Elizabeth Weintraub • Sacramento Short Sale Agent • Land Park

I recall advice that somebody gave to me years and years ago about handling emotional upsets. Like, say, your partner up and walked out on your relationship. You're angry. You're hurt. You might want to get even. Do something hurtful back. But the advice that was given to me, which I'll pass along to you, is to instead imagine this person in a favorable light. I realize this is unthinkable to some, but just bear with me.

The image was a pink cloud. You could conjure up any happy image you want. So, you plaster this person's face on a pink cloud in your head, and you focus on that image. Pretty soon all those feelings begin to fade. Because you've changed the way you are thinking. When your personal thinking changes, your feelings change as well.

There are those of us who like to feel rotten. Seriously. These people wallow in it. It's their god-given right, damn it, so they're gonna muck around kicking small dogs. These types of people are toxic. I try to stay away from them.

See, attitude is everything. It's such a simple premise. It's too simple for some people, so they disregard it.

Right now, I have an upset third-party vendor in a Sacramento short sale. This vendor leaves me voice mails, sends emails and would probably be standing outside my house pitching rolls of toilet paper into my maple trees if this person calmed down enough to find out where I live. This person created the problem, not I. This is one thing that being a Sacramento short sale agent teaches me. To not react.

My friend, Lisa, is pictured above with the Miss Elgin Western Days Queen, Erin Ramirez. Lisa earns her living as Jakey the Clown in Austin, Texas. She's my best friend -- known her since junior high school and love her to pieces. I admire her and her attitude. No matter what happens to Lisa, she is always upbeat and positive. She scrapes by month after month, has survived her share of health issues, car problems, vet bills, drought, deferred home maintenance disasters, friends and neighbors dropping dead, heat indexes of 105, pest control -- I hear red ants are a huge problem in Austin -- and she keeps right on smiling. Always feeling the love.

She managed to buy a home with acreage -- as a self-employed person, which means she didn't get a loan from the bank. On the weekends, she works at flea markets, fairs, festivals and what have you, blowing up balloons into shapes of animals and selling them. One of her nephews from the Midwest came to visit, so she took him along to work.

Put him under a tree, tacked a sign to the tree that read: Hilarious jokes for a measly 10 cents. This kid sold jokes that afternoon. He earned $2.50, which means he sold 25 jokes. That's pretty good. I heard his brother earned $30 last year; he was a hustler. I don't think I could do that. Because I can never remember any jokes much less the punchlines. I'm a horrible joke teller. But it made me wonder:

If you were stuck under a tree at a county fair and expected to sell your wares, what would you sell? No computers, no Internet, no tech toys. Just you.

Photos: Lisa Jacobson, Jakey the Clown

The manager of my office received an odd letter from the Department of Real Estate on Friday. The DRE wrote because a buyer from several years -- some purported real estate agent / investor who represented himself, so you know what kind of client he had -- was unhappy that he didn't get to buy a short sale home in Elk Grove. So, he complained to the DRE about losing the transaction. The tone of the letter seems to indicate that this DRE investigator gets a lot of these bogus complaints but nonetheless must follow up. I chalk it up to the price of success.

I suspect what this misguided agent could not get through his head was his offer was received after the seller accepted a different offer. I maintain impeccable records. Not only that, but we had received 8 offers on this property. They ranged from, let's say, $250,000 to $315,000. This particular agent was so danged smart, he offered $250,000. He threw a lowball at us. This means even if he had submitted his offer before the seller accepted the winning offer, his offer still, gall darn it, would have been rejected.

With multiple short sale offers -- and with some of the highest near the top of the comparable sales -- there is little reason to issue a counter offer, much less multiple counter offers. Still, this guy was ticked off that he wasn't in the running, so he whined. I'd like to say: Pull your head out of the ground -- it's so wet right now, you'll drown. What part of day late, dollar short don't you understand? But I don't because it wouldn't do any good.

Then, this morning I received an unsolicited email from a buyer who was in the middle of negotiations somewhere. Apparently, the seller gave him a counter offer and he and his wife had accepted it. In the meanwhile, the seller had received other offers before the counter was returned to its maker. As a result, the seller decided he wanted more money. Probably totally within his legal rights.

This is all my fault, the writer says, because I endorse following contract law and, in fact, I wrote an article about how to handle counter offers that says when a counter offer is out, another buyer can swoop in and snatch the home. I have made him very unhappy, he says. He says he can't convey how upset it makes him that I encourage others buyers to beat out offers like this.

See, the thing about being in real estate and a Sacramento short sale agent is I have been handed this marvelous opportunity to meet and interact with the most bizarre people who say the craziest and do the nuttiest things. I just can't make up stuff like this. It makes me chuckle, and then I get on with my day.

Intuition is something you've either got or you don't. It doesn't seem to me like a person can learn to have intuition. It's sort of sizing up all that is on the surface and juggling it with what you know to be true to try to figure out if a given situation makes sense. It's somewhat, well, intuitive. You might not have all the answers, and probably don't, because part of intuition relies on realizing there is a missing ingredient. The trick, the key, is to listen to your intuition. If you ignore your intuition, then having intuition doesn't matter at all.

In our Sacramento real estate market, buyers are hitting sales prices pretty hard. Earlier this year, one would expect to receive offers for more than list price, but at the moment, prices are falling. So, when I receive an offer for one of my Sacramento short sale listings within minutes of hitting MLS and that offer is for more than list price -- which is probably at market -- my radar goes up. This could be the perfect home for a buyer who has been searching for months, or it could be a buyer who is fast on the draw but who has little intention of seeing the transaction through to closing.

I can question the buyer's agent until the cows come home, but sometimes agents will tell other agents what they think they want to hear. A buyer's agent who quickly responds in the affirmative and immediately returns every document thrown into her lap arouses my suspicions. First, you'd think an agent would need to discuss sensitive issues with the buyer and not make promises without consulting the buyer.

For example, many buyer's agents do not know how to fill out a short sale addendum. They don't realize that a date to wait for short sale approval is required. It provides the basis for the contract. I think they just fill in the property address and tell the buyer to sign it. So, for example, when I email an agent to say I need a date specified in paragraph A of the short sale addendum and it comes back 3 seconds later with a handwritten date, I am pretty confident that the agent filled it in. Above the buyer's signature. Without authorization. Which is appalling. And against the law.

As a Sacramento short sale agent, I don't always have a good feeling about some of the offers I receive. Sometimes, agents make promises their buyers can't keep. As a result, I get the agent's promise in writing. And I get the buyer's commitment in writing, sometimes above and beyond a normal contract. Forget what they say. Look at what they sign.

One of the reasons that my Sacramento short sales close -- often with the first buyer who made the initial offer -- is because I listen to my intuition. It has never steered me wrong. And I advise my sellers accordingly. They can trust me.

Photo: Big Stock Photo