2006 | Sacramento Real Estate

Archive for 2006

The Year in Review — A Personal Note

I have a couple of hours here before getting ready for a New Year’s Eve day showing of several homes in Folsom. I’m going to spend it doing a couple of year in review articles. Market watchers may want to watch for the Sacramento County real estate year in review that I’ll do in a few minutes, but I thought I’d write a few personal notes first. On a blog, of course, you want your best effort last because that will push it to the top.

My personal year in review is a very interesting one, I think, in that this was the year that my love-hate relationship with real estate as a career finally resolved itself and pointed more strongly toward one side than the other. By now it’s pretty clear to me: I love this work. I had to go back into the faux comfort of software engineering one more time to realize it, and that final brief trip reminded me of what I didn’t like about that non-sales job: the disconnect between competence and effort on the one hand and earnings on the other. Tom Hopkins talks about the main benefit of sales being that the two are intimately related. (That’s also the main drawback of sales, by the way). Speaking one more time of software: I noticed just now that the company that believed my cheap foreign competitor’s estimate that their site would be done in two weeks has yet to see a launch of that site six months later. Hooray for globalization.

Interestingly, getting back into software ocurred right around the middle of the year. I believe, and will try to show in my next article, that this was also the nadir of the real estate market here. At the very beginning of the year, I was working at REMAX as a team leader for the Real Estate PLUS Team, but my overall production was suffering from my failure to take better control of my incoming leads, and my team was pushing back as I tried to remedy this. A couple of months into the year, the strain of this effort led me to decide to go off on my own as an individual agent at REMAX, and this move gave my sales a temporary boost while wearing me down to the point where software became attractive again.

While working this software opportunity, I did something that in retrospect turned out to be a very good idea, setting up John Lockwood Associates as a California Corporation and striking off on my own. My initial thought was simply to sell referrals and save on expenses, but as the software job turned out to be yet another rat race against cheap Elbonians [yes, I hate Web 2.0 but I LOVE Wikipedia!], a couple of weeks later I found myself flying without a net once more. After a few confused weeks writing some dumb .NET app that eventually got replaced by a less than $300 per year Application Service Provider, I decided to put on a blue suit and go to the Stardust Ballroom once more, i.e., climb back in the car and start peddling wooden shelters again.

That’s worked out extremely well. It was the best real estate Christmas ever. God bless us, everyone.

Looking back, this success also coincided with a period of some good Boddhichitta development on my part (that’s not a bad article as it applies to martial arts — it applies well to real estate, too). If I could extend that to Web 2.0, I’d be really cooking.

While this was happening, another wonderful thing came to pass. Bridget joined me, and so did Elite Properties. So in the course of the year, I’ve come full circle — leader of a real estate team, individual real estate agent working for another broker, get the heck out of this job, independent real estate broker on my own, and leader of a real estate team again.

My personal journey in real estate in the year behind was not much different from many agents in the business, who move when the markets shift either toward a second income or toward greater professionalism in real estate, or both. As a businessman, I belive in 2007 I need to grow both as an individual performer and as a team leader. The lesson I learned from the first team was that doing another salesperson’s prospecting for them is like giving a man a fish — pretty soon you run out of fish. So this year I’m experimenting with teaching others how to fish. But I’m not counting on their fish. I’ve got my own fish.

However, to my fellow area real estate bloggers out there, lest I forget — HELP WANTED: Fishermen. Inquire at (530) 672-9160. (The pier’s getting pretty crowded, so my new business model is to own the pier — not bad, huh?)

Have a great year everybody!

Recent foreclosure article

I recently wrote an article about NAR’s take on foreclosures that you might find interesting.

Arguably that article should have been here — if I’d have known I’d have had a category here for it it would have been!

Live and learn.

Dataquick and Foreclosure Numbers

I wonder if anyone has a good read on Sacramento foreclosure numbers and how they compare to the numbers in other markets. Maybe the author over at Sacramento Landing, or some of his readers? That’s the kind of stuff Lander and the crew are quite good at compiling. I wonder if Dataquick compiles that stuff? They compile everything else.

This is just something I woke up curious about today, that’s more or less related to real estate.

The next post gets weirder and more off topic. Hang in there.

