Elizabeth Weintraub • Sacramento Short Sale Agent • Land Park

There are days I suspect I'd be better off if I did not answer my phone. I know I'd get more work done instead of pacing the floor as I speak. I can't just sit in my chair and talk. I don't know why.

I must be mobile and moving. It helps me to focus. Or, maybe it's just my passion for Sacramento short sales coupled with the injustice I see in banking corporate systems -- the way they treat their customers -- that causes the need for constant movement when talking.

Beats banging my head back and forth in the doorway.

But I also get my share of odd calls. An agent called yesterday about a pending short sale transaction. She and her buyer had completed a final walk-through. She called me because the door between the garage and the house was unlocked. I asked her to leave it unlocked because that's how the seller gains access. He doesn't have a key. Like many sellers.

This agent was very concerned and upset. She demanded that the seller get a key or otherwise resolve the "dangerous" situation. Hey, he's been leaving that door unlocked for 6 months. I had to remind her that this is not the buyer's home. It belongs to the seller. The seller makes the rules. The rule is the door stays unlocked. Seller's home. Seller's insurance policy. Seller calls the shots.

If you're a security-conscious buyer, though, you will love this new short sale listing in Rancho Cordova. It is nestled in a row of homes that sit vertical to the main street. It's a few doors down from the road, which means it has a shared road. But it's tucked away off the main drag and sheltered between two other homes.

Welcome to the Alexander Collection in Rancho Cordova. I've sold several other homes in this subdivison recently. Many are foreclosures or short sales available at bargain prices, slashed from their original price tags. It's an excellent time to buy in Rancho Cordova.

This home is just shy of 2,000 square feet. It's a two-story with a balcony off the second-floor master suite. The front of the home features half-timbering and a stone entrance. Very pretty curb appeal. In case you're wondering, the door is locked between the house and the garage.

You've got 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. Enter into the living room, with an outside corner fireplace and a formal dining area. There is also a large breakfast nook in the kitchen. Tumbled stone ceramic counters, an island with a sink, ceramic floor and stainless appliances in the kitchen as well. The kitchen is open to the family room.

3437 Nouveau Way, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670, is offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $210,000. For more information, call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759. For a private showing, call Barbara Dow, at 916 761 7398.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

I received two short sale approval letters yesterday. These were both preapproved HAFA short sales that Bank of America had farmed out to AMS Loan Servicing. They were approved for HAFA in June, sold in June and sat at AMS since then. The way they were handled seemed as though the negotiators would open the file and try to figure out what they could do to stop from having to work on it.

If they could ask for a tiny revision, they could close the file. That would free up their time so they go back to Facebook to chat with their friends or maybe upload photos of their husbands posing with showgirls in Las Vegas. So, they might ask for us to change the verbiage for the seller's incentive to seller's relocation. Then, the following month, they could ask us to change it back to seller's incentive. Yeah, that's the ticket. After all, they graduated from high school. They know what they're doing.

Thank goodness for the HAFA escalation team at AMS. If only the AMS HAFA escalation team could handle all of Bank of America's short sales. But this Sacramento short sale agent knows that's gonna happen when pigs fly.

Here is a new short sale in Rancho Cordova that is not a HAFA short sale. This is a home in Anatolia in Rancho Cordova. It has 4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. It was built by U.S. Homes in 2006, so it's somewhat newer construction.

The kitchen is open to the family room and is quite large. There is space for a kitchen table in a breakfast nook area, but the sellers have opted for extra storage. The cabinets are moveable and therefore not fixtures. But you could buy extra cabinets just like those from Ikea. After all, you do have dining space in a formal area off the kitchen, so you don't really need a breakfast nook.

The entry to this home is dramatic. You can't quite tell from my photo of the front yard, but there are two columns, one on each side of the door. None of the other homes on this block has columns flanking the front door. Makes it rather unique.

In the back yard, you'll find a concrete patio and a built-in bench and arbor, designed and custom made. There is enough room for a patio table and chairs, too. Best of all, though, is the price. It's very affordable and priced well, subject to bank approval.

