Elizabeth Weintraub • Sacramento Short Sale Agent • Land Park

One of the million-dollar questions that I receive from Sacramento short sale sellers is when should they stop showing their homes. The answer to that question depends on the individual short sale, they are each unique, but typically the answer is when the seller has accepted an offer. However, it also depends on the type of offer the seller has agreed to accept.

See, the thing is when a short sale goes into active contingent status, it's basically no different than a pending sale status on a regular transaction. The implied difference between a regular pending transaction and an active contingent short sale is the short sale will take longer to close.

Whether the transaction is a short sale or a regular sale doesn't make much difference because in each there is a seller who has agreed to sell to a buyer and a buyer who has agreed to purchase the home. Now, some buyers are writing multiple offers, hoping to grab the first short sale that gets approved. But I advise my sellers to not accept those types of short sale offers. I know the signs to look for and how to take precautions to lessen the chance that a Sacramento short sale seller will end up in contract with a buyer who is unlikely to perform.

Besides, a back-up offer received in the early stages of a short sale probably won't be in the game by the time the lender approves the short sale, even if the first buyer walks away. That's because some short sales take 3 to 4 months or longer to close, depending on the short sale lender. Very few buyers will wait months just to see if the first buyer backs out. Most buyers actually want to buy a home and close.

As a busy Sacramento short sale agent, I generally receive so many offers on my short sales that I have plenty of buyer's agents to notify if the buyer who is under contract gives up the ghost. But I always give sellers the choice of whether to let buyer's agents continue to show or to change the listing to reflect no more showings. If the seller's buyer appears solid and committed, there is not much to gain from continuing to show the home.

A seller emailed me yesterday to say that twice 2 different buyer's agents called her, demanding to see her home. She explained that short sale approval is on the horizon (because her bank told her so), that her home is listed as an active contingent, the buyer is dedicated and the listing states no more showings. In both cases, the agents insisted that active contingent meant they could show it. No, sorry, guys, it doesn't mean that at all. In my short sales, it means it's in escrow. Moreover, when a listing says no more showings, it means no more showings. But to some agents, "no more showings" must carry some other connotation.

Some buyer's agents ask if I will call them should an active short contingent blow up for some reason. Sure. But there's no special treatment. If the existing contract cancels, isn't it better for the seller to put the home back on the market? Because putting the home back on the market is exposing that home to a greater pool of buyers, some of which might pay a higher price. Making back-door deals isn't in the best interest of the seller. Buyer's agents have access to MLS, and MLS will tell them if a home is available for sale or back on the market.

I am always looking for ways to be more efficient and to work smarter. In C.A.R.'s year-end newsletter, it named the top 10 new tech tools for real estate professionals, and the ScanSnap S 300 made the list.

At first, it sort of bugged me that I'd have to pay more to buy a mobile scanner that would work with my Mac Pro, but then, duh, it dawned on me that my Sony PC laptop is the computer I work with in the field. And a ScanSnap that works with Windows costs less.

At the beginning of 2009, my company was still using Mongo FAX to deliver PDF documents to clients. Then we moved to eFAX. Which is great if a client has a FAX machine onsite but often they do not. The mobile ScanSnap S300 is the answer.

It's smaller than a loaf of bread, if you can believe that. Easy to set up, too, even though it's not a drop and drag application like Mac software. But it works like a charm! The documents are crisp and clear. Much easier to read than faxed documents.

With a case and shipping charges, a ScanSnap S300 costs less than $300 at Amazon. It was my Christmas present to myself.

Maybe not every real estate agent needs a ScanSnap in the field, but for a Sacramento short sale agent, this tool is invaluable. While I'm shooting photographs of the home and preparing my agent visual inspection disclosure, the ScanSnap is scanning seller documents to my email. It's sending sensitive and personal documents that are required for a short sale such as tax returns, bank statements, payroll stubs, etc. Never again will I have to haul these documents away with me and mail them back. I can leave these docs with the sellers, where they belong.

This is great, especially for Bank of America short sales. Because Bank of America has outsourced to a few third-party vendors. These vendors let me upload documents to their websites, which makes it very handy to have each document, with the loan number embedded, sitting in my email, ready to go when we receive an offer.

