Elizabeth Weintraub • Sacramento Short Sale Agent • Land Park

Some Sacramento agents never work with buyers. I know many agents who prefer to stick to taking listings. But there is an added benefit to working with buyers, apart from steady income. That added benefit is an agent gets to tour homes that the agent might otherwise never see and become familiar with unknown neighborhoods.

For example, I have shown many units in the condo complex of Westlake Villas in Natomas. For one reason or another, those buyers purchased a condo in another complex, but I am now very familiar with Westlake Villas without ever listing a unit. The developer calls these homes townhomes, but townhomes generally include some sort of yard, so I call these zero-lot-line homes condos.

As a Sacramento short sale agent, I list and sell homes all over the Sacramento metro area, from Lincoln to Galt. So, when a Westlake Villas seller was referred to me Monday night, I knew enough about that complex to immediately list that unit as a short sale. I asked the seller to FedEx a key to my office, emailed the listing paperwork and put this condo on the market Wednesday afternoon.

This is a tri-level, two-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath condo with approximately 1,288 square feet. It was built in 2005, so it's a little bit newer than the original models. It has granite counters and maple counters in the kitchen, with an open floor plan. The appliances are GE Profile stainless steel and include the refrigerator. You'll find wood laminate in the kitchen and baths.

It's your typical layout with a pretty courtyard in the center, landscaped with trees, manicured vegetation, dotted with solar lighting fixtures along the sidewalks, and you'll even find benches if you want to sit outside. The entry has a chandelier and provides access to the home from the one-car garage in the rear. The second floor is the entertainment area, with high ceilings, crown molding and a half bath. This is a great room concept, incorporating the kitchen, dining and living room spaces.

Off the landing, on your way to the top floor, is the laundry room. It has built-in maple wall cabinets, a window, washer and dryer, and a door that leads to the furnace closet. The top floor sports another bath, a second bedroom, and the master suite, of course, features its own bath. You'll find a ceiling fan in each bedroom and big closets.

The Westlake Villas homeowner association has a clubhouse, 24-hour fitness center, business center, pool and spa and offers recreational activities. Everybody's dues are different, and the dues for this particular unit are $229 a month. The complex is well maintained and sits across the street from the lake. Due to the number of non-owner occupied units, though, this condo will not qualify for financing. Cash offers only.

4800 Westlake Parkway #1203, Sacramento, CA 95835 is offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $100,000.

For more information about MLS #10019090, call your Sacramento short sale agent Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

California's $40-some-billion budget deficit has apparently fueled legislation that puts the Franchise Tax Board under the thumbs of the Board of Equalization. Now, ordinarily, I don't pay a lot of attention to letters that I receive from the state of California. I read a few lines, say to myself, "What the heck are they talking about?" and crumple the paper into a wadded ball for my cats to chase around the house.

Yesterday, one of those letters resurfaced. It said that I was required to register with the Board of Equalization. All businesses that make over $100,000 a year are required to register. Doesn't matter if you're a service business and not a resaler, you're required to register. Because I had not registered, the state of California did it for me; how nice of the state. It also was penalizing me for the years of 2007 and 2008. Except I didn't buy anything in '07 or '08 that qualified for registration of use tax.

Once we got that straightened out, I did end up writing a $24.00 check for 2009. Because this new system makes "qualified persons" subject to filing use tax online prior to filing a tax return. This lets the Board of Equalization butt in and grab the money before the Franchise Tax Board has a chance to get its paws on the dough. Isn't that clever?

What do qualified persons pay use tax on? Anything you buy online that is used in your business and exempted from collection of California state sales tax. This means if you buy, like I did, a ScanSnap scanner from Amazon, you must immediately fork over that use and sales tax to the state. Now, I know some people are probably wondering how the state will know if they ever bought something without paying sales tax. I suppose the state could audit your tax return, see what you're writing off as a depreciable asset and demand a receipt for purchase.

This makes me glad that I'm a touchy feely person. I like to touch my merchandise in person. Ask a sales clerk questions and get dumb answers. Open boxes and get yelled at for doing so. So, I almost never buy a piece of equipment online. But if you do and run a business in California that earns over $100,000 a year, you better register with the Board of Equalization.

Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub

Before I tell you about my new short sale listing in Foothill Farms, let me sidetrack for a moment here to say I hate wearing contact lenses. For those of you who wear them, how do you manage? I've had 20 / 15 vision all of my life, but soon as I hit my mid-40s, print began to shrink. My husband has no empathy for me because he's been blind as a bat for as long as he can remember.

