home buying: Buying a Paper Shredder is Almost as Hard as Home Buying
- 09/29/15 09:40 AM
When my husband and I cashed in a big pile of coins of Sunday, we had almost enough between us to buy a fairly decent cross-cut paper shredder. But did I? No, I did not. And my paper shredder is on the blink. We took it all apart, and removed the gummy stuck on sheets, and tinkered around with it, but it's bit the dust. It's horrible, I think, that we have to rely on paper shredders, not only for our personal things but definitely for my business paperwork. I can't just toss any document regarding a client into the trash. That's … (5 comments)
home buying: Home Buyers Who Make Demands Can Lose Their Real Estate Agent
- 12/14/10 03:00 AM
If I hadn't seen that email with my very own eyes, I would not have believed it. I've been working with a couple whose home I sold last summer as a short sale. It's been a bit of a struggle to get their parents qualified for a mortgage for a variety of reasons, but I finally received the preapproval letter yesterday. This couple had identified the part of Sacramento where they wanted to look. We've been concentrating on a couple of neighborhoods in that part of town and looking at homes. Suddenly, out of the blue last night, I received an … (13 comments)
home buying: Who Rules the Home Buying Decision?
- 11/26/10 02:29 AM
You know what I hear some Sacramento real estate agents say about buyers? If mama ain't happy, nobody is happy -- meaning it's generally mama who keeps peace in the family. Because if you make mama happy, she'll make everybody else around her happy. And if you don't, she'll make everybody else miserable. So, if mama wants to buy a home, a particular home, maybe a home in Land Park, ya'll better sit up and pay attention. Except it doesn't always work this way. Sometimes it's daddy who better be kept happy. It's rare that we have a compromise between … (17 comments)
home buying: Only 15% of the Real Estate Agents in Sacramento Sell 1 or More Homes a Month
- 09/25/09 03:10 AM
People find it difficult to believe that when I started in this business in the 1970s, I sold homes without inspecting them. Never saw them. I owned a small real estate company and was responsible for counseling buyers, writing and negotiating the transactions. My agents tracked down the deals. Almost every transaction involved owner financing. To work like that today would be unthinkable and ripe with liability. I had previously been an escrow officer and before that a title searcher at a title company. I thought I knew everything about real estate. I was young and cocky. That's why I took … (48 comments)
home buying: Does Something Have to Give to be in Real Estate?
- 01/14/09 01:25 AM
Is this a good time to be in real estate? A reader from my homebuying site at About.com wrote to me yesterday, asking questions about breaking into real estate in California. He is married, his wife doesn't work outside the home, and they have two children. It's frightening to give up a day job to plunge into the world of uncertain income relying solely on commissions. I've been on both sides of the fence and realize there is something very comforting in having a paycheck deposited into my checking account twice a month, whether or not I deserved it. Now that … (16 comments)
home buying: Is the Quest for that Perfect Sacramento Home Unreasonable?
- 11/26/08 01:42 AM
I remember what it feels like to search for a home to buy. Although, it's been six years since I bought my last home -- before that I routinely moved every couple years or so. (Buying homes, fixing them up and reselling them paid off well enough that I didn't mind moving so often.)But the point is I'm not that far removed from the home buying process that, despite my decades of experience in real estate, I forget what it's like to drive down the street, reading house numbers, crossing fingers and hoping the home in the middle with the … (12 comments)
home buying: So, There Was This Elvis Impersonator Standing Next to Zorro
- 10/25/08 04:32 PM
My brother-in-law happens to be in Las Vegas at the same time as me -- he's here for the poker tournament at Caesars Palace. I invited him to the About.com dinner at La Salsa Cantina. He's so polite and sweet. Too sweet to say the dinner was awful, so I will say it for him and warn you to never dine at that restaurant. I'm not certain how it became a Mexican restaurant. Maybe it was a strip club at one time before the lease expired as there was nothing inherently Mexican about it. The frozen margaritas were a solid chunk … (17 comments)
home buying: Home Buying With Pets
- 11/29/07 01:32 AM
Whenever I set out in the past to buy a home, one of the qualifying criteria for the home was to find a place where I could hide my cat's litter box. Putting the box in a closet with coats and other odor absorbing garments did not appeal to me. And I'm not a person who enjoys stepping on traces of cat litter scattered about the bathroom with my bare feet. Nope, cat boxes require their own special place in the home. I always ask buyers if they have pets before we start looking at homes, just so we can accommodate … (8 comments)
home buying: Buying in a Falling Market
- 11/26/07 01:47 AM
When real estate prices fall, home buyers wonder if they should buy a home or if it makes more sense to wait out the market. The problem with waiting is it's impossible to time the market. But there are strategies home buyers can employ to protect an equity position in a falling market. For one thing, a buyer's market is an excellent time to buy, providing interest rates are low. It's like a double whammy. Low interest rates and a low sales price means a lower mortgage and a smaller mortgage payment for a home buyer. Sellers are typically willing to … (2 comments)
home buying: Eight Reasons to Buy a Home
- 11/19/07 06:44 AM
Sometimes buyers get caught up in cycles. It may seem that all their friends are buying homes, so they think it might be a good idea for them to follow suit. But there are better, more rational reasons to buy a home. From pride of ownership to appreciation to preferential tax treatments, the benefits of home ownership are astounding. However, the down side is not everybody should rush out to buy a home. The sensible, logical approach is to weigh the benefits of home buying against the benefits of renting or even just waiting. Buyers often want to know when is … (4 comments)
home buying: 10 Tips for Buying a Home Where Pets Will Live
- 10/29/07 03:33 AM
One of the biggest problems I face when buying a new home is finding a suitable place to put my cats' litter boxes. I realize some people put litter boxes in the bathroom, but walking on bits of litter with bare feet isn't my idea of an enjoyable time. Besides, I don't want to look at the litter box any longer than I absolutely must to clean them twice a day. One of my clients once cut a hole in his garage wall inside a cabinet. In the garage, he built a large 6 x 6 x 6 wooden box with a … (3 comments)
Broker-Associate at RE/MAX Gold, Midtown and Sierra Oaks Sacramento office. Co-partner Weintraub & Wallace Realtors. Selling since 1974. Homebuying expert at The Balance. Weintraub & Wallace sells homes from Galt to Lincoln. <
Author Bio: Elizabeth Weintraub is a Sacramento real estate broker, author, home buying expert for The Balance, a Land Park resident, who specializes not only in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento but sells extensively from Elk Grove to Lincoln. Weintraub is prominently known as the #1 Sacramento Short Sale agent throughout the Sacramento four-county area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 40+ years of real estate experience to work for you.
When my husband and I cashed in a big pile of coins of Sunday, we had almost enough between us to buy a fairly decent cross-cut paper shredder. But did I? No, I did not. And my paper shredder is on the blink.
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