While our floor refinishing guy was sanding with the edger last week in the living room, the edger jumped in the corner and cut my FAX phone line. Stuff happens. So, while Brian was busy running a new line to my FAX machine, I simply plugged the ScanSnap into my laptop and emailed PDF documents to myself. Didn't skip a heart beat.

I have a bunch of new Sacramento short sale listings coming up this month. The ScanSnap is most likely one of my best investments yet. Check it out. You may find other uses for it that I haven't mentioned.

I received a phone call from a short sale seller in Michigan yesterday. He found me through an Active Rain blog about Fannie Mae short sales, and how Fannie Mae is insisting that my Sacramento short sale sellers who are current on their payments go into default before Fannie Mae will approve a short sale. The caller said his short sale was denied by Fannie Mae because he was current. To qualify for the short sale, he was instructed to stop making his mortgage payments and go into foreclosure. The seller was devastated.

Don't blame him for being angry. This is a travesty. Fannie Mae is owned 79.9% by the government which, for all practical purposes, makes it a government agency.

On top of this, under Fannie Mae's new guidelines, if a Notice of Default has been filed against a home that is presently offered for sale as a short sale or is in active short contingent status, if that short sale doesn't close prior to the auction date, Fannie Mae will not postpone the auction to allow the short sale to close.

How is Fannie Mae helping to prevent foreclosures in America, I ask you?

In regulatory filings announced December 24, Fannie Mae Chief Executive Officer Michael Williams is eligible for $6 million of compensation for 2009. According to the NY Daily News, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have tapped $111.6 billion in aid from the government, and in addition to Williams' pay, another 10 executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be eligible to be paid another $30.1 million in compensation for 2009.

Moreover, Mercury News resports that the government is removing the $400 billion cap given to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It will be replaced with a flexible formula, a "sufficient cushion" to cover expected losses over the next 3 years. Carte blanche funds. From the government. From you and me, the taxpayers.

Where aren't the Howard Beales in Congress screaming? Why aren't taxpayers yelling I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore?

By the time many of you read this, I will be on a plane and headed for Seoul, South Korea, where, with any luck, I will stumble onto a connecting flight for Hanoi. Yup, we're off for a two-week trip to Vietnam, with a side tour to Ankgor Wat in Cambodia. Bye-bye Sacramento.

I have a feeling this is one of those "If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium" tours. We're starting in Hanoi and will end in Saigon, eating our way through Vietnam like ravenous dogs. Although, I can say it's a pretty safe bet we won't be sampling any dog. Not without our knowledge, anyway.

To those of who will receive the holiday cards I mailed yesterday, let me say in my defense that I did try to sign them, but because the cards are blue with silver ink, none of the pens I tried would show my signature on the blue background. So, yes, I took the easy way out and did not sign them. I also did not want to sign my name 500 times.

But I want you to know that I folded those cards, addressed the envelopes (OK, I used labels, but darn it, I printed those labels and peeled them off the paper), put the cards inside, sealed the envelopes and affixed postage. I even drove to the post office and stuffed the cards into the mailbox myself.

I hope that counts.

I had a tough decision regarding the cards I ordered this year. Should they be Christmas cards, Hannukah cards, holiday cards or what? While I am not a practicing Christian, I do celebrate Christmas. My husband celebrates Hannukah.  I suspect Brandon is probably a Wiccan.

So, I thought about who the cards were for. They're for each and every friend and client. A gift is for the recipient, not the sender. I don't buy gifts that I like when I give presents. I buy gifts that I hope the recipient will enjoy. A card is the same principle. Since cards carry messages; I figured the universally accepted message that my friends and clients would enjoy is one of peace. Blue = peace. So, that's why the cards are blue. Because I am too darn lazy to buy different cards for each person. There, now you have it. Everybody on my list will receive an identical card.

In any case, the petsitters will be at our home taking care of Brandon, Pia and Pica. No need to worry about them. See you all on December 14. If I can, I'll try to post a few pictures.

Photo: Stan Godwyn

Two interesting bits of information this morning. First, take a look at this chart from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. It shows the appreciation scale for housing in California from 1991 to present. Although we are not out of the slump by any stretch, it indicates the bottom happened in late 2008, which mirrors the movement I see in Sacramento's real estate market.

