If you are a seller in today's market, the market is hard enough with you having to compete with all the bank-owned properties! So be sure you can play up the good things about your house as opposed to the REOs. One of those good things is undoubtedly the fact that your home is move-in ready as opposed to the REOs which are more likely to be fixers.

How do you play it up? By choosing the right paint color.

Some tips: go for neutrals, but not whites. There are a lot of neutrals you can get in greens and yellows even blues. These are toned down shades which might appeal to a larger audience so you don't limit your buyers. Good luck!

I've noticed a curious phenomenon lately. On a recent short sale listing, I've noticed buyer's agents calling my cell phone wanting to make an appointment to see the house. Which made me wonder. It made me wonder so much in fact that I decided to check online what "Call First Lockbox" means.

Here it is: "Usually the phone listed is the seller's. The buyer's agent calls and establishes a mutually agreeable arrival time. If no one answers the phone, the agent leaves a message and goes directly to the home without further communication attempts, unless the seller calls the agent to reschedule." This is a direct quote from About.com. Read the entire column here.

Why am I getting the calls? Is it the MLS update which makes it hard to find the seller's phone number? Or are agents just not bothering to check the MLS and just calling the number on the sign?

Judging by the phone calls I am receiving and the clients I work with, this new real estate market definitely has its upside: better real estate investors. The buyers I am working with now seem to be patient, cautious, and know more about buying real estate than.... well, me. And no, that does not bother me. I am an expert in getting them the house they want, knowing the red flags, warning them of potential concerns that can get bigger later, but I have not spent twenty years investing in real estate and frankly when I meet someone like that, I am learning as much as I am sharing my knowledge.

It's a deadly combination and I'm beginning to see more of it lately in this Sacramento market.

The best part? I don't get phone calls from people that have watched a show of Property Ladder and decided to flip. I don't have messages from neighbors of REOs who want to mow the lawn and put a lien on the house (yes, it actually happened!) and I don't wonder or worry about liability issues from people who want to invest risk-free. In other words, I'm not the only expert out there when I'm out with a client.

How refreshing! 

Here's one thing I've been noticing in this crazy REO Sacramento market. The Sacramento Bee just reported that bank-owned homes are the new gold rush of California and I agree. Unfortunately, in this gold rush, there is no room for emotions.

This is what typically happens: a house built in the last few years (after 2000) goes on the market. There is a lot of activity on it if it shows well, and in a matter of days, it has six - ten offers on it. Did anyone say this is a buyer's market. 

Eventually it sells for well over asking and probably to a cash buyer. So, either you have to be a buyer who is so love with the home that you pay way over asking, or you have to be an investor who writes offers without perhaps even going in to view the home. Problem with being the first kind of buyer is you lose your enthusiasm. 

This is not a buyer's market - it's an investor's market. Leave your emotions at home. 

I had an interesting experience the other day with a client. I received a call from our company website and the client - who is a pretty big investor - said he picked me to show him homes because of all the agents listed, I looked the oldest.

No, I'm not upset.

It does remind of the time when I was five, wanting to be ten, though. I guess buyers associate greying hair with experience and that matters. I mean, to think like an out of town buyer for a minute, I guess I would trust someone who seemed to know the area (and had grown old there) as opposed to someone who only looked like a Realtor.

I'm just turning thirty. I guess I have a while to wait.

There's only one thing more irritating to me than telemarketers - it's telemarketers from halfway around the world. Oh wait, there's one more thing even more annoying - it's when they harrass me by calling two or three more times after I have said, "Not interested, thanks," basically the least amount of talking I can do to avoid eating up my minutes, which would essentially mean paying for telemarketers to tear into my day and irritate me.

And when did it become okay to flagrantly dismiss the Do not Call Registry? Suddenly, every lead generation company with leads to sell has found me on Active Rain and wants to call me - without any idea of how to read a script to make it seem like he's actually talking - and sell me something!

Puh-leeze. Leave me alone. We don't have "a business relationship."

And I will report you to the registry. In fact, I just did. I don't care if you live halfway around the world. If you're calling a US number and selling to a US person, you better obey the rules.

Lately, I seem to be wading through quite a few clients who come in wanting to see homes and who - unfortunately - I have to turn away. Equally unfortunate is that sometimes they don't understand why and end up getting upset. So this is a post trying to explain my position.

There are two sides to a real estate transaction - the listing (seller's) agent and the selling/co-operating (buyer's) agent. When most people call to see a home, unless they call the listing agent directly, the Realtor who receives the call hopes to become their agent, that is, the buyer's agent. This does not mean that he hopes to sell them just that particular home, but simply wishes to work with them until the right home is found. Hopefully, the client likes him enough to stick with him throughout the search.

Also, as Realtors, we are ethically required to ask if you are currently working with another agent. If you are not happy with your agent and are looking for a new one, feel free to tell us. But I seem to run into quite a few clients who have an agent and are still asking other agents to show them homes.

Why is this? Even in this competitive market, are there really Realtors who will turn their backs on buyers? Or have we turned so pessimistic that we don't believe our clients will ever buy homes?

Either way, please remember: I for one will never show you a home if you are currently committed to and working with another agent. It really is your agent's job. I would hate to take time away from clients who are committed to me - after all, I wouldn't want them to be shopping by themselves.

In this slow Sacramento real estate market with more short sales and foreclosures than ever, it surprises me how much resistance I seem to run into with just communicating with so many of my fellow Sacramento Realtors. I have heard the same frustration from some other Realtors as well and I wish it wasn't true.

The biggest issue we seem to face is that we love to talk to clients, but are not as good as talking to the co-operating Realtor who brings in the offer on our listings. I think I know where the frustration stems from - it comes from the fact that we have an offer, but can't do anything about it because it's not as simple as calling the seller and saying, "We have an offer. I'll come over tomorrow and decide if we can open escrow." It's the fact that then you have to submit the offer to a bank and deal with a long line of phone calls with unfriendly machines, bored loss mitigation officers, and - gasp! - other co-operating Realtors.

But it is precisely this market in which Realtors prove how professional they are. I haven't spoken to a single Realtor who survived the 1990s real estate crash who thought it was a waste of time talking to other Realtors and Brokers, who didn't think that good real estate customer service extends beyond just clients. Good Realtors on both sides of a transaction are the best assets clients can have. They can also be each others best business alliances in a market gone crazy.

And chances are, if they're both around, they might just work together again in better times!

Okay, I'm really sick and tired of this argument. You know how it goes: "Median income has not kept up with median home values in Sacramento, this home prices must fall until everyone in Sacramento can afford to pay a third of their monthly budget toward their mortgage." It's a seemingly innocent calculation and very easy to remember; so simple in fact that it gets quoted again and again and unfortunately believed.

Here is a list of areas where median incomes do not - by a long shot - keep pace with median home values. Interesting, huh?

Here are a few reasons that calculation, pat and easy as it is to parrot, does not work: 1. Not everyone can afford a home. Some people rent. Sometimes all their lives. 2. Some people buy more than one house and rent it to others. They are called real estate investors and landlords.

On an individual level (and for budgeting and loan purposes) it helps to use the 30% rule. But as a large group and especially when relating to medians, that formula falls apart. To push every individual and situation into a formula is ridiculous.

The next time you come across pat formulas like these, question their basis and their source.