Email Elizabethtop producer realtor sacramento
How to Leverage Profit from Investment Rental in Sacramento
2163 Vollan Way, Sacramento, CA 95822
Coming home from my 6-week wor-cation in Hawaii yesterday means housekeeping my closed escrows like the investment rental in Sacramento that closed a few days ago. This particular seller contacted me on the first of November to talk about selling a home he bought in July of 2011 at the very bottom of the real estate market. He could not have picked a better time to leverage on the distressed sales in Sacramento at that time. He lucked out.
Since that time, he had been renting the home, and now he wanted to leverage his profit potential, so he went on the search for a top producer in Sacramento to handle the sale for him. When I showed up to meet with him and his wife, they were painting the interior. They hemmed and hawed a little bit when I walked in the door, and I could tell something was amiss. Something they didn’t want to say but was on their mind. So I asked them to share their thoughts, whatever those thoughts were, it was OK to ask me.
Perhaps they were checking out my car, parked in front of an abandoned vehicle, or maybe the way I dressed, or maybe it was after checking out my website, I dunno, but they asked if I was willing to work with them, as though this house, this sale, was not a usual sale for me. They were worried I worked on selling only luxury homes in Sacramento. No worries, I assured them, I work on all sales for all peoples. I’m always a bit amazed when this sort of thing comes up, but I am sensitive to it. I would never want anybody to think I would not help them.
Then I walked through the investment rental in Sacramento to inspect the condition. I gave them a list of things to do to prepare the home for sale, inexpensive stuff that would enhance its value. I also promised to push their net profit as far as it could be pushed, including trying to obtain multiple offers without the buyers trying to renegotiate in the middle, like so many do nowadays.
The sellers did everything I suggested, including staging. We aggressively priced the home, almost beyond the value we thought it would appraise for. Went on the market at the end of November and by early December we were in contract — after receiving multiple offers and it sold over list price. A few days before closing, the buyer’s agent asked us about making a repair that popped up as a lender condition. Hey, the buyer agreed to AS IS, which means it is the buyer’s responsibility to satisfy lender conditions.
The agent argued the contract specified the seller. Well, that was the California Residential Purchase Agreement from several years ago. The contract today says lender conditions are negotiable items, and the sale is AS IS, so the buyer had to fix it. This particular seller put about $25,000 down to buy this property and he walked away with about $140,000. Not bad for a 5-year hold on an investment rental in Sacramento.
If you’re interested in selling an investment rental in Sacramento, call Elizabeth Weintraub at Lyon Real Estate at 916.233.6759.
Luxury Home in Loomis is a Fairytale Castle for Sale
The fairytale castle at 5966 Ridge Park Dr in Loomis.
If you’re looking for a luxury home in Loomis, you might want to consider taking a look at this fairytale castle. Turn out it was the first home ever to sell in the Sacramento area for more than a million dollars. It was one of five spec homes built in the 1980s. Yet what a home! It doesn’t quite compare to the Hearst Castle Upstairs Suite Tour from last Sunday, but it’s still spectacular. Feast your eyes on this photograph, used with permission from the seller. If you’ve got $2,390,000, this home could belong to you.
Before I get into the particulars about homes for sale in Loomis, let me say that this is not my listing. It is listed by the seller, who is also a real estate agent in Loomis. It came to my attention because I received an email from a girl who found the listing on my website and contacted me, thinking maybe I was the listing agent. That’s a common mistake because my presence on the internet is so high, it’s hard for most people to figure out which listings are mine when online searches lead buyers directly to my website. It’s what happens when you’ve been online since 1991 like me.
I received an email from Savannah, a 15-year-old who, in her own words, drools over this home every Sunday on her way to church. She wrote: “I honestly don’t know why I am writing you this email and telling you how much I love the house, it is irrational to think that I ( a fifteen year old who want’s to be a middle school teacher) could possibly be able to own something so grand.”
Savannah is right, and not because wants is not a word with a possessive quality, but because a middle-school teacher does not receive the salary she deserves. Teachers are so grossly underpaid for what they do. But a real estate agent could afford it. You’d have to earn about $335,000 a year to comfortably buy this home with 20% down and not exceed the 43% front-end ratio. Your mortgage payment would be about $9,000 a month for principal and interest at 3.875%.
