A First for Me!

Good Evening:

Ever hear of the saying "There is a first time for everything?"  Well, I truly had thought I had seen it all in my real estate career.  I have seen homes burn, I have seen couples separate during escrow, I have seen people have their relocation plans change during escrow, but something happened on Thursday that I had never seen nor experienced before!

To set the story up, one of my clients had successfully made an offer on a property and was going to pay cash for the home.  We signed our papers and sent in our funds to close the escrow.  We were notified by the escrow company that they had received the buyer's funds and all closing documents needed to consummate the sale.  The escrow called me the next day (Wednesday) to let me know that the property would be closing that afternoon.  I received an email late Wednesday that the property did close and the please relay the good information to the Buyer, which I did.  

A nice easy escrow.  A seven day close. No hassles with appraisers, pest companies, home inspections, and lenders. At least that is what we all thought.  I get a call from the escrow officer and she sounded frantic.  I was in a meeting so I missed her call.  The Buyer also called me and said "get a hold of the escrow lady, because she just called and makes no sense...."