The worst part is getting up in the morning and discovering that when I put on my reading glasses, everything on my monitor is blurry. My first thought is I'm having a heart attack. But then I realize that I forgot to remove my contact lenses the night before and went to sleep wearing them.

Here is a delightful 3 bedroom, 2 bath home located just south of Greenback and a few blocks west of Garfield in Foothill Farms. It has a 2-car garage that faces east and the home faces south. The reason that orientation is important is because the back yard faces north, so you can entertain in the summertime without being hit directly by the sun.

It has 1,400 square feet, according to the Sacramento County Assessor's office, but it feels much bigger inside. The layout is attractive, it's a good flow. It has hardwood flooring throughout except for the ceramic floors in the kitchen and baths. Two of the bedroom floors are covered in carpet, but there could very well be hardwood underneath.

Not only do you get a breakfast nook in the kitchen, but there is a formal dining area off the other end of the kitchen, which overlooks the back yard. The back yard has fruit trees, a lawn and a couple of patios, one of which is uncovered. Of course, it has central heat and air.

Right off the entry way is a den with built-in cabinets and bookcases flanking the entry to the kitchen. You could use this room as an office or a family room. If you're looking for all the charm of a home built in 1957 but with modern updates, this Foothill Farms ranch may be just the home for you.

5411 Leader Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95841 offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $169,000.

Call your Sacramento short sale agent Elizabeth Weintraub for more information at 916 233 6759.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

One of my Sacramento short sales is on the market after previously selling as a short sale, meaning this is the second time around for that home. (It wasn't my previous sale, in case you're curious.) That's because we've had two big downturn waves in Sacramento. There was the beginning, in August of 2005, when the phones stopped ringing. But the second wave of price declines, which nobody is talking about, hit again at the end of 2007, when people figured the market was finished falling -- i.e., because prices could not go any lower -- yet, prices continued to fall.

I was wondering why none of the sellers I helped to do a short sale in 2006 or 2007 was buying again after a short sale in 2008 or 2009. I imagine this is why. They're a little gun shy to enter the marketplace. These are people who were probably promised they could refinance or sell at a huge profit, and it didn't work out. They had the rug pulled out from under them.

To confirm my suspicions, I turned to Trendgraphix to see if the data mirrored my thoughts. Sure enough, you can see it in the square-foot prices. The chart above shows the average square-foot-price in Sacramento from February of 2005 through February of 2010.

Laid out below is the data table from the above chart. The square-foot-price in July of 2005 was $230. By the end of 2007, it appeared to level a bit. Then wham, the rollercoaster plunged. The square-foot price fell from $210 in August of 2007 to $162 in January of 2008. As of last month, that price per-square-foot has dipped to $120.

Just from my own experiences as a Sacramento short sale agent, I could feel the market beginning to recover about this time last year. It's still a little wobbily, but it remains fairly constant. Still, if I'm expecting my former short sale sellers to buy another home shortly, I don't think it's going to happen for a while. I suspect they are sitting out this perfect storm.

I used to be an Estee Lauder girl. Devoted to the line. Couldn't wait for Free Gift With Purchase. But I am now a traitor. I have deflected to Chanel. I used to be a huge fan of Chanel Allure. In fact, one of the sentences I practiced over and over in my head when I first visited Paris was how to ask a shop-owner if she carried Chanel Allure and how much it cost. Yet, I never really used Chanel makeup products. All of that changed last week.

An agent in my Lyon Real Estate office also works at Macy's. Her name is Linda Loli. She's a veteran in the Chanel department, and her make-up always looks great. Sometimes I stop to chat with her while I am downtown at Macy's. She suggested I make an appointment to look at Chanel's product line, so I took her up on it. It's been years since I bought a lot of make-up. And let's face it, I'm not getting any younger; what was a good look in my 40s looks rather silly as I approach my 60s.

Linda says Chanel is the best, and I believe her. In comparison, I'd say Estee Lauder is an A-minus. But I wouldn't have downgraded Estee Lauder if I hadn't tried Chanel. It makes a foundation that doesn't dry out my face and is a liquid-based pressed compact. Chanel also makes a lipstick that doesn't come off. No joke. One end of the tube is a stain, which makes your lips feel yucky, but the other end is a sealer, which gives your lips shine and moisture. You can eat lunch, and your lipstick still looks fabulous. It's an incredible product that I've been wanting for years. Rouge Double Intensite, Ultra Wear Lip Colour.

