Club Chaos Agents - All Things Hollish, Wacked, and Jacked

Because I bought home in Land Park in 2002, and I put down 20%, my home is not underwater, thank goodness. If I had bought a home back then in, say, Elk Grove or Natomas, I probably wouldn't have any equity right now, so I am very fortunate to be a Land Park agent and living in Land Park. Apart from being able to walk to restaurants, Target, Land Park Tower Theatre, I'm also close to William Land Park and Vic's Ice Cream. I'm partial to living in Land Park and wouldn't want to live anywhere else, well, except maybe Hawaii.

Homes in Land Park tend to hold their value. That's because there is a demand for them. People gravitate toward these older neighborhoods with vintage homes that exude charm and character. There is a strong sense of community in Land Park. It makes sense for me to live here. It also makes financial sense to pay as little as possible for an interest rate on my mortgage and to quickly pay off my home.

Right now, rates are so ridiculously low that common sense tells me it's time to refinance. So my husband and I have decided to take out a 15-year amortized loan. I checked with Golden 1 but its rates weren't as good as those I could get from my mortgage broker at Vitek Mortgage. The appraisal came in above value and the loan package was about to be submitted. At that point, my mortgage broker pointed out a comment on my credit report. It said "consumer disputes after resolution." Oh, crap.

A couple of years ago, I received my VISA statement that reflected a $9.00 charge I did not make. I had put the telephone number of that company into Google. Sure enough, I found a website where hundreds of people had written that this company was ripping them off. Most people would probably just pay a $9 charge but not me. Crooks tick me off. I called VISA to report that my credit card number had been stolen. VISA canceled the card and issued a new card. And therein lies the problem with the dispute after resolution.

Fortunately, my mortgage broker knows how to remove this from my credit report and has done so, but geez, Louise. If you're planning to do a refinance -- and who with equity would not in this market -- check your credit report to make sure there are no bogus dings. There are a lot of crooks out there nowadays.

Also, make sure you're dealing with a reputable mortgage broker. Sellers I met at an open house once and live over on Land Park Drive called me this week. They asked if I would send them comparable sales because their doofus appraiser used a Land Park short sale that I recently sold as a comparable sale. Those few short sales are not comparable sales for Land Park. I sent these sellers true comps, and sales that were not closed on the other side of Riverside, for crying out loud. Well, maybe if that doesn't work they'll end up getting their refinance through Vitek, too.

Photo: Big Stock Photo

Not all HAFA short sales in Sacramento have a happy ending but I am pleased to report that one of my short sales, having gone through the wringer, closed this week with a full release of seller liability from hard-money loans. First, let me say, that when you're pricing homes in Land Park, those prices can be all over the board, which is why it's important to hire a Land Park agent who knows what she is doing. It's even more important when it's a short sale.

You can have homes on the same block or across the street from each other priced dramatically different. That's why it's almost impossible to look at the price a neighbor got and think you can get the same price. There are other factors that come into play.

In addition to this, when you're dealing with a short sale, there is market value and there is the price a buyer is willing to pay to wait out the short sale, and those are often two different prices. Which is why buying a short sale in Land Park can be a bargain! I'm looking for that sweet spot -- the price I can justify to the bank, and the price a buyer will be overjoyed to pay.

I sold this particular home in Land Park twice. The first buyers grew antsy after 6 weeks and began to make cancellation noises. We were on the brink of acceptance from Chase Bank, which was playing hardball. The buyer's agent kept pushing for her buyers to view the property "just one more time," squawking continually, which told me the buyers were probably getting ready to cancel, even though the agent would not admit it.

Chase Bank had demanded a seller contribution from the sellers but reserved the right to pursue a deficiency judgment. This was hard money after all. A hard money loan can carry personal liability. After much negotiation, Chase finally agreed to do the short sale and agreed to release the sellers from liability. Eureka. Happy dance all around. When we delivered the news to the buyers, they canceled. Why did they cancel? I suspect it's because their buyer's agent could not manage their expectations and had already written an offer, despite the written promise not to do so, on another property. Which reminds me, I need to run those buyers through MLS.

Enter buyer number two the following day and his highly experienced buyer's agent. We went back into escrow at a slightly higher price. Because we had passed the April 1 deadline, I was able to slip this file into the HAFA short sale program. As a result, we received approval from Chase Bank in 2 weeks. Two weeks!!! This approval arrived without a demand for a seller contribution plus Chase Bank paid the sellers $3,000. See, there sometimes is a silver lining when a buyer flakes out, and that Sacramento short sale agent continues to fight the good fight.

