I spent most of yesterday working on my 2012 Real Estate Predictions for About.com. This article should have been written and posted more than a month ago, but I've been pretty swamped with Sacramento short sales lately. I knew if I didn't get this published online before I go on vacation, I would never forgive myself, so yesterday I dropped everything and punched it out.
Well, I did receive an offer for a listing that I should not have received. I probably have 20 offers for this Sacramento short sale. It's been listed for a long time, which is unusual for my inventory. Most of my listings sell fairly quickly, and they typically sell to the same buyer who went into contract. Since I instituted new procedures designed to reduce fall out, many of my short sales close with the original buyer.
But these fixer short sales are a different story. BPO agents have problems appraising them correctly because they don't deal in fixer uppers. They have little idea how much it costs to gut a house and rebuild it. They couldn't recognize dry-rot if their life depended on it, and that's because they are not home inspectors. They are real estate agents. But their BPOs affect how much the short sale banks want.
For this particular listing, I noted in MLS that the price is firm. I also give instructions on how to submit the offer and where to send it. Yet, agents routinely send the offer to the wrong place; the price is unacceptable, and they get their knickers in a twist when I tell them the seller can't accept the offer. It pains me to send all of these offers to the seller along with an explanation that the buyer's agent did not follow instructions, but that's what I do because that's I'm required to do.
Maybe other agents lie when they say the price is firm, but I don't. When I say it is firm, it means the price is firm. It doens't mean submit. If I meant submit, I would say submit.
But what the hey. I knew somebody would offer list price, and somebody did. That's all any Sacramento short sale agent wants. One cash buyer with proof of funds who can perform.
I spoke to an agent yesterday who said she had already written her offer. It was for herself. She was offering about 75 cents on the dollar. I explained we had already received a full-price offer and sent that full-price offer to the seller. But even if we hadn't, other offers were much higher. Hers was at the bottom. She sent it anyway. I asked her why. Why would you send an offer like this? Because she had written it, she said. She spent time writing it.
Yeah, I might spend hours making soup and drop of pound of salt in the pot. Doesn't mean I'm gonna eat it. When you screw up, you throw it out.
Let me know what you think about my predictions, OK?
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Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.
Lyon Real Estate is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.
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The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.
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.
