sacramento listing agent: Not Every 2005 Home Buyer Enjoys Equity in Sacramento
- 03/27/19 08:40 AM
Because I sold such a boatload of short sales since 2005, cummulatively more than any other agent I can find in a 7-county area according to Trendgraphix, I had been hoping the negative equity situations were now a thing of the past. However, I keep finding evidence that we are not completely out from under yet. After 14 years! Mindboggling that there are home owners who still cannot sell for the price they paid back then. And there exists a variety of logical reasons for these situations. You can read more in my personal blog today at this link: Some 2005 … (2 comments)
sacramento listing agent: Sacramento Realtors Who Wear Only One Hat
- 02/12/19 11:24 AM
You won't find very many Sacramento Realtors who wear only one hat. The reason is most of them can't afford to do it. If they stopped working with buyers, for example, and focused solely on sellers, they would lose half of their business. Or at least that's the way I figure they think. A fairly successful agent in Sacramento is a person who sells maybe 8 to 12 homes a year. Usually the way it works out is half of that is buyers and the other half is sellers. I understand that fear about giving away half of your business. But … (10 comments)
sacramento listing agent: Sacramento Real Estate Market Trends December 2018
- 01/10/19 10:19 AM
Honestly, ushering in the New Year of 2019 did not feel quite right. It feels like it should be 2020 and it's not, LOL. Like what is gonna be so great about 2019? If it follows in the same vein as the end of 2018 in Sacramento, it will be a hard market on many real estate agents. Our market always perks up in March and April, though, so I am leaning toward spring and will forget about 2020. Besides, who wants to rush time at my age? Certainly not me. You can read more in my personal blog today about the state … (8 comments)
sacramento listing agent: When Home Sellers Refuse to Sign a Counter Offer
- 12/16/18 10:23 AM
When home sellers refuse to sign a counter offer, as a listing agent, what can you do? The sellers are your clients. Listing agents must maintain a fiduciary relationship with sellers. We must represent our clients to the fullest of our ability and always keep their best interests at the forefront. As a Realtor, we need to place those interests above our own. To some agents that means agreeing with their clients and doing precisely what their clients instruct them to do. For other agents, it is a different story. You can share your experience and / or read more in … (16 comments)
sacramento listing agent: Home Buyers Are Not Delivered by the Stork
- 11/15/18 06:45 PM
Trying to combat some of the misinformation in the real estate industry is like trying to explain how a leader of the free world can make up stuff when so few seem to care. It's like if one repeats a lie often enough it starts to sound like the truth. Which is why it's very annoying when a seller insists that a listing agent has bunch of buyers to work with, when they don't. It's a little bit like living in Opposite Land. One of the goals of a real estate agent is to put a buyer into escrow. If an agent … (8 comments)
sacramento listing agent: Finding a Buyer Prior to Listing a Home in MLS
- 11/15/18 09:54 AM
In our MLS system in Sacramento, we are not allowed to market a property before it is published in MLS, unless we obtain an MLS waiver. But that doesn't stop the sellers from chatting with neighbors or the real estate brokerage from circulating listings internally prior to publication, among other things. Sometimes, I've even had sellers say they wanted to exclude a certain party from the listing, a party who has expressed interest when they decided to sell. Usually I prefer they settle up with that person before I extend a great deal of effort on their behalf. If I don't think … (4 comments)
sacramento listing agent: Explaining the Real Estate Market to Sacramento Sellers
- 11/12/18 09:40 AM
It is really tough to find the middle ground where one needs to take up residence when explaining the real estate market to Sacramento sellers. On the one hand, I don't sugarcoat anything. I give it to my potential clients straight and explain what has happened, what is happening now and what is likely to happen down the road. Everybody agrees that's the best way. However, it's not without drawbacks. The drawbacks are a bit complicated. For starters, the sellers might not believe their agent. After all, their next-door neighbor's recently remodeled house sold in one day, so surely their neglected house … (9 comments)
sacramento listing agent: When Home Sellers Love White Walls in Sacramento
- 09/21/18 09:19 AM
Looking for unicorn buyers is always a bit more tough than appealing to the masses for a Sacramento Realtor. But once you know the sellers' parameters and expectations, you either accept the job or decline. As a Realtor, I generally accept. Even when I suspect it may take longer to sell the house. Which is the case with the Sacramento remodeled house with white walls. The sellers picked that particular shade of white and love it. It is very sterile looking. Perhaps colorful artwork would help to brighten up the spaces? But I don't think a buyer will walk into that … (9 comments)
sacramento listing agent: The Duties of Open House Agents in Sacramento
- 09/18/18 06:33 PM
Yes, I'm preaching to the choir here on Active Rain about Sacramento open house etiquette among agents. Most of the agents who participate on this website discussing real estate know enough to not interfere in another agent's transaction. But like with any group of people, there are often exceptions. The other day my client asked me why she hasn't completed her disclosures. The open house agent (who was not my team member) had a discussion with the seller about types of disclosures they should make. I know, right? WTH? She seemed insistent that the disclosures should already be completed, which is in direct opposition to the way … (8 comments)
sacramento listing agent: Which Types of Sacramento Homes Are Actually Selling?
- 09/15/18 08:40 AM
Agents I've been talking with and sharing our listing experiences all pretty much say the same thing. We have a perfectly average house, a nice home, but once the buyer flaked and fell out of escrow, nobody else is making an offer. It sits. Why did the buyer flake? Most likely because they could not believe their eyes after a home inspection and freaked, a few probably can't qualify for a loan despite the worthless preapproval, but others found a house they liked better. Since buyers can cancel escrow for any reason during inspection periods, they can cancel because another house became … (5 comments)
sacramento listing agent: Why Does the Buyer Need Invoices Anyway?