After all, what would a Land Park seller prefer? Personal liability and a seller contribution? Or, release of liability and to be paid at the close of escrow by the bank? If you'd like more information about how a HAFA short sale works, call your Land Park Sacramento short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759.

Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub

OK, my hand is in the air, and I vote for roofer. When the temperature hits 115 in Sacramento, the last place anybody on Earth should want to be is on top of a hot tar roof. I mean, given the types of jobs a person can do in the construction industry, sweating in the hot summer sun some 10 feet in the air falls to the bottom of my list.

My neighbor in Land Park is putting on a new 50-year staggered-design comp roof. His old roof was shake, which didn't quite fit with the surrounding homes in Land Park. Most of the homes on my street were built in 1948.

When he's finished, he'll have new underlayment, R49 insulation in the attic, and an air circulation system in the eaves to keep down his utility bills.

I watched the roofers tear off his shake and the decaying underlayment. Then, as they were approaching the spot where the ladder was propped, one of them managed to stomp through the overhang and break a few boards. Which they will have to replace.

The roofers also started laying the OSB on the north side of the home yesterday morning, working their way around to the south side by mid-afternoon. You would think it would make more sense to start on the side that gets hotter in the afternoon in the morning instead.

But maybe that's why I am a Land Park agent and not a roofer.

Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub

How did I get to be almost 60 years old without ever going to Yellowstone National Park? Besides Old Faithful, Yellowstone has almost 300 waterfalls and it's the world's first national park. It's bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware put together. It has 10,000-some thermal features, petrified forests, exotic plants, calderas, weird wildlife and, at more than 2 million acres, a person can't see it all in a week.

So, come this fall, my husband and I are taking a vacation to Yellowstone. We planned this trip last year just before The National Parks by Ken Burns was released on DVD, figuring that we'd never get a reservation onsite in 2010 after that movie hit Netflix. The problem with going to Yellowstone is it's in the middle of nowhere, which means you pretty much have to drive there. Even with flying into Jackson, Wyoming, it's still a 3- to 4-hour drive. And of course, there are no direct flights into Jackson from Sacramento.

The average altitude in Jackson Hole valley is about 6,500 feet above sea level. That's higher than Denver. Most of Yellowstone is over 7,500 feet. Yikes. I realize that adjusting to high altitudes takes a few days because the oxygen level is much lower the higher you go. Hey, I used to live in Colorado. Plus, high altitudes can make you dizzy and give you nausea.  So, to sort of ease into it, we're planning to take an extra day and spend the night in Jackson, Wyoming. Have you ever looked online at 5-star hotel rates in Jackson, Wyoming? You wouldn't think that a place in the middle of nowhere would charge $1,000 a night for a hotel room, but there is such a hotel in Jackson.

I suspect people who would spend $1,000 a night for a hotel room are the same people who might light their cigars with a $100 bill. It's not that I couldn't afford to pay $1,000 a night for a hotel room, but why would I want to? You don't get enough bang for your buck. It's still just a hotel room. Hair dryer, tub and bed. The TV doesn't rise up and vanish into the ceiling. There's no Jacuzzi or dancing bears in the room. Butlers aren't dangling grapes over my head. Nobody is massaging my feet . . .

If you'd like a lot of bang for your buck and you're a home buyer who is looking at homes in Land Park, I just listed a very special home at a great price. This is a 3-bedroom, 2-bath 1940 Tudor, featuring all the little nooks, crannies and woodwork vintage you'd expect to find in a Squeaky Williams home. As an added bonus, there is a large room over the 2-car garage that can be used for guest quarters, a hobby space, art studio or workout room. It's accessed by a genuine spiral staircase inside the garage.

The sellers remodeled the kitchen a few years ago, and it's gorgeous. Granite counters, maple cabinets, wood flooring, stainless appliances, including a counter-depth, built-in Sub Zero refrigerator. The breakfast nook area has a wood ceiling. Off the other end of the kitchen is a laundry room, with drawers for holding laundry supplies and maple cabinets, plus the counter over the space for the front-loading washer and dryer is attached by Velcro, so it can be removed to put your own washer and dryer in that space.

In the living room and dining room, you'll find hammered wood beams and crown molding. Almost all of the flooring is original oak hardwood. Each of the bedrooms has unique architectural characteristics crafted from wood. There is a fireplace in the living room and another fireplace in the master.

The master suite has wood vaults, too, plus a spacious bath with a skylight, dual-sink custom vanity and 3 cedar-lined closets. There is also a separate area for a desk and computer. From the master, you can access the back-yard deck through French doors. But you can also get to the back yard from the dining room. The fenced yard has a flagstone walkway, gardens and 2 mature alders.

3109 16th Street, Sacramento, CA 95818 is exclusively offered by Lyon Real Estate and Elizabeth Weintraub at an affordable price of $499,000. For a private showing, please call your Land Park agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759.

View the virtual tour of 3109 16th Street.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

UPDATE: AUGUST 2010 THIS HOME IS NO LONGER FOR SALE.

Home buyers in Sacramento often tend to put too much emphasis on the list price. I've heard buyers say they won't pay list price for any home, and I send those buyers elsewhere. Well, not at first, of course. I try to educate them. What if the home is underpriced? But you can't always pound a square peg into a round hole.

Some listings are overpriced homes, some are priced at market value as a highly desirable home, some are underpriced. Especially when you're looking at homes in Land Park. This Sacramento neighborhood is popular because of its close proximity to downtown, its stately and classic homes, and its tree-canopied streets, among other reasons.

A buyer told me a few weeks ago that the home she is buying is not a terrific bargain because she paid the seller's asking price. I don't know if she really believes that or if she was hoping that I could work more of my magic and get her a concession. The thing is she bought a home within a few hours of it hitting the market. That listing attracted multiple offers. Her offer was the winning offer, due in part to the way I structured it. She was lucky to buy this home at all.

Plus, after she fixes it up and sells this home, whether it's a few years from now or decades, this home will still hold the same appeal that it did when she bought it. Which means buyers will fight for it. She will own a treasured commodity. See, the time to think about selling a home is when you buy it. Other buyers down the road will jump on that desirable home in Land Park for the same reasons this buyer did.

On the other hand, I closed a transaction this month in which a Land Park home was listed dramatically under the market. I recognized its value immediately. It had been pending and fell out of escrow. When I saw it come back on the market, I notified my buyer and he submitted an offer. I managed to get my grubby little paws on his lender's appraisal and my eyes popped out of my head. It appraised for 12% more than the sales price. In a market where low appraisals are often the norm.

If you're trying to buy a home in Land Park, you might want to ask yourself: How much is this home worth? Not how much the seller is asking. List prices can be deceptive. A Land Park agent knows the values in Land Park. If you want an edge, then work with a neighborhood specialist. This is true not only in Land Park but anywhere in the country. Otherwise, you might be throwing offers at a wall and none of them will stick.

Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub, corner of 12th Avenue and Land Park Drive

One sure-fired way to help conserve water in Sacramento is to grow drought-tolerant plants. When a winter storm in January 2008 took out my birch trees, I decided to remove part of my deck and turn that area into a garden filled with cacti and succulents. Not that I knew much about cacti but I'm one of those people who enjoys learning new things by implementation first, studying later.

For example, when I buy a new piece of technology, I rarely read the manual. Probably because I don't want to read 150 pages translated from another language into English to figure out how to turn a gizmo on and off. I like things that are intuitive, solving puzzles myself.

Today, I am trying to figure out what kind of cactus I planted in my back yard. Another person might have determined whether the cactus was suitable for a particular location, type of soil and weather before planting it, but not me. I stick it in the ground and worry about it later. As a land park agent, I see lots of homes in Land Park with cactus and / or succulents growing in yards. It might be a pear cactus tucked away by a fence and sheltered from the elements or, more commonly, Echeverias, because they are so easy to grow in Land Park.

When I planted my barrel cactus 2 1/2 years ago, it was about 5-inches tall. Now it's over four feet. I have discovered there are two types of barrel cactus genera: echinocactus and ferocactus. This cactus is a ferocactus pilosus. Its common name is a Mexican Lime Cactus. In the spring it sports gorgeous red cactus flowers.

Usually this cactus gets little pups sprouting off its base. Sometimes I cut them off and throw them away or else I plant them. But check out the ring of pups on this baby now. They are growing not at the base but around its neck like a necklace. If I leave them alone, this cactus will most likely turn into a work of art. But isn't all of nature a work of art?

Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub, ferocactus pilosus in Land Park, Sacramento

The New York Times says parents who are addicted to technology could be adversely affecting their children. It's parents' constant use of cellphones and instant messaging that can cause children to feel hurt and ignored. The article describes how a boy, 2 1/2 years old, tried to get his mother's attention while she was looking at her BlackBerry. This kid whined, tugged at his mother's leg and, in a moment of final frustration, bit her. It struck home because that's exactly what my cats do when I'm on the computer.