Email Subscription Form Added

I’ve added a subscription form to the blog. Actually, where I’ve added it I’d be more surprised if you missed it than if you needed this post to tell you — it’s right there in mid-screen! This is the first post I’ve written since entering an email address of mine as a test subscriber. Let’s see how it goes! You other bold early adopters, take it for a spin!

Hmm…so far so bad, doesn’t seem to be working yet. Let me try something and now update this post…

Don’t you love live testing? I know I do.

Newsletters and Discount Offers Coming

It looks like I’ve finally found a solution to a problem that has haunted me since I launched my first real estate web site almost five years ago — what to do about those folks who come in at the very early stages of their real estate search and request information, such as signing up for a Property Organizer Account. I’ve never really felt like I’ve done a good job of making customers of the folks who are four to eight months away from buying something. I do a good job with folks who are ready to buy and call, but at any given time I suspect my web site consists of a visitor pattern something like:

Ready to buy right now, or pretty darned quick. 10%
Will be ready to buy, but not now. Using my web site for research. May or may not end up using me as an agent. 50%
Other. High school kids doing homework, colleagues hoping I’ll write about them, and other assorted tire kickers. 40%

And that’s fine, really. I don’t mind the 40% kicking the tires, as long as there’s a 10% paying me to publish the tires. Helping some portion of that first 10% of my visitors is what’s kept me afloat for the past few years, but I’ve been awfully interested in what might happen if I could ever master the art of connecting with that middle 50%.

So far I honestly don’t think I’ve done a very good job of that, because I’ve alternated between not contacting them at all — a sort of Puritan Privacy Policy approach — and phoning them to welcome them to the site, which in sales etiquette terms is reminiscent of the Furniture Store Millisecond, named after the amount of time it takes a guy in the furniture store to get in your face and say “Can I help you?”

So, avid real estate sales Goldilocks that I am, I am now working very hard to split the difference between the too-cold porridge of hands-off, and the too-hot porridge of the welcome phone call. The answer, all along, has been a simple speedy response with a request to opt in to a permission-based newsletter. I’ve been testing out the services of GetResponse.com, and it’s looking like their system will enable me to put something together that is permission based and therefore extremely privacy-sensitive and user-friendly, yet still sales-effective. As a side benefit, it will also enable you (soon) to subscribe to the blog’s content, and doing so will also make you eligible to receive discount offers.

I’m pretty excited about it. I’ve got some typing to do!

Updated Information for Placer County

We’ve finally had a good enough break in the showing and escrow schedule to get some work done on bringing the information on our Placer County sites up to date somewhat.

We’re now caught up on our market updates for our Roseville site (for the next three days, at least), with the publication of our market updates for October and November.

Meantime those of you who enjoy browsing luxury homes will be pleased to note that the listings available from our Granite Bay subdivisions page has been updated.

Condo Near Sac State, Congratulations, Gene and Carol!

Congratulations to my clients, Gene and Carol, on their exciting purchase of a three bedroom condo near Sac State that closed today. They had wanted a condo for their daughter who’s still going to school there and her friends to rent, and we finished this escrow with lots of good war stories that I won’t go into — let’s just say we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and didn’t get too wet moving in!

Normally I’m not one for helping clients physically move in, but in this case it needed to get done, and it was raining, after all.

What makes this transaction especially worthwhile for me is how much equity my clients had built in when they closed (about $35,000, or 18%, according to one appraisal). Also gratifying was the fact that I located it for them even though the one they called in on had a much better commission in it for me.

Does your Realtor® take her fiduciary duty seriously? If she doesn’t, I can fix that. And I don’t mind. Really.

All in all, not a bad month’s work on behalf of this client, if I do say so myself. And trust me, I just did.

</blowingownhorn>

Rosemont Listing is $10,000 to $20,000 below market!

Rosemont Home Today I rechecked the comparable sales on our beautiful 3 bedroom 2 bath listing in Rosemont, and it looks like it’s still an excellent buy at $285,000. Looking at all the homes within a half mile radius, there are 19 available, and only one has a lower price — the average price is over $20,000 higher, and the average sold price is over $10,000 higher.

In fact, our price is so good that the seller gave permission for me to go ahead and show you the comps for it.

Plus, consider the upgrades. This home has new laminate floors installed in 2005, a newer composition roof, and newer, energy efficient vinyl dual pane windows. This home has a huge backyard with an established shade tree, and is a great value for an investor or first time buyer. To learn more, please give me a call directly at (530) 672-9160, or you can use our convenient Schedule a Showing form.

