. You can see that I’m not solely specializing in the upper-end homes, but I also don’t do a lot of lower-end homes. Most of my sales are right in the middle between the two, where most of the real estate market lies in Sacramento.
Middle of the road is a good place for a Sacramento real estate agent. I am as happy as a cat with a bag of freeze-dried chicken treats.
I am available to sell a home for any seller anywhere in the Sacramento area, from Galt to Lincoln, and it would be highly unusual to run across an area in which I haven’t sold. I sell practically everywhere and over many long years have developed an expertise in a ton of neighborhoods. My pricing estimates are typically spot on. I talked with a woman in Elk Grove last week — because I am a noted as a top agent in Elk Grove — about selling her home. I sent the prospective seller a comparative market analysis showing her that she should expect to list around $465,000.
She did not believe me at first. She was blown away. She was certain her home was worth $399,000 or less. When she realized how much equity she had, she called a mortgage broker to find out how much she could extract at our still incredibly low interest rates around 4% and whether her home would appraise. Sure enough, her appraisal came in at $465K. So she decided to refinance instead. But I hope she will remember me when it does come time to sell.
My system works. I get results. I communicate. If you’re looking for a top Sacramento agent, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. I always have time for you.
Spotlight: Homes for Sale in 95624 in Elk Grove
This weekend I’m meeting with my electrician and his wife in Elk Grove to talk about selling their home in 95624. As a top Elk Grove agent, I sell many homes in Elk Grove and, over the years, that city has developed into one of my speciality markets. The ZIP code of 95624 is close to the ZIP 95829, but that area of 95829 is in Sacramento, not in Elk Grove, even though homes in 95829 might be located in the same Elk Grove school district. All of the homes located in 95624 are within the city limits of Elk Grove.
Speaking of which, the schools are a primary reason many people with families choose to live in Elk Grove. There are 15 public and private elementary schools, 5 middle schools and 5 high schools, according to Trulia. Time Magazine in 2006 named Elk Grove as the fastest growing city in the United States, just as the housing market was beginning to crash. Many homeowners lost tremendous amounts of equity from 2006 to 2012. But today, we are on the road to recovery. Many people who thought they didn’t have any equity are amazed to discover that they can now freely sell their home in Elk Grove.
Homes in the 95624 ZIP code of Elk Grove priced between $350,000 and $400,000 can be more difficult to sell if the bulk of the homes in a given neighborhood are priced near $350,000 and you have that odd $400,000 home. But it doesn’t mean it won’t sell or that you won’t get top dollar for it. It just might take a little bit longer. I sold several in the upper end of that price range recently — closed a home in East Park at $385,000 last week and a Meritage Home in Britschgi Ranch will close shortly. In February, for example, there were only 7 homes in that price range that closed escrow. We’ll see an uptick this month, I predict. At the moment, MLS reports we have 229 homes for sale in 95624, which have not yet sold nor closed escrow.
The competition grows a bit more intense in the $300,000 to $350,000 range. Last February out of 29 listings in that range only 11 sold. That equals about 1 out of 3 homes. The hottest price range, though, is the “under $300,000,” those homes priced between $200,000 and $300,000. The pending sales in that price range for February exceeded the number of homes for sale.
And this is exactly where my electrician’s home is located. We’ll probably need to spruce it up a little bit because most people don’t live in the manner in which they would present a home for sale to the public. We live like real people and not characters in a fairy tale, but it is the fairy tale I will sell. This is a one-story home in a neighborhood in which many investors have flipped homes, and it’s a popular place to live.
I talk to everybody about real estate because it’s my passion. Even when I’m having an extra electrical receptacle placed under my home office desk. Thinking about buying or selling a home in 95624? Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
