In this business, if your Monday is brutal, Tuesday is likely to be ten times worse. That seems to be a given. I keep thinking that the real estate business will slow down in Sacramento, but it's only getting more hectic. This week alone I believe I am taking 5 new listings, and that's just the ones I know about at the moment. But I'm fortunate to have closed so many transactions this year that my inventory has room to grow, thank goodness, and I still have enough lockboxes in the trunk of my car to handle the growth.
Lately, I've had a few problems with lockboxes. In one instance, an agent called to say he found a key sitting on an air conditioning unit for one of my short sale listings in Natomas. Apparently, some buyer's agent accessed the box and lost the bottom of the lockbox. So the agent left the key on the AC unit and walked off. I don't know if the Board sells the bottom parts of the lockboxes, but now I have a lockbox in my trunk without a bottom to it. Thanks, Supra. They should make lockboxes with bottoms that do not completely detach.
Yesterday, I put a lockbox on a new listing in Cameron Park. I held my display key, entered my PIN number, beep, beep, beep, success. Except the bottom of the lockbox would not release. After trying this several more times, I finally tossed the lockbox back into my trunk and grabbed a different one. Now I have two useless lockboxes in my trunk.
This new listing is a short sale townhome, located in a small complex off Cameron Park Drive. The HOA has a barbecue and pool, plus this unit sits at the back side, away from the street, and fronts a private road.
It has 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and is approximately 1,210 square feet. The first floor features an open floor plan, with a kitchen, breakfast bar, dining area and large living room. It used to have a fireplace but that was removed when the roof was replaced earlier this year. The floor is laminate. Off the dining room are sliding doors to the back yard, which is fenced and sports a small uncovered patio, a lawn and an apple tree.
Upstairs you'll find the bedrooms and two more baths. The master suite has a balcony, a big closet and a ceiling fan. All the bedrooms are carpeted. From the master, you can see a view of the tree tops.
The two-car garage is detached from the home, separated by an open courtyard. Laundry hookups are in the garage. The HOA dues are $317 a month and include garbage pick-up, ground maintenance, insurance on the structure, sewer, water and association amenities.
3381 La Canada Drive #2, Cameron Park, CA 95682 is exclusively offered by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $118,000. Call your Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759, for more information.
Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub
UPDATE AUGUST 2010: BANK REFUSED TO APPROVE THE SHORT SALE BECAUSE THE SELLER WAS NOT OCCUPYING THE HOME. THIS WENT TO FORECLOSURE.
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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.
Elizabeth,
Lockbox issues are a huge frustration for both listing agents and selling agents....glad you have no issues on this great listing! Wishing you and your seller a quick sale!
Elizabeth: There's nothing like a lockbox problem on a listing to get your day off to a bad start. I thought Sentrilock would be better than Supra. Not the case. Where you lose bottoms off Supras, Sentrilocks "jam" and won't open at all.
I have found myself placing signs through out my vacant reo listings the remind buyer agents to lock the door next to every door and on the door with the lockbox a sign that reads please put key back in the lock box and make sure all teh lights are out when you leave. So far so good as i was tired of lost or pocketed keys.
Having been in lockbox hell as a buyer's agent your post has me sitting here with a silly grin. When they work according to plan they are great but when they don't - oh my word... the drama (LOL).
Elizabeth - YOU GO GIRL! No moss growing on your rolling stone. And this folks is why she is the SS Goddess of Sacramento (& Land Park & Cameron Park & Natomas & .....).
On another note, you might want to add a little more info on the HOA (if you have it) like whether or not it's FHA approved, what the o/o ratio is or whether or not there is any pending litigation on the complex. Just a suggestion - might reduce the number calls you get from BA's asking these questions.
Elizabeth - I had a key box get stuck on one of my lockboxes. I banged it straight down on a 2x4 and it loosened it up. Not sure if it was from the moisture from the rain (yea!!) we have been getting?
Great post! I agree Lori comments above!
Thanks for sharing,
Adam
Thanks for sharing. It is sometimes seeing postings like this that make you realize that you are not alone and not the only one that has lockbox issues.
Robert Earl
Hey, sometimes when it rains and those Supra lockboxes are exposed to the elements, they don't open at all! The display key shows error codes.
Hi Donne: Nice tip. Thank you. I should note that this complex is FHA approved. I always try to include the HOA fees in my manual postings of listings because some websites eliminate that information from the MLS feed, for some stupid reason.
Elizabeth, They should make lockboxes with bottoms that do not completely detach.
We use the Sentrilock which stays in one piece. Now if the agent forgets to put the key back....oh well.
I just took a photo but am getting a "bad gateway" ...will try again to uploadit.
I always find it amusing when listing agents load the supra with tons of keys. It not only makes it difficult to get the keys out and put back in, but they don't mark what the keys belong to! Nice condo listing...good luck on a quick and successful escrow.
Electronic lockboxes can be a hassle. I put a brand-new Supra on a duplex and when the buyer and the inspector came to do to the inspection, it wouldn't open. I managed to get the property manager to bring a spare key, but the inspector went away in the meantime. He charged for another inspection, too.
I took the Supra box to the board of Realtors office, but they couldn't get it open either. As far as I know, it is still there.