11828 Stoney Ridge Way, Rancho Cordova, CA 95742, is offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $166,320. For more information, call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759. For a private showing, call Barbara Dow, at 916 761 7398.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

Whenever you think you've got it rough, you don't have to look very far to find somebody else who has it worse by comparison. It's all in your perspective. Of course, if you live in Sacramento, you'll find plenty of unemployed people, my journalist husband included. If you live in Detroit, where our nation's foreclosure rate soars, you could be like Detroit homeowner Texana Hollis. She's 101, and just got thrown out of her home of 58 years, evicted, with all of her belongings dumped in the street like garbage.

Her son apparently did her in by taking out a reverse mortgage and defaulting on the property taxes. Just didn't pay the taxes and threw away the foreclosure notices because he didn't want to worry his mom. This is wrong on so many levels. What is wrong with people?

I drove by a store on Watt Avenue yesterday that I can't believe exists. There is an entire store of La-Z-Boy recliners for sale in Sacramento. A whole store devoted to selling pieces of furniture in which consumers can plant their oversized butts to watch television. In my day, we sat our butts on the lovely green shag carpeting to watch TV, and we liked it. We didn't mind getting up to change the channels. Today, we want to send Rosie the Robot to fetch our beer from the fridge.

See, this is what's wrong with people. Our priorities are twisted.

We need to go bike-riding. If you want to move to an area where you can actually ride that bicycle that's hanging up in your mom's garage with a flat tire, have you considered Rancho Cordova? Here's a home not far from the American River that you can buy at an affordable price. It's a short sale in Rancho Cordova. As a Sacramento short sale agent, this is what I do. I list and sell short sales in Sacramento.

This home has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. An outstanding feature, apart from its contemporary and clean design lines, is the master suite. That room is enormous. It's so big it has a couple of small knee walls to separate the office part of the room from the bedroom. Yup, it has a built-in desk and shelves right in the master suite, so you can never be more than 5 feet away from your computer and the wonderful world of the Internet. Where all the magic happens.

The master suite wouldn't be the master suite without its own bath. You've got one room for the vanity and double sinks, backed by a wall of mirrors, and another room for the shower. You can instantly tell when you look in the mirror in the morning if you look like you were out too late the night before.

This room is also located at the back of the home with exterior access. This way, if you have a roommate who is up late watching TV, sitting in that La-Z-Boy recliner, you probably won't hear the television set.

The kitchen has an open pass through to the dining room, but who needs the dining room when you can eat in your La-Z-Boy recliner?

In the back yard, you'll find a covered patio and a spa. The spa might or might not work. There is also a two-car garage, and central heat and air.

11169 Kings River Court, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670, is offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $185,000. For more information, call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759. For a private showing, call Barbara Dow at 916 761 7398.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

Let's face it, in 1960, the Everly Brothers were some of the dorkiest guys around. Phil and Don Everly had zero hunk factor. They looked like somebody put their faces into a vice grip. Maybe they were just too wholesome to be attractive. There was no bad boy vibe going on there, not like with Elvis Presley or Jimmy Dean.

But they produced great songs, as long as you didn't picture who was singing them. And how could you, because they were on the radio. AM radio. Way before FM radio. They had 4 big hits in 1960, but probably the most memorable song from that year is When Will I Be Loved?

And that's what I think about when I look at this new short sale listing in Rancho Cordova, which was built in 1960. As a Sacramento short sale agent, you'd think I have seen it all, but no. Some of the improvements in this home, made before the present sellers bought it, seem to be an after thought.

This home is no doubt a fixer. A new buyer will probably take up all of the flooring and replace it. Not that there's anything wrong with it now, it's perfectly habitable, but most buyers want consistency in flooring. The floors in this home are mostly vinyl or laminate; some rooms have no thresholds.

There are 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. The square footage, according to the assessor, is about 1,646. The master is full of boxes, so you might not recognize it as a master, and you could very well miss the master bath around the corner, but it's there with a shower stall. It has a formal living room and a family room addition.

A super cool factor are the skylights and solar tubes installed throughout the home. The roof is newer and was installed 2 or 3 years ago, according to the seller. Without the solar tubes and skylights, this home would be dark, but they are like a bright light in these rooms.