Private year-round pond at 5596 Ridge Park Dr in Loomis.
This luxury home in Loomis features 5 bedrooms and 6 baths, and the assessor’s office shows 7,437 square feet. The fairytale castle sits on more than 5 acres in Sierra Ridge Estates, a private, gated community near Sierra College Blvd. There is a pool and enormous outdoor kitchen, plus a year-round private pond, and covered parking for 5 vehicles. The HOA dues are $550 a month, and the property taxes are currently assessed at $20,000 a year.
Many of the interior walls and soaring ceilings are angled, contemporary and vaulted, featuring wood finishes and beams. Stone, tile and wood materials are found in most of the floors, modern and timeless designs. A magnificent stone fireplace in the lower level family room rises above the second floor, making one feel, I imagine, as though you are at a private Lake Tahoe ski lodge. The game room itself is so large you hardly notice the oversized pool table it accommodates, and the master bedroom is so huge you can barely see the bed at the other end of the room.
Master bath is luxurious at 5966 Ridge Park Drive.
You know, real estate wisdom says it’s the kitchen that draws the eye in any home, but I always look to the master bath. Show me a beautiful master bath and the kitchen will be even lovelier. The only thing that’s missing from this master bath are half-naked Greek gods dangling grapes over my lips while washing my feet and fanning the air with palm fronds. Don’t you adore the light fixtures? The jetted tub looks like the tiles were cultivated from the iridescent shells of black pearls found at Gauguin’s Pearl Farm in Rangiroa.
If you’d like to tour this luxury home in Loomis, it is available by appointment and you must produce proof of funds to buy, according to the listing agent. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759 for a private appointment. My team and I would love to represent you and present this home for your consideration. 5966 Ridge Park Dr, Loomis, CA 95650 is listed for sale at $2,390,000, by another Realtor.
Photos: C Akers, used with permission
How Experience Can Trump a Neighborhood Specialist When Selling Homes in Cameron Park
A photo collage of multiple homes you may find in Cameron Park, CA. © big stock photo
Repetition in real estate leads to experience and experience leads to smooth transactions, whether I’m selling homes in Sacramento or 30 minutes away in Cameron Park in El Dorado County. Although, I have been in the real estate business for more than 40 years and have no idea, really, how many homes I have actually sold, I stopped to take a look in MLS this morning at my sales since 2010. Just over the last 5 years. Yikes. More than 500 homes, and almost 400 of them were my listings.
That’s invaluable experience for a seller to obtain. That’s also a lot of homes to price correctly.
When I list a home, I visually inspect and walk through the home, typically with the seller at my side but not always. Sometimes sellers live out of state, so I might take along my iPad and FaceTime with them. I pay attention to detail, to what a buyer might object to or fall in love with. I look for defects. You’d be amazed at how complacent people can become, and after they live with a problem for a while, it fades into the background so they don’t even notice it anymore.
I spotted a repair situation when I listed a home in Cameron Park and discussed ways to fix it. Even gave the seller a list of contractors she could contact. We would still need to disclose the repair but at least it wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb. Then we talked about price.
Now, at first the seller was probably a little bit skeptical. As a top producer Realtor, I don’t sell a lot of homes in El Dorado County, much less record numbers of homes in Cameron Park, and I am not a Cameron Park specialist. Yet, that was not a drawback for the seller because when push comes to shove, when an agent has sold as many listings as I have, that experience counts more than having “neighborhood specialist” experience. Agents call themselves a neighborhood specialist if they’ve sold 2 homes.
Whom would a seller rather hire?
The question at the time of listing was whether to list over a certain price point or under it. Given market movement, I predicted we would receive multiple offers if we priced at the $X99,000, which was top of market but under the next hundred thousand mark. Sure enough, we picked up another 4% through a multiple offer situation and that meant an AS IS sale, too, no additional costs to the seller nor request for repairs after the home inspection. A smooth sailing closing. The seller was moving out of state and did not need more pressure.
Not to mention, it is highly doubtful a “discount” agent would have produced the same results. Hire experience. It pays in ways you can’t begin to imagine.
