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A Sacramento Lawyer Might Not Want to Hire Herself as a Client to Buy or Sell a Short Sale

By
Real Estate Agent with Elizabeth Anne Weintraub, Broker DRE #00697006

Some people are so busy being a pompous ass that they can't listen when you try to tell them good news. They want to hear the sound of their own voice and not yours. If they would just quiet down for a moment, they might find out important information about a Sacramento short sale.

But this is the thing about talking to people from the public. Odds are some of them are jerks. They are the kind who will cut in line at the grocery store and then ram the cart into your back. They can't win with you because if they say they are sorry, you still know they are not. If they don't apologize, you dislike them for that, too.

That's because everybody has their own story, their own way of interpreting the facts. It might not be the way you see it. It doesn't make you right and them wrong, or vice versa.

An alleged buyer called yesterday. He began the conversation with an offensive tone to his voice. To me, it sounded like the voice of insecurity, disguised as omnipotence. The guy asked -- in a long drawn-out sentence to set the stage, opening with the fact that he was unrepresented -- about a short sale. It's a short sale that has been active short contingent for several months. It's about ready to get approved. I had yanked it out of the foreclosure fire by postponing the auction.

When I told him one of the advantages of being represented was he could receive short sale listings that were for sale and available to buy, he got his knickers in a twist. I didn't get a chance to tell him about any of the other short sales he could buy. He cut me off. He said that as a lawyer he would represent himself, and as a lawyer he didn't have access to MLS and, above all, he was totally wasting his time making fruitless phone calls, because it annoyed him just to have to dial the phone.

Whose fault is that, Sherlock?

It's a good thing I'm not naive enough to judge all lawyers by this guy. In fact, I work with a lot of lawyers. I don't know if it's that the Sacramento area is crawling with lawyers or if they simply gravitate toward a Sacramento short sale agent who enjoys a good argument and analyzing complex situations; I love working with lawyers, and the feeling is reciprocal. But this guy?

He's got personal injury written all over him. Just call it my intuition. Hell will freeze over before he will buy anything. And he's missing out on some great Sacramento short sales, because I list and sell a large inventory of short sales in our four-county area.

I've got a million short sale stories in Sacramento. This is just one of them. Tomorrow, I will tell you how Bank of America approved a strategic short sale for an investor client who was not in default and paid the client $3,000 under a Cooperative Short Sale arrangement.

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Elizabeth Weintraub is co-partner of Weintraub & Wallace Team of Top Producing Realtors, an author, home buying expert at The Balance, a Land Park resident, and a veteran real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown, Carmichael and East Sacramento, as well as tract homes in Elk Grove, Natomas, Roseville and Lincoln. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put our combined 80 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at RE/MAX Gold. DRE License # 00697006.

Photo: Unless otherwise noted in this blog, the photo is copyrighted by Big Stock Photo and used with permission.The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of RE/MAX Gold. Disclaimer: If this post contains a listing, information is deemed reliable as of the date it was written. After that date, the listing may be sold, listed by another brokerage, canceled, pending or taken temporarily off the market, and the price could change without notice; it could blow up, explode or vanish. To find out the present status of any listing, please go to elizabethweintraub.com.

Comments(4)

Tammy Lankford,
Lane Realty Eatonton, GA Lake Sinclair, Milledgeville, 706-485-9668 - Eatonton, GA
Broker GA Lake Sinclair/Eatonton/Milledgeville

Well that made me laugh.  And I will be back to read tomorrow's story.  And could you tell which bank approved that ONE?

Dec 09, 2011 01:56 AM
Chris Ann Cleland
Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

I've had one of these calls too.  The lawyer who knows so very much (they think) about what's happening in a short sale, still they end up calling someone else (a qualified Short Sale Agent) for advice. 

Dec 09, 2011 02:03 AM
Harrison K. Long
HomeSmart, Evergreen Realty - Irvine, CA
REALTOR , GRI, Broker associate, Attorney

It's good to hear that you like working with lawyers mostly in some complex situations.  This one attorney at your report today is probably unhappy and taking it out with frustration on you.

Dec 09, 2011 05:29 AM
Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Broker
Elizabeth Anne Weintraub, Broker - Sacramento, CA
Put 40 years of experience to work for you

Hi Tammy: It's a great story. I had thought about telling it today but I had a really early morning appointment, so there wasn't enough time. There is never enough time in the day.

Hi Chris Ann: Unless a lawyer is in the trenches with the rest of us, a lawyer would not know. Short sales are the kind of business in which you really only learn through hands-on experience. But I do know some really sharp lawyers who negotiate short sales and impress me to no end.

Hi Harrison: I almost went to law school. I enrolled, was accepted and went for orientation but never made it to the tuition payment line. Changed my mind mid-stream and decided to continue in real estate. Only because real estate is more profitable and less work. I think you really have to feel a calling to go into law.

Dec 09, 2011 12:48 PM