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short sale: Do You Have What it Takes to Do a Short Sale? - 05/31/12 07:07 AM
Not every seller is cut out to do a short sale. It takes a certain breed. Because there are never any guarantees. What a bank did yesterday it might not do tomorrow. So, if some supposed Sacramento short sale agent tells you he or she knows exactly what will happen, you better run like the wind. Nobody knows for certain. All we can do is guess-estimate.
Some things, however, are almost like writing on the wall. Like a hard-money loan in third position on a California short sale. You know where those third loans generally come from? Sources such as Key … (6 comments)
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short sale: Failed Bank of America Loan Modifications are Short Sales in Disguise - 05/30/12 06:05 AM
I was reading a client response letter this morning. My former client wrote, "Elizabeth was excellent and made our short sale process so much better than it could have been. We have heard horror stories . . . " And it made me wonder how does she really know how awful it could have been? I try not to focus on the negative crap in a short sale. I don't always share with a seller every little horrid thing that happens either because I try to spare feelings. But the truth of it is short sales are not always a pleasant … (10 comments)
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short sale: Three Cats and a Short Sale - 05/29/12 06:57 AM
It is not my job to make people put their homes in Sacramento on the market as a short sale. They either want to sell or they don't. Sometimes, I get calls from a spouse, for example, who wants me to talk the other spouse into selling. Sometimes, people aren't ready to sell even when they believe otherwise. I had potential clients last week who, when presented with the paperwork to sell, almost had a minor heart attack. I've never had that happen before.
They were shocked to learn that their home would go into escrow within days if not hours. … (8 comments)
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short sale: The Apple Pie of Sacramento Short Sales is No Dessert - 05/26/12 07:37 AM
Imagine you're having dinner at a restaurant. You've finished your meal and are awaiting for dessert when your cell phone rings. So, you excuse yourself from the table, grab your cell and head out to the parking lot to talk. When you come back to your table, everybody is gone, the table is cleared, and the waiter elbows you to ask: "Do you have a reservation?"
You wonder if this is the Twilight Zone. You say, "I just want to eat my apple pie." No, the waiter says you must call a special 800# and make a reservation. Then, they will … (9 comments)
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short sale: Guns Don't Kill People, Home Buyers With Guns Kill People - 05/24/12 06:40 AM
You might be wondering about the real estate market in Sacramento. The truth is it's way better to be a seller in Sacramento right now than to be a buyer. But that doesn't mean if you're a seller and a buyer that you're hosed. Be happy that you're not living in New Delhi where the monkeys are running wild in the streets, biting people and snatching bags from people's hands. Authorities have trapped something like 13,000 monkeys since 2007. Although I can certainly see the comparison to home buying and selling in Sacramento. It's a crazy market. Too bad we can't … (5 comments)
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short sale: Don't Be Hard on the People Who Can't Read Email - 05/23/12 06:13 AM
Part of what makes a person a successful real estate agent is learning how to read other people and adapt to their needs. Not everybody is the same. For example, yesterday I had to drive over to Mercy Hospital in East Sacramento to get an offer signed. The seller had just finished performing a C-Section but he can't do email. I had tried to fax the offer electronically to his main office fax at the hospital but the machine could only accept 12 pages at a time. Which I did not figure out until I had sent 10 faxes.
I have … (7 comments)
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short sale: Banks Rarely Reject a Short Sale Due to No Hardship - 05/18/12 07:05 AM
You wanna know what Sacramento short sale sellers wanna know? They all wanna know the same thing. Will their short sale be approved? The answer to that question if I am their Sacramento short sale agent is most likely yes. That's because I rarely get a short sale denied due to lack of hardship, and even those types tend to eventually close.
One of my readers mentioned in another blog that banks have 2 faces. That's a good analogy. There is the public face and there is the private, behind-the-doors face. The public face says we need to abide by our … (5 comments)
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short sale: If You Can't Believe a Green Tree Rep, By Gosh, Whom Can You Believe? - 05/16/12 06:47 AM
Why do people want to believe the bank is their friend? Those warm fuzzy days of friendly banksters are history. You especially can't believe what you hear from a bill collector such as Green Tree.
I know of Sacramento short sale agents who won't touch a Green Tree short sale with a 10-foot pole, but I'm not one of them. I routinely get Green Tree short sales approved. Even though Green Tree can be very aggressive. I hear from my Sacramento sellers how Green Tree treats them. They hound them to death.
Green Tree calls over and over to demand payment. … (24 comments)
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short sale: Think Before You Call the City to Complain About Your Neighbor's Lawn - 05/12/12 06:11 AM
It's like somebody turned loose all of the winged monkeys on a single day. There were so many of them flapping about yesterday that they were knocking each other out of the sky. Banging into each other. Boom! Splattered monkeys on the pavement. You might not know this, but winged monkeys lack the training to fly well in formation. They just go nuts when they are unsupervised. As goes the life of a Sacramento short sale agent.
You hand out short sale approval letters, and you'd think buyers and their agents would be ecstatic. But some of them take a wrong … (8 comments)
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short sale: The First Rule to Talking on Your Cell Phone About Business - 05/11/12 06:59 AM
I do what I can to stop phone calls from coming to my phone. It's not that I don't want to talk to people, it's that I prefer to reserve time for phone conversations with people who are part of my business plan. This imaginary business plan that I don't really have. The one that says I should talk to people who will produce income for my business. This plan that is in my head. If you're not part of that plan, then do not call me, or at least don't call me during the week and during business hours.
