Elizabeth Weintraub • Sacramento Short Sale Agent • Land Park

A producer from KCRA-TV Channel 3 is coming to my house tomorrow. She wants to film a quick news segment about short sales. She is certainly coming to the right place. Because one of the things she wants me to talk about is the importance of hiring a short sale expert vs. a regular real estate agent. I've been mulling this over as my first inclination is to say a seller should hire a short sale specialist because we know stuff other agents don't know. Like what stuff, you might ask?

Well, yesterday a seller called me from Rocklin. He asked me questions about a Bank of America Cooperative Short Sale. Then he asked me questions about a Fannie Mae HAFA short sale. I answered them, and that's when I discovered he is 3 weeks away from a public auction and his home is on the market. This seller is very unhappy that his agent put him in this position because she did not have the answers he needed when he needed them.

He said she went to a conference to get answers but returned with none. She put him in a Fannie Mae HAFA without qualifying him, and he lost a lot of time because he did not qualify from inception. He asked if I had heard of this group of real estate agents out of Elk Grove. I'll never say anything bad about another agent.  I told him he needs to talk with his agent about his problems. In fact, he should follow his agent's advice because I can't interfere (it's against the Code of Ethics) and he should try to close his escrow with his existing agent.

I believe if an agent is going to set herself out there as a Sacramento short sale agent, she should stay on top of the short sale business. She should know answers. She should be prepared to advise clients on all short sale programs. For example, sellers in California can apply for $5,000 in cash if they meet income guidelines and their lender participates. This program is the TAP, Transition Allowance Program, and it's part of the Keep Your Home California Program. Except you don't keep your home. You sell it as a short sale.

Some of the major lenders I've worked with who participate in this program in California are:

• CalVet (CA Department of Veteran Affairs)
• Guild Mortgage
• GMAC Mortgage
• Central Mortgage
• Everbank
• Flagstar Bank
• Saxon Bank
• US Bank

If your household income is below $90,100, as a seller of a short sale in Sacramento County (each county has different income requirements), you might qualify for TAP. That's money that can help a seller to pay for moving expenses, a security deposit and first month's rent for a new place. The seller must occupy the present home as a principal residence, produce a documented hardship and be in imminent danger of foreclosure or in foreclosure. It's not a loan, either. It's cash in hand at closing. You can use it for anything.

The TAP program began on February 7, 2011 and runs for 3 years. If you are in the middle of a short sale in Sacramento and you qualify for this program, you should contact TAP. And then ask yourself: why didn't my agent tell me about this? Probably because you didn't hire a Sacramento short sale agent. You probably hired a regular agent. And therein lies part of the difference.

Some buyer's agents do not know that when a buyer and a seller sign a purchase agreement for a short sale listing, they have entered into a binding contract to buy a home. I don't really know why agents often treat a short sale like the red-haired stepchild, but it's a real transaction just like any other real estate transaction.

This means if the buyer elects to cancel, a buyer can do so. The RPA contract put out by C.A.R. is written in favor of buyers. Probably because buyers sue more often than sellers. Sellers are typically happier after closing than buyers. It's rare that a seller feels that he or she got the raw end of the stick. But buyers? Whole 'nother story.

Some people believe that the only time a buyer cannot cancel is after all contingencies are removed, and that's a big fat lie. They can still cancel. Buyers can always cancel. But in that event, they could get sued because they don't have a contractual right to cancel, although that's where they will argue.

If a seller does not sign a buyer's cancellation, simply out of spite, a seller can be facing a $1,000 fine. The seller has no right to ignore the cancellation, if the buyer is within the time period to cancel. But that's after 30 days. So, you can't really force sellers to immediately sign a cancellation unless you're standing over them with a sledge hammer, and no agent has the inclination to do that.

But what happens when it's the other way around and the sellers want to dump a buyer? How is that handled? Before my sellers cancel buyers from a short sale transaction, we give them a chance. It's the fair and equitable thing to do, even if they are not fair and equitable to us. Besides, contracts stipulate. We send them a Notice to Perform. We spell out what we want them to do, and if they don't do it, we can unilaterally cancel them.

However, if you as a buyer wants to cancel, you need to sign a cancellation of contract. Not a withdrawal of offer and not an addendum. Buyers sign the top and bottom portion and date it, along with escrow information to release the earnest money deposit. Buyers also need to state a reason for the cancellation. When buyers sign a short sale addendum, agreeing to wait for short sale approval, the buyer is supposed to wait during that period of time. But bottom line, if a buyer doesn't want to buy, nobody can make 'em.

For more questions about a Sacramento short sale, call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759.

All week I've been receiving emails from other agents who subscribe to the Sacramento MLS. They are commenting on my marketing comments for a particular short sale and laughing. I feel it is appropriate to use a little bit of humor in real estate. That's because I am a troublemaker. See, I own it, straight up. You can't be an effective Sacramento short sale agent and not be a little bit rebellious. I tend to buck the system. It's in my nature.

When a short sale bank asked me if I would call a seller and list this short sale, I agreed. I had no idea of the condition of the property. Is condition important, you might ask? Not really, because in a short sale price is king. As long as the price reflects the condition, somebody will buy it. Of course, the price needs to satisfy the bank as well, which means somewhere near market.

I remember a water-soaked property from several years ago as a result of pipes bursting. Mold growing the size of basketballs. Seems like every few years pipes freeze in Sacramento and explode. I have another home in Orangevale that got flooded yesterday. But somebody will buy it. Eventually. People, you've gotta keep the heat on! I know that sellers of short sales want to cut expenses, especially when the home is vacant, but for crying out loud, don't turn off the heat! 

If your home floods, I'll have to be creative. You see, it's not every day a real estate agent experiences the luxury of being completely honest in her advertising. Most of the time, we are trying to lure buyers into a home. We aren't trying to sell the home online, as some people think. We're trying to get the buyer inside. Once the buyer gets inside, we hope the buyer will be overjoyed, and overcome with excitement enough to plunk down a deposit. We rely on emotions to sell homes.

However, this home is not one of those. I was expecting something completely different. The exterior is deceiving. It's actually pretty cute, stucco and stone with a fenced front yard. I was unprepared when I walked inside. You might think I can't really advertise a property this way and sell it, but that would be an incorrect assumption. I already have 2 offers. My description reads:

FIXER UPPER. SOLD 'AS IS.' FEATURING ROTTING PUMPKINS SQUISHED INTO LIVING ROOM CARPET, COMPLETE WITH A BUSTED-UP LAWN MOWER SITUATED NEXT TO THE LOVELY FIREPLACE. SOME DOORS AND KITCHEN CABINETS BASHED, AND A DRAWER MISSING, BUT YOU'LL PROBABLY WANT TO GUT THE KITCHEN ANYWAY. WARNING: DON'T OPEN THE REFRIGERATOR OR SNIFF THE MURKY WATERS OF THE ABANDONED FISH TANK.

You might not believe a cat swears, but that sweet innocent face is misleading. This is Space Commander Jackson in his space capsule.  And he has a word for some of those Sacramento short sale agents. It's two words, actually, and I can't repeat them. I told him you get further with honey than you do with vinegar, but he doesn't care.

He is personal witness to some of the crazy things that go on in a Sacramento short sale. He has watched clients break down and sob before the ink is dry on an offer, because the buyer has withdrawn the offer at the time it is returned. Or the buyer's agent has messed up so badly at inception that the contract never existed in the first place.

These are nutty times we are living in, I tell him. Every setback puts us one step closer to success. But he's not buying any of it. He says he's making a list and checking it twice.

Good thing he is not a Sacramento short sale agent. He wouldn't survive 24 hours in the business.

I am off to Hawaii today. Good thing Space Commander Jackson has a house sitter to care for him. Maybe she will wash his mouth out with soap. Aloha!