Second, another of my Bank of America short sales is about to be approved. What makes this Sacramento short sale different is the fact we submitted the file in early October, just as Bank of America was in the process of switching to its new system. The negotiator was assigned a month later in November.  Typical. However, yesterday, Bank of America said the BPO will be uploaded next week; it expects approval in 10 days.

Blow me over with a feather. If this keeps up, I'll have to get a pacemaker. My heart can't stand it.

See, I envision this world as a place where a Sacramento short sale agent submits the complete package to Bank of America, and it's immediately acknowledged. The negotiator is assigned promptly. It moves from Phase 1 to Phase II within 2 weeks, goes to review, and Bank of America issues short sale approval 2 weeks later. Four weeks' time, tops.

But I'm a person who sees the glass half-full as opposed to half-empty.

It's too early to tell if this is a fluke. Last week we received approval on another Bank of America short sale within a 2-month timeframe. It could be a trend. Hard to say. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Because right now, I'm working on a boatload of Bank of America short sales.

If you're an agent or a seller who is exasperated by a delayed Bank of America file, ask to get that file escalated and transferred to the new system. Don't let it fall through the cracks. Once a short sale gets stuck, it's hard to unwedge it. Ask for a review of the file to ensure the bank hasn't lost any documentation. Put yourself in the negotiator's shoes. You've got 2 huge stacks of short sale files that reach the ceiling. One stack has every required document; the other is incomplete. Which would you work on?

Get timelines and hold the bank to it. Note your files. If Bank of America says it will assign a negotiator by Day X, call on Day Y. Follow up. And let me know how it goes. I'm always happy to hear from fellow short sale agents. Maybe someday we will all be as giddy about Bank of America short sales as we are about Wachovia short sales. You think?

Your first instinct is not always reliable. I've learned that over the years. While I often rely on my intuition, I don't always grab the first instinct that pops up. For example, when I put on my reading glasses this morning to peer at my monitor, my vision was blurred. My first thought was perhaps I am experiencing an aneurysm.  But when nothing further happened,  I realized that I had forgotten to remove my contacts before going to bed.

A friend called yesterday to talk about her horrible real estate transaction. She shared details about all the nasty things the buyer and the buyer's agent had done to her since entering escrow. It was pretty clear she despised these people, and I didn't blame her. "I was going to leave the buyers all the furnace filters," she hissed, "But now I am taking them." Well, I offered, make sure you don't leave behind any rolls of aluminum foil or bottles of Windex, either. Leave the scum nothing. That made me laugh, but she wasn't laughing. She was still furious.

I'm a firm believer of not burning any bridges if one can help it. We've all had to deal with difficult people in our lives. We can't change them. The only thing we can change is our attitudes.

I told my friend about the last home I sold. Those buyers were pretty obnoxious. They were over at the house changing the locks before they had even received confirmation of recording. The moving truck was parked in the street and movers were carting out my belongings, preparing for the long cross country trip to Sacramento, during which the rude buyers were barking demands, insisting that I vacuum the second floor and haul the trash cans down to the curb. They were very unreasonable.

They had been horrible during escrow as well. I did not like them nor respect them. We can't always choose our buyers. But I could choose how I reacted toward them and whether I conveyed my feelings to them. I decided they didn't deserve to know what I thought and kept my emotions in check. I was pleasant and accommodating to the end.

When I arrived in Sacramento and began unpacking, I realized that all the hardware for our bed and dining room table had been left behind on top of the refrigerator. Crap. I called the buyers to ask if they would FedEx the bag of screws and bolts to me. They immediately sent the package overnight, which wouldn't have happened if I had given them a piece of my mind prior to departure. I could have been sleeping and eating on the floor.

I advise my sellers to be nice to their buyers as well, regardless of how the buyers behave during escrow. For one thing, the sellers might want their mail forwarded. And I try to not transfer any frustrated feelings that I may be experiencing to my clients. It's part of an agent's job to be a buffer.

See, unpleasant things happen every day. It's part of life. But so do good things. For the most part, good things tend to outweigh the bad things. Whenever I'm feeling frustrated or grumpy, I turn my attention to something more pleasant such as LOLcats. One can't scroll through LOLcats without smiling.

This week, for example, I had to change the status of a Sacramento listing from active contingent to active short sale because the buyer was obtuse. However, I also received a double short sale approval from Countrywide and, let me tell you, that doesn't happen every day.  In fact, I consider that double Countrywide approval a Thanksgiving miracle. On top of that, Bank of America approved another short sale. That's where I prefer to focus. On the good things.

I wish everyone a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving.

One of the things I really enjoy about Golden Gate Park is that you see stuff in San Francisco that you'll rarely come across in, say, Land Park in Sacramento. For example, during our six-block stroll from the N Line to the de Young Museum at Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, I spotted guys like those Party Down dudes (love that show), dressed in bow ties and black suits, carefully removing and stacking bottles of champagne from the back of a black sedan.

Across the street, a wedding Limo decorated like Hello Kitty. Then, a nearly naked guy jogging. A Cyndi Lauper look-a-like smacking gum, photographers carrying tri-pods, kids toting skateboards, an old woman wrapped up like a mummy and asleep in her wheelchair, a tuba player, a hooker, a lost kid playing drums on the sidewalk with a tree branch, Daddy Warbucks screaming on his cell, and a greyhound pulling a kid in a wagon. You've gotta love the diversity.

My husband and I woke sleepy-eyed yesterday due to the trains roaring by all night, stashed our luggage at The Waterfront Hotel at Jack London Square and walked around back to the Oakland Ferry. It's a 30-minute ride to San Francisco from this spot. No sitting in traffic on the Bay Bridge or taking the B.A.R.T. under the water. Best views of the Bay.

A somber group of people sat together at port side. This guy with a hat and scarf wrapped around his neck held a velvet-covered box, and we overheard them discussing the 23rd Psalm. I suspect it's not legal to dump a person's ashes in the Bay, but that wouldn't stop me if I were in their shoes.

It was a short 3-minute walk from the ferry landing in San Francisco to our favorite dim sum restaurant in the Rincon Center, Yank Sing, which was already hopping by 10:30 AM. We started out with an order of Peking Duck, followed by dishes of scallion prawns, Hau Gau, sugar-snap peas, sticky rice in banana leaves, chicken-stuffed mushrooms, and pretty much crammed dumplings into our faces to the point where I didn't leave enough room to finish off with a sesame ball.

The weather was much more cooperative yesterday than it had been on Friday. Sunny, with a light breeze and no rain. The question was did we want to take a street car or the muni to Golden Gate Park. Or were cable cars the best direct route? We opted for the muni, but the N Line stopped at Church and Duboce, where we transferred to a bus. The bus driver told us she's never seen King Tut, even though she's a San Francisco native.

She didn't drive a bus very well. At the first stop, she almost left a baby at the curb because the parents couldn't open the back door of the bus to get out. At the next, she passed up a stop and 2 passengers screamed that they needed to get off. It was a fun ride up Haight Street. Also, somehow fitting that Ben and Jerry's scored the corner location at Haight and Ashbury.

When we arrived at the de Young Museum, it was readily apparent that VIP tickets were the way to go. Otherwise, we would have stood in this crowd of visitors for hours, but a VIP ticket let us bypass the long lines. There are 10 chambers that comprise the King Tutankhamun exhibit. I learned that King Tut married his half-sister. Among the many 3,000-year-old burial treasures are religious pieces such as an ankh, which is the Egyptian symbol of life, and lots of jewelery, including tiny coffins that housed King Tut's internal organs. Probably the best thing was this painted wooden torso of King Tut, or maybe the pectoral with lunar and solar emblems and a glass scarab.

After the tour, we visited the gift shop because no tour is complete without a gift shop. There, you can buy mummy magnets, rubber mummies that squeak and mummy pencils, among other trinkets. I think it's important to support museums, so I bought a pearl jewelery box for my sister and an alabaster cat figurine made in Egypt.

We spent our last hour in San Francisco at the Ferry Building, gorging ourselves on gourmet chocolate, Point Reyes cheese from the Cowgirl Creamery and salami from Tasty Salted Pig Parts, before heading back to Oakland to hop the Capitol Corrider train to Sacramento. Below are a few photos I hope you enjoy:

Oakland Ferry to San Francisco, left and Yank Sing, right

de Young Museum King Tut Exhibit, left and Cowgirl Creamery, right

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

Click here for Day 1: The Swell Season in Oakland

If you haven't seen the 2007 movie "Once," and you really love a romantic story, coupled with an unbelievable soundtrack, you might want to do yourself a favor and rent the DVD. Notwithstanding the fact it won an Oscar in 2008 for Best Original Song, the movie has an almost documentary feel to it, yet it's the music that pulls you in tight and doesn't let go.

Because of this movie, my husband and I have been wishing we could see the then-unknown stars, Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard and the classic-trained Czech pianist Marketa Irglova, perform in person. We hit the jackpot yesterday by scoring tickets to the Paramount Oakland Theatre to see The Swell Season, a band formed by these two remarkable musicians.

We hopped on the Capitol Corrider train out of Sacramento Friday afternoon, which dropped us but a few blocks from The Waterfront Hotel in Oakland at Jack London Square. The Paramount is about 18 blocks up Broadway from there.

Even though the show didn't really get started until about 8:30 and ran until after 11 PM, I managed to stay awake, way past my bedtime, because it was so riveting. You should see Glen play guitar. He's like a madman on steroids. He strums lightening-bug fast. So fast you'd think his guitar would catch on fire. He can put Pete Townsend to shame.

I know a thing or two about Pete Townsend. I grew up in the 1960s. When I was 12 and entering 7th grade, I begged my parents for a piano. I used to go across the street to teach myself how to play my neighbor's basement piano. I taught myself to play Christmas carols by writing the notes on the keys in magic marker. Instead of a piano, though, my parents bought me a guitar and sent me to take lessons. I was told that until I could play a song 6 times in a row without making a mistake, I had not mastered the tune.

Grasshopper.

So much for Red River Valley and Old Black Joe. That was enough to make me want to tear out my hair. I wanted to play the Beatles.

Glen's vocal range is amazing. The music is raw, emotionally charged, sweet and bittersweet, raging, rip-roaring passionate and brutally honest. Mar, who truly must have fallen from the heavens, lends the duo balance and clarity through the voice of an angel. The sound of The Swell Season is absolute perfection, on par with the reflection of mountain tops mirrored in the still water of an Alpine lake.

Here's a link to Falling Slowly and another to a free MP3 of Low Rising. Glen and Mar are simply magical. There are no other words to describe these guys. They have a new album out, Strict Joy. I encourage you to buy it. And if you have a chance to catch their North American tour, I promise you, you won't regret it.

But I don't recommend that you ever stay at The Waterfront Hotel at Jack London Square. Not if you want to sleep at night. The train goes by, the horn sounds and you'll wake up. Plus, there are no honor bars in the rooms nor bathtubs, and you have to walk outside to go around the hotel to reach its restaurant, Miss Pearl's. But that was a small price to pay to see The Swell Season in person.

Click here for Day Two in San Francisco and the King Tut Exhibit.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

I don't have any problem with multi-tasking except when facing certain types of death-related circumstances. While some people can't walk and chew gum at the same time, I routinely multi-task. It's often the only way to get things done during the day.

For example, I might be brushing my teeth while talking on my cell. It's easy. You can do it, too. You just move the Jawbone off your chin so it doesn't transmit the sound of robust brushing and talk with your mouth full of toothpaste. So what if some toothpaste dribbles down your shirt? It's a small price to pay for doing 2 things at the same time.

I often work simultaneously on 2 computers with multiple windows open. It would be nice if MetroList had the common sense God gave a chimp and worked on cross-platforms, but our Sacramento MLS requires an Internet Explorer browser, so I need to use a PC at times. MetroList doesn't interact well with Java. I'd say 10% of the time when I request a report from MetroList, it freezes, submits a Microsoft error message and then closes out my browser.

While I'm waiting for it to reopen, I can then turn my attention back to my trusty Mac and focus on another project such as firing off a heated email to MetroList, explaining that it needs to fix this problem, which I then delete because I know what the response will be. MetroList will say the problem is on my end, yet when I go to the office and use the computers in our workroom, I get the same error message. It's the price I pay for being forced to work in a PC environment.

Instead of focusing on the irritating nature of MetroList, I prefer to look at how fortunate I am that we have Apple in this world. My Mac Pro makes my life enjoyable and happy. And it gets even better. This month I'll be able to access WinForms on my Mac. Go WinForms. There is always a rainbow in a rainstorm if you look hard enough for it.

Case in point, while driving down Business 80 yesterday, I was talking to a Sacramento seller who is considering a short sale. I meant to exit on 26th Street but for some reason got off on south 99 instead. OK, I was writing down an address and driving. But in my defense, let me say that I wasn't looking at my notepad, I was looking at the road and probably writing on my thigh. The exit to 99 is one huge and very long curve. I said to the caller, "I have the distinct feeling that I should be focusing at the moment on navigating this curve on the freeway exit and should not be writing down your address."  She agreed.

She then told me that when she bought this home, she had planned to put down 20% but her agent had advised her to keep her powder dry and use that cash for repairs. So, she took out an 80/20 combo loan through Countrywide, and now her home is underwater. (Ack. Countrywide, the worst short sale to do.) Bear in mind, I pointed out, she would still be underwater whether or not she had put down 20% because values in that neighborhood have fallen more than 50%.

Moreover, it's actually a good thing that she had financed 100% of the purchase price. If she hadn't, and she had taken out a home equity loan for the repairs, she could possibly be facing a deficiency judgment on that second loan right now.

So, that was an excellent move. She has her former agent to thank for that suggestion. It's the silver lining in this situation. It could be worse. Suddenly, the caller felt much better about calling a Sacramento short sale agent. And if I can make my potential client's day better, you know what, mine is better, too.

Believe it or not, some home buyers are having a very difficult time buying a short sale in Sacramento these days. You might ask yourself, why is that? Is it because the Sacramento market has limited inventory, which is causing buyers to compete with each other for some of the same homes? Or because lenders are tightening the belt in underwriting and kicking out loans for the slightest discrepancy?

In part, but not in whole.

I propose that the 2 biggest problems buyers face in a short sale situation are pricing and patience. Some buyers don't want to wait for short sale approval because their buyers' agents, for whatever reason, did not properly counsel them and explain that short sales can take, on average, 3 to 4 months to get approved. As a Sacramento short sale agent, when I am working with buyers, as opposed to sellers, I suggest that buyers sign a short sale addendum, which contains a date that is 120 days out.

Some home buyers believe they can demand that the lender quickly respond to their offer. It's not gonna happen. Threats don't work. There is a procedure for the short sale process and, along the way, it can get delayed for reasons out of the listing agent's control. Negotiators quit their jobs, they may become ill or misplace the file, or the PSA, worried over its tax-exempt status, could issue autocratic ultimatums, which then require further negotiation.

The key is patience. Buyers who wait for short sale approval generally receive it. That's evidenced by the growing number of short sales I am closing in Sacramento.

As for pricing, sometimes buyer's agents do not look at the comparable sales or, if they do happen to glance at them, they can't interpret them. In many cases, the short sale price a buyer sees advertised is not the real price. Because unless the bank has already issued approval, known as an approved short sale, it's up to the bank to select the price. And that price is based on comparable sales. Knowing what the bank is likely to accept is not really a big secret or a scary, unknown factor.

An agent called me a few days ago, asking about the price her buyer may need to offer to get that short sale offer accepted. I suggested she look at the comps, because that's where the answer is, staring her right in the face. She argued that some of the homes in that neighborhood sold for less than my seller's sales price and the square footage of those homes were larger. Therefore, she concluded, our short sale price was too high, and she believed her buyers should offer less than asking.

Did she happen to note that a few homes with identical square footage and upgrades as the subject property recently sold for $25,000 more? I guess her eyes wandered all over those comps instead of zeroing in on the exact models. It's like this, say you've got 3 red apples and 12 green apples for comps. The home you want to buy is a red apple. Which is a comparable sale? A green apple or a red apple? Which homes do you think the short sale bank will use as comparable sales?