A reporter at the Sacramento Bee asked me yesterday how I got started in short sales. The Bee is working on a piece about buying short sales and selling them. It's not like I woke up one morning and said I wanted to become the #1 Sacramento short sale agent. As I told him, you go where the money
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03/21/2012
"Oh, you probably think that all real estate agents drive around in Porsches and wear designer clothes." I accused a caller of harboring those beliefs the other day and laughed as I listened to him vehemently deny those thoughts. We both laughed. I laughed for a different reason. I laughed becaus
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03/20/2012
A reporter for Investor's Business Daily quoted me as a reliable source in an article about mortgage fraud. She chose a statement that needs repeating: "A short sale is a privilege; it is not a right." No government authority is forcing banks to do a short sale. Banks grant a short sale because i
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03/19/2012
A buyer asked yesterday how I justify a seller instruction for a Sacramento short sale. He said it was not an approved buyer / seller document for a short sale. His agent could not find it in ZIPforms. At first blush, I wanted to say that his agent was too stupid to be allowed to sell real estate
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03/18/2012
Remember how yesterday I was joking? Saying stuff like we'll see principal mortgage reductions when June dumps Ward for Eddie Haskell? Good thing I didn't offer to eat my shoe. Because, out of the clear blue sky yesterday, my managing broker sent me a letter from Bank of America to a borrower in
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03/17/2012
I can tell short sale sellers that the bank is not their friend until the cows come home for all the good it does. Some people are still stuck in the Wally and Beaver days. Gosh, Beav, it would be swell if we went down to the bank and opened a savings account. Maybe we would see that nice Mr. Fos
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03/16/2012
It's funny how perception works. You can say what you want about hocus-pocus positive thinking hoo-ha, but how we look at things shapes how we perceive them. I was looking at my listing inventory this morning and finding the glass half-full. Freaking out a little. Thinking, crap, my listings have
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03/15/2012
There are so many mistakes people can make in real estate. Being a first-time home buyer carries risk. Buyers can buy a home in the wrong neighborhood. They can pay too much, relying on a worthless appraisal to protect them. They can buy at the wrong time, at the height of a bubble. They can coun
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03/13/2012
Knock on wood, I asked my husband yesterday if he can remember the last time I was sick. I mean really sick. In bed sick, moaning and groaning, unable or unwilling to get up. It seems that when I was the Communications Director for a Minnesota nonprofit, I managed to use up almost every sick day
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03/13/2012
When I take a hot listing, I know it. I suspect most Sacramento agents know when they spot a hot listing. It's not just price that makes it hot, although, an attractive price doesn't hurt. Especially if it's at that entry-price level that falls within popular price ranges which, in particular, mo
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03/12/2012
