Elizabeth Weintraub • Sacramento Short Sale Agent • Land Park

The President of the Sacramento Board of REALTORS personally called me last Friday to ask if I would list a short sale in Elk Grove. The seller had called the Board, asking for a recommendation to a Sacramento short sale agent. Often, when an agent calls to ask if I will work with a client, that agent expects a referral fee. I don't pay referral fees on my short sales because then I'd make even less than the 25 cents I already earn.

However, the President assured me a referral fee was unnecessary because the client's needs come first. I was honored and humbled to hear I was chosen because, and I quote:  "Elizabeth Weintraub is the best short sale agent in Sacramento." I did not realize I had earned that reputation. Probably because I keep my nose to the grindstone and don't pay much attention to what goes on around me. I'm very focused on my business. But it was nice to hear.

I picked up a key from the property management company, drove to the home in the rain and found a for rent sign on the ground, which I moved to the side yard. Our relentless combination of rain and wind has torn down a lot of fences in the Sacramento area lately, but all of these fences were intact. I picked up the trash from the front yard, and when the rain let up a little bit, shot my exterior photos.

Then, just as I was getting ready to submit the paperwork to MLS, the seller called to say her husband changed his mind and is feeling rushed. So it's back out to Elk Grove to remove the lockbox. Such is life.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

After trudging around in the rain yesterday from 9 AM to 6 PM showing property, it was a welcome relief to come home and change into dry shoes. Note to self: wear boots in this weather! Our Sacramento storms have not let up, and tomorrow is expected to be worse than today.

But the good news is one of my buyers wrote an offer last night, I received an acceptable cash offer on another Sacramento short sale, and one of my Bank of America short sales in Elk Grove received approval.

The incredibly patient buyers for this Elk Grove short sale signed an offer in early August. In all fairness, though, Bank of America was a little messed up last fall and has since straightened out those problems by hiring third-party vendors to handle the paperwork. Once we finally got a negotiator assigned in November, the file was processed pretty smoothly.

I've heard some agents say I am really hard on buyer's agents. I simply want the buyers to commit to the short sale process. If these buyers had not committed, instead of going into pending status today -- after 6 months of work -- this home would be going back on the market and my sellers would be back to square one.

My commitment to my short sale sellers is steadfast. I push hard for short sale approval. If the buyer really wants the home, I'll do everything within my power to see that the buyer gets it. Asking a buyer and the buyer's agent to wait for approval is not out of line nor unreasonable.

I know there are Sacramento short sale agents who won't touch a Bank of America short sale with a 10-foot pole, much less a Countrywide short sale. This Elk Grove home had 2 original Countrywide loans. It's what I call a double-Countrywide. But Bank of America is now streamlining its short sale process, so future transactions should not take as long. However, my sellers and I will still insist that buyers commit. That's never going to change.

But I do hope the weather changes. At the moment, it's very windy and still raining. And I'm off to Lincoln this morning to shoot interior photographs of another Lincoln Crossing short sale. I'm gonna wear boots.

Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub

Short sale buyer's agents in Sacramento are wising up and asking more questions upfront about my listings before showing them to a buyer, but I still get the goofy questions about homes that are new to the market such as: Is this short sale approved by the bank? Some banks such as Wachovia and Wells Fargo are putting systems in place to preapprove the sales price but most banks do not. It takes an offer from a qualified buyer to get a response.

I've had only one bank this year tell me that the price on my Sacramento short sale wasn't satisfactory, and that same bank came back 3 months later to accept an offer at that price. That bank, of course, was Bank of America.

Banks are accepting the short sale offers I submit. However, the offers I submit are generally much higher than my list price. As a Sacramento short sale agent, I realize that the market generally supports 2 prices: the list price and the expected offer price.

Simply put, banks want market value. Depending on the bank, however, banks may accept an offer that is priced somewhere in the range of 5% to 12% below market. What is market value? Market value is based on the comparable sales.

When I list a Sacramento short sale, I always pull the comparable sales, and I consider the pending sales, too, because pending sales are indicative of which way the market is moving and will become the sold comps at closing. Most of my short sales are listed about 10% below market value. This tactic brings multiple offers, which tends to push up the offers closer to market value. I advise my short sale sellers to accept the offer from the most qualified and dedicated buyer at a price that is closest to market value.

The problem isn't whether the short sale bank will accept the price, it's whether the price will appraise by the buyer's lender. Sometimes, buyers write offers that are too high. In one instance, I had to tell a buyer's agent that she may want to submit an addendum at a lower price. She had offered, let's say, $350,000 on an Elk Grove short sale listing that was priced at $300,000. I suspected that the comparable sales would not support such a high price and we'd have a problem getting it appraised at that price. So, her buyer lowered the offer to $330,000.

Sure enough, the buyer's appraisal came in at $329,000, and the buyer coughed up the $1,000 difference in cash.

Tip: Before you sign a purchase offer for a Sacramento short sale, ask your agent to give you the comparable sales for that neighborhood and to interpret that data for you. Because often, the listed price means nothing. Some agents ask their sellers to sign listing agreements at prices far less than market value, hoping that the short sale bank will give away that home for free, when the bank will do no such thing.

Lots of home buyers don't understand this, and many can't wrap their heads around the fact that some prices are plucked from thin air. They see a home on the market at a certain price and wrongly assume that they can buy that short sale at that price, when they can't.

I almost always get excited when I take a listing, but I am truly thrilled that I have the opportunity to market this gorgeous Camden Passage pool home in Elk Grove. It's a short sale, but then I seem to be an Elk Grove short sale agent these days, primarily because there are so many short sales in the Elk Grove school district, and that's what I do -- I sell short sales.

This custom two-story home was built in 1999, and it has almost 2,900 square feet. It sits on a culdesac. When you walk in the front door, the formal living room is to the right with bookend windows on the north and south. Directly in front of you is the pool. Through the stately columns to the left is the formal dining room with crown molding, which leads past the wine closet to an open area and the kitchen / family room.

It has 4 bedrooms, one of which is downstairs, an office and 3 full baths. The kitchen is open to the family room. In the kitchen, you will discover beautiful wood cabinets, ceramic counters and a built-in double-wide refrigerator that blends in with the cabinets. The family room has a fireplace with a stone-like surround and a built-in entertainment center, which can accommodate a 42-inch plasma TV.

The real treat is upstairs in the remote master suite. Apart from an office retreat that has a wrap-around desk and cherry wood floors, the master bath is enormous. It's larger than most bedrooms and features a jetted tub with a see-through fireplace. The other side of the fireplace is in the master bedroom. There is also a ceramic-tiled walk-in shower, plus an abundance of cabinets and a built-in makeup station. You could probably put a ping-pong table in this space and still have room to navigate, it's that big.

In the back yard, you'll find a gated pool with a built-in spa, both heated by solar, and a rock waterfall. There is also a patio and a grassy area for a play-set. It's quiet and serene. It's impeccably maintained and unlikely to linger long in this hot market. Call for a private showing before some other lucky Elk Grove buyer snatches this away from you.

8625 Kingslynn Court, Elk Grove, CA 95624

Offered as a short sale exclusively by Lyon Real Estate at $300,000

Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759

Click here for a virtual tour of 8625 Kingslynn Court, Elk Grove, CA 95624

Wells Fargo approved another short sale yesterday for an Elk Grove seller. The negotiator was a chatty guy out of South Carolina who used to live in Sacramento -- on one of the "fish streets" in Rosemont. Very nice guy. I'd like to go on the record as saying that not every negotiator who works for a short sale bank is an evil troll.

In this situation, the seller had tried, unsuccessfully on two separate occasions -- one of which was in the middle of our active short contingent status -- to do a loan modification. He was current on his mortgage, borrowing money to make the payments. I can't blame the seller for trying to do a loan modification because all sellers are entitled to try to save their homes. But I know from my past experience that very few of them are granted. Many of my short sale clients are those who tried to do a loan modification and were denied.

People think that 3 ingredients are required to do a short sale, and these 3 do tend to create the perfect storm:

• The home is under water, meaning the sellers owe more than the home is worth
• The sellers have a bonafide hardship -- loss of job, divorce, illness
  
• The sellers are in default -- they have stopped making their mortgage payments

However, being in default is not necessarily a requirement. Whether a bank will issue short sale approval in a situation where the sellers are current on their mortgage depends entirely on the investors' demands.

I've worked with a handful of Sacramento sellers who were not in default and successfully closed their short sales. Believe it or not, a couple of them had loans with Bank of America. Other mortgages were held by Golden1 Credit Union and CitiMortgage. Given the choice, it's probably better for a short sale seller to continue to make the mortgage payments, but I let every seller make that decision and don't lean one way or the other.

It's the late pays that cause significant point drops on FICO scores. If the bank rejects the short sale because the seller is current -- and I've had that happen -- then we extend the short sale addendum, providing the seller elects to go into default, and simply wait out the required time period. Then we resubmit. Sure, under that turn of events, the short sale takes longer and the buyer could lose patience, but doing what is best for the sellers is an agent's job. If the buyer walks away, we'll just sell that home to another and start over.

If a Sacramento short sale agent tells a seller to stop making the payments, that agent could be in seriously hot water. Scalding water. Water above 212 Fahrenheit. For one thing, we can't give legal advice. Moreover, it might not be the best solution for the seller. We must, as short sale agents, put the needs of our sellers above our own. We have a fiduciary relationship to our clients. And some short sales work out for sellers who are not in default. It's worth the battle in my book.

If you're looking for a home with more than 3,600 square feet in Stonelake, this 4-bedroom, 3-bath Elk Grove short sale home might be the ticket for you. It is located in the affluent area of Laguna and was built in 2001. The entry is tiled with soaring ceilings and lots of windows. Definite curb appeal from the street with its arched windows on the second level. You'll also find a big bonus room upstairs that could be used for a children's playroom, work-out or hobby room.

The first floor has an open floor plan. The living room is open to the dining room, separated by walls on either side with cutouts. The kitchen is massive and overlooks the family room. Lots of stained cherrywood cabinets in the kitchen with white tile counters and an island. Much of the home has white carpeting, and a couple bedrooms have newer light beige carpeting.

It features a fireplace in the family room, which also has sliding doors to the landscaped back yard. The grand staircase winds to the second floor, with cherry-colored railings and spiral posts. Laundry is located on the second floor, too. There's one bedroom downstairs and the other 3 are upstairs.

Price is adjusted for cleaning of the carpets or replacement and painting. With a little TLC, this home could absolutely shine.

9772 Harrier Way, Elk Grove, CA 95757

For sale at $335,000, subject to lender approval.

Offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate, Elizabeth Weintraub, 916.233.6759

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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 Sacramento. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. DRE License # 00697006.

The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available through bookstores everywhere and at Amazon.com.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

By the time I speak with many upside-down sellers in Sacramento, they have already been turned down by their banks for a loan modification. In fact, in a few situations, the banks offered loan modifications that would ultimately increase the homeowners' mortgage payments, not reduce them. Other banks asked sellers to make reduced payments for a few months to demonstrate the sellers' ability to pay and then filed a notice of default anyway.

Yesterday a seller asked me to list his home in Elk Grove as a short sale. But when I arrived at the home, he told me he was undecided between attempting a short sale or pushing for the loan modification and asked which option he should choose. The home was already vacant. He and his wife had moved to another city.

He figured if he could do a loan modification, he could rent the home for at least $2,000 a month. He felt he was in the clear because he hasn't made any mortgage payments for more than a year, and the bank has yet to file a Notice of Default.

His solution was to list the home as a short sale while he continued to pressure the bank to do a loan modification. The problem with that scenario is I don't know of any banks that will process a file as a short sale while a loan modification is pending, and especially not his bank.

Quick math told me that he owes about $600,000 on 3 loans, part of which was a hard money loan that can carry its own set of complications, tax-wise. Even if the bank would give him a loan modification at 3% interest and grant him interest-only payments for a certain period of time, his PITI payment would still exceed his anticipated rental income. He'd still be taking money out of his pocket every month.

And what happens at the end of the interest-only grace period? He would still owe $600,000 on a home that today is worth about $250,000. Does he think that homes will magically appreciate enough over the next 3 to 5 years to put him in the black? Very unlikely.

My answer was the same that I tell every seller. The seller needs to decide whether to do a short sale or a loan modification, weigh the pros and cons. He should get legal and tax advice. I can't make that decision for anybody, nor would I even try. My job as a Sacramento short sale agent is to sell that short sale and get it closed. I'm not a lawyer nor an accountant. On top of which, I'm not in the business to push a seller into doing a short sale.

But I also know that banks want sellers to occupy the home as their personal residence before granting a loan modification. This seller is a non-owner occupant attempting to rent out the home as an investment. I put a lockbox on it.

Photo: Big Stock Photo

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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 Sacramento. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. DRE License # 00697006.

The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available through bookstores everywhere and at Amazon.com.

Beautiful palm trees flank this 4-bedroom, 3-bath Elk Grove home, offered as a short sale. The views from this home are stupendous. Behind the home, for as far as the eye can see, is a greenbelt area. It's nice to have no neighboring homes in your back yard. Plus, the view is particularly spectacular from the master suite. It's also within a few blocks of Miwok Park.

The living room has soaring ceilings and shares space with the dining room. You'll find arched doorways and a lot of windows throughout. The kitchen has tiled counters, oak cabinets and white appliances. Your kitchen is also open to the family room, which features a fireplace.

You enter through double doors to the master suite, which has a vaulted ceiling and ceiling fan. The master bath has dual sinks, a separate shower and a tub.

The back yard is very pretty. It has a concrete patio, a lush lawn, plus peach and pear trees. I can vouch that the peaches are delicious because I ate one. But the view is what will cement your decision to seal this deal. Check out the photos below.

8209 Oakbriar Circle, Elk Grove, CA 95758, priced at $190,000 as a short sale, subject to bank approval.

Offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate, listing agent Elizabeth Weintraub, 916.233.6759

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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 Sacramento. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. DRE License # 00697006.

The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available through bookstores everywhere and at Amazon.com.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

Yearning for a short sale home in Elk Grove? Perhaps a home with an open floor plan in Franklin Meadows? Look no further. This popular Primrose model built by Dunmore in 2005 is offered as an Elk Grove short sale.

The entry is huge; it makes you feel like you're walking into a dignitary's home. Once inside, you get a feeling of spaciousness. The family room is completely open to the kitchen and dining areas. You will marvel at the over-sized ceramic tiles that meet the family room carpeting and probably can't help but caress the black granite tiles gracing the kitchen island and counters. As a special touch, there are two small windows made from block glass built in the kitchen back-splash.

This home sports 3 bedrooms, one of which is a master suite, and 2 baths. Pretty landscaped back yard with an uncovered patio. Close to a nature preserve, too.

5601 Foxview Way, Elk Grove, CA 95757

Offered at $200,000, subject to the short sale bank's approval.

Elizabeth Weintraub

Lyon Real Estate

916.233.6759

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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 Sacramento. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you.

The Short Sale Savior,by Elizabeth Weintraub, available through bookstores everywhere and at Amazon.com.

Sacramento Short Sale Agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, has the answers to your Sacramento short sale questions.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

If you've been waiting for that special Centex home to come on the market, here is your chance to get a fabulous deal on an Elk Grove short sale home. This home was built in 2005. It's a two-story, boasting more than 2,400 square feet, with 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and a 3-car garage. But best of all, it's situated at the end of a culdesac, nestled next to the bike trails and open space.

All the flooring on the first floor is ceramic tile, which is perfect for people with pets. When it rains, there's no worry that your carpeting will get soiled or that your hardwood floors will warp from kids who don't wipe their feet coming into the house. I can hear my mother now: "Don't let the dog track that mud through the house, and wipe your feet!"

The formal living / dining area is open to the stairs, with soaring ceilings overhead, illuminated by windows on the upper and lower levels. You will also find dining space in the huge kitchen, which features cherry cabinets and quartz counters. The gas fireplace is surrounded by marble.

Laundry is located on the first floor. Big doesn't describe the laundry room, as it could also do double duty as an office since it has 2 walls of built-in bookcases.

Of course, the master suite is adjoined to a master bath, featuring several windows, a deep tub and a separate shower, plus a walk-in closet. The entire second floor is carpeted. You'll find 3 more bedrooms, one of which is extra large, and a guest bath in the hall.

This Elk Grove short sale will not linger long on the market. Call your Sacramento short sale agent today.

5330 Coconut Tree Court, Elk Grove, CA 95757 is offered at $229,500, subject to short sale.

Elizabeth Weintraub

916.233.6759

Lyon Real Estate

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 Sacramento. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you.

The Short Sale Savior,by Elizabeth Weintraub, available through bookstores everywhere and at Amazon.com.

Sacramento Short Sale Agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, has the answers to your Sacramento short sale questions.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub