People are astonished to hear that I can conduct entire real estate transactions -- most of them Sacramento short sales -- without ever meeting the parties involved. It's not unusual to communicate solely via email, text, websites or fax. I'm connected almost 24/7 through a variety of communicati
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12/11/2010
I seem to be starting out my mornings by crying. I walk into the family room where my computer is to turn it on and look at the space where my cat's pen used to sit. Brandon's pen took up a lot of the family room because it was four feet by four feet, and this room is only 12 feet wide. But it's
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12/10/2010
I closed two more short sales yesterday. One was in Cameron Park and the other was an Elk Grove short sale. Both were negotiated by a law firm and both sellers were released from liability. No deficiency judgments here. As short sales go, these transactions were relatively easy but that's mostly
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12/09/2010
It looks like today I am putting my cat to sleep. That's such a strange way of putting it, but it beats saying we're putting him out of his misery by injecting him with a chemical that will kill him. It sounds like it's so peaceful and normal, an everyday event. Just going to bed. Just a little n
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12/08/2010
Can $75,000 buy you happiness in Sacramento? Yes, says Time magazine. A study by economists, one of whom won a Nobel Prize, shows that people who earn $75,000 or more are happier than people in lower-income categories. I don't know why $75,000 was used as a benchmark, but it's a good number. Good
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12/07/2010
I am going to a closing today for a short sale in Elk Grove. It kind of surprised me when I looked at my production that about 25% of my closed Sacramento short sales this year are homes in Elk Grove. That's probably because Elk Grove was the fastest growing city in the United States in 2006, and
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12/06/2010
Obviously, the author of this finely crafted piece of humor is a real estate agent. ABCbellefson is a genius. ABC has captured the very essence of selling real estate. From the initial encounter to the closing. If you are a home buyer or home seller who thinks these thoughts don't run through th
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12/05/2010
Before I get into a conversation about making an offer on a short sale a week prior to the foreclosure auction, I want to talk about plastic surgery. Specifically, a face lift. Oh, I know you've all seen those Sacramento Magazine articles about plastic surgery. I mean, it's the main reason to pic
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12/04/2010
It is rare for me to lose a short sale due to valuation. So, I'm not even certain that when a bank rejects a short sale due to value whether the bank really prefers foreclosure. Because sometimes the bank prefers to foreclose. Doesn't matter what the price is. I know that concept is difficult for
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12/03/2010
The last time my sister came to see me in California was sometime in the 1980s. I was selling real estate and living in Newport Beach (Orange County) when she flew into San Francisco. Back then she was a pilot. She called me after landing -- this was before cell phones -- and asked for directions
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12/02/2010
