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home inspection: I Shall Not But Love You Better After Short Sale Cancellation - 04/04/12 08:47 AM
If you want to listen to how many ways can I say no, ask me about repairs on a short sale. Or, price renegotiations after short sale approval. There are at least 50 ways to say no to renegotiations after short sale approval.
As a Sacramento Short Sale agent, I try to be explicit when I send the approval letter to the buyer. Often I explain to buyer's agents, just in case they've been living under a rock, that their transaction is an AS IS short sale. There are no repairs. No additional credits. No adjustments to price for unforeseen conditions. … (32 comments)
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home inspection: On Dasher and Dancer and What's This Request for Repair Doing Stuck to Rudolph's Nose? - 12/26/11 12:45 PM
My sister asked me whether I had received everything I wanted for Christmas. Then she answered her own text message with: "Of course you did; you're in Hawaii." But that's only because she did not know about the email from a buyer's agent sent on Christmas Eve and received on Christmas Day. Some gifts you can do without.
As a result, I did not pass on the information in that email to my clients. I withheld it. Sue me. They can wait to hear it today. I pride myself on my speed-of-light communication efforts but this is one example of why … (7 comments)
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home inspection: How Sacramento Buyers for a Del Dayo Pool Home Lost Their Short Sale Opportunity - 11/20/11 12:09 PM
Real stories about real Sacramento short sales . . . brought to you by your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub.
There are home buyers in Sacramento who think short sale sellers are desperate. I don't know why or who feeds them this nonsense. But I have had buyer's agents send me offers that don't have a chance in a blue moon of ever being accepted, and I wonder why they do it.
I suspect some of the agents simply want to teach their buyers a lesson without being the bad guy. These agents have probably been in the business long … (9 comments)
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home inspection: How to Get the Edge to Buy a Sacramento Short Sale - 09/27/11 09:22 AM
They -- that ubiquitous they -- say that California is the land of fruit and nuts. You hear crap like that all the time when you live in California. But let me tell you, a new Field Poll released Tuesday found that 91% of voters in California say our state economy totally sucks. I don't see any fruit or nuts in that bowl of cereal. Sounds like people know what's going on. Then you've got your 72% who say the economy will stay about the same or change, leaving 26% who hope it will improve -- and 2% who don't know … (2 comments)
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home inspection: If You Have Important News, Just Pick Up the Damn Phone and Call, Why Doncha? - 09/13/11 09:18 AM
You hear about kids breaking off relationships with each other via texting, but they have an excuse. They are clueless kids. Or their parents didn't teach them better manners. However, when we get older, and hopefully wiser, we realize that there are certain situations in which picking up the phone and making that personal call is required. It's not always appropriate to email or text.
For example, as a Sacramento short sale agent, when I receive a short sale approval letter from my seller's bank, I generally call the seller to share the news. It's a milestone. Sometimes, in the short … (9 comments)
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home inspection: There is a Trick to Maintaining that Sacramento Short Sale Home - 09/07/11 09:59 AM
It's the law of the short sale universe, I suppose. That law is all I have to do is go out of town and short sale approval letters will arrive. Make that a holiday, like Labor Day, and those letters will multiply. What are those negotiators doing, do you wonder? They should be taking off, kicking back, grilling food black, instead of knocking out short sale approval letters, but there you go. They just found another way to irritate a Sacramento short sale agent. One more notch in their belt or cartoony-scratchy mark on the side of their car door.
But … (5 comments)
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home inspection: About Home Selling as a FSBO, and Another Elk Grove HAFA Short Sale Closed Yesterday - 07/07/11 10:29 AM
On the surface, it sounds simple enough. Put your home on the market yourself for 30 days to see how it goes. You just might sell it as a FSBO and save yourself that whopping real estate commission. At least that's the story some FSBO companies are telling sellers, and sellers are eating it up. Why wouldn't they be sucked in? Sounds good to me, too. What have they got to lose?