There's a reason I'm mentioning this to you, a parallel coming up. See, yesterday I received a referral call. A previous client had referred a home seller to me. He wasn't trying to do a short sale. The guy wanted to sell his personal residence as a regular seller. About half of my real estate business in Sacramento is regular real estate sales. Because he had equity, he wanted to get the most bang for his buck, meaning the first words out of his mouth were about finding an agent who charges the lowest amount of commission. He almost apologetically explained that he was planning to interview agents, maybe 3 of them, and wanted to know if that approach was OK with me.

Sure, I responded, because after you speak with several other agents, it will be apparent you're not going to find a better Sacramento agent than me. I welcome comparisons. I say this not out of arrogance but because I believe it. I know lots of agents who don't believe this about themselves. To many, the thought of competition is frightening . . . and it often shows, which is why they lose listing presentations.

Then the seller said he wanted to compare commissions and fully intended to choose the listing agent who charged the least. Well, I charge the most. And I told him that. I justify it because I focus on getting my sellers the highest price and providing the best service. I protect my client's interests. Would he rather get $10,000 more for his home or hire an agent who charges him $1,000 less? His choice. I don't throw my clients under the bus.

I'll give you an example. Last week I received a Request for Repair on my East Sacramento listing. The home inspection noted a Zinsco electrical panel and mentioned that some of these electrical panels could be faulty or dangerous. The home inspector suggested the buyer hire a licensed electrician to inspect it. Instead of getting a professional's opinion, the buyer's agent issued a Request for Repair and asked the seller to replace it. I advised the seller to reject the request and asked the agent to get it inspected by a electrician.

Next go around, the agent submitted an invoice in the sum of $1,800 to replace the 100-amp panel with a 200-amp panel. Nope, the seller will not replace the panel nor will the seller upgrade the panel. I didn't ask the agent to send me a bid; I asked for proof that the panel needed to be replaced. Was the panel faulty? Apparently not. The agent could not produce an electrician's report that said the panel was faulty. And by the way, dear buyer's agent, we issued a Notice to Perform yesterday and expect the release of contingencies today. An hour later the contingency release arrived in my email. Matter dropped.

Do you think my seller is sorry that he hired a real estate agent who charges the most? I don't think so. Just like I don't care that Chanel doesn't offer "free gift with purchase." I'd rather pay a fair price for an excellent product without the hype, smoke and mirrors. I suspect my sellers want the same thing.

Photo: Big Stock Photo

One of my favorite streets in Sacramento County is Winding Way in Fair Oaks. Yesterday was the perfect spring day to show homes in Fair Oaks to my doctor client, which meant traveling down Winding Way. It was like driving through a fairy-tale land. The curves and dips of the road added to the scenic beauty. Many fruit trees are in bloom this time of year. Row upon row of flowering trees bordered Winding Way. It was magical.

We looked at four homes. The first was magnificent. Qualify construction throughout: glazed Italian kitchen cabinets, marble entry with columns; each bedroom featured nooks, angles, under-window bench seating, crown molding, an extensive amount of detailing. It was easy to see that the present owners had put a lot of thought into the remodel. The grounds were meticulously maintained, manicured, with rose bushes, fruit trees, and we came upon a bubbling brook beyond the pool.

The second home required a gate code for access. The gate swung open and we were greeted by a boxer, who almost poked his nose through my open car window. I drove past a few homes and stopped at our destination. Because I didn't see a place to park, I left my car on the private driveway, turning to my client to joke, "It's OK; I'm in real estate." He laughed. "I get to park in the middle of the street, too," he said, "Because I'm a doctor." Hey, I did not know that doctors and real estate agents shared a common right.

This home was a bit odd. The dining room flooring was planked wood but the kitchen was laminate and sloped. In fact, the living room floor sloped, too. The view wasn't as inviting as the first home. We didn't make it through the rest of the home but instead navigated our way around the boxer who was waiting at the gate for us, nice doggie, nice doggie, jumped back into my car and headed off down Winding Way.

Some of the homes in Fair Oaks are built as gated communities. Builders picked up 5 to 10-acre parcels, plopped 5 to 7 homes on them, and put a gate around the homes. The third home was one of those. It had half-timbering on a brick exterior, sort of like it couldn't decide whether it was a Tudor or French Normandy or maybe a castle. Across from it sat a Mediterranean monstrosity. The interior was a mix of styles and it had a confusing layout.