The kitchen counters are covered in a prefab type of granite. You've seen those displays at the mall in downtown Sacramento, right? Where they cover tiled or laminate counters with a material that looks like granite? That's what covers the counters in the kitchen. It has original wood cabinets and a huge walk-in pantry.

The back yard is overgrown and wild. There is a spa that might stay if you ask for it in the purchase contract. The home has central heat and air, plus a two-car garage. It probably will not qualify for FHA financing.

2481 McGregor Drive, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670 is offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $149,000. For more information, call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759. For a private showing, call Linda Swanson at 916 607 0111.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

During the 1980s in southern California, I bought a lot of investment property. Some of it was in Orange County but there were also deals in Las Vegas and Phoenix. Back then it was easy to make money by investing in real estate. The magic formula was 7% down, take over the first and seller carried a straight note. Appreciation was dependable. Collect rent, get a tax write-off, wait 3 years, sell and pocket ten grand.

That's not the way to make money in real estate today. The safe and easy way to invest today in real estate is to buy and hold. You don't have to buy it rock-bottom, dirt-cheap or grind every nickel out of the deal to amass a fortune, either. But you do need to invest some time, and time is one component I don't have in excess right now. If you do, though, here is an excellent home to buy in Sacramento:

This is a 3-bedroom home offered as a short sale in Rancho Cordova. It's located at the end of a cul-de-sac on Berrywood. Where Berrywood intersects with Zinfandel is a school, but that's a ways up the road.

The home was built in 1977. That was the year that Hotel California climbed in popularity. It was only a year before that when I moved to California, and Hotel California, believe it or not, made me do it. How many people can say that? Better, how many people would admit that? Unfortunately, and I hate to admit this because I just don't like him, but 1977 was also the year that Barry Manilow had several hit songs, including Looks Like We Made It. Which is what you'll be saying if you buy this short sale in Rancho Cordova.

It appears to be in pretty good shape. Doesn't really need a paint job and the carpeting is decent. Brick fireplace in the living room. Open floor plan with dining area off the kitchen. Comes with a refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave and stove. There is a washer and dryer in the attached 2-car garage. Decent-sized lot and uncovered patio out back.

2524 Berrywood Drive, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670 is exclusively offered by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $109,000. For more information, call your Sacramento Short Sale Agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759. For a private showing, call Linda Swanson at 916 607 0111.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub, taken with a BlackBerry

Some of my clients hire lawyers to negotiate their short sales in Sacramento. Do you need a lawyer for a short sale? Sometimes. Well, you should always get legal advice no matter what but some situations call for legal representation on the negotiation side. For example, there are certain situations in which a seller might have assets to protect or require a waiver against a deficiency judgment. Some releases of personal liability can be difficult to obtain without legal assistance.

But if a client calls and asks me, I'll always give the straight scoop. I can tell by asking a few questions and looking at the property in the tax rolls. Some short sales a lawyer should probably negotiate, some not.

I am personally negotiating this short sale. For 2 reasons. The first is nobody else will probably list this condo because there is not enough money in the commission for the average Sacramento short sale agent to tackle. The seller asked me why I was handling the short sale for him when my fee is peanuts, and I told him the truth. Because nobody else will and I can't let him lose this to foreclosure, and because I especially enjoy negotiating Bank of America short sales. I'm a sick puppy, what can I say?

This is a 2-bedroom, 2-bath condo in Rancho Cordova. It's more of a townhome style with a halfplex feel to it. There is a unit attached on the west but the garage separates the unit to the east. It features a living room, half bath, kitchen and dining room on the first floor. The second floor has two bedrooms joined together by a full bath. The bath has two rooms.

Each bedroom has a ceiling fan and a lot of closet space. Although, the bedroom at the back has an entire wall of closets. The bedroom at the front is somewhat bigger but not as much closet space. Your choice.

The kitchen has a refrigerator, a newer gas stove and somebody left a microwave on the counter for you. There is also a washer and dryer in the garage. It's in pretty much move-in condition.