John Lockwood Associates / Elite Properties Merger

Permission is hereby granted to re-publish the following press release in its entirety:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 22, 2006
John Lockwood Associates and Elite Properties Merger

John Lockwood Associates, a California Corporation with headquarters in El Dorado County, announced today that its merger with Elite Properties in Amador City has been completed. The merger began with our strategic hiring of Bridget Felmley-Gay, one of the Elite Properties founders, and negotiations with the former managing broker to continue to use the name in Amador County. Our fictitious business name was registered in El Dorado County, and has now been officially recognized on our Department of Real Estate License.

John Lockwood, the broker of record, had this to say,

“The completion of this merger is a strategic win for our company in several respects. First, our hiring of Elite Property’s founder, Bridget, gets our recruitment efforts off to an ideal start by serving as a model first hire for the very type of motivated and entrepreneurial agent that can help our company be successful long into the future.

“Equally as important, our acquisition of a branch office in Amador County now enables us to serve a huge five-county area including Sacramento County, El Dorado County, Placer County, Amador County, and eastern Yolo County. This is especially important given that our Internet presence means we work with many out of area buyers who have not yet decided which local community is right for them. Our new Amador County office strengthens our competency in rural and agricultural sales, vineyards, land, acreage, and horse properties.

“As an added bonus, our use of the Elite Properties name gives our agents the opportunity to participate in the business without feeling like they’re required to advertise the broker’s ego — agents are free to use either the Elite Properties name or the John Lockwood Associates name in their marketing. Since real estate agents are independent contractors, many are sensitive to the need to establish a ‘brand of their own’, and the Elite Properties name allows them the freedom to do this.”

Holiday Musings

By Peggy Hill.

No, OK, it’s not really Peggy Hill, it’s John Lockwood, functioning with a temporarily clean desk, and getting ready for:

Christmas.
The transaction that closes one or two days after Christmas.

It’s nice to have a transaction closing two days after Christmas. I’m doing better in the bad market than I did in the good, paradoxically.

Saturday I have a buyer that wants to go out and look at a couple of homes. No, I’m NOT writing an offer on Saturday and having it be pending on Christmas. So I hope she only likes the homes well enough to write an offer on Tuesday. That would be nice. First escrow of 2007. Well, the second, actually, more than likely — it looks like Bridget’s working on the first. You go, girl.

I welcomed Jen Yee to the blog the other day but then the poor kid got sick. So we didn’t blog this morning.

Linda’s working on a great blog post, but she thinks I can write so I think she’s intimidated. In the interests of motivating her, let me just say smurf gliggle sprutz.

Next year is going to be a really great year. More agents will come to work for me, and the company will grow and grow. Anyway that’s a foreward looking projection, more a hope than a strategy, but the implementation details will wait until I get over what’s going on in the next paragraph:

Where’s my long winter’s nap? I really was kind of hoping for a long winter’s nap. Today is the shortest day of the year, and believe me, on some primitive animal level I’m not even writing this, I’m already asleep.

Let me just work up the final documents I need for the transaction closing one or two days after Christmas, and then I will ensure that there are chips and dip.

Let’s Have a Good Thought…

…for Eddie Rosenthal, a Petaluma Realtor® and author of the ItsYourBestMove blog. Eddie’s been having a few health issues and is undergoing surgery soon. I know for me it was nice to see a post from him again since it had been awhile, and he was someone I always enjoyed reading and whose friendship I appreciated.

Good luck on the surgery, Eddie — and happy holidays in the meantime!

Welcome Jen Yee of Metrocities Mortgage

Last week I had the pleasure of introducing a new mortgage blogger to the team, Linda Spafford of Stamford Mortgage.

This week I am pleased to announce a second mortgage officer who has offered to write about Mortgage topics, Jen Yee of Metrocities Mortgage.

Like Linda, Jen has been doing a fantastic job for my clients, and has access to a wide range of programs with excellent low rates. I look forward to her input here and I want her to finally get me my digital picture of that shirt. Hey, that’s a thought, maybe I’ll bring it with me when I meet with Jen today for her first blogging session.