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

I get a lot of emails about buying and selling homes in Land Park. That's because I live in Land Park, and I specialize in Land Park. Out of any neighborhood in my four-county Sacramento area, I know the various Land Park neighborhoods the best. I do so much in Land Park that I am Zillow Land Park agent as well. But I've also been in the business for more than 30 years. Last month I earned top agent at Lyon Real Estate out of the 900-or so agents in the company. As a Life Member of Master's Club and a Top Producer, I must be doing something right or you would think.

That gets me noticed by sellers and buyers. Especially sellers who want to sell in Land Park. They see my For Sale signs in Land Park and they find me online. I also have clients call me because of stuff I write for The New York Times-owned Homebuying website at About.com. You'll find thousands of pages of content. It's hard to search for any real estate-related term and not find something I wrote online in the top results. I'm not bragging, it's just how it is. I've been at it a while.

So, when a prospective seller emails me to say they would like to interview me about selling his or her home in Land Park, I am not surprised. But I am wary when they don't act like a seller.

I have discovered that sellers are either actively searching for an honest and experienced Land Park agent, or they want confirmation of sales price. If they want confirmation of sales price, they will generally ask for a CMA and not want to meet. I don't blame sellers because they don't always know how the real estate industry works. My job is to figure out which sellers are serious and who want to hire the best Land Park agent. Those are the sellers I want to work with.

I have really good intuition. I can sense when something is amiss. Like last week a seller emailed and asked to meet. She didn't ask any of the qualifying questions, just mentioned she was interviewing agents. My intuition told me she had no plans to hire me. She had already made up her mind to hire some friend. She's in the business of buying homes and flipping them and she has no agent? I was fairly certain she was not entirely truthful with me. I felt a little guilty that I did not take the time to put together a marketing package or any of my regular materials. I ran a fast CMA with 3 comps, clipped it together and dashed out the door. I always try to give a benefit of doubt. Because what if I am wrong? I could be wrong.

We met. She spent most of her time talking about the house and the work she did. When I mentioned she should do a virtual tour, she whipped out her iPad and wrote it down. That was interesting. I tried another. I said she should print four-color flyers on 100-bond paper with a glossy coating. She wrote that down.

People ask me: am I not worried that I am giving away all of my secrets when I write my blog or articles for About.com? See, the thing is no two people will ever perform alike. Regardless of the information they have. There is no competition. It's not something I ever worry about. Nobody is me, and I am not them. We all develop our own style based on our own strengths and experiences. I am a baby-boomer writer, a flashback from the '60s, with a graphic arts designer / remodeling background who has been in real estate since college. That's a very weird combo.

This seller never asked me for a sales price. She never asked how I would market her home. I live within blocks from her flipper house. I know the neighborhood hands down. She never asked me about the neighborhood, except to announce that where my home is located is a scary place. News to me. I also sold a nearby Land Park home recently that is very similar to her flipper, but it has dramatic differences, which I tried to discuss but she was not interested in the comparison. I began to wonder why I was there. I listened to this seller tell me how much she admires me and my work, how she reads my blogs and my articles, and is so impressed.

The agent she will hire could be her boyfriend. Hard to say. Maybe a cousin. But this is not the ideal way to sell a home in Land Park.

In the interest of time and my personal sanity, there are some emails I don't open. Just delete. I do it based on the title of the email. Like this morning, I received, "Open House in Del Dayo."  Another was "Critical Eye Home Inspection." My favorite: "Sudden Values." Into the trash. But in the back of my mind I have this nagging suspicion that one of these days I will throw away a short sale approval letter.

That's because the approval letters often arrive looking like spam. First, the bank negotiator fills the title with numbers inherent in the loan. That might be helpful in their database but it means nothing to me or any other Sacramento short sale agent. A negotiator at Bank of America sent an after-closing-escrow message that referenced the escrow number and property address, and I thought to myself what a brilliant guy. There is somebody who thinks about his audience. This is what I love to see.