Somebody … (61 comments)
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short sale: Are You Gonna Die on that Natural Hazard Disclosure Hill in this Short Sale? - 05/04/12 07:07 AM
On which hill do you wanna die? That's an expression I sometimes apply to my business. Because sometimes you've gotta take a stand, especially when you're a Sacramento short sale agent. But taking a stand has consequences. If you're gonna do battle, you take a chance on being killed. Not literally, of course. So I choose my hills for my battles. I can't always choose my battles because adversity goes hand-in-hand with Sacramento short sales. No way around it.
But the hill on which I'm gonna die, you betcha. And there's a good chance I'm not gonna die. I like to … (7 comments)
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short sale: Is it OK for a Listing Agent to Negotiate With the Buyer? - 05/01/12 07:39 AM
It's not often that I talk directly with a buyer in the middle of negotiations. Because when it's my listing, I represent the seller as a listing agent. My fiduciary is to the seller. Fiduciary is an extremely important element in real estate. A fact that no agent should ever forget or temporarily misplace. It's not just the liability, either, it's common sense.
As the representative for the seller, I must look out for the seller's best interests at all times. Number one on that list of best interests, of course, is closing the transaction. Number two is closing it with … (6 comments)
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short sale: The Trouble with Home Buying in a Seller's Market - 04/22/12 08:49 AM
I surely would not want to be home buying in a seller's market right now. It's exciting enough working with sellers. As a listing agent, I try to go that extra mile for a buyer's agent. Just how far should a listing agent go? On the one hand, one doesn't want to be accused of trying to tell an agent how to do his or her job. One also doesn't want to be insulting by telling an agent something he or she should already know. So, in my case, as a Sacramento short sale agent, I try to give agents a … (4 comments)
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short sale: Call First, Lockbox: What Does this Mean for a Sacramento Listing? - 04/21/12 07:42 AM
My sellers know that I track activity, all the comings and goings at their home. That's one of the reasons to use a lockbox. The little infrared gizmo beams all agent access info directly to a website for me. As a Sacramento short sale agent, I follow up on my listings. I email agents who show and ask if they have questions. It gives me an excellent way to obtain buyer feedback for my sellers as well.
When a seller of a new short sale listing emailed to say he had an evening showing yesterday, I looked up the agent information … (7 comments)
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short sale: Is it Better to Hire a Woman Over a Man to Be Your Real Estate Agent? - 04/14/12 07:09 AM
I listed three more Sacramento short sales yesterday. At my last appointment, I turned to the sellers and said, "You know who I feel sorry for?" And Mr. Seller said, "Me?" Then, his wife said, "No, must be me." Well, the truth is I have empathy for all of my sellers. Doing a short sale is not always easy or pleasant. But in the end, it's a huge burden released from your shoulders. You feel like you can finally get on with your life.
But the person I feel sorry for is the person who has a phone number that is … (8 comments)
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short sale: Is That Home for Sale in Carmichael Because I See a Sign in the Yard - 04/13/12 06:21 AM
On my way to an appointment yesterday, a Lyon real estate agent called. She said she and her clients just got out of her car in front of my listing in Carmichael. Before she could say anything else, I said, "Here's what you do: open the doors, get back in the car and drive away. Don't look back. Just go."
This home has been in active short contingent status for 76 days. We have a half dozen offers with a few as a back-up offer, within the first week on the market. Hardly a day goes by that I don't get … (7 comments)
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short sale: You Might Have to Line Up to Buy a Short Sale in Sacramento - 04/12/12 06:58 AM
The market is so tight in Sacramento right now that agents are calling me on active short contingent and pending listings. They want to know if there's any chance those listings will fall out of escrow. Not a bad plan of action, actually, since many do blow up. Last year, for example, 1 out of every 3 of my short sales were sold a second or third time.
Surprisingly, those fallout percentages are probably low as compared to those of another Sacramento short sale agent. That's because I put systems in place to minimize the number of fall-outs, which has greatly … (9 comments)
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short sale: When That Short Sale House is Not Really a Short Sale - 04/01/12 09:35 AM
Which is better? A bird in the hand or 2 birds in the bush? Yes, this is a trick question. Because the answer is neither. Who wants a stinkin' bird when what you're after is short sale approval?
As a competent Sacramento Short Sale Agent, I gather feedback from buyer's agents after they show my listings. I want to know if the buyer's agents have any questions or if I can help them to write an offer. I realize not every agent is as intimately familiar with short sales as I am. I don't want them to feel uncomfortable writing an … (5 comments)
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short sale: Bank of America Approval Time on Cooperative Short Sales is Amazingly FAST - 03/31/12 10:11 AM
The one thing about a Bank of America short sale is it never lets any grass grow under its feet. It seems that Bank of America is constantly striving to improve the quality of its service and to streamline processes. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But at least this bank is trying to effect change and improve its internal performances, which is more than one can say about some other short sale banks.
I am still waiting for those HAFA in-house deals. I can't wait for those. But that's probably because I've been hung upside down by my toes … (11 comments)
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short sale: The Newest Wrinkle in Short Sales: Fair Debt Collection Practices Violations - 03/29/12 08:06 AM
Are short sale banks violating Fair Debt Collection Practices Act? In America, we have federal law and, in many states, state fair debt collection practices rules. These laws govern who can attempt to collect a debt and how they can do it. For example, borrowers have the right to tell a collection company in writing to stop contacting them because they have no intention of paying a debt. It's not like banks don't know about the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act as I'm fairly certain this is intimate knowledge to them. Yet, some collection attempts by short sale banks are most … (9 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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