Sacramento Condo Market Update, November, 2006

November’s numbers for condo sales in Sacramento County were not much different from residential sales in Sacramento overall, with modest drops in prices from last year. The average price of a condo in Sacamento County dropped 5.3% from last November’s $262,774, with the average this year coming in at $248,330. Since this year’s “average sized condo” was slightly larger than last year, the sold price per square foot ratio dropped more substantially at 6.2%. The median price, meantime, changed only 3.6%, dropping from $256,500 last November to $248,330 this November.

Already last year at this time, condo sales were showing signs of slowing down, with the expired to sold ratio up to 60.3%. This year the number stands at 113.2%, with more listings expiring (86) than selling (76) in November.

Some truly beautiful Sacramento Photos

Over at LivingInUrbanSac.

Nicely done!

[Sing song voice...] I’m going to win a prize, I’m going to..

…win a prize!

From the good people at Sacramento Landing.

Here’s the offer:

“Change? Adjust? Shift? First Realtor capable of uttering the “D” words (decline, decrease, drop) gets a prize!” (See here.)

And my response collecting my prize:

Really, I get a prize do I? Well let’s hope it’s not something cheap! I could use a new cross pen for my buyers to sign purchase agreements — the black satin finished ones are pretty affordable.

“Prices were down substantially from last year in all categories. Prices declined:…” etc. (From here)

“As a result, when we look at average square footage, we no longer find appreciation. Instead, we find a significant drop — of 23.4%, from November to November.” (From here).

At the same time, unit volume [in Granite Bay] decreased 47.2%, from 36 units last September to 19 units this September. (From here)

Etc. etc. etc. Hopefully three quotes is enough to prove it, and I won’t have to send in any box tops or anything.

Market Updates for El Dorado County and Amador County

Those of you who’ve been relying on us for market update information about El Dorado County should please note that the venue for that information has changed to our El Dorado and Amador County Real Estate blog, specifically, the real estate market section.

I’m hoping that Bridget will eventually be leading much of the charge on publishing that data, freeing up more time for me to post about Sacramento County and Placer County here, but to date that’s more of a goal than a reality.

Meantime, tomorrow we’ll have the stats on Sacramento County condos for you.

Sacramento Duplexes & New Home Listings

We’ve updated our lists of area duplexes and new homes. Enjoy.

Sacramento Condo Listings Update

Wow, it’s been awhile. Fortunately you always have access to the latest listings on our search page, because our condo listings were looking a bit long in the tooth there. But no matter, they’re updated now, so you can get the latest condo listings here.

Well, that’s what I get for being out selling instead of hanging around the office typing. That works for me.

Now just one more appointment this morning, and let’s see when I can get those new homes and duplex listings updated…

Welcome To Sacramento!

My darling husband and I have finally put our working relationship into the form of a legal document to whit: I have agreed to do nothing solely and exclusively for John Lockwood Associates, dba Elite Properties and they have agreed to pay nothing for said work. The aforesaid agreement entitles me legally to blog about Real Estate (along with any other thoughts I care to share with you) here on the Sacramento Real Estate Blog.

I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts with you dear readers. Having successfully migrated to the greater Sacramento area a good ten years ago, I hope that you may benefit from my experiences here. For those loyal followers of my writings you can still see my older blog entries at my space under my nom de plume katatonia.

Welcome Kathy Lockwood

John Lockwood Associates is pleased to announce that we have just hired California’s most lovely real estate agent, Kathy Lockwood. Welcome aboard, honey.

Kathy may be chiming in on the blog if the spirit moves her, but (shrewd negotiator that she is) she may not.

It’s all good.

Our Company Motto – Yes, We Do Have One

Honesty isn’t the best policy.
Honesty is the ONLY policy.

With special thanks to Knute Rockne, who got it wrong.

Our Company

Hey, now there’s a good idea.

If I’m going to start recruiting and training, and thinking about tasks that I need to do to make us successful as an organization, then it helps to have an “Our Company” section here on the blog.

There’s something unusually compelling about having your “Company Intranet” on a blog. On the one hand there are probably some dark company secrets that shouldn’t go here. The C.E.O. is fat, for example.

Don’t tell anyone that.

On the other hand, having the company’s laundry here really fits with what I’m starting to perceive has been my core strength all along: open, honest sharing of information. People are starting whole blogs dedicated to this topic these days, but it’s something that my clients have told me they’ve appreciated all along. It starts with making the same listings I have access to available to you, and it continues through every aspect of the transaction.

I often joke around about company mottos, such as this page I wrote about Company Mottos We’ve Rejected. But lately I’ve felt very strongly about a motto that ocurred to me, strongly enough, that as Fraser Beach is fond of saying, “That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.” So until someone shakes my conviction, the company motto in the following post is what our company motto is.

Recruiting

I was just working on a draft of my proposal about helping my agents out with their web marketing, and one of the first things that became obvious is that much of what’s really at the core of this issue is the need to recruit and train the right people.

Probably doing this right means focusing on recruiting and training. OK, fine, if I do that, who’s minding the store?

I wonder if Susan Norris and Gena Riede know each other. Also I wonder if Gena ever reads me. I hope she does.

Also I know Mike Jalone reads me, but I never followed up on trying to get Julie working here.

Rumors of the strange charisma that I have over agents the world over are greatly exaggerated. Really, I’m no more charismatic than other historical figures. I don’t know who starts this nonsense.

Meantime I have to figure out what this document is supposed to say and then get Bridget to help me decide what it should have said.

Then probably I should just go work on my “we’re hiring” page. I don’t even have such a page. That’s just wrong, because we are. We, you know, me and all my associates. Bridget.

Interest Rates Predicted to Stay The Same

I thought I’d share an interesting report regarding the housing market. Here is the transcript of radio clip I heard last night on KVIE, predicting that interest rates would remain the same through “very late in 2007″.

PRATT: By keeping the Federal funds rate unchanged, the Federal Reserve all but guaranteed that U.S. banks will keep the prime lending rate at 8.25 percent. That’s an early holiday gift for the U.S. as it gives a break to consumers and business borrowers. Suzanne Pratt, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.

Welcome Lenders

It gives me great pleasure to announce that not one, but TWO outstanding loan officers have volunteered to write about finance and mortgage issues for me here. That’s so cool, it’s like having a candy mint AND a breath mint.

By way of a Real Estate Settlements and Procedures Act (RESPA) disclosure, let me point out up front that Linda Spafford and Jen Yee (who’ll be joining in later) are independent contractors who are blogging not in exchange for referrals from John Lockwood Associates, but because their individual efforts at blogging may generate some business for themselves. As a consumer, you have absolute choice over your settlement providers and are free to use all of us, some of us, or none of us. (And if RESPA allows me to say so, that list is in descending order of my preference. ) Consumers, you can learn more about RESPA here.

This week we introduce Linda Spafford, who I first met at an open house I was holding in Placerville. She’s been providing outstanding rates and service to my buyers and putting up with my foibles ever since. She has worked many a weekend getting my buyers pre-qualified, and closed more loans that I frankly thought were impossible than I can even remember. So especially if you’ve been turned down by other lenders, you owe it to yourself to give Linda a call. (But don’t get me wrong, if you have a 750 credit score and a 30% debt-to-income ratio and 20% down, I’m sure Linda would love a chance to show you what she can do for you as well).

Linda, thanks so much for joining us. I’m sure your contributions will be a welcome addition to the discussion here and give the blog some “finance breadth” that it has lacked.

Foreclosures and Short Sales and REOs, Oh My!

Lately I’ve been working a lot on transactions on homes that are either owned by the bank or soon to be owned by the bank because the seller is in financial trouble. Ironically, some of this has come up while representing a family whose rental was recently sold at auction because their landlord didn’t make her payments. The bubble blogs are notorious for predicting situations like this and therefore, let’s give them their due and say it: they predicted situations like this.

As a Realtor®, the work becomes challenging as my buyers want to move quickly, but one of the drawbacks of a short sale situation is that they take a long time.

I thought this would be an opportunity to define a few terms, because buyers often ask me if I have access to foreclosures, and wonder how go go about buying a foreclosure.

Do We Have Foreclosures? The Short Answer.

The short answer to the question of whether Realtors® have access to foreclosures is “yes, absolutely”, because many homes are listed either by buyers hoping to avoid foreclosure in the future or banks that have already foreclosed and now own a property which failed to fetch a satisfactory price at a trustee’s sale. Buyers are interested in such properties because they may often be listed and acquired at prices that are significantly below market.

