Paula Swayne's Land Park Blog

There are essentially 2 different kinds of negotiations that take place during an escrow.  The first is the negotiation of the contract itself…price, terms, etc.  The second is the negotiation of repairs.

A diligent Realtor will strongly encourage a home inspection.  The inspector should be knowledgeable of construction, electrical, plumbing, heat and air, roof, etc.  When he or she has completed their inspection, they will deliver to the Realtor and the buyer a written report of their findings.  Some summarize their findings at the beginning of the report, the details and photos following.  The terminology that the inspector uses can quite often determine how the buyer and agent reacts.  The terminology I would like to discuss here is “health and safety issues”.

There may be findings that reflect issues with possible asbestos issues, knob and tube wiring, fire doors from the garage to the interior of the house, GFI’s in the kitchen and baths, unlined fireplaces.  Sometimes the inspector refers to these items as “health and safety issues”…and they may be. However, asking for these items to be repairs because of this label is another story.

There is no place in the California Residential Purchase Agreement that says a seller must repair health and safety issues.  In fact, the contract states that the buyers are purchasing the home in its present condition.  Requesting repairs by justifying them as “health and safety issues” simply doesn’t apply and should not be used as an excuse.

Sellers should be informed that, even though the contract says that the buyers are purchasing the home as it sits, that they will probably receive a request for repairs.  Buyers should be informed that even though the sellers are not obligated to do repairs as part of the contract, most sellers will agree to reasonable requests.  That request just shouldn’t be in the guise of “health and safety issues”.  This terminology doesn’t make it any more legitimate and Realtors should be knowledgeable enough to not need this terminology to ask for reasonable repairs.

Tags: Health and Safety Issues

When you decided it was time to own a home of your own, did it seem completely overwhelming?  According to a 2009 survey, 90% of all buyers started their process by going on the Internet.  On average, you looked at 12 homes over a 3 month period.  Your favorite method was the Internet, with a real estate agent coming next and the third most popular was signage. All other methods dropped dramatically after these 3.

I sincerely believe that there is a better, more efficient way to find your dream home.  There is a way to easily learn the process and actually have a positive experience.  The surprising thing is that there aren’t more buyers using this method.  I am sure you want to know the secret…and here it is…

Hire a Realtor.  No, not after you have spent 3 months on the Internet.  Now.  Not after you have been touring homes for months on your own.  NOW! Why? Well…

• As a buyer, it doesn’t cost you a dime. (The caveat here is that you haven’t signed a buyer/broker agreement…that is your choice.)
• After you have shared the features you want in your home, your Realtor can wade through all of the properties that aren’t what you want, so you aren’t wasting valuable time looking at properties that won’t work for you.
• Your Realtor can recommend lenders that have shown themselves to be professionals that will work hard for your best interests.
• Your Realtor will write a contract that protects you and at the same time is acceptable to a seller.
• Your Realtor will recommend home inspectors and help you through the repair negotiations.
• Your Realtor will be with you when you sign your buyers documents to be certain that they adhere to the contract.

You don’t have to do this on your own.  Reach out to friends and family to discover their recommendations for Realtors that have done an excellent job for them.  Interview those Realtors to find one that you feel comfortable with.  Then…enjoy the experience!

For those of you who are following the big controversy about the “River Crossing“, this Wednesday would be a great day to attend the monthly meeting of the Land Park Community Association.  You will have the opportunity to listen to some of the proposed solutions to the need of West Sacramento to have better access to Sacramento as well as to ask questions.

Also, we will have the opportunity to learn more about theSetzer property and its proposed development.  This should be of particular interest to residents west of Riverside Blvd as well as Realtors specializing in the area.

Also, we will be voting in 3 new board members to fill in vacated positions…so if you are a member, this is your chance to have a representative that reflects your viewpoint.

If you would like to attend, the meeting will be at Eskaton on Freeport Blvd at 6:30PM this Wednesday, August 18th.  We would love to see you there!

We are suppose to be professionals, but there are times when the general public really makes it difficult – the ending result being our human side coming out in unrestrained laughter.  This generally happens when we are touring homes.  I don’t know if the agent didn’t know how to approach their sellers or simply chose not to.  Anyway, here are a few items that will give us agents some hilarity or just a plain ewww:

Please don’t leave the whips and chains hanging on the back of the bedroom door!

While hanging a sexy-posed photograph of yourself over the bed may have initiated a new enthusiasm for your relationship, it is just a little too much information for visitors!

Square dancing may be a great way to exercise and a wonderful hobby, but filling an entire bedroom with your netting skirts makes it just a little difficult to actually see the room!

You may want to remodel enough so the toilet isn’t still situated in the middle of the house, to be viewed by all!
Please, oh please, if you are not going to flush the toilet, at least put the lid down!

I know that California is very near legalizing pot, but it probably isn’t a good idea to leave your bong out…some of us actually know what it is!

Just for clarity, these events are true..they have not been altered to protect the innocent!  Anyone is welcome to share their own “I can’t believe it” moments! I am sure you can top these!

This economy affects us all in one way or another.  Jobs are lost, salaries are cut, home values go down and uncertainty reigns.

In planning for our eventual retirement, many of us included our homes in that equation.  At some point in time, we would become empty nesters, no longer requiring the bedrooms and bathrooms that a family with at-home children demanded.  We would move on, selling our larger living space for a more modest home.  We would pay cash for our cozy space and use the balance of our equity as part of our retirement fund.  At one time, it was a solid, responsible plan.

However, as with all things of this age, our plans must change.  We can no longer rely on our homes to fund our retirement in full.  We must make adjustments.  Maybe we will still have to take out a small loan on the smaller abode.  Maybe we will have to work a little longer to add to our retirement fund.  Whatever that adjustment is, it will have to happen.

If your plan to retire starts now, do not think that your house is going to be the same contributor towards retiring that it once was.  Listen to your REALTOR when they give you the value of your home.  Your REALTOR doesn’t know about your retirement plans.  The value of your home is not directly related to those plans and a buyer is not going to generously finance more than the value of your home so they can fund your retirement plans.

You do have choices.  You can wait several years to see if your equity builds back up to the number you are looking for.  The vast majority of pundits are predicting 3-5 years before we even begin to see an uptick in values, so plan on being patient.  You can live a little more frugally than you had originally planned.  What you will probably not be able to do is keep your original retirement plan of 5 years ago.

You have decided that it is the right time to put your home on the market…there has been a job change, there is a new little one joining the family, the kids have left the nest, etc.  By far and away, no doubt about it, the most important first step is bringing the right Realtor into the fray.

First, and most importantly, notice I said “Realtor”.  The term means that the agent is a member of the National Association of Realtors, a member of the state association and the local association of Realtors.  They are held to a higher standard of care than a licensee.  You have the power to bring them before the Professional Standards Panel if they do not adhere to the National Association of Realtors Code of Ethics, with some serious repercussions if there is a violation.

Now, you may think that the next step would be hiring the right company.  Remember, Realtors are, for the most part, independent contractors.  This means that, while the company may have certain expectations of the Realtors, they cannot demand specific actions.  Now, certainly, the company may let the Realtor go if they do not follow their guidelines  but most will not.  Why would they let a Realtor go  that was making them a profit?

Your Realtor should be hired by you because they reflect the desires and the ethics that you demand from your representative.  You should feel a trust between you and your Realtor that brings a sense of calm to your selling experience.  The last reason to hire a Realtor is because they are telling you the price you want to hear.  Hire your Realtor because they have thoroughly explained the process. Hire your Realtor because they have helped you understand what you need to do to maximize your net proceeds from the sale.  Hire your Realtor because they have shown you through referrals their ability to negotiate and represent your interests throughout the escrow.  Hire your Realtor because they specialize in your neighborhood and understand its idiosyncrasies.

Now, there will certainly be companies that specialize in your neighborhood, and you should most assuredly go to that company, but look deeply into the Realtors that work there and find one that you truly feel you can trust.

For the last time…it is NOT for rent!  Don’t send your checks to Africa!  My seller is not temporarily living in Africa.  Even though the e-mail address is his name and his name is at the bottom of the letter, he did not write it!  Yes, the rental amount quoted is a steal…and the person collecting it is a thief!

I know it appears to be too inconsequential of a crime for the overworked police to deal with it. Craigs List has become the latest venue for thieves to steal from unsuspecting renters.  They pay for a domain name that appears legitimate (usually the sellers name or the address of the property).  Then they take out a free ad in Craigs List advertising the property that is listed for sale, listing it as a rental.  The first communication sent out after interest is expressed is very gentle (although a bit illiterate).  If the renter pursues it a little further, the letters get a little more forceful.

So, I am going to give renters searching on Craigs List some advice.  If they can’t meet you at the property with a key, it is probably a scam.  If they ask you to send money before you have a key, it is a scam. If they live in Africa, IT IS MOST DEFINITELY A SCAM.  If the rental price seems too good to be true, it is a scam. If you still don’t believe it, go to the property, get the contact number for the listing agent and call them. Ask them if it is for rent….and they will tell you IT IS A SCAM!

The real estate industry really is a unique animal. In what other industry is it considered perfectly acceptable to ask a complete stranger “How much do you owe on your home?” or “How much can you afford to spend on your home?”? It is usually asked with a little more tact, but the inquiry is still the same.

So, the question must be asked….how much do we have a right to know? Should lenders have a right to information that the Realtor may not have a right to know? If a purchaser has supplied their Realtor with a loan approval from a reputable lender, does the Realtor have a right to know the details of that loan?

As an example, a selling agent presents an offer and a loan approval letter to a listing agent. Negotiations take place and the offer is accepted. A week prior to close, it is discovered that one of the conditions of the loan is the buyer starting their job. Three days later, it is discovered that the buyer must also present a pay stub. Did the listing agent have a right to know that the entire loan was predicated on a job that the buyer had yet to start?

Some may respond that the details of the loan it is none of the listing agents business. Others may feel that a loan being contingent on starting a job is equivalent to the contingency of a buyers house selling. If neither one takes place, the loan falls apart. How much should have been shared between all parties?

This is a day and age of transparency. However, in serving the public, how much information is too much information? How far should personal information travel? The message is certainly contradictory. Lenders need extreme amounts of personal information…Realtors need the results of that information…but should all parties have access to all of the information? It’s a fine line that is walked…and one that all parties should be mindful of.

Tags: Loans, Sharing of Information

This weekend is going to be beautiful! After an eternity of cooler weather and rain, Sacramento is overdue for some warmer weather and this weekend promises to be it!

Along with the warm weather comes the beach lovers.  Sacramento has no shortage of beaches.  We are a river city with the American River meeting the Sacramento River right in the middle of downtown.  People swarm to these beaches to enjoy the sun, the water and family.

And, every single year, despite continued warnings from a multitude of organizations to wear your life jacket, people drown.  There are even “loaner” life jackets that people can borrow, so there is no expense involved…and they still drown.  As much as I would like to believe that we will get through this coming weekend with everyone having a great time and doing so safely, history has not proven this to be the case.

We have an agent in our office who heads up a non-profit group called D.A.R.T. (Diving and Rescue Team).  By the time they get called, there usually is a missing body.  He tells stories of while they are looking for a missing kid who used a rope swing to drop into the middle of the river, there are other kids still using the rope swing with no life jacket.  One family overloaded their fishing boat and to be sure that the baby wouldn’t go overboard, tied it’s life jacket to the boat. So, when the boat tipped over, the baby was stuck  under it and couldn’t float to the surface.

So, please people, wear a life jacket.  Being alive is way cooler than being dead.

May marked the one year anniverary since there was a major upheaval of the Land Park Community Association board of directors and a larger and almost all new board.  Much has been tackled in the past year to mend fences and create a renewed faith in the direction the board was taking.  It has been an exciting time with positive results.  We went from approximately 150 members to a sustained 450 members.  We have included a business membership and have had wonderful support from our local businesses.

Other items we have accomplished are such things as a successful “Taste of Land Park” (wine tasting, restaurant sampling and car show) that netted over $8,000.  For the first time, we thanked our neighbors for their support by holding a free Family Picnic Day with games. Despite soaring heat, it was attended by approximately 100 neighbors.  We initiated the Volunteer Corp to compensate for the disastrous cut in park maintenance personnel…now we go out and prune, plant and and clean up.  We lent our support to our Curtis Park neighbors by endorsing the Curtis Park Village developement.  We encouraged and discouraged cell towers, depending on viability of the locations and appearance.  We co-hosted, along with the City, the annual Easter Egg Hunt which was attended  by hundreds of children who picked up thousands of plastic eggs stuffed by the local boy scout troop.  We are developing a better relationship with our councilman with monthly meetings.  We are watching closely a move to expand the Sacramento Zoo…a great idea in theory, but a disaster for the existing park’s use.

The election that just took place was suppose to be a simple one.  There were a couple of contested positions, but no animosity was forseen.  In fact, we still have 3 open seats we are hoping to fill in the coming months.  The unexpected antagonism occured when one of the board members from the previous regime did not win as president.  It was unfortunate and the resulting diatribes were sad.  Since that election, the losing board member has resigned all positions he held within the board as did one of the other old regime board members. 

We are now busy filling very large shoes of the two who resigned.  We are fortunate to have a very capable member step up to one of the positions.  It is believed that one of the other positions will be filled at the next board meeting.  There are other committees that will need attention and with the talent we have within our membership, it is certain we will find other talent out there.

So, as has been the history of this board, there is never a dull moment.  However, we look forward to a positive coming year with many challenges and hopefully, many great outcomes.

Tags: Land Park Community Association