I remember what it feels like to search for a home to buy. Although, it's been six years since I bought my last home -- before that I routinely moved every couple years or so. (Buying homes, fixing them up and reselling them paid off well enough that I didn't mind moving so often.)
But the point is I'm not that far removed from the home buying process that, despite my decades of experience in real estate, I forget what it's like to drive down the street, reading house numbers, crossing fingers and hoping the home in the middle with the flagstone walkway and terrific curb appeal is the home that is for sale. Then feeling disappointed when I realize it's the home next door with the boarded-up windows and ugly paint job.
Every buyer has specific needs, some more specific than others. I'm working with a buyer now who is very particular about what she wants. It must be a single story, have a raised foundation, a large yard for her 3 dogs, a pool, be remodeled or newer without a great-room concept, located in a quiet neighborhood (nestled between conforming homes reflecting pride of ownership) within 15 minutes of downtown Sacramento and priced around $350,000.
I know some of you may be thinking that this is like looking for a needle in a haystack and way too much work. Some agents would not have the patience to work with a buyer who has her heart set on a dream home. But I see it as a challenge, an exciting hunt and not an insurmountable problem. Everybody has a right to find their perfect home. And I shall continue to search until I find it. It's why I am in real estate.
Photo: Big Stock Photo
The Short Sale, by Elizabeth Weintraub, coming from Archer Ellison in January 2009.
---
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
If anyone can find the home for that nice woman it will be you.
Happy Thanksgiving to you.
Sincerely
Tom Braatz
Elizabeth: I think I'm working with your client's sister out here in VA. Very particular tastes, but most difficult for the current market, she has no vision. If carpet needs replacing, and the walls need paint, forget it! We're on to the next home. In a market dominated by short sales and bank owned homes, you can imagine that I my patience is wearing thin....but I'm hanging in there. There's a home out there for everybody. And if we look at enough of these deferred maintenance homes, eventually one of them will not look so bad.
Elizabeth, I had a project manager in new home construction after building my perfect home remind me there is no such thing as a perfect home. I have remembered this as now I help buyers to maybe find that 90% perfect home and be realistic. Looking for perfection can extend the search out to forever, and people have to get on with their lives and understand the tradeoffs. The other thing I have found with buyers on Day One they start the search with one set of parameters and at closing the house they buy looks NOTHING like the initial search criteria. It is a learning process out in the real world. BTW, I love your illustration with the little girl and the bubbles on this one. Maybe a little girl Elizabeth? ; ) Sounds like it's time for you to move again. You're overdue based on past history, or now you FINALLY have settled down : )
Elizabeth - Your client must have another sister down here in Ventura County, who is also wearing a little thin on her Realtor too.
I feel for my client though, she's a single mom (with a teenage son), working three jobs and 60+ hours a week. She's in the low $300k price range, which are all REO/short sales down here, and the home needs to be move-in ready because she's spending nearly everything she has to get into the place and hasn't the time, energy or money to buy a dilapitated fixer.
Like you though, I know she'll find something. She's made several offers on places but keeps getting outbid by other offers. I just keep telling her that her time will come. For her Realtor's sake, I hope it's soon.
Hi Tom: Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!
Hi Chris Ann: Some buyers say, "Find me a home with four walls and a roof that I can afford, and I'm happy." But every once in a while, I'll get a buyer with very specific needs, and that's OK. It's nice to have a change from chasing short sales and REOs all day. This buyer is willing to remove the carpeting and install hardwood floors, which is her real hot button, so she's not unreasonable.
Hi Gary: There typically is a trade-off somewhere along the line. I imagine with this buyer, she may trade a raised foundation for a slab. But maybe not. I have found her homes that if only the neighbors would move might have worked. LOL. I'll also say it is rare that a buyer ends up buying a home that they didn't want in the first place. I listen very carefully to what buyers say and read between the lines. What they say and what they mean can be two different things.
Hi Donne: This client isn't wearing "thin" on me. She's simply arrived at a point in her life where she has a definite list of wants and needs and intends to pursue it until she finds it. She will find it. I'm confident of that.
Elizabeth it appears your client has a lot of sisters. Me, I am partial to boarded up windows. It keeps the carpet from sun fading. :0D
That one statement alone: I see it as a challange. That statement lets me know you are just fabulous at your job. Don't tell you that you can't, because you will prove you can. I bet you find what she is looking for in a price range she can live with.
Personally, Fred, I don't mind boarded-up windows, either, but I do when I am expecting my new home to be spectacular, like most other buyers expect. Because board-up windows can spell profit.
I was trying to make the point that when home buyers drive down the street with their agent where they know a new listing is located, home buyers tend to look at every home and think: Is this it? Is this it? Gosh, I hope this home is it. And then it's not. It's some awful thing next door to it. Putting yourself in the buyer's shoes helps to keep you in touch with what they feel and think.
Hi Tammy: I have never yet disappointed a buyer. Been at this business 34 years, and I'd like to think that I take away a bit of knowledge every year and don't repeat each year times 34.
Oh, and Gary, that is NOT a young Elizabeth. When I was a kid, I had dark brown hair and ringlets, just like Shirley Temple. More Hungarian and less Norwegian, and I don't mean that in a Zsa Zsa sort of way.
With all the homes on the market in most areas I do find buyers looking at more homes to find the right one.
You have a fantastic attitude about the search. I'm usually enthusiastic at first and then I get tired. I especially get tired when the person wants to find that perfect home and then! AND THEN they have to sell theirs to buy it. AND THEN they want to make a low contingency offer on it subject to the sell of theirs!
Hi Terry, well, in our market, inventory is falling and has been decreasing for some time now.
Hi Barbara: That's where counseling comes in. I don't always get the opportunity to educate buyers upfront, but along the way, I do try to explain what today's market is like and the challenges they are likely to face. You can't really blame the buyers if they don't know what's going on. But sometimes, no amount of reasoning and logic will get through, so if they aren't reasonable, then they aren't really buyers. They're just people who like to drive around and look at houses.