2720 La Verta Court, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670 is offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $52,000. For more information, call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759. For a private showing, call Barbara Dow, at 916 761 7398. HOA dues are $255 a month.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

You can't buy this short sale because another buyer already put an offer on it. The sellers accepted the offer and asked me to put this into pending status. But you can write a back-up offer if you like. If you find this frustrating, I understand. Tell me about it. My husband went on a hiking trip to Rocky Mountain National Park this week and left me alone with four remote controls and a big screen TV, which I've never before turned on by myself. Whatever happened to the days of slipping in a video and turning the channel to 3?

This is a four- to five-bedroom Cambridge home built in 2005 with 3 1/2 baths. It is situated on .252 acres, according to the Sacramento County Assessor, and it has a 3-car garage. A two-car garage faces the front and the other garage, which contains a water softener, faces the side.

The photos on this page were shot in March of 2009 during the rainy season, so the home doesn't look like this today. But this Anatolia home does have a ton of upgrades, including an abundance of granite counters in the kitchen, maple cabinets throughout, ceramic flooring in kitchen and baths, plus lots of windows and a soaring ceiling in the living room / dining space -- approximately 3,470 square feet overall.

The back yard has a water feature and an uncovered patio. The home faces south; the homes across the street back to nature, as do the homes on the east side of the cul-de-sac. This listing will go into MLS today as a pending sale.

11878 Pyxis Circle, Rancho Cordova, CA 95742, is offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $350,000. For more information, call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

Some people view life as very black and white, with clearly drawn lines. Others see shades of gray, in which lines are sometimes blurred. Then, there are those who wander aimlessly in a psychedelic daze among swirls of bright colors, but that's because they are the lucky recipients of those free flashblacks we were all promised from the 1960s. Man, what a scam. But my point is as people -- as real estate agents, especially -- we are all different and none of us interrupt the world in exactly the same way.

However, I am at a complete loss as to how a real estate agent in March of 2005 could advertise this new listing I'm about to show you as having an "updated and remodeled kitchen." This home has lost about $200,000 of equity over the past 5 years, and the sellers had paid cash for this! They bought at the height of the market just before the crash. Ah, hindsight. This home is free and clear. It is not a short sale because there is no loan. But it's definitely a fixer-upper. A contractor's special.

Before I tell you what's great about this home, let me tell you what's not. It's located on a through street, so there are a lot of cars driving by, and you can hear traffic from inside the home. The siding could contain asbestos. The interior and exterior needs paint. Many walls, including the living room ceiling, feature peeling wallpaper. The sellers ripped up the carpeting throughout to expose hardwood floors, but the floors need to be refinished and there are bits of stuck padding and stained spots. The floors in the baths are spongy, you'll find holes in the walls, maybe rotting studs. If this were my home, I'd tear down the walls to the studs in both the baths and kitchen and remodel it.

What's really cool about this home is the size of the lot and its layout. The lot is more than 1/3 of an acre, according to the Sacramento County Tax Assessor. There is a covered patio in the back yard with stone pavers. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, which means one of the bedrooms is a master suite, and approximately 1,109 sq. ft. The living room has a Roman brick wood-burning fireplace, and there is extra space off the dining area that could be utilized as a home office area. Mostly all of the windows are dual pane. It was built in 1958, so it has a raised foundation, plus, according to the previous listing, the HVAC was installed around 2003. There is a 2-car garage.

2521 Dawes Street, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670 is exclusively offered by Lyon Real Estate at $80,000. Sellers request cash offers only. THIS IS NOT A SHORT SALE. For more information, contact Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

Consumers are always looking for a deal, whether we're buying homes, cars or pork chops. It's especially true in hard hit areas of California such as Sacramento where we have an unemployment rate that exceeds 12%. As my husband and I strolled along Broadway in Land Park yesterday, it was disheartening to walk by the vacated and closed storefronts that dot this particular stretch of the road. There, where Broadway Hardware used to be. Gone. Here, where the Mailbox store was, empty. Comedy place? Vacant.

We were on our way to Kathmandu Kitchen for lunch, which is located at 1728 Broadway. The place was packed. In part, it was probably because Kathmandu was offering a 2-for-1 buffet. Its lunch buffet was $8.99 for two people. All you can eat. I've never had better naan anywhere in Sacramento. I love their sauteed spinach and chicken tandoori, even if I do dump extra-spicy hot sauce on everything.

As I looked around at the unfamiliar diner faces, I wondered how many of them would not have been at Kathmandu if not for the special pricing over the weekend. I wondered if they would come back to enjoy more fabulous Indian food without the discount. I also thought about how long it will take before real estate returns to normal in Sacramento without the short sales. Eventually, Sacramento short sales have got to go away.

Experts predict at least another couple of years. I say it will take longer. As a Sacramento short sale agent, I see sellers with amazing holding power. Nobody really wants to give up the ship. But eventually there comes a time when you've got to let it go, cut your losses and get it on with your life.

Here is a short sale opportunity in a newer subdivision in Rancho Cordova, built by Elliot Homes in 2006. Its legal description reads Alexander Collection. As though the developer was selling bedroom linens or fine china. This is a desirable one-story, a three-bedroom, two-bath, approximately 1,660 square feet, with an open floor plan. It sits at the end of a cul-de-sac.

The kitchen is open to the family room and sports an island with a sink. Of course, it has a dishwasher and a free-standing gas stove. The floor is ceramic; the counters are Corian.

You will find an inside laundry room with gas hook-up, 220 volt, ceramic floor and built-in cabinets. The family room features a gas fireplace. And the master suite is spacious with a ceiling fan. Its master bath has dual sinks, ceramic flooring, a separate soaking tub and a sparkling walk-in shower.

The back yard is fenced; it has a lush lawn, a couple of crepe myrtles blooming behind the flagstone, and an uncovered concrete patio area. The sidewalk wraps around to the side yard, which offers access to the attached two-car garage.

3608 Husch Way, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670 is offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $215,000. For more information, call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

My company gives some of its agents little perks such as free underground parking. One of the agents in my Midtown office in Sacramento asked if, by parking in the garage, I wasn't worried about getting mugged by a homeless person or having some stalker lie in wait to follow me home at night. I realize there is a little bit of goofy celebrity status associated when you're interviewed by major media all the time or write about real estate for a New York Times-owned company, but those things don't strip a person of common sense or make one any different than any other person on the planet.

Besides, most homeless people aren't running around attacking strangers in Midtown -- it's generally the other way around. And anybody who tries to follow me in a vehicle is likely to end up overturned by the side of the road. My husband says I drive like a mad woman. By comparison, one might say (cough, cough) that he drives like a little old man. Always complaining about other drivers. Me? I just get away from other drivers. As quickly as possible. I go from Point A to Point B in a millisecond. Because my car can do it.

And here's something a Rancho Cordova home buyer can do. You can buy this home in the Sunridge Park Village and not pay any homeowner association fees. This beautiful neighborhood is located a hop, skip and a jump from Anatolia -- but far enough away that when the wind is blowing, no oink-oink, pig-farm smells waft through the breeze like in some other areas in Rancho Cordova we won't talk about.

It's a beautiful Beazer home offered as a short sale. The sellers were referred to me by their real estate agent, but the name was unfamiliar to me. I guess lots of agents in Sacramento know me as a Sacramento short sale agent, so thank you, Sacramento agent, whoever you are, for this referral. It's one of my favorite types of short sales -- a Bank of America short sale. So, we'll probably get approval on this somewhere between 30 and 60 days.

This home is about 3 years new, with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and it's approximately 1650 square feet, per the sellers. It's a larger model than many smaller homes presently on the market in Sunridge. Of course, it features an open floor plan. The room off the entry toward the front of the home is being used as a formal living room, but it could easily be used as a den or home office. Who needs a formal living room these days?

The kitchen is open to the family room, which has a fireplace and a ceiling fan. A dining area is situated between the two spaces. What's really nice is all the appliances are included in the sales price. So, you don't have to buy a refrigerator or even a washer and dryer. Another special feature is the gorgeous wood floors in the kitchen and dining areas. The 2-car garage is attached, and the back yard has ample space and lush landscaping.

12409 Pawcatuck Way, Rancho Cordova, is exclusively offered by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $190,000. For more information, call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759 or call your Sacramento buyer's agent, Linda Swanson, at 916 607.0111.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub