Elizabeth Weintraub • Sacramento Short Sale Agent • Land Park

The story on the front page of the Sacramento Bee this morning is about the whale-watching business in Monterey. At this time of year, the blue whales are ubiquitious along the California coastline as they migrate to feed on krill. It's sort of strange to think of the largest creature on earth feasting on a tiny shrimp.

Blue whales don't have any teeth. Don't ask me why I know that. Something must have stuck in my thick head in elementary school. I believe blue whales are also on the endangered list of animals we have thoughtlessly slaughtered over the years.

It would be nice to drive a couple of hours to the coast today to look for whales, but first I have to tell you about this gorgeous, and I mean drop-dead beautiful, home in the Wildhawk subdivision. It's in the Elk Grove School district, but the address is Sacramento, and the popular Arnold Adreani Elementary is nearby. So is the Wildhawk Golf Club.

The first thing that you will notice about this home is the way the garages are divided. It has two driveways. A one-car garage is located on the left side and a two-car garage is to the right of this home. Sort of like his-and-her garages. Then there's this huge tree in the front yard that blocks your view of this magnificent structure.

As you walk up the sidewalk, though, you are greeted by a lovely and enchanting entrance. It's professionally landscaped with in-ground lighting, just like the back yard. Once inside, look up, and you'll see soaring ceilings and a balcony overhead. Straight ahead is the formal living room that is part of the great room concept. The wall to the right of the living room has cut-outs that let you see into the family room.

The seller says the carpeting is high-end and cost more than $20,000. It's thick, light brown and very pretty. The entire home is very pretty. It makes you feel warm and comfortable, like you could move right in, and you can, just as soon as this short sale is approved and your loan closes. It was built in 2003 by Dunmore Homes and is a four-bedroom, 3-bath, about 2,539 square feet.

Apart from a formal dining room, there is space in the gigantic kitchen for a table, and you can also put chairs in front of the breakfast bar. It's a perfect environment for entertaining and can easily accommodate two or more gourmet chefs. There is an island, 5-burner gas cook-top, built-in microwave and electric oven, plus the refrigerator stays. There is a freezer in the garage that stays, too.

You'll also find that highly coveted first-floor bedroom in this home. Plus, a full guest bath and a laundry room that comes equipped with a washer and dryer, cabinets and a hanging bar for clothes.

Upstairs are three more bedrooms, which include the master suite, a guest bath, and a humongous master bath. The master has ceramic floors, dual vanities, each with its own sink and framed mirror, plus a big soaking tub and a separate shower. This room has 4 windows and a walk-in closet.

The back yard is breathtaking. You might want to check out my virtual tour to see it. It is professionally landscaped, with entertaining areas separated by small stone walls, plus a water feature and a fire pit. There is a birch tree, Japanese maple and a cedar tree, including an assortment of drought-tolerant plants that I can't name.

9992 Phoenician Way, Sacramento, CA 95829 is offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $302,000. For more information, please call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759.

Virtual tour of 9992 Phoenician Way.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

I just finished reading Justin Halpern's cute little book -- when did they start publishing these tiny hardbacks? -- called Sh*t My Dad Says. It's a fun romp and totally engaging, not to mention, although appalling at times it contains a lot of common sense. Gotta say, though, by comparison, it made my dad look like Mussolini. Some of it made me laugh out loud. My husband thought the author was a bit self-centered. He said, "What kind of guy takes off for Mexico on a whim and doesn't think his family will worry about him?" Um, I raised my hand. Been there, done that.

See, I can admit when I'm wrong. Much as I may like to think that I'm always right, hey, sometimes I'm not. Comes with the territory of being a human and not a robot. Or maybe it comes with age. Now that I pause to reflect, I was always right when I was a young whippersnapper. Ha. Not so anymore.

Take this example from a few weeks ago when a buyer's agent sent me a Request for Repair, which asked for the lawn to be replaced. This was a short sale. As with any other short sale, the home is sold in its "as is" condition. So, I responded the way I always do when this happens -- and it often does -- which was to tell the agent the seller will make no repairs. The buyers get what they get. The sellers are not responsible for upgrades, improvements nor repairs. There is no pest report nor roof certification. The home is "as is." If the lawn is dead, it's dead.

The agent then asked me if that meant the seller was not going to honor the terms of the purchase contract and deliver the home in the same condition it was in when the buyers first looked at it. I quickly pulled up the listing and looked at the photographs. Sure enough, when I listed that Sacramento short sale, we were still in the rainy season. That lawn was green. Now, that we're in the middle of the summer, the lawn looks like everything else in the Sacramento countryside: brown, dried up and a fire hazard.

That agent had a point. And I told him so. The seller replaced the lawn.

Photo Illustration: Big Stock Photo

I truly believe that consumers live in one world and their real estate agents reside in another. We see things from totally different perspectives. As a Sacramento short sale agent, I don't expect sellers or buyers to walk in my shoes, but I do try to walk in theirs. For example, for years I have subscribed to newly matched listings from MLS for the neighborhoods in Sacramento where I live and work. I keep tabs on homes in Land Park, Midtown Sacramento and East Sacramento.

I simply signed myself up for listings a while back. That's because I want to see things from a seller's and buyer's perspective. Of course, I can go into MLS and check my "hotsheet," which spits out activity over the past 15 days in 95811, 95814, 95816, 95818 and 95819. However, when I'm looking at those listings, I'm also reading the confidential agent remarks, clicking on the APN number for property history and mortgage data, plus I know who those listings agents are. That information can color my point of view.

But when I look at the emails the public receives from me, I'm examining the marketing efforts from a different angle. It paints an alternate picture. So, it's that picture I'm after when I list a home for sale in Sacramento. Especially a short sale. Because short sales are twice as difficult -- maybe three times as difficult -- to sell over a regular home in which a seller has equity.

The strategy involves more than pricing. While home pricing is important, price is also not the only motivating factor. Sometimes, I might suggest a price that is below market value to induce multiple offers, which invariably will raise the price. Other times, it might be better to come on the market a bit overpriced to allow for lowball offers and buyer credits. Because I list short sales all over Sacramento, I realize that each neighborhood and locality is different, and I try to make allowances for that.

There is no cookie cutter approach to the short sale business, nor to real estate, for that matter. Everybody is different; each situation is unique. Nobody will ever figure out my strategy because half the time I don't even know what it is myself until I am confronted with it. So, I found it amusing when an agent called yesterday to say he knew exactly what I was doing. Oh, yeah? Well, maybe I'm digging through my closet to see if I have anything suitable to wear to the Zombie Walk for the Trash Film Orgy festival tonight. The thing is you just don't know.

Photo: Big Stock Photo

One of the perks agents get who work at Lyon Real Estate is our office assistants input our listings to MLS. These hard-working people make sure we comply with all the new rules and regulations of MLS, so we don't violate anything and get fined. If I need to make changes to the marketing comments, for example, I need only to email my staff and they update the listing.

But I'm one of those meticulous agents who pays attention to detail, which probably drives the staff nuts. If I see a hyphen missing or a typo, I email them to request a change. That's because nobody knows that I don't input that information myself, and I'd hate for a person to think I misspelled a word. They can think other nasty things about me if they like but not that I can't spell. Hey, we all have our quirks.

There is nothing quirky about this gorgeous new listing in Cameron Park. It's a multi-level with upgrades located around the corner on a quiet culdesac in desirable Bar J Ranch.

Stepping into the home you're greeted by an open floor plan and a rich mahogany wood floor in the entry. The living room is vaulted, banked by windows and sits below the raised formal dining room.

One wall in the dining room does not reach the ceiling and part of its ceiling floats around the perimeter, anchored by a white floor-to-ceiling column. There are unique features like this throughout. For example, the breakfast nook is raised above the family room and a wood railing offers insurance against flipping over the edge. However, if you've had one too many cocktails, you might be tempted to leap. There are a lot of ceiling fans plus a whole house fan. The floors in the kitchen and breakfast nook feature oversized ceramic with smaller diamond-shaped tile accents, set on the diagonal.

Step down to the family room, with its mahogany wood floors, brick fireplace and a wet bar, and you'll find sliding doors to the back yard patio. You can also access the back yard raised deck from the breakfast nook on the upper level.

The hallway floor is ceramic with decorative touches in the design, plus there is a laundry room at the end with an updated guest bath and first-floor bedroom in the center.

Upstairs are 3 more bedrooms and 2 more baths. The master is large with vaults, a ceiling fan, 2-tone painted walls, chair rails, arched windows and a big bath. In the master bath you'll find a dual-sink vanity, a jetted soaking tub and a separate shower plus a walk-in closet.

The back yard is incredible and nicely landscaped. There is a stamped concrete walkway with inlaid brick and a couple of small bridges. It features a birch tree, maple tree, roses and beautiful gardens.

3509 Sombra Court, Cameron Park, CA 95682 is exclusively offered by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $299,000. For more information, call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759.

This is a view from the seacliff at Pescadero Beach. We tried to get into the parking lot at San Gregorio Beach, but it was full. I guess that's how the state regulates how many people can go to the beach. If you can't get into the parking lot and you can't park on the highway, you can't go to the beach. This area is covered in wildflowers and iceplant. I almost stepped on a lizard and screamed my fool head off.

I believe these are California sea lions. It's easy to mix up seals and sea lions, but I'm thinking seals have fur and these do not, so these must be sea lions. I used a 500 zoom lens to capture these lazy critters.

Here I am in front of the Montara Lighthouse.

This is now a youth hostel, however, it is not inexpensive to stay in a room with a bunch of other drunken college kids. This entire area seems to be very expensive. It cost about four figures for a 2-night stay in our hotel, which didn't even have an in-room bar nor did room service deliver a newspaper to our door.

This is a woman getting married to two teenagers at the same time. Or maybe it's the one on her right, hard to tell. After we snapped photos of them, they turned around and took photos of us. Pillar Point Harbor is a wedding destination.

I shot this from the car as we drove past Crystal Springs Reservoir. I tried to shoot the San Mateo Bridge but it was simply too overcast and foggy to get a good photo.

You know you're coming back into the Central Valley of California when everything is brown. My sister from Minnesota asked me, "Don't they water?" I guess she thinks that California should water its entire countryside.

It's great to be back in Sacramento. I missed the warmth. It's really cold in Half Moon Bay this time of year. I had to buy a fleece pullover. They say that their summer is really September / October. It would be worth coming back for the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

Montara Lighthouse: Adam Weintraub

Housing reporter Jim Wasserman at the Sacramento Bee this morning shares his personal experience and observations. He bought an Elk Grove home in 2002 with a fixed-rate mortgage, which is worth today about what he paid for it. Several of his neighbors have gone into foreclosure. One neighbor bought at the height of the market in 2005 and the other refinanced, which is why they both lost those homes. Wasserman says his culdesac is beginning to turnaround. He appears to be optimistic that a recovery is underway.

As a Sacramento short sale agent, I see the market from a different perspective. I'm not so certain a recovery is here. Mortgage rates recently dropped to 4.375%, the lowest probably ever in some 50 years and, with the exception of mortgage refinancing activity, it's causing little stir. Buyers are writing offers and then ripping them up. Days on market are lingering. The marketplace is filled with pretend buyers -- buyers who have no handle on reality and therefore are not going into escrow.

Having said that, I offer you a remarkable opportunity to buy a 3-bedroom, 2-bath home in Antelope. This is a John Mourier home, built in 1996. It has a concrete tile roof. The garage is mostly stucco with lap siding and brick on the front. It holds two cars, with storage available in the rafters.

From the garage, you can conveniently enter the kitchen, which is great when you're unloading groceries. All the appliances in the kitchen stay such as the built-in microwave, free-standing gas stove and the stainless steel refrigerator with black sides. The cabinets are a contemporary blackened chocolate with brushed nickel hardware.

Apart from the breakfast bar and ceramic counters, there is room in the kitchen for a table. Plus, you'll find a formal dining area off the living room. There are vaults in the living room and a fireplace. Sliding glass doors lead to the back yard patio. The floors are laminate.

The master has vaults and a built-in headboard on the wall. Not only is there a closet in the master, but there's an additional closet in the master bath area, offering twice the storage space you normally find in homes this size. As an added benefit, there is additional access offered to the back-yard patio from the master suite as well. There's really nothing that needs to be done except move into this lovely home.

It's located on a culdesac. The back yard is fenced with a raised brick garden. Sprinklers are manually operated, but at least the irrigation system is in the ground. The subdivision of Northern Hills East is located north of Elkhorn and West of Waterga.

Oh, and for you feng shui followers, when you add these house numbers together, they equal the number 9. According to my manicurist, that is the luckiest number and almost magical.

4221 Oslo Court, Antelope, CA 95843 is offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $160,000. For more information, call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

If you want to see something really gross, pick up your keyboard, turn it upside down and vigorously shake it. What you see on the tray, apart from the usual crumbs of pizza crust and bits of chocolate chip cookies, is stuff that falls off of you every day. You are shedding like crazy. Eyelashes, eyebrows, particles of skin. Ick. In my case, there is a lot of cat hair in my keyboard, too. I'm astonished the keys still go down when depressed with all of that crap in there.

There are times, though, as a Sacramento short sale agent, that I'd like to pick up some buyer's agents and shake them upside down to see what falls out. Let me say that most of the buyer's agents I work with are fabulous; they are dedicated and hard-working agents. We are both working toward a common goal, which is obtaining short sale approval. My sellers want to sell and their buyers want to buy. We need each other to make that short sale happen.

If I can make the buyer's agent's job a little bit easier, I will do so, without hesitation. I will work with agents to help them write offers. I will find out from the seller anything the buyer wants to know about the home. If the buyer needs early possession or to close on a particular date, I will move heaven and earth to make it happen for that buyer.

What I can't do is represent the buyer. That's the job of the buyer's agent.

I represent the seller. That's pretty clear to me. For example, if the short sale bank requests a $5,000 seller contribution and my seller can't or won't pay it, I will ask the bank if they will accept the contribution from the buyer. Sometimes the bank will and sometimes it won't. Sometimes the seller has to pay it. However, a $5,000 price increase on an already under-market value means about an extra $25 a month in a mortgage payment. When I volunteer more money from the buyer, it doesn't mean that I am violating a fiduciary relationship with a buyer who has not authorized me to make such an offer.

Because I don't represent the buyer.

The fact is if the bank demands more money and the seller can't or won't pay it, that short sale is typically dead in the water.  The only way to revive it, should the bank agree, is for the buyer to pony up. If the existing buyer refuses, the next buyer won't. Short sales are contingent upon bank approval.

Sometimes buyer's agents don't understand that when I ask the bank if it will accept the additional cash from the buyer, I am not necessarily talking about their buyer. I'm talking about the buyer who is willing and able to close the short sale for my seller. Maybe it's the buyer who made the initial offer or maybe it's the next buyer down the road. My goal is to close the short sale for my seller.

Photo: Big Stock Photo

Some home sellers tell me that the reason they have decided to do a short sale is because they are growing tired of waiting for the market to rebound. Maybe they bought their home in 2005 and paid $500,000 for it. That home today is probably worth about $250,000 or less. That's a shocking drop in value for many Sacramento homeowners. It sort of hits you between the eyes.

Perhaps you look around your neighborhood and see foreclosures everywhere. Droopy for sale signs on bank-owned homes. Sign posts leaning toward the ground. Neglected yards with weeds and dead grass. Windows boarded up. Notices of trustee sales nailed to front doors. It's sobering. So, you hope that as soon as the foreclosures go away, the market will improve.

Here is a startling fact for you. If you're waiting for the market to come back, it's not likely to happen for a very long time. At 4% appreciation per year, it will take about 18 years for that $250,000 home to again be worth $500,000. That's assuming no dips in the marketplace, just a steady compounding appreciation rate of 4%.

Here are the numbers that reflect 4% annual appreciation per year:

• Year 1: $250,000
• Year 2: $260,000
• Year 3: $270,400
• Year 4: $281,216
• Year 5: $292,464
• Year 6: $304,163
• Year 7: $316,329
• Year 8: $328,982
• Year 9: $342,142
• Year 10: $355,827
• Year 11: $370,061
• Year 12: $384,863
• Year 13: $400,257
• Year 14: $416,268
• Year 15: $432,919
• Year 16: $450,235
• Year 17: $468,245
• Year 18: $486,975
• Year 19: $506,454

Perhaps you've got to ask yourself if you want to wait that long? Most short sale sellers can qualify to buy a home again in 2 to 3 years after a short sale. If you owe $500,000 on a $250,000 home, maybe it's a good idea to sell it now, even if you can't buy again right away. Even if you have to wait to rebuild your credit.

Suppose you sold that underwater home as a short sale this year for $250,000 and dumped that half-a-million mortgage. Then, you rent for 3 years and buy a home for $275,000 with an FHA loan, putting down less than $10,000. Your mortgage payment would be about half of your existing mortgage payment. At 4% annual appreciation, in 7 years you might be sitting in a situation with $75,000 in equity and a low mortgage payment.

Here is something else to consider. A mortgage payment at 5% interest on a loan of $250,000 is $1,342 per month. A mortgage payment at 5% interest on a $500,000 loan is $2,684. The difference over 3 years adds up to almost $50,000. Can you think of something else you'd like to do with $50,000 in cash than deposit that money into an underwater vehicle?

Maybe today is a good time to call your Sacramento short sale agent? It's certainly something to think about.

Photo: Big Stock Photo

One of the main questions sellers who are contemplating a short sale always ask is whether they should stop making mortgage payments. There is no cut and dry answer to that question. Not to mention, it's also a legal question best answered by those in the capacity to render such advice -- which automatically bars real estate agents from answering it, unless those agents sport a J.D. after their names.

Every situation is different. Every short sale seller is different. Some sellers have a high tolerance for risk and others do not. See, the thing is if you stop making a mortgage payment, at some point, the lender is likely to foreclose.  But there are pros and cons to each side. And in some situations, but certainly not all, a file may not receive much attention if it's not in default.

I am closing a couple more short sales in Sacramento this week, both of which are in default. These were not calculated defaults by any stretch. In one instance, the husband, a sole breadwinner, lost his job. They have two loans on this short sale, and the second lender was threatening to send the file to collection. Generally, when a file goes to collection, it's sold to a third party.

On top of this, they had a minor emergency in the kitchen that resulted in a small flood. Fortunately, insurance covered most of the damage, but the sellers still had to pull funds out of thin air to pay a deductible. They also had to make a payment on the second loan to prevent that loan from leaving the lender's portfolio.

I had sold this short sale 2 or 3 times before we landed a buyer and a buyer's agent who would stick with the transaction. That sort of comes with short sale territory, though -- sometimes I have to do my job over and over. But I don't give up. I've been in the real estate business long enough to believe there is a buyer out there for every house. Just like there are buyer's agents in this business who really care if their buyers close escrow.

Although this seller had stopped making his mortgage payment due to circumstances beyond his control, I am hoping that his credit rating will pull itself back together in a couple of years. I'd like to see him buy a home for his family once again in the not-too-distant future. I think he would like that, too. I wish all my sellers could better protect their credit ratings by keeping their payments current, but for some of them, it's just not possible. In part, we've got Fannie Mae short sales to thank for that. Don't even get me started on Fannie Mae.

But remember, it's not so much the short sale that really dings your credit rating as it is the late payments. I've had clients who closed a short sale and turned around to buy another home 2 months later. Some agents tell their sellers to purposely go into default so the short sale will get approved faster and the agent will get paid sooner. That's not necessarily in the client's best interest. Before any seller stops making a mortgage payment, that seller should get legal advice.

Today, I will have a very happy short sale seller and a thrilled buyer's agent who gets to be a hero to the buyer. And that's what will make this Wednesday a great day!

Photo: Big Stock Photo

The invention of the microwave pretty much changed America's kitchens. Although, microwaves were invented in the 1940s, they didn't really become affordable or widely used in the country until the early 1970s. By 1975, however, more microwaves were sold than gas ranges, if you can believe that.

When I moved into my first apartment in 1969, I didn't own a microwave. I didn't even know what a microwave was, but I did know how to use a stove. Not that I did. Many of my meals consisted of consuming the contents of a jar of tomato-based shrimp or a jar of marinated mushrooms. In fact, years later when I remodeled my first kitchen, I considered disposing of the stove altogether and not replacing it. But then I realized that it would be difficult to sell that home down the road without a stove.

Coincidentally, when the seller of my new listing in Fair Oaks bought her home and moved in, she discovered the kitchen did not have a built-in microwave. She came home hungry with a frozen dinner and stood slack-jawed in the kitchen when the realization hit her. No microwave. She called her dad to say she could not eat because there was no microwave.

After presenting his daughter with the usual parental alternatives such as, hey, buy a can of soup and heat it up on the stove, the father bought a microwave and installed it for his daughter. As a result, this kitchen now has a built-in microwave. It also has a newer gas range, built-in dishwasher and a refrigerator.

If you're looking for a 3-bedroom, 2-bath home in Fair Oaks as your first home, you might want to schedule a showing appointment to see this short sale. Apart from the gigantic lot -- it's more than a quarter acre -- the home features some really nice improvements. The baths are updated, every room except for one has expertly installed crown molding, and there is even a security door in the master suite with leaded stained glass.

This home was built in 1960 -- the year John F. Kennedy was the youngest man (at age 43) elected President of the United States, rocker Joan Jett was born and actor Clark Gable died. It has almost 1,000 square feet, but the layout makes it appear much larger.

I need to go back and shoot photographs of the back yard after the lawn is mowed. The front yard features a little courtyard area behind a wall. But I would imagine the back yard could be transformed into a wonderful entertaining area as well.

4821 Kitty Hawk Street, Fair Oaks, CA 95628 is exclusively offered by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $195,000. For more information, call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub