sacramento short sales: Call First, Lockbox: What Does this Mean for a Sacramento Listing?
- 04/21/12 12:42 AM
My sellers know that I track activity, all the comings and goings at their home. That's one of the reasons to use a lockbox. The little infrared gizmo beams all agent access info directly to a website for me. As a Sacramento short sale agent, I follow up on my listings. I email agents who show and ask if they have questions. It gives me an excellent way to obtain buyer feedback for my sellers as well.
When a seller of a new short sale listing emailed to say he had an evening showing yesterday, I looked up the agent information … (7 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: Your Mother is a Hamster and Your Father Smells Like Elderberries
- 04/19/12 01:04 AM
I have to be careful when I am facetious. Because I'm such a nice person, sometimes people don't realize when I am insulting them. I suppose that could be interpreted as a good thing. I could say I feel sorry for an agent, and another would think I truly felt empathy -- when what I meant was the other side of the street is a better place for that agent to walk upon than an encounter with me.
Some agents are forced to work with crazy clients; I get it. The market is tough on many agents. The limited Sacramento real estate … (6 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: Banks Write the Rules for California Short Sales
- 04/17/12 12:37 AM
Interesting blow up at the California Assembly yesterday. AB 1602 was pulled from committee moments before Attorney General Kamala Harris was to speak. That's the bill that says banks can't have their cake and eat it too. In other words, this bill says banks can't consider a loan modification while they are pursuing foreclosure. Of course, the banking industry is against it. Because banks write the rules.
If you don't think banks write the rules, you've been living under a rock or not involved with short sales. As a Sacramento short sale agent, I have first-hand knowledge of how banks write … (14 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: Has Rock and Roll Made You Deaf?
- 04/16/12 12:43 AM
Eh, eh? What's that? I can't hear you. Is it just me or does there seem to be a rising number of hearing aid advertising around us? Everywhere you look; it's ubiquitous. Billboards. Bus stops. Print. And the prices always seem to be a big secret, which tells me there is a huge profit margin in hearing aids.
Then, today, on the front page of the Sac Bee is an article about hearing aids. Coincidinky? Probably not. The American Hearing Loss Association says hearing loss is the most common chronic ailment prevalent among seniors -- but of course they would say … (13 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: Is it Better to Hire a Woman Over a Man to Be Your Real Estate Agent?
- 04/14/12 12:09 AM
I listed three more Sacramento short sales yesterday. At my last appointment, I turned to the sellers and said, "You know who I feel sorry for?" And Mr. Seller said, "Me?" Then, his wife said, "No, must be me." Well, the truth is I have empathy for all of my sellers. Doing a short sale is not always easy or pleasant. But in the end, it's a huge burden released from your shoulders. You feel like you can finally get on with your life.
But the person I feel sorry for is the person who has a phone number that is … (8 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: Short Sales Explode in the Sacramento Real Estate Market
- 04/10/12 12:31 AM
I don't mean explode in a blow up kinda way. Although, every so often one of them does blow up, meaning it cancels for some peculiar reason. But it's rare. At least when it comes to the short sales handled by this Sacramento short sale agent -- the short sales that I negotiate myself -- it is very odd for me to lose one. My short sales tend to get approved.
I am talking about the market in Sacramento and how short sales now dominate. We have 3 times as many short sales closing in March of 2012 than we … (4 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: Astonishing News from a Sacramento Short Sale Agent About the Sacramento Market
- 04/08/12 01:06 AM
My sister sent me a line from the movie Evil Aliens: I have a brand new combine harvester and I will give you a key. She wants a tshirt with that message on it. Well, I just watched on DVD The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and I covet the tshirt Rooney Mara wore. I would so wear that tshirt out to brunch. You can buy the FYYFF tshirt at Amazon. I did not know that.
Everybody knows that short sales appeal to a limited number of home buyers. That's because not every single home buyer is a good candidate for … (6 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: An Escape to Tahiti and Thoughts About a Sacramento Short Sale
- 04/06/12 11:55 PM
Every person has her or his own little things that motivate her or him. It's what gives life its pizzazz. Makes some of our sacrifices worthwhile. It's the dangling carrot that keeps one on the treadmill. OK, maybe not my treadmill because I sold that a long time ago after realizing it was nothing more than an expensive clothes hanger. Today, I use an elliptical. But the thing that motivates me to keep going, whether it's selling real estate in Sacramento or writing real estate articles for About.com, is a planned winter vacation.
I don't much like winter in Sacramento. It … (4 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: Pending Sales Exceed the Number of Homes for Sale in Sacramento
- 04/03/12 01:38 AM
In a conversation with one of my delightful team members yesterday, I suggested she print out the current Trendgraphix and hand it to every buyer she meets. Because many buyers cannot wrap their heads around the fact that it's a seller's market this spring in Sacramento. It doesn't mean prices are going up or that a recovery is here, because they aren't, and it's not.
I swear to God. Agents are out there poking each other in the eyeballs and slashing their associate's tires. They are crawling all over each other, vying and jockeying for position #1 in multiple-offer situations. Tempers … (6 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: Hoo-Boy, I Feel Sorry for Those Home Buyers in Sacramento
- 03/27/12 11:49 PM
You can't help the market, but you can help which agent you choose to be your buyer's agent in Sacramento. It is really tough being a first-time home buyer in this town right now. You probably won't hear this on the news, but inventory is so tight it squeaks and multiple offers are the norm. Yes, even in a down market like Sacramento. There is nothing to buy, people. And there are a lot of buyers.
When I start getting back-up offers on my Sacramento short sales -- you know we're in trouble. Last month, some of these homes, I couldn't … (4 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: Why Do Second Lenders Prefer to Get Wiped Out in a California Foreclosure?
- 03/23/12 12:13 AM
My hairdresser says the worst thing that can happen when your hair is bleached is for some of it to break off. I disagree. I say the worst thing that could happen is all of it could fall out. Like from chemotherapy. Or, how about having your hair catch on fire? I don't want my hair on fire. He just looked at me like I'm from some other planet.
But then he didn't go through having his website redirected by Agent Achieve. For several hours yesterday morning, my website was redirected to some agent's website in Texas. Thanks, CoreLogic. A woman … (10 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: Short Sales Are About Compassion and Guiding the Seller to Closure
- 03/15/12 01:20 AM
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 fallen to 10. I better go get some more listings lest I no longer care to carry on my business as a listing agent.
Notwithstanding that I have 52 listings in escrow. Nope, my focus is centered on those 10 that haven't sold yet. Notwithstanding that 5 or 6 years ago, … (6 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: The Two Secret Ingredients for Good Health
- 03/13/12 01:50 AM
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 I had per year. Yet, I cannot recall the last time I didn't feel well.
Oh, wait, perhaps it was after our Galapagos trip in 2005. We thought it would be fun to end the vacation with a trip to the jungle in the middle … (9 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: Should You Work With a Sacramento Buyer Who Won't Commit to Buy a Short Sale?
- 03/07/12 11:01 PM
I know that buyer's agents in Sacramento have it tough right now. I hear agents lament about buyers. How they have to "learn their lesson the hard way" by writing a lowball offer on a home they really really want only to lose out to another buyer because they did not listen to their agent. Why don't buyers listen to their agents? Is it possible that buyers think they know more than an agent?
Sometimes, that's probably the case. It all depends on which agent a buyer hires. You can get an agent who doesn't have much experience just the same … (8 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: The Time to Think About Selling is When You Buy a Home
- 02/26/12 12:06 AM
One of the biggest fears sellers often harbor about short sales is what if it doesn't sell? They have those fears because they are not in real estate. When you're in real estate, like this Sacramento short sale agent, you know that anything will sell if the price is right. Even a flooded-out house with mold the size of basketballs will sell. And yes, I've sold one of those, too.
There are a variety of reasons why a home might take longer than usual to sell, though. These are sometimes the reasons that some sellers don't want to hear because they … (3 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: At What Point Do You Take a Lowball Offer on a Short Sale?
- 02/21/12 11:05 PM
OK, I'd like to answer that question by saying never. But that wouldn't be true. Sometimes we take a lowball offer on a Sacramento short sale. But not often. The reason is the market is so hot some buyer somewhere is likely to pay market value . . . or close enough to it for government work.
Agents are all over the board right now. The other day I had a buyer's agent give me peculiar advice about a Bank of America short sale. He swore that he closed a Bank of America short sale in which the bank didn't care … (4 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: A Few Words About Zappa Plays Zappa and What We Become When We Grow Up
- 02/19/12 12:41 AM
If you ask me, it's a coincidence that my mother was a writer. You can't ask her because she's dead. But if you could, she'd probably say she encouraged me to write. Yeah, right, that's why I have a piece of pencil lead in my left arm. It's where my brother stabbed me with a sharp pencil. He stabbed me because my mother made us all sit down after a family trip, all 4 kids, and we had to write an essay about our trip to Duluth, Minnesota. The person who wrote the best story got a prize.
My brother won … (7 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: Even if You Sign a Short Sale Counter Offer You Can Lose the Deal in a Seller's Market
- 02/16/12 11:28 PM
I am doing my best to bring more inventory to the market in Sacramento. Especially more listings of short sales. Because, guys, we're running outta homes to buy. It's astonishing when I look at some areas for comps and everything is either active short contingent or pending. The sellers who have the homes for sale rule. People think it's a buyer's market but it's not. It's definitely a seller's market in many areas of Sacramento right now.
Because it's a seller's market, sellers can define how and when they want to sell. It doesn't matter if the home listed is a … (7 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: A Good Reason to Not Lowball a Sacramento Short Sale
- 02/14/12 02:01 AM
Some short sale agents in Sacramento might forget whom they represent. In case you're wondering, if you're a listing agent, it's the seller. Because a listing agent has fiduciary with the seller and because MLS requires it, all offers received by the listing agent must go to the seller. Doesn't matter if it's a lowball offer. Doesn't matter if the buyer's agent pecked it out with a dead chicken's foot dipped into blood, all offers go to the seller.
I try to prepare my sellers for the onslaught of offers they will receive. It shocks some. But I send all offers … (5 comments)
|
sacramento short sales: You May Wonder Why Buyers Are Having a Tough Time Buying a Sacramento Short Sale
- 02/09/12 01:54 AM
I've been closing short sales for many years. In fact, I close a huge volume of short sales. Even so, as a Sacramento short sale agent, I still haven't seen it all. I know this to be true because every single day I seem to learn something new. That's part of what keeps my profession interesting. I freely share what I learn in this blog and with other real estate agents. But lately there seems to be a lot of aggression and hostility among agents in Sacramento. I don't know if it's because sales for them have dwindled or maybe it's … (25 comments)
|
My sellers know that I track activity, all the comings and goings at their home. That's one of the reasons to use a lockbox. The little infrared gizmo beams all agent access info directly to a website for me. As a Sacramento short sale agent, I follow up on my listings. I email agents who show and ask if they have questions. It gives me an excellent way to obtain buyer feedback for my sellers as well.
;)
;)
;)