My cats start out by meowing at me. Doesn't matter which one, all 3 of them do it. I'm often so engrossed with my Land Park real estate business that I usually don't even hear them. I tune out their cries for attention. When ignored, my cat will then stand on his hind legs and pat my arm several times with his front paw. It's what I call the "Hello, do you have any Grey Poupon?" maneuver. I continue working. At this point, the cat either stomps away or CHOMP, he bites me, take your pick. Cats aren't stupid.

They don't break my skin. They just put their teeth on my arm as a not-so-subtle reminder that they could eat me in my sleep if they wanted to. That's what happens to some people, you know. Like that commercial, "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up." An older person could suddenly keel over and, in that position, be unable to feed the cats. Sooner or later, the starving cats will eat that person clutching the table leg for dear life; they don't care. They're hungry.

I'd like to think that if I had a heart attack or something and collapsed, my cats would be smart enough to dance on my cell and tap Sacto 9-1-1. But the truth is if my husband wasn't around, they would eventually eat me. Believe me, yours would do it to you, too.

Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub, Brandon in Land Park, Sacramento

A few years back, I listed a home in Land Park for a seller who had lost his mother. We talked about staging the home, but the seller refused. He couldn't bear to disturb any of his mother's belongings until the home sold. His mother's artwork collection hung on the walls, her knickknacks were everywhere, and all of the flooring was covered in worn carpeting, which made it difficult to sell that home. Without staging, the home reflected his mother and held little appeal for home buyers. But that's what the seller wanted. His home, his choice to make; not mine.

Many months later, we eventually sold it and for more than list price, too. Imagine the buyer's astonishment when she pulled up the carpeting to discover wide-plank, beveled hardwood floors throughout. The floors were in immaculate condition because they had not been exposed for probably more than 40 years. If the floors had been uncovered during the sale process, that home would have quickly sold and most likely for a lot more money. Those floors were icing on the cake for that buyer.

However, not all of the homes in Land Park have hardwood flooring under carpeting. The fact is buyers don't know what's under the carpeting until all of the carpeting is removed. I know some buyers will sneak into a closet and tug at the corner of the carpeting to look at what's under it. While that will give you a clue, it won't tell you if the entire room has hardwood floors. Buyers also do not have the right to mess around with a seller's carpeting. Carpeting is a fixture. Buyers are not allowed to pull up a corner of the carpeting without the seller's permission.

While the odds are if hardwood floors are exposed in one of the bedrooms, the other bedrooms most likely have hardwood floors, even if they are covered with carpeting or area rugs. But buyers simply do not know the condition of those floors nor if those floors are actually wood, much less hardwood. If a home has had extensive pest work, part of the floors might be plywood or some other kind of replacement material. Who's to say that the seller might not have overwatered a plant and ruined the hardwood floors, like I managed to do in the middle of my living room? Or, as gross as it sounds, pets could have urinated on the carpeting and into the hardwood.

When I bought my home in Land Park, the home had carpeting throughout. Lovely stretched-out orange shag in the family room, too. Today, all of that carpeting is gone. My floors are hardwood, bamboo, Marmoleum and ceramic tile. The bamboo and Marmoleum are considered green home improvements. I had hoped for hardwood throughout, but only my living room and dining room have hardwood floors. I was a little disappointed when I discovered that not all of my floors were hardwood, but that comes with the territory.

A buyer who bought a home in Land Park found out the hard way that his new home did not have hardwood flooring throughout on the day that escrow closed. Imagine his shock when he discovered the pest company workers were still in one of the bedrooms working on the flooring when he showed up to get the keys. The carpeting was yanked back to expose sheets of plywood and what appeared to be OSB. To say this buyer was a little disappointed is an understatement. But this was a bank-owned home. It was sold in its "as is" condition. The pest workers say the floor was already destroyed when they began the pest work.

It's enough to make you cry.

Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub

A survey released last month by Zillow showed consumers spend more time buying a car than shopping for a mortgage to buy a home. However, when you look closely at that survey, it makes sense. There might be more to buying a car than researching a mortgage. For one thing, you've got to decide on which car to buy. I think consumers start with the manufacturer, then they choose a model and, finally, they select options and discuss delivery dates.

When choosing a mortgage, home buyers are buying a bag of money. All money is the same. It's the cost of that money that varies.

