Sacramento Real Estate by Julie Jalone
Keep it Real in Sacramento - January 2007
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Sacramento Real Estate by Julie Jalone Keep it Real in Sacramento - January 2007
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Inventory
going up...again! I got an email yesterday from a reader asking if I was ignoring the available housing
inventory since I had predicted it wouldn’t start rising until late February or early March. I have been watching it closely and although we are still below where we were as of the first of the year
the number of homes now on the market, according to my friends over at HousingTracker, has been going up the past few weeks. We started the year with 13,199 homes
on the market in the For the agents I have
been talking to, showing activity remains strong and this morning I met with Brad L’Engle of Comstock Mortgage and he
has had more activity this month than he normally sees in January and is feeling pretty good about the outlook for 2007. If you are looking for a lender or just some great tools and resources about mortgages
take a look at bradlengle.com.
What
was that? Did I really use the term, "end of the week?"
I clearly forgot the business I am in. This week just runs into next and and the days keep coming. Sunday turned out to be
another busy day as I showed a few houses and presented an offer. Notice I didn't say fax an offer. I actually met face to
face with the listing agent and walked her through my clients situation and the offer they are making. I personally believe
the agents involved in a transaction should have a working relationship and open communication. Most of my recent rants have
involved agents who believe sending a fax is communication . An offer is exactly that, an offer and the fact that I hand delivered it does not
necessarily give it greater probability of being accepted but at least if there is a question or concern I am confident the
seller's agent knows I am available and ready to help. This working relationship will become more important if there are counter
offers and as the transaction moves through the the various contingency periods and finally to the close of escrow. Agents
working together in the interest of their respective clients get homes bought and sold with as little stress on our clients
as possible. BTW, I wrote the above entry today using the Zoho Writer, an on line word processor. It is pretty cool!
End
of a busy week Over the past few days I have been showing houses to my new clients who are moving
here from Earlier in the week Michael
and I had the pleasure to meet with Marie Taylor of Taylor Strategic Marketing. She is a very interesting person and had some good
suggestions for us to think about when it comes to my business. During our conversation
Marie mentioned that 51 percent of adult women live alone. As a Realtor I have
had so many more single women clients than single men, so my interest was peaked. I
love the Internet, a quick search and I found a recent article, “Real Estate: Who is buying now,” published on CNNMoney.com. The article confirms Marie’s
point; the real estate market is changing. It goes on to point out how our demographics
and social norms are changing the real estate market. The average home buyer
today is very different compared to buyers of the past. It is an interesting
article and worth reading and thinking about, especially for us in the real estate business. Time to hit the road and
find the more traditional family a great home! BTW, Congratulations to Blaine
and Kara on their wonderful new home!
Offer:
Why waste the paper? When I am representing
a seller and get a low offer I am not offended. I just read a post by one of
the other consistent Here is my latest rant, we
received a well prepared offer on one of my listings, okay, not that good especially in regards to pricing, the offer was
$25,000 or 5.9 percent below the asking price we had just reduced to. Still the
offer appeared to be in the realm of negotiating. The ones that are 90 percent
or less of the asking price are almost impossible to find a middle ground. We
countered back with reasonable drop to show a willingness to negotiate and asked for a response the next day. My first hint this was going to be “Twilight Zone” experience was the buyer’s agent who
told me his buyer was not available until Tuesday because she works. Must be
a tough place with no lunch breaks or time off for over 72 hours! We waited;
they eventually countered back with no courtesy call from the agent and only came up a few thousand dollars. Before we could respond I
got a message from the agent saying his client wanted rescind her offer because she could not afford the higher amount. This is a recurring rant
about agents who don’t have any common sense or lack the ability to pick up the phone.
Why waste time, emotions and paper on proposing deals that have no chance. Had
the agent called me and said we looked at you house, my client loves it but can only afford so much I would have told him,
don’t write the offer but I will call you if we get into a position where that price will work. Making a low offer with no room to negotiate is a waste of time.
This is especially true when the house has just been reduced and relatively new on the market. This agent is not doing much more than sitting on his name! Hang in there Ms. Seller!
You have a beautiful home in a great neighborhood and the right buyer will come along.
Rocklin Recently I have written about the For those of you who sent
me an email about Kevyn and Dave and their honeymoon trip to
Roseville Review The other
day I used my Rocklin & Roseville column to review the It has been a pretty good
week here, with an offer being accepted on my
Final real estate review for 2006 The numbers are out, the Sacramento Bee and others have published stories and I have dedicated my column at Rocklin & Roseville Today to our
More houses for sale For the first
time since August of last year we have seen a week when more houses have come on the market than were sold or taken off. HousingTracker reported a one week gain in Last week I said, “My
current thinking is we will see inventory continue to decline but as we move into late February and March it will slow and
may even begin to build by the end of the quarter.” Those folks who removed their houses from the market during the
holidays have come back faster than I anticipated.