There is a FSBO thread going on about this very topic at my homebuying site. You can go there if you like and add your comments about sellers trying … (4 comments)
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home inspection: What Part of This "As Is" Condition Short Sale Don't You Understand? - 05/21/11 09:35 AM
I provide a handy dandy tip sheet for buyer's agents on my Sacramento short sales, which I attach to MLS. Not everybody understands what it's like to be a Sacramento short sale agent. My tip sheet explains much about the short sale process and how short sales work. One of the items on that list is the fact the home is sold in its "as is" condition. This means the bank will do no repairs and give no credit for condition.
It doesn't matter if the buyer discovers through a home inspection that the AC unit is underutilized or inoperative. No … (9 comments)
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home inspection: How a Buyer's Home Inspection Can Make the Underwriter Demand Repairs - 01/20/11 10:56 AM
I don't go into my office very often because I work from a virtual and mobile office. But I do make a point of going to my office at least once a week to attend our weekly office meetings. That's because I pick up new information and can share stuff with my fellow agents. I learned something interesting yesterday that could very well affect agents, sellers and buyers everywhere in the country, not just in Sacramento.
Most agents know that if their seller is not willing to pay for a pest completion, they probably should not include the requirement to pay … (5 comments)
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home inspection: Where Do Real Estate Agents Draw the Line Before Crossing It? - 06/26/10 10:32 AM
I have noticed something peculiar happening in the Sacramento real estate market. Now, ordinarily, I do not pay much attention to what other agents are doing because, quite frankly, it's none of my business. My business is to write weekly articles for my homebuying website at About.com, sell my listings -- short sale or otherwise -- put my buyers into contract and write a daily Elizabeth Weintraub blog. That's enough stuff to keep me busy. You know what they say about busy people? If you want something done right, ask a busy person to do it.
Lately, though, I've noticed that … (63 comments)
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home inspection: A Request for Repair Pays Off on Foreclosure Home In Land Park - 05/16/10 09:55 AM
As I entered the west bound on-ramp to Business 80 from H Street in Midtown, I noticed a sprinkler head was busted. Water sprayed straight up into the air. Not only might that gusher spray vehicles coming up the on-ramp, but it was wasting precious water in Sacramento. I fumbled for my cellphone -- probably taking my life into my hands -- because that on-ramp dumps you into the off ramp for P Street, forcing drivers to navigate out of that exit lane and into traffic, much of which is hell bent on scooting over to the W / X freeway.
… (9 comments)
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home inspection: Sacramento Home Sellers Should Never Withhold Material Facts from a Buyer - 05/10/10 10:00 AM
There's a good reason for agents to hang on to old escrow files in paper or digital format. Especially buyer's agents. That's because somewhere along the road the buyer might become a seller, and those inspections -- performed when the seller was a buyer -- could become important seller disclosures to the next buyer.
A listing agent and home sellers are required in California to disclose all material facts to a home buyer. You see, buyers generally don't care too much about what you tell them as long as they are informed. It's the withholding of information that can get an … (12 comments)
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home inspection: Buying a Home in Land Park vs. Midtown Could Depend on the Home Inspection - 04/07/10 08:43 AM
"Where did you find this home inspector? I've never seen a home inspection like this before," the Midtown listing agent lamented, adding, "No wonder the buyers canceled!" After the home inspection on a 100-year-old home in Midtown, my buyers decided to cancel their escrow and go after a home in Land Park. I tried to warn them in the beginning that they might be getting into a situation that was over their heads, but they were confident that Midtown was where they wanted to live.
But I don't make decisions for my clients. They make their own decisions. I simply give … (11 comments)
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home inspection: Home Buyers Ought to Realize That Sellers Are Real Live People With Feelings - 03/24/10 08:33 AM
A common mistake that some Sacramento home buyers make is to forget how their offer will be perceived by the sellers. As a Sacramento listing agent, I have seen buyers sabotage their offers from inception due to the way they wrote it. Without meaning to, buyers can irritate sellers. When sellers are ticked off, they may very well reject an offer, even a good offer.
An agent called me last week to discuss writing an offer on one of my listings. I explained to him that the refrigerator, washer and dryer were not included in the sales price. Now, bear in … (11 comments)
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home inspection: Reasons to Not Buy that Sacramento Foreclosure Flipper Home - 02/05/10 08:59 AM
The thing with buying a Sacramento foreclosure flipper home is you don't know what you are buying. A Sacramento first-time home buyer generally first views the home like this photo of pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. The sellers might have staged that home. It can be enticingly beautiful but deceptive. You don't know what's under those granite counters and new paint job. You could press a fork into the pancakes and find it is raw in the center.
A home inspection won't necessarily disclose mold, but a buyer will be asked to sign a mold disclosure. The disclosure will inform … (11 comments)
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home inspection: News Flash: FHA Lifts 90-Day Flipping Rule for Home Buyers - 01/16/10 10:00 AM
FHA has temporarily lifted the 90-day flipping rule for home buyers. This new guideline goes into effect on February 1, 2010 and is good for one year.
Certain criteria apply. For investors selling homes more than 20% above the investor's original sales price, FHA will want to see either proof of work completed that substantially raises the value or an appraiser's explanation as to why the value is much higher than the original price paid at auction.
It also appears that FHA may require the buyer to pay for a home inspection ordered by the lender. This sounds as though if … (15 comments)
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home inspection: My Hardwood Floors Finally Have the Final Top Coat - 01/09/10 08:07 AM
It seems like forever since we've sealed off the dining room and living room from the rest of our house. The pass-through window between the kitchen and living room has a sheet of plastic taped over it, and the other 3 doors are closed, much to the dismay of our cats. You know how cats are, right? Always sticking their little paws under the door and pulling. A shut door to a cat is a slap in the face.
I dropped off 8 sets of drapes at the dry cleaners yesterday, which will be ready to pick up in a week, … (15 comments)
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home inspection: Some Sacramento Short Sales Have a Bumpy Ride But a Happy Ending - 09/03/09 09:12 AM
Once upon a time, long, long ago -- maybe it was in March -- first-time home buyers (let's call them Peter and Lori) wrote an offer on a short sale home in Sacramento. Decent offer, over list price. I sent that offer to the listing agent in southern California. Left voice mails, sent emails, but the listing agent did not respond. No big surprise there.
After a while (I don't recall how many days) but after I mentioned that he left me with no choice but to report him to the Sacramento Board of REALTORS, he responded. This was a company … (21 comments)
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home inspection: Whether You Get Seller-Paid Repairs Depends on the Market, Seller Type and Contract - 08/12/09 09:10 AM
Many home buyers do not realize that California purchase contracts contain verbiage that says they are purchasing a home in "as is" condition. A seller is under no obligation to make repairs nor offer buyers a credit based on the findings of a home inspector. But that doesn't mean that a seller will refuse. Much depends on the type of market and type of seller.
Often a Sacramento home buyer will say to me: "But when we bought our home, the seller paid for X and Y and Z." They don't realize that a single transaction doesn't dictate how negotiations will … (31 comments)
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home inspection: Running Over a Sprinkler Head in South Land Park Was a Lucky Break - 07/10/09 10:22 AM
Right in the middle of my buyers' home inspection in South Land Park last month, I had received a text message that another client's offer was accepted. We had but a mere hour to return the signed counter offer. So, I rushed back to my Land Park home office to pull the offer off the FAX (why can't agents email them?) and send the counter offer to the agent. Then I hopped back in my car to return to the home inspection.
Zipped up to the curb. Crunch. I heard a noise. Jumped out of the car and looked around near … (32 comments)
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Elizabeth Weintraub, Sacramento Short Sale Agent, Land Park, East Sac, Lyon RE
Sacramento,
CA
More about me…
Top 1% at Lyon Real Estate #00697006
Address: 2801 J Street, Sacramento, CA, 95816
Office Phone: (916) 233-6759
Cell Phone: (916) 233-6759
Email Me
Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate, midtown Sacramento. Selling since 1974. Home Buying Columnist at About.com. Sacramento short sale agent.
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