- 09/10/18 09:49 AM
When I asked one of my sellers to complete her seller disclosures, she asked if the buyers would be willing to wait a couple of weeks. While this might sound outrageously amusing to some agents in the business, sellers are not automatically aware of what is expected from them. Even when we send a timeline, laying out each duty of the responsible parties. If there are lingering questions, sometimes they don't get asked. As a Sacramento listing agent, I find myself very much attuned to the needs of my sellers. I realize they are not in the business of selling real estate, … (13 comments)
sacramento listing agent: Order a Pest Report Yes or No in Sacramento?
- 09/09/18 10:02 AM
The reason I know so many listing agents in Sacramento during the boom years of our seller's market suggested ordering pest reports upfront is because the sellers would say so. Right after deciding to hire me and not someone else. I would even go so far as to suggest these are the listing agents who may encounter difficulties when negotiating a request for repair. Make the seller pay for everything often seems the norm of the day in some practices, but not in mine. I tell sellers what will work and what won't. I level with my clients. There was no reason … (8 comments)
sacramento listing agent: If You Want More Listings, Leave Sacramento
- 08/15/18 06:48 PM
Doesn't matter where you live, if you're a listing agent who wants more listings, just print out a boarding pass. That's all it takes. Soon as you plan to leave town, sellers start to call. The good news for me is nobody knows if I am physically in Sacramento or whether I am in Hawaii. When people guess, they are often wrong. The photo on this blog is of the view across the street from a home in Laguna West. While I sat at the wrong house, waiting on the front porch, I got up and shot a photo. Minutes ticked by. … (8 comments)
sacramento listing agent: About Conveying Bad News to Home Sellers and Buyers
- 08/04/18 09:34 AM
Although it has been decades since I've had a concurrent closing that did not close on schedule, all it takes is that one lone wolf to mess up everybody's lives. Even when you double check with all involved in the transaction to make sure nothing can go wrong, some wiggly thing can cause all havoc to break loose. In our situation, it was a receipt for a wire. The transaction involved a gift letter for the buyer and the individual wiring the funds sent the wire from a different account than the account noted as proof of funds for the gift letter. … (6 comments)
sacramento listing agent: News Designed to Make You Buy or Believe is Not News
- 07/30/18 07:50 AM
It is bad enough that after every closed real estate transaction, the mortgage broker on the other side -- the guy who represents the buyer, mind you, when I represent the seller -- decides to include my email address in a personal marketing scheme. They all tend to do this. It's complete spam to me. I don't work with buyers and do not need their services, and if ever the opportunity presented itself for me to recommend a mortgage broker, it would not be that company. In fact, I would go out of my way to tell buyers to stay away … (13 comments)
What we may see as unreasonable behavior in Sacramento real estate from Bay Area buyers could also be viewed another way. An unreasonable buyer could instead be an unusual buyer with specific criteria to which we Sacramento listing agents are unaccustomed. Communications we might find stark and antagonistic could alternately be viewed as direct and to the point. But most important, just because an offer contains mistakes and seems wrong to us does not mean we should not work with it. Yup, after writing these words, I can clearly see we have arrived at the tail-end of our strong seller's market in … (10 comments)
sacramento listing agent: How a Southside Park Bungalow Went Pending So Fast
- 07/18/18 06:32 PM
I worried a little bit when my seller said he planned to leave town and go to a place without cellphone or internet. He described the place of a friend who lives with a dead plant hanging over his kitchen sink for years. This would be bad to get a bunch of offers and not be able to call or email the seller. Also, some of the buyers who appeared to be very interested were not putting pedal to the metal and signing an offer. They dragged their feet. Probably walking the neighborhood, talking to friends and family, trying to decide what … (10 comments)
sacramento listing agent: New Listing: 411 U Street Sacramento CA 95818
- 07/14/18 09:01 AM
When I look at the locations for all of my listings, it is generally much easier to manage when the home for sale is near my own home. Some of my listings are a long ways away, and even further, ha, ha, when I'm in Hawaii and working on Sacramento real estate. It's almost like possessing a sense of security. Knowing I can run over there if I need to unlock a door, fix a leak, call the police on squatters, whatever. I cannot imagine my new listing will be for sale for very long. It's an entry-level home for first-time home … (12 comments)
sacramento listing agent: The Average Length of Time for a Sacramento Listing
- 05/18/18 07:28 AM
Let's see a show of hands. How many real estate agents listed short sales prior to 2012? And how many of those short sale listings sold and closed within 6 months? OK, now you can peel yourselves up off the floor and stop laughing. Hey, I wasn't the one who sold buyers hope. Nope, that was the California Association of Realtors with its short sale addendum contract default period of 90 days. My listings for a short sale were always 360 days. But I digress. The average length of time for a Sacramento listing doesn't really matter. What matters is whether the … (4 comments)
sacramento listing agent: 3 Common Myths for Sacramento Home Selling
- 03/20/18 09:47 AM
One of my sellers said to me yesterday, "I know you have a special way of figuring out my sales price, but can we raise it? I need to net a bit more." Now, I know you agents are laughing about this, but she was serious. When clients are serious, you cannot laugh because they won't find it funny. They will be irritated and annoyed, and that's the last thing any listing agent wants. But it did make me stop to think about the question because, believe it or not, I get asked that a lot. Especially after sellers have time to … (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.
Because I sold such a boatload of short sales since 2005, cummulatively more than any other agent I can find in a 7-county area according to Trendgraphix, I had been hoping the negative equity situations were now a thing of the past. However, I keep finding evidence that we are not completely out from under yet. 
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