One more home to see. This was a newer home built in the early 2000s. The square footage was not pulled from the assessor's records, so I suspected it was smaller than noted. The room sizes were not as grand as the first home, although the waterfall off in the distance reminded me of Lassen Volcanic National Park. Lots of oak trees. I pointed out that the style of the home was a bit too "countrified" for my client. We left. He's probably going to buy the first home.

As we drove through the historic district of Fair Oaks, my client asked about the history of the Fair Oaks chickens. Those chickens have been in Fair Oaks a long time, and I couldn't remember the back story. I know that the chickens and roosters cause a lot of ruckus during outdoor weddings, sometimes crowing very loudly right in the middle of "I do's." So I later Googled it. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, an artist named Hugh Gorman brought 4 chickens to Fair Oaks in 1977, and he eventually released them into the wild. They reproduced, other chickens joined them -- some were Easter escapees from the feed store and some that people abandoned on the edge of town -- and they've been in Fair Oaks ever since.

I have to say that I've got one of the best jobs in the entire world. Who else gets to drive through enchanted lands and tour luxury homes? That experience yesterday was like stepping into a Thomas Kinkade painting. It's a nice break from the stressful day-to-day challenges of selling Sacramento short sales.

Photo: Big Stock Photo

Sometimes I wonder if I'm no better than a Labrador. I might be subject to labrador attention deficit disorder. You know how a dog's attention can suddenly be diverted, right? You're playing with the dog, tossing a ball, when SQUIRREL. The dog's head jerks in the direction of the squirrel, ears up, and you're no longer important.

I am usually working on 2 or 3 different projects when my daily autoprospecting email arrives in the morning around 5 AM. This is a system that shows me every listing that is emailed to my buyers. Pretty soon I'm clicking on the new listings, looking at photos, analyzing the locations, and an hour has gone by. Shiny new listings. I get engrossed. Seduced by hardwood floors and square footage. I can't help myself.

This morning, one of my Land Park short sale listings showed up in my autoprospecting list. This is a beautiful tudor that was remodeled a few years ago. We were about 2 weeks away from short sale approval with Chase Bank when I received an email yesterday from the buyer's agent informing me the buyer was canceling due to health problems. Well, unless she's dying, I don't know why she can't buy the house, but it's not really my concern. My job is to put it back on the market and get it sold again.

The funny thing is I received an email from Chase yesterday. The negotiator said she had good news. She had complained that many of her short sale files were taking too long to approve. So, Chase is now allowing management to approve short sales. The negotiator had 8 on her list that have been sitting since January and now her manager plans to approve all 8, including this one. She promised to send a response in a few days. And now we have no buyer. This is the way life works, though. Yin and yang.

Because the offer we submitted to the bank was higher than the list price of $325,000, we are changing the price in MLS today to $349,000. This is still a terrific bargain for a home in Land Park that last sold for more than $500,000. Ordinarily, if the bank had a problem with the price, I would have heard about it by now. This is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, built in 1926. It has wood floors, an updated kitchen with granite counters and breakfast nook, remodeled baths, plus a formal dining room with built-ins. There is a partial basement, attic and a bonus room off the garage. It has newer AC and a very pretty covered patio for entertaining.

1000 Fremont Way, Sacramento, CA 95818, offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $349,000. MLS #90085352.

Call your Land Park agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, for more information at 916 233 6759.

Photos: Big Stock Photo and Elizabeth Weintraub

Those short sale flipper investors are really getting active now. As a Sacramento short sale agent, I have been receiving a lot of calls lately from investors and their agents asking if they can lowball some of my short sale listings. It's not that I have anything against a guy trying to make a buck. Buy low, sell high is the name of the game in real estate. But I do object when those offers affect my sellers' chances of closing escrow.

My sellers don't hire me to make money for investors. They hire me to protect their interests, get them the highest price possible and to close the short sale in a timely manner.

A new twist that seems to be developing among short sale flippers is to submit an offer at list price with the buyer paying all of the closing costs. It is customary for the seller / short sale bank to pay those fees.  One might, at first glance, wonder what's wrong with that; full-price offer and the short sale bank pays no closing costs except commission. I'll tell you. When the buyer pays title and escrow fees, the buyer chooses the title and escrow company. Generally, the escrow officer is a person the buyer knows, and this person may or may not share certain information about the transaction with the listing agent. It means the buyer controls the transaction.

Why would a buyer need to control a transaction? Because there might be something going on that the buyer doesn't want the listing agent to know. It could be anything. It could be the buyer is planning to do a double escrow, that is, turn around and resell the property to an end buyer, and close both escrows concurrently without disclosing this plan to the seller. Many short sale banks prohibit resale within a certain number of days, and they try to hold the parties accountable. If a buyer agrees not to sell the property within a particular time period and instead immediately sells it, that action might be considered mortgage fraud.

It could also mean the buyer has signed an all-cash offer but is actually borrowing the funds from a private source, which may or may not be qualified to make such a loan. If the loan doesn't fund, the escrow doesn't close. Or, the buyer may be counting on transferring funds from escrow #2 to close escrow #1. So, if escrow #2 falls out, so does escrow #1. The seller has a right to know if the purchase is contingent upon resale, but often those intentions are not disclosed.

The title companies I work with in Sacramento typically will not open a short sale escrow on behalf of strangers. The liability is too great. The potential for fraud is too high. They work with me because they trust that I am ethical and are assured that I won't any allow hanky-panky to go on in my transactions if I can help it. I advise my sellers to just say no to those short sale flippers.

Photo: Big Stock Photo

I always ask my first-time home buyers if they would consider buying a halfplex, townhome or condo. Many buyers prefer single family homes, but sometimes a planned unit development can fit the bill and be less expensive to purchase. Especially if that halfplex, townhome or condo comes with a yard.

Much depends on how the layout is set up. Generally, the units are attached by a common wall. If that wall is part of the garage, you may never hear or see your neighbors. Some attached housing complexes belong to a homeowner's association and some do not. For example, I have a listing at 420 8th Street in downtown Sacramento that is a halfplex, and there is no homeowner's association fee to pay. It's listed at $329,000. What can you buy in the downtown area of Sacramento for $329,000 that is a three-bedroom, two-bath home?

My new listing in the Pocket is a halfplex, and this home does belong to an HOA. However, it's affordably priced at $150,000 as a short sale. The homeowner's association fee is about $250 a month, but after the new road is paved, the buzz about the community is that fee may go down.

This is a three-bedroom, two-bath home tucked away on a cul-de-sac in the Sagewood subdivision. It has a concrete tile roof, built in 1985, a big front yard and a very pretty patio in back with 3 decks. It's just like living in a single-family home for half the price. The living room, kitchen and master suite feature soaring ceilings. There is a fireplace in the living room. An added benefit is the beautiful parquet wood and tile flooring throughout, which is great if you have pets.

The homeowner's association has a pool; it pays for roof and exterior maintenance, too. Come check it out. This will go into MLS today.

1048 Johnfer Way, Sacramento, CA 95831 is offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $150,000.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

I am tickled pink that another of my Elk Grove short sale listings finally closed escrow yesterday. I had put this home on the market on August 3, 2009, at an offering price of $190,000. It was a double Countrywide short sale, meaning it had 2 loans that had originated with Countrywide and are now serviced by Bank of America.

The seller had paid $422,000 for this home in 2005. You can see the value has fallen by about 50% over the past 5 years.

Because this home had a fabulous view from the second floor, we received 9 offers. It's a Kimball home with peach and pear trees in the back yard.

The winning offer was $215,000. The buyers hired a very smart real estate agent who was savvy enough to run the comparable sales and write a clean offer. Plus, the buyers were patient. Their agent informed them that this could be a long short sale process due to the double Countrywide loans.

You can do the math on this closing and see it took 7 months to close. Now, part of that problem was the file had been initially submitted to Bank of America through its old process, which involved faxing 100 or so pages of documents that the bank would eventually misplace. Halfway through the short sale, Bank of America allowed the file to be uploaded to Equator. It zipped along from that point.

See, the secret to successfully closing short sales is to contact the bank every single week and request an update. Even if there is nothing to update. With some of my short sales, I have almost daily contact with the bank. Success is due to persistence. Organization. The bank notes in the file how often the agent calls, and files with activity tend to receive priority. I sometimes get emails from other Elk Grove short sale agents asking me how to pull their short sales out of that dark hole at Bank of America, and that's what you do. You call or email the negotiator and politely push.

Yesterday morning, Bank of America approved the HUD. Along with the HUD approval, the bank sent an arm's length affidavit to be signed. Why didn't Bank of America send that document months ago?  Oy. To close this, I had about 2 hours to get that affidavit signed by me, the buyers' agent, the buyers and the seller who lived back East. Thank goodness I wasn't out showing homes in Land Park yesterday morning and was at my home office to hammer this thing closed. By 11:30 AM, the buyer's lender had funded and we closed in the afternoon.

Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub, Elk Grove short sale agent