Once a buyer chooses a product, whether it's a car or a mortgage, the only thing left to decide is from whom a buyer will purchase that product. I recall shopping for a car in Orange County back in the 1980s. While talking to a dealer about buying a specific vehicle, the sales manager brought up his competition. He began to explain why his dealership and vehicles were better than his competitor. Before he said that, I had been ready to sign on the dotted line. However, now that he had told me about a competitor, I decided to go to that competitor myself and check out a different car . . . which I ended up buying from his competitor. Talk about over-educating the consumer.

Now, another factor to consider, beyond the cost of that bag of money for a mortgage, is the performance level of the individual who will be handling a borrower's loan. Lately, it seems that borrowers, especially first-time home buyers, are spending more time comparing lenders to each other. Borrowers examine Good Faith Estimates and APR rates. They negotiate hard on that 1/8th percentile difference. They generally spend zero time asking about performance.

If a lender can't close a loan by the estimated closing date, it doesn't much matter whose bag of money a buyer is grabbing. Delays in closing can result in any of the following:

• Cancellation of contract
• Loss of home buyer tax credit
• Per Diem charge when buying a foreclosure
• Renegotiation of a short sale approval
• Inability to move into a new home over a specific weekend
• Domino collapse when selling and buying concurrently
• Loss of movers at month end
• Having no place to live because new tenants are moving into your rental

One of my Land Park buyers is closing escrow this week. He had his lender all lined up when were looking at homes in Land Park. But when he made the offer on a bank-owned home, that bank told him he had to choose its own bank for a loan if he wanted the bank to pay his closing costs. So, let's see. If he goes with Bank A, he gets more than $10,000. If he chooses Bank B, he gets nothing. Well, that's a no-brainer.

But I was prepared for a delay. It was practically inevitable. One of the ways I handle this sort of thing is to give the REO bank an addendum that specifies escrow will close on X day without additional cost to the buyer. Yup, I come right out and ask for it. Even though the contract says the buyer will pay X $ amount for each day the buyer runs past the closing date. An experienced Land Park agent can help a buyer to avoid paying those penalties.

Photo: Big Stock Photo

Lockbox day came and went on Saturday. But I didn't have time to collect all of my lockboxes from my closings last week because one of my Land Park / Curtis Park buyers needed me to draft a Request for Repair. Picking up lockboxes falls to the bottom of my priority list when a client calls.

I had tried to remove the lockbox from a certain Sacramento listing the day after closing, but the buyers had locked the exterior screen door. My lockbox was attached to the inside door handle. Usually I put them on the gas meter, as long as the gas meter is not behind a locked gate, for this very reason.

My transaction coordinator called the buyer's agent to find out when the buyers would be home so I could gain access to my lockbox. It was possible that these buyers weren't very happy when this transaction closed. That's because they thought they were getting a free pool table but the seller took it.

When the buyers did their final walk-through with their buyer's agent, they discovered the pool table had been moved out. They were very upset, according to their agent. In fact, their agent suggested that I should compensate the buyers for their loss. This was the same agent who wrote an offer for these buyers over list price and forgot to ask the sellers to pay the buyer's closing costs, which the buyers were counting on. Neither the buyers nor their agent noticed that little snafu until the file was ready to be submitted to underwriting.

The thing is if a buyer wants personal property, the request for that personal property should really be in writing. The agent did not make a verbal nor a written request. Not by email, not by addendum. When I sent the sellers' acceptance of offer to the agent, I included the contact information for the title company and let the agent know that the sellers would be willing to leave the pool table if the buyers wanted it. The agent replied "Excellent." But the agent did not ask for the pool table. What did excellent mean? I interpreted that word to mean the agent was happy that the buyers' offer was accepted.

So when I picked up my lockbox yesterday, I passed on the sellers' message that the pool table had been purchased years ago from Sears for $229. It was missing nuts and bolts and screws. They were probably better off without it. I'm not even sure they really looked at it because in an effort to stage the home, I had the sellers cover it up with a tablecloth, disguising it as a dining room table. Hey, what are you gonna do when you've got a pool table smack dab in the middle of your dining room?

I didn't want to bad mouth their agent. That would serve no purpose at all. Sometimes agents make mistakes. We all do. It's the nature of the real estate business in Sacramento right now. Instead, it's better to focus on the positive aspects -- which were the buyers got their dream home and the sellers were able to close escrow 5 weeks from listing that home for sale.

Photo: Bumble Bee on Lavender in Land Park, by Elizabeth Weintraub