Email Elizabethwhy experience matters in real estate
How to Avoid Mistakes in Sacramento Escrows
My goal for clients is to avoid mistakes in Sacramento escrows.
When you hire a Realtor like me with 43 years in this business, you would hope to avoid mistakes in Sacramento escrows. Because experience matters. I could go crazy naming all of the ways I help my clients by heading off problems at the pass before they get down the hill. Regardless, as much as I want to predict what horrible thing can occur and stop it, sometimes, despite all caution, crap still sneaks through.
It’s like trying to keep those baby geckos out of my house in Hawaii. I can make sure the door is always closed securely, and then I come home to find my housekeeper with her head in the toilet and the front screen door wide open. No wonder I later found an adult Gold Dust Day gecko upside down on my window blind.
Gold Dust Day gecko
You would be surprised at how good I’ve gotten at using a broom like a hockey stick and sailing these guys out the front door. First I sweep the gecko off the window to the floor, and before it knows what’s happening, I swing at it with just a slight twist of my wrist to send ’em flying.
So it’s not always preventing problems as much as it is swift action to resolve the issues when, despite an agent’s best intentions and effort, they happen anyway. For example, one of my clients is in the UK. I prepped her on how to get an appointment at the Embassy to sign and notarize a deed. A seller doesn’t have to be in Sacramento to sell a house. Just like your Sacramento Realtor doesn’t need to physically be in Sacramento, either.
I asked the escrow company to please write on the FedX package a description of the legal documents to avoid a delay. The authorities in the UK can retain packages for x-ray if there is no description noted on the airbill. Escrow promised. Then the escrow officer went home sick and her assistant took over. I asked the assistant to please make sure she writes a description.
Even though I was very hopeful my client would receive the FedX package, she didn’t. I verified with the assistant that she indeed had provided a description. Yes, she had written on the package with a sharpie . . . but she did not put the description on the airbill. So you know what happened. The package is delayed and in x-ray.
No biggie. The larger issue is the appointment at the Embassy. My client wants to avoid mistakes in Sacramento escrows as much as the next person.
We are also replacing a half dozen windows in this house that failed. The windows are under warranty, and my seller is probably one of the few homeowners who has been proactive enough to get her windows replaced. None of her neighbors has been able to. But her windows were ordered and arrived at the glass company yesterday. However, one of them is the wrong size, so the installation will be delayed into mid-January while they reorder.
Our initial hope was to start the process early enough so the windows would be replaced before we closed escrow. Although we did not count on the shipper messing up and sending the wrong window, it’s a fact of life that somebody along the line will screw up. The silver lining in this situation is the buyer is getting new windows and his neighbors are not.
Despite our focus to avoid mistakes in Sacramento escrows, we cannot control third party actions. We can just clean up the debris as best we can and move forward to closing. Because there were so many other things that could have gone wrong but did not.
A Top Listing Agent is Always One Step Ahead
Sacramento real estate brokers rank #1 in the country for income.
Sacramento sellers deserve a top listing agent who is always one step ahead and knows what is coming down the road. It’s like having X-ray vision. We can see around blind curves. We know if you’re gonna run headfirst into another vehicle and slide down the hill or if you’re going around that curve with ease. We know it because our experience tells us. It works for those of us who learn by our earlier mistakes, and we all make mistakes on a regular basis in the early stages of our career. I made my share my first 10 years, but now I have passed the 40-year mark. I know better.
Time passing is no substitute for experience. You can have an average agent who has been in the business for 30 years but has never sold more than 100 or so homes in his life. Real experience is gained by closing sale after sale after sale on a consistent basis. An agent who closes 3 or 4 homes a year cannot possibly gain the experience of an agent who closes a couple of transactions a week. With every sale comes knowledge. It’s how we can preemptively know what is likely to happen and head it off before it turns into a problem. When you have gained that kind of knowledge and experience, confidence follows.
I was thinking about how a top listing agent is always one step ahead when I delivered a listing presentation yesterday before an audience. When somebody is watching you do it, you think about what you do afterward. My seller’s objective is to sell and have plenty of time to move into new home, which is being built. It’s supposed to be finished by December 8th. First thing I know from experience is new home builders often run into delays. I don’t want my seller to be without a place to live.
By using my negotiation skills as a top listing agent, I figure I can get the sellers at least a 2-month rent back. Another reason this idea works is because FHA will allow a buyer 60 days to move into the home. Given that time frame, I also figure that our hard winter rains could push the schedule forward. For that reason, I am targeting a move-out date of January 9th for this seller. Just to be safe. That way, if the builder is finished on time, she can move earlier, but at least she won’t be without a roof over her head.
To get the January 9th move-out date, we need to go on the market around September 29th. Plus, this date will coincide with our Lyon Real Estate Extravaganza Open House, which is held the first Sunday of every month (excepting for holidays). Her home could very well sell by the 9th of October, given our present days on market. With a 30-day escrow, we would close by November 9th. Two-month rent back brings us to January 9th.
The reason a rent back will work well is because this is a home for a first-time home buyer. First-time home buyers are often renters, which means they need to give 30 days notice. If they write an offer in early October, they might not need to move until the end of November, so it’s just another month for them to stay where they are and take their time to move. Not to mention, we have the holidays approaching, and it’s tough to move around the holidays. Much better to move early January.
This makes it a win-win for all parties involved. No stress. No hassle on both sides. And it’s a great plan for my seller. This is how a Sacramento top listing agent plans ahead and adjusts her strategy accordingly. Every sale is precious and unique to me.
College Glen Home Sold in 3 Days $10,000 Over List Price
This College Glen home on Cliffwood closed escrow at $335K.
When these wonderful sellers were referred to me to sell the husband’s family College Glen home, I was truly overjoyed to meet them. Sometimes, a Sacramento Realtor simply connects with her clients. It’s an amazing feeling. People who don’t express or welcome emotions probably don’t do well in real estate. I can tell when I meet people whether there is a spark, and I can also feel the energy when I enter a home. When both are present, whammo, remarkable things can happen. Further, these types of sellers make me want to be a better agent.
The sellers had appointments with other agents but after meeting with me, I think they canceled those appointments. The husband’s wife literally hired me on the spot. She said, handing me the successor trustee documents: I want you to handle this. See, they could tell. I would do whatever I could to make their transaction a smooth and pleasant experience, on top of netting them the most money they could possibly ever expect to achieve. That’s my job.
Son of the deceased help to build this wall at the home in College Glen.
There had also been a death in the College Glen home, to which I was equally sensitive. Especially since the husband had also grown up in this home. It was truly a treasured residence. My job, as I saw it, was to maximize profit potential and find the right buyer. Lots of people proclaim to be the “right buyer” but so often it’s just a smoke screen. We wanted to choose the buyers who would purchase the home AS IS, not demand repairs nor expect renegotiations later, all of that hocus-pocus employed by some buyers in Sacramento real estate.
The seller told me he expected the home to sell around $282,000. But all of the comparable sales, exemplified by our seller’s market frenzy, pointed to a price of at least $325,000. He seemed a bit astounded, but I showed him the statistics, explained my thinking, my strategy, they unanimously trusted me to do this.
After our open house Sunday, we received multiple offers. One offer was higher, but like I pointed out to the sellers, if they really preferred the first set of buyers — the buyers who submitted an offer on Friday and agreed to wait out the open house — the sellers could always counter the first set of buyers to match the highest offer. That’s exactly what happened and how this College Glen home came to sell at $10,000 over list price, at $335K. We closed 18 days later. No fuss, no muss. No drama. Just a smooth closing. And this is how Sacramento real estate is supposed to happen. It’s why experience matters.
Another Curtis Park Home Closes Despite Initial Seller Mistake
There are many valid reasons Realtors get paid so much.
I can tell my real estate clients that experience matters, and being a top producer makes a difference when selling, say, a Curtis Park home, but sometimes they wrongly believe the only difference between agents is the amount of real estate commission, so they don’t listen. They have to find out the hard way.
Never burn bridges, is my motto. I also don’t like to cross bridges twice, but sometimes we end up doing exactly that. I recall clearly standing on the front steps of this Curtis Park home with the seller and talking about selling the home. He asked how much I charged, and I told him my fee is 6%. Same fee I’ve charged for the last 40 years.
He balked and said he could hire a discount agent who would do all the same things for 4%. No, you can’t, I blurted. You think you can because they are telling you that story, but you can’t. You can’t hire a top producer with more than 40 years in the business, a Realtor who sells on average 1 to 2 homes a week because that kind of Realtor charges more.
I’m worth it, I promised. I will save your ass during the home inspection. A discount agent might not have the skills or experience to deal with inspection issues, and you’ve got an older home, too. You will fall out of escrow and you won’t close. You’ll make more money with me, even though you’re paying me more.
He hired that discount agent anyway. His escrow blew up and he didn’t close. So he called me back, and I listed his home, and it closed this week. The buyers purchased the home in its AS IS condition and paid another 4% over list price. I’d say I did a good job for this seller. If you want to sell a Curtis Park home or a home anywhere in the Sacramento Valley, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
It Takes a Lot of Work to Sell Homes in Midtown Sacramento or Auburn
Cow looking over a pond in Auburn, CA
My cute Craftsman home in Midtown went into escrow this morning after hitting the market Tuesday afternoon, and it made me realize how some people will undoubtedly believe that we make it look all too easy. All they see is a home coming on the market and a home immediately selling, and they think to themselves that either agents make too much money or that it’s so danged easy they can do it themselves.
What they don’t see is the work behind the scenes. Nor how 40-some years in the real estate business can add up to a bazillion refinements and tweaks in how the professionals do business. I can honestly say that I improve every year as a Sacramento Realtor, constantly reassessing and adjusting for market conditions. It’s a fluid process.
I start working on many of my listings months in advance, especially to sell homes in Midtown. My conversations with that seller started in November of last year. I am working on a bunch of new listings about to hit the market on September 11. Yeah, yeah, it seems an appropriate day. To take it back without forgetting is to gain strength and power.
I have a new listing coming up in Auburn, and I met with the sellers yesterday. They are referrals from a home I sold in Cameron Park. Beautiful home on 5 acres with an enormous workshop, 45 feet x 30 feet x 16 feet high, insulated, heated and powered to the max. Plus a barn with stalls for horses. We need to make some updates and improvements prior to putting the home on the market, plus we need to optimize the best time for market exposure, so we’re working on that end of it now.
Not to mention the hours I poured through MLS and other online records, studying the comparable sales, analyzing sales patterns and looking for future pricing directions to arrive at a sales price. This is the single most hardest thing to do and get right — and if you mess it up, that home will be stigmatized and tarnished. My entire purpose is to get the seller the highest price possible.
There are no restrictions on horses in Auburn
While I was in Auburn, I stopped to see my assistant who lives in Auburn as well. She took me on a tour of her acreage and ponds in an ATV. I hope you like the photo of her cow standing by the pond and one of her horses. I felt a little bit like Eva Gabor of that TV show Green Acres, in my magenta suede heels, but what the hey. If you can’t take a horse snorting on you, you can’t work with others in real estate. I’ve discovered over the years that selling country properties uses the same principles that apply to any other sale, with just a few slight twists.
But it’s a long process and won’t be for sale until after Labor Day. I’m ordering the drone photography today to get on their shooting schedule. We will set up an open house and, if all goes well, within a week or two of hitting the market, we should snag a big fat fish on our fishing line. Because whether it’s to sell homes in Midtown or selling country ranches in Auburn, my sellers get my 40 years of experience and almost 30 days of prep work to get to this point.
Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub, country home in Auburn