Short Sales

When a seller is in trouble and doesn’t have enough equity and cash to sell the home, pay the costs of sale, and pay off the loan, the home may be listed as a “short sale”. Short sales are called short because the sellers are short on funds, but ironically, sales where the seller is short on funds often go “long” when you talk about the escrow period. You won’t find the usual 30-day escrow period here. Instead, escrows of forty-five to sixty days and more are the norm. Short sales take extra time because the lender reserves to themselves the right to approve or reject the lower payoff that the seller is asking them to make, so another irony of the short sale process is that you’re working with the ultimate motivated seller whose hands are more or less tied by the lender.

Another drawback to short sales is that the lender is looking for the best offer, and they typically reserve the right to continue taking offers throughout the process. This means the money you pay towards inspections such as whole house and appraisal is at somewhat greater risk than on a typical sale.

A short sale may or may not be one in which a Notice of Default has been filed on the property.

Notice of Default

Most loans in California are secured not by mortgages, but by deeds of trust. A deed of trust is when a third party (the trustee) holds the “bare legal title” and the right to foreclose on behalf of a beneficiary (then lender). When a lender wishes to foreclose under a deed of trust, he tells the trustee, who then files a Notice of Default against the borrower. Once this happens, the trustee can sell the home, but only after a time specified by law and following additional steps. When a Notice of Default is filed, the property is often said to be “in foreclosure”.

What many buyers and their agents don’t know about Notices of Default is that once one has been filed, California law protects owners (borrowers) from unfair practices by “Equity Purchasers”. (California’s Equity Purchaser Law, California Civil Code, section 1695-1695.17). One element of this law that even many real estate agents are not aware of is that they must carry a surety bond equal to double the fair market value of the property if they represent a buyer on such a transaction who is purchasing the home, except in certain well defined cases, for example, where the buyer is purchasing the home as their primary residence.

Since as far as I’m aware no insurer provides such surety bonds, the upshot of the law is to put agents and brokers at risk if we represent you as in investor on the property, though there is no such problem if you’re occupying the home yourself.

Buying at a Trustee Sale

Another way to aquire a foreclosed property is to actually purchase it at the trustee’s sale. John Lockwood Associates does not currently represent buyers who wish to do this, and interested buyers are cautioned that such sales require considerable planning and research, since many of the typical protections and inspection periods do not apply to such sales.

Real Estate Owned

Sometimes called “bank repos” or REOs, “Real Estate Owned” is the accounting term that lenders use to show properties that they own, typically by having purchased them at the trustee’s sale when no one else purchased the property. Sale of these properties is less encumbered by the lengthy process you encounter in a short sale, because the lender who wants to recoup their losses and the seller are one and the same. Moreover, they’re exempt from the California Equity Purchaser law because the notice of default against them is no longer outstanding.

Because of these facts, REOs are somewhat easier and more straightforward to purchase, and they’re readily accessible to both owner-occupiers and investors alike. One down side of REOs is that the lenders sometimes ask for a fairly detailed addendum that makes the sale “as is” and may limit the buyer’s ability to recover their purchase deposit if they do not go through with the sale. Since I’m not a real estate attorney, I can’t advise you as to how enforceable those addendums are, but as a practical matter, I’ve been advising clients working with REOs to limit their deposit money to a token amount to mitigate their risks.

Conclusion

Foreclosure properties, especially short sales and REOs, offer considerable opportunities for buyers to get a home at a very competitive price compared to other homes on the market. This is especially true if you’re buying the home to live in. As is often the case in real estate, however, when you get a great price, you may find that you get not-so-great terms. An experienced Realtor® can help you understand what some of the trade-offs are and help make sure your interests are protected.

Foreclosures are an excellent choice if you have time and want to find a bargain, but they’re not a good idea if you’re in a hurry to move or you’re squeamish about terms.

Real Estate Best Practices – Working With Buyers

The other day it occured to me that there are a number of things that I do consistently for my clients, and that these are things that I should continue to try to do. As well, there were a number of “baseline” activities that many agents do that constitute the role of a buyer’s agent. So I felt it was time to put together a list of real estate best practices for working with buyers. These are things your agent should be doing for you — if not, give us a call at (877) 735-5657.

