Anybody who knows me knows I am not a big fan of sports. Any kind of sports. I rarely even watch the Olympics -- winter / summer or special. The big kahuna in baseball or football can pass me by annually and I don't blink an eye. I'm not that interested in men and women competing on a physical level.
But throw me into an arena with a home to sell and a seller who wants to sell it, and I'm gonna hit a home run. I'll size up the wind velocity if it will help with my plan. I've made plenty of mistakes in my younger real estate career that have helped me to succeed in my older real estate career. Trial and error is useful. I like to believe that I learn from my mistakes -- it's even better to learn from somebody else's mistakes, although it doesn't seem to carry the same punch. Which is too bad.
It does lead to making accurate predictions. I'm often asked by a seller to give my estimate of time to sell a home in Sacramento. The market is pretty hot right now. If you don't get an offer within 30 days, it's possible that something is wrong. It's not always price, although it could be.
It could be it's a Sacramento short sale among others in a neighborhood that are not. Given a choice between buying a traditional sale, an REO (bank-owned home) or a short sale, most buyers will choose the former over the latter.
You can look through the Sunday Sacramento Bee to see the price points of homes that are selling. You'll notice, when looking at things on a grander scale than your own individual market, most homes are selling under $300,000. First-time home buyers are driving the market, and they are not paying over $300,000 for a home. If your home is priced over $300,000, it will take longer to sell because there are fewer buyers available to buy it.
How many buyers do you need? One. You need one buyer. If you're doing everything right, that one buyer will come.
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Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.
Lyon Real Estate is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.
Photo: Unless otherwise noted in this blog, the photo is copyrighted by Big Stock Photo and used with permission.
The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.
Disclaimer: If this post contains a listing, information is deemed reliable as of the date it was written. After that date, the listing may be sold, listed by another brokerage, canceled, pending or taken temporarily off the market, and the price could change without notice. It could blow up, explode or vanish. To find out the present status of any listing, please go to elizabethweintraub.com.
