We left summer behind yesterday and arrived in Anchorage where they have been experiencing a wet and cool summer. At least it is nice to get away from the smoke for a few days. We are here for a family wedding and a trip to Homer to visit Michael’s daughter Kevyn and her husband Dave.
We have a good team to cover for me while we are away and I have my phone and email so hopefully we can get some work done and have some fun with family here too.
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24-hours in a day are not enough, remember the story of the mayonnaise jar and the two beers.
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “yes.”
The professor then produced two beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
“Now,” said the professor as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things, your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions. If only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car and the sand is everything else, the small stuff.”
“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.”
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled and said, “I’m glad you asked, the beer just shows that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of beers with a friend.” –Author unknown
Take care of the golf balls in your life first, the parts of your life that really matter. Set your priorities right, the rest is just sand.
Why We Drink Beer
In an episode of Cheers, Cliff is seated at the bar explaining the Buffalo theory of drinking beer to his buddy Norm…
Well, you see Norm, it’s like this. A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it’s the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.
In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weakest brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.
I have been feeling the softness in the Sacramento real estate market for the past few weeks. My first indication things were slowing down is when I had to put one of my short sale listings back on the market after the buyer backed out just as the lender approved the transaction. This house on Roseville Street in Roseville is very cute, priced right and after we had it in contract had to turn away Realtors and potential buyers. I thought this would be a snap to get another offer, especially since the short sale negotiations are virtually done. We have now had it back on the market for a few weeks and not a single offer has come through. This is a house that earlier this spring had multiple offers and tons of interest in.
If you are interested in learning more about what is happening in the real estate market and where we are here in the Sacramento area, take a look at my column, “Some Steam has Left the Market” over at Rocklin & Roseville Today and
Sacramento Today.
I have watched this show in the past and always think, where do they get these 
people, I would never do that! Well that was before yesterday when I got an email from the show’s producer asking me to consider being on the show. Evidently they are looking for a “wife” who is also a Realtor and they found my website, www.jalone.com. I thought for sure Michael and Mikie would have fit and not want me to do it. I was wrong; Mikie really wants to do it. I think he likes the idea of him being on TV. Michael was a bit less enthusiastic but encouraged me to at least talk to the producer. He thinks I would make a great participant but could see me having a meltdown if they sent me to house that was dirty or had reptile pets. He thought it would be good exposure for my business, “…if you behave yourself!” On the other hand he is not sure about having a “new wife” in the house.
Everyone I mention it to laughs first then encourages me to do the interview. Maybe they know something I don’t? What do you think? Send me an email at juliej@jalone.com and let me know.
The blistering heat has been replaced by smoke. I am not sure exactly where it is coming from but it is pretty think here in the Roseville/Rocklin area today. The weekend went by way to quickly and here we are scrambling to get the week off on a good start. This morning I have been adding a few new listings. We have a great home out in Morgan Creek. It is a custom home on the golf course and has some spectacular design elements. You can see some of the photos and find a link to the virtual tour at Caspian Court. If you are not in the market for an estate maybe this new short sale in the Crocker Ranch area of Natomas will interest you. It is the gated community of Laureate and is a former model so you know it has the upgrades you are looking for. Check it out at Morella Circle. Last but not least is a nice halfplex that would make a nice first home for a small family or an investment property. It has been completely remodeled inside and shows very well. See more photos at Laehr Drive.
Now that school is out and summer has officially arrived I am sensing some of the spring rush has left the market. Clearly there are still buyers out there but the early rush seems to have been replaced with a much more calculated approach to buying. We are getting calls on the listings, potential buyers are going back for the third and fourth time and offers are not coming in as quickly. Based on past experience we should have a steady market for the next month or so and then we can expect a slowdown as parents get ready to get their kids back in school. This year in Rocklin, school starts on August 19th. Whatever happened to going back to school after Labor Day?
If you read the headline in the Sacramento Bee this morning, “Home Sales up for 2nd month” it might give you a feeling that our real estate market is doing pretty well after almost three years of slumping. Don’t get me wrong, I am feeling optimistic about eventually getting back to a balanced real estate market but when you get behind some of the numbers it is pretty clear we have a ways to go.
Compared to a year ago, there were over 47 percent more sales of existing homes in Sacramento County during May than a year ago and up 154 sales from April to 1,827 closed escrows. This is a significant increase but for Placer County the news was not as positive. Sales or existing homes in Placer was down 24 percent from last May to 473 sales and this number was down 6.5 percent in the past month. Nevada County sales were also down while Amador, El Dorado, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties all experienced increase.
Prices of existing residences in all eight counties were down year over year. Not surprisingly, Sacramento had the largest decline at almost 36 percent. Placer was down 24.6 percent and Amador experienced the smallest decline, 18 percent. Only Yolo and Yuba counties had a price increase from the previous month.
Total sales for May in the eight county region totaled 3,420 which is up 204 from April but this number does not compare well to May 2004 when over 6,700 homes were sold.
The pressure on price will continue as long as we have excess inventory available. The good news is that even with the continued increase in foreclosures inventory has actually been declining over the past few months during a time when you would expect to have more houses coming on the market than
Check back tomorrow, I want to give my thoughts on the declining prices we are still seeing.
When I recently explained to a potential client what I would need him to do to successfully complete a short sale he said it sounded like a lot of work and maybe it was easier to just let the bank foreclose on his home. Making a short sale request to your lenders is almost like applying for the loans again and it does take time to prepare your request but there are some distinct advantages to using a short sale to avoid foreclosure. If you are interested in learning more, check out my column, “Foreclosure vs. Short Sale,” over at Rocklin & Roseville Today and Sacramento Today.
Where did Father’s Day weekend go? At our house it seemed so go by very quickly and here we are starting another busy week. I may be starting to feel the pressure of getting ready to go on vacation but it seems the Sacramento real estate market is showing no signs of slowing down.
We have continued to see a activity in the Sacramento short sale market as we picked up two new listings last week and as important, successfully finalized two short sale lender negotiations. Once we get the lender to accept the short sale proposal the purchase of the homes can start the normal closing process. I always enjoy having transactions complete but there is some extra satisfaction when they are short sales.
Check out our new listings from last week. Robin Sweigart has two new listings in Granite Bay’s prestigious Cavitt Ranch Estates. One is a spectacular luxury home with panoramic views on over four acres and the other may be the best view lot, if you can call 7.7 acres of land a lot, in Granite Bay. You can see the home here and the lot here. Tina Farinas added two new short sale listings. The first is a nice home in a great Elk Grove neighborhood and the second stretches our geographic boundaries and is our first ever listing in San Joaquin County. It is another short sale in the picturesque town of Lathrop.
If the week goes as fast as the weekend it will be Friday soon!
Many lenders have dedicated staff to deal with short sales and some appear to have developed a process that works for them. Where the problem occurs is the volume of requests for short sales. It overwhelms the negotiators and others who deal with borrowers and Realtors who are requesting short sale consideration. Yesterday, we were talking to a negotiator for a lender who when we asked her to call us back with some additional information she didn’t have, said, “I have over 200 people just like you that want me to call them, just send me a new closing statement with the amount I want or this can go to foreclosure.”
Lenders are doing themselves a disservice by not staffing up these departments and allowing the negotiators to think before they act. The cost to some of these companies is huge, rather than recovering a few thousand dollars they will spend up to $60,000 in the foreclosure process and end up with nothing.
The answer here is to change the process and make the Realtor a partner not an adversary. Talk to us before we list the house, determine what a fair price is, work out the payoff needed and let us get it for them. It would make our jobs as Realtor’s easier, buyers would know if the bank is going to accept the short sale request and the lenders would reduce the workload and improve their bottom lines.
The trend is clear; we are not going to be seeing the normal buildup of inventory of homes in the Sacramento real estate market this year. Normally starting in late February or early March the number of homes coming on the market is faster than sales so inventory of available homes increases until August. Going into the spring, inventory was already high but instead of increasing it has actually declined. As of June 9, according to HousingTracker, there were 14,670 homes on the market in the Sacramento area. This level of inventory is down 4.2 percent in the past three months and down 11.5 percent from six months ago. Again this is particularly noteworthy that the decline is happening during a time of year when we would expect to see inventory growing.
The decline in inventory is a direct result of more homes being sold than houses being put on the market. Yes, sales are up but I also believe there are homeowners who, although they would like to sell are holding off until they see if the market will improve.
In the latest report from HousingTracker, the median asking price of homes on the market was $305,000. This is down $2,000 from the week before but holding level from a month ago. Compared to six months ago the median asking price is down almost 10 percent and off 23.4 percent from a year ago. If inventory continues to decline there will be some pressure on prices to increase but I am not making any predictions in this area as I think it will be mid-2009 before we may see any firming of prices and some balance in the market.