Explain clearly and in plain language he steps in the home buying process.
Refer you to a lender (or work with one you choose) to get you pre-approved for financing so you’ll improve your negotiating position and know what your costs will be up front.
Work with you to understand the two prices you qualify for: the one the lender gives you and the one you’re comfortable with, and work with you to find a home in the lower price range.
Answer any questions you have about local neighborhoods, schools, etc., referring you to additional sources of information as appropriate.
Provide free online search tools so you can browse and search for all the listings we have access to at your liesure, while at the same time offering you the ability to create more detailed, custom searches using our MLS software for any criteria you choose.
Show you the homes you want to see in a relaxed, friendly, and low pressure way.
Get you more information about the home(s) you might be interested in, such as comparable sales (what have similar homes sold for?), days on market (how long has the seller been trying to sell), average sale price to list price ratio (how much “play” is there), so you can make an offer that has an excellent chance of success but still gets you the best price possible. Explain to you that the price is between you and the seller, and neither agents nor brokers set the price.
Answer any presale questions we can, and explain to you your rights under your inspection period for more lengthy and detailed inspections you will want to make.
After consulting with you on the price and terms that are best for you, write up the offer for you, get you a copy, and explain the details of the offer and all other paperwork in plain English.
Notify you immediately about any responses to your offer, and, when your offer is accepted, open escrow for you and provide escrow details to you in a timely fashion.
Review the disclosures sent by the listing agent and request disclosures that are they may have omitted that you should have available for your review. In many cases, the listing agent will not provide everything they should, and your agent should know what’s needed and get it from them for you.
Review the exceptions on the Preliminary Title Report and go over with you any concerns that you will want to investigate further. (Many escrow officers tell me that most agents don’t do this, and in my opinion every agent should).
Assist you in ordering inspections and provide access to the property during escrow for you and your inspectors.
Submit your requests for repairs to the seller and work with all parties to ensure the condition of the home is satisfactory to you.
Coordinate with you, with escrow, the seller’s agent, and your lender to make sure the details of the escrow are handled smoothly and professionally, and that loan docs are ordered in time to close.
Review your escrow settlement statement and advise you of any unusual or non-standard charges prior to closing.
Be available during your closing by phone to answer any questions you may have.
Meet you after the closing to deliver your keys and congratulate you on your new home.
Answer any questions about your home warranty or questions for the seller after the sale.

Good Condo Price — FSBO Done Right

I got a call from Chris the other day, the seller of a lovely condo I’d shown on Bremen. (See Listing Details or More Photos). It turns out this condo probably wasn’t a fit for the buyer I showed it to, but Chris followed up and asked me to point out some of it’s nice features, such as a very nice neighborhood (I’ve worked in Greenback Estates before so I knew he was right about that), extremely low Home Owner Association fees even compared to other parts of Greenback Estates (always important when you’re buying a condo), and inside laundry, which is not commonplace and is important to many buyers. Chris also has more info you can check out here

Equally as interesting to me as the condo was Chris’s unique approach to selling. Being an appraiser, he’s familiar with the business, so he’s selling it sort of “by owner”, but worked with a company to list it for him in the MLS. Not only did he price the unit well, he also followed up with agents, and offered an extremely competitive commission to the buyer’s agent. So many sellers ignore the simple fact that in today’s market, you’re competing for attention from the buyers, and you’re competing for attention from agents as well. Time and again, I’ve seen buyers and sellers and their agents succeed or fail based solely on what one might call “emotional intelligence” — their ability to co-operate with another human being. It’s a lesson I have to learn over and over again myself.

As always (I should really get this in a footer), information in this web site and links from it is based on multiple sources and has not been verified.

My Mental Health, and Thanks for Asking

In case you’re wondering, it was the rhetorical you that asked.

I was in a bit of a bad space the other day, but I’m quite charming and irresistable again today, so that’s good. Feel free to chime in with your absolute agreement with that.

I’ve been watching way too much Stephen Colbert, I honestly have.

I guess for a while I’ve been trying to launch this other internet site, and it wasn’t going as fast as I wanted because my fame is limited. Boo hoo. I only dominate my market space and have to work full time to maintain that, instead of going back to work for someone else. Woe is me.

I hope pride doesn’t goeth before a fall. I hateth when that happens.

Anywho, today I feel energized and up to the challenge. This disarray of a desk is next.

Tally ho!

(That’s off of Kiefer — and I have a nice listing off of Tally Ho. Ask me about it).

A Great Time in Folsom

Happy Birthday, Micah!