National news front In their latest
forecast for the The reports of improvement
in the national real estate market continue to flow as the Mortgage Bankers Association reported the volume of applications
for loans to purchase homes rose 16.2 percent compared to the previous week and is at the highest level in nearly a year. The volume was up about 3 percent compared to the same time last year. For more information see, “Mortgage applications surge”. I
enjoy reading about the national trends but understand real estate is a local business and our market here in the greater
The folks hoping that we have found a bottom and now breathing a sigh of relief at some of the recent news that sales
have picked up and inventories are coming down are not seeing the big picture.
Talk to a human I came across a cool website the other day and thought I would
pass it along. It is gethuman.com and is all about how to get a live person when calling an 800 number. Let me know if you like it – juliej@jalone.com.
Fun in Yuba City I love my job!
Right now I am working with a young It was fun watching Tony
and Randi get excited about the houses we were looking at. After the tour we
returned to the condo and did a detailed walk through to determine what needs to be done to prepare the property for the market. We developed a punch list of tasks and discussed where best to spend money getting
it ready for the market. I got a call from Randi earlier
this week letting me know she and Tony were hard at work getting ready to paint and completing some of the tasks I suggested
be done. They really do have a nice condo and with a few updates and some paint
will market well. Getting to help clients
who want to help themselves is a pleasure and although
Disposable Agent? My
friend, colleague and team member, Traci Butler, just experienced one of the most demoralizing aspects of being a caring Realtor. Here is what Traci told me, “This is a friend and neighbor who I keep in contact with socially and
genuinely like. I had no idea they were thinking of moving. We had discussed her willingness to refer me and I expected that
if she were ever to move she would contact me.” If you want
to hear the rest of the story, check out my column today, “Realtor’s Nightmare” over at Rocklin & Roseville Today. Traci is a great agent and has some interesting observations.
Is this the kind of agent you want? After agreeing to a
purchase price on one my listings I received a fax from the buyer’s agent. It
read as follows: Before faxing over
the counter offer #2, I am to request 3% commission. With the market condition,
we can help our client to find quality home for lower price, plus 3% commission. We
did our best to sell your home, and ask for only half percent more. Would you
rather pay $x,xxx extra, and close it within 30 days? Please fax over your
adjustment of 3%, so we can move forward. Since when does the agent
dictate the terms for his buyers and apparently without their knowledge? Clearly,
in every profession there are low life participants who only think about making an extra buck even if it hurts the client
they are supposedly serving. By the way in this case the scum sucker is a lender
who is making a second fee for putting the loan together.
Could this be a sign? No surprise that inventory of available homes in the Are you going to buy or sell a home in the
next few months? I am looking for a client who would be willing to share the
details including some writing in my blog. I would like to chronicle a transaction
from start to finish and am looking for the right client who is willing to share the details.
If you are interested in talking about participating, give me a call at 916 276-6883 or email me at juliej@jalone.com.
New Year but not much new It is a slow news time for I am working on an offer
on one of my listings. Unfortunately, I believe it is from the kind of buyer
I refer to as a “bottom sucker.” They generally ask a Realtor to
make offers on multiple homes at a percentage of asking price. They do not even
go look at the house unless the seller shows interest in accepting the offer. They
are looking for situations where they can take advantage of a desperate seller.
I wish the seller’s agent would pick up the phone and ask if my buyer is willing to consider accepting an offer
$60,000 below asking and pay all closing costs. We could have saved time and
a ream of paper. By the way, my husband Michael
and I hosted a dinner last night for a favorite client and my friend, Robin, who referred her to me. Michael loved being with three fabulous women and we had a great time.
Even though the Roseville Melting Pot is easier for us and it is owned by the same family as the one in Downtown Sacramento,
it is no where as good in terms of food and service. I also noted it was not
as busy as it was when if first opened so I must not be the only one who feels this way.
Welcome 2007 A brand new year
full of promise has arrived. I have been reading several articles indicating
the Greater Sacramento real estate market will be pretty much the same as it was in 2006.
My optimism does not allow me to agree with that point of view. I am not
predicting any magic recovery for our market but I do believe we will see increases in sales activity, inventory returning
to lower levels and by summer even some modest price increases that will be called a trend. For me personally, I am confident
it will be another good year. Our small group of real estate professionals is
coming together well and this will be a year of growth for us both in terms of size and customer service. I also know that I will meet many people during the year and some of them will become friends. At the same time I realize I will have some of the same frustrations I have experienced in the past, agents
who serve themselves more than their clients and people who say one thing and do another. All in all the New Year with
hopes and promise are exciting and I am happy to be here. By the way, we are working on
Julie’s Newsletter for January and it is not too late to sign up to receive the first edition of 2007. Remember this is not one of those, how to sell your house newsletters and you won’t find any cheese
dip recipes but it is full of interesting stories and fun facts about the current month.
If you would like to be added to the mail list, please click here. There are no obligations and we won’t spam you!
Happy New Year Have a great day!
Copyright © 2002-2006 Lyon Real Estate and its agents are licensed by the Department of Real Estate, State of Logo copyright © Lyon Real Estate ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Helping you buy and sell real estate in: |
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