Most of my email messages reference the property address. That's because after closing, I file each email into my digital file. I find them by searching for the address. But it made me think, is that enough to get a person to open my email? Referencing the property address? Not if it's not their own address. However, if I had to find that particular email again and, say, I was searching for the email about removal of contingencies, it would be helpful to reference contingency in the subject line.

I know this because I received an email this morning from an agent who has not yet removed the inspection contingencies. Her 17 days for inspection has come and gone. We requested the contingency release for inspections a few days ago. The agent refused, saying she wanted to wait for the appraisal to make sure the home appraised at value. Yet, the purchase contract has a loan contingency in place until closing. We are not asking her to remove the loan contingency. If it doesn't appraise, that loan won't close.

Her buyers are in breach of contract. Just because it's a short sale doesn't mean the buyers can get away without adhering to the contract. The contingencies are the same for a short sale as they are for a traditional sale.

Nobody is ever so sure they are right as when they are wrong. And that's a pretty sucky place to be.

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.

If you don't offer list price for that short sale, does the seller have to take your offer? If you are looking to buy a short sale in Sacramento, that answer is obviously no. However, there are some buyer's agents in town who might tell you differently; however, I'm sorry to say, they would be wrong. But what if the offer is full price? What is the seller's obligation then?

There is a little known MLS rule that says a Sacramento short sale agent must disclose a rejected offer if the offer was full price. If a buyer's agent submits a full price offer and the seller rejects it, the agent needs to note that rejection in MLS. Yup, you've got to tell other agents that your seller rejected a full price offer. This rule was instituted, I presume, because there are agents who will dramatically underprice listings in order to drive multiple offers. The thing is that strategy does not always work.

You've got to first identify that desirable home, and price isn't always the motivating factor. The hot homes are the ones that everybody wants. You know it when you walk in the door. If you don't know it, you probably can't price the short sale, either. It's one of those intuitive things. If your home is one of those that everybody wants to buy, you can probably get away with underpricing. The reason is somebody will offer more than list price and probably will submit an offer you can take in good conscience. But if it's really a hot home, you don't need to underprice.

Sometimes, though, all of the buyers will offer list price. Nobody will go over list. You can't always predict how it will work. It's a calculated risk.

One of my short sales in Roseville was priced way under list price. The reasoning was it probably would not qualify for FHA. That eliminates a lot of buyers. It needed some work. But within the first few days on market we received two full price offers. One was all cash and the other was 25% down, conventional. You know what that says? That says the home is grossly underpriced, which means the short sale bank will most likely not accept either of those offers.

So, we immediately raised the price by another 10%. Sure enough, it took another few weeks or so, but we eventually received a suitable offer. An offer the bank is likely to accept. Of course, those early buyers are probably scratching their heads and asking themselves what happened. The key is to find a buyer the bank will accept. Not every buyer or offer is suitable.

In another escrow, we received a full price offer that was perfect. I had even uploaded the offer to DocuSign for the seller to sign. While we were waiting for signature, the buyer's agent sent an addendum to lower the price by $1,000. I asked, "What are you doing? You agreed to list price." Nope, the buyer changed his or her mind, wanted to lower the price. Well, you know what? The seller isn't selling to this buyer.

"You can't do that!" The buyer's agent was livid. Not only can we do it, the seller did it. We rejected the offer. We're gonna cut our losses now and not down the road after short sale approval. Some buyers you simply don't want to bet the bank on. In a Weintraub short sale, we choose our buyers carefully. There is enough excitement in a short sale and enough challenges as it is. We don't need to add an indecisive buyer to the mix. And my sellers fully agree.

This is how we've finally solved the cat tree problem at our home in Land Park. The problem is we've had multiple cat trees but only spots for 2 cats to sit, and we have 3 cats. We have a cinnammon-spotted ocicat named Pia. She is the cat on the bottom rung, but she rules the house.

On the second rung, I present Jackson, the flamepoint ragdoll, who is always looking for trouble because he's barely a year old. Trouble is Jackson's middle name.

On the top rung is Pica, a marbled silver chocolate ocicat. He came to live with us because breeders can't show marbled ocicats. They can only show those cats with spots. Pia, on the other hand, was a breeding cat who retired at 18 months and was looking for a good home.

We went to the movies at Arden Fair last weekend to see Hugo and stopped by Petco to pick up the crazy chicken for Pia. She loves those PureBites chicken treats. We spotted this cat tree and bought it on the spot. I've been looking for a 3-tiered cat tree for years.

See, I knew there was a reason we jumped out of the long line at the Tower Theatre. We had originally gone to the Tower to see George Clooney, but the line was out to the street. Some of the people didn't even know why they were there -- I asked a woman which movie she came to see and she told me The Defenders. It was the The Descendents. So, we'll have to go see that movie some other time.

Real stories about real Sacramento short sales . . . brought to you by your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub.

There are home buyers in Sacramento who think short sale sellers are desperate. I don't know why or who feeds them this nonsense. But I have had buyer's agents send me offers that don't have a chance in a blue moon of ever being accepted, and I wonder why they do it.

I suspect some of the agents simply want to teach their buyers a lesson without being the bad guy. These agents have probably been in the business long enough to know that they risk losing the buyer all together if they come down too hard by expressing their professional opinion. It's a fine line we walk. Not every buyer cares about our professional opinions because, after all, they buy a home once or twice in their life and we do it every day, but they know more than us.

The fact is a short sale bank will get a BPO to establish value. The bank might even pay for an appraisal. Banks generally do not pluck numbers out of thin air. I tried to explain this to buyers via their agent. The buyers, we'll call them Buyers A, wanted to buy a pool home in Del Dayo, Sacramento. The sellers of this pool home had it listed with another real estate broker who could not close it.

When the sellers grew frustrated enough with that transaction, the sellers called me. They knew my reputation as a Sacramento short sale agent who gets the job done. I was confident I could close this. The sellers had already canceled their listing with the other short sale agent by the time they called me and were trying to decide between two short sale agents. I'm glad they chose me. They are very nice people who were stuck in a bad situation, like most short sale sellers. Their lender, Bank of America, was pretty clear about the price it wanted to allow this home to sell as a short sale.

We picked that price and put the home on the market. Buyers A and their agent called me and offered less than list price. The sellers rejected their offer. I suggested the buyers offer list price -- then, if Buyers' A's appraisal came in less, we would adjust. FHA appraisals are assigned a case number. This means the next buyer would get the same appraisal, so the bank would need to adjust the value or forget about selling for six months. No, Buyers A weren't that confident of their lowball offer. They didn't want to take the chance.

The thing is there is always another buyer in Sacramento who will buy the short sale.

Buyer B spotted this pool home and offered list price. She went into escrow. She paid for a home inspection and a pest inspection. Then, her appraisal arrived. The price on that appraisal was $20,000 less. We sent the request for a revised short sale approval letter to Bank of America, and the buyer's lender ordered her loan docs.

When docs arrived in escrow, the buyer canceled. Why? We will never know. Probably cold feet. At the 11th hour, Buyer B vanished. I chalk it up to the squirrelly market in Sacramento. Whatever was up with Buyer B, she still needed to live somewhere. The mortgage payment on this home was less than rent would be. But buyers aren't always sensible.

As a Sacramento short sale agent, I know that it's not unusual to have to sell some Sacramento short sales more than once. I'm in it for the long haul. I don't abandon my sellers. I called Buyers' A's agent. Before Buyers A could pop back into the game, Buyer C came along. The sellers had lowered the price to match the appraised value from Buyer B's appraisal. Buyer C offered the new list price and Buyer C closed escrow last Friday. Buyer C listened to her agent. Got a great deal on a pool home in Del Dayo. She bought Buyers A's home. Buyers A were there first. They could have bought that short sale home if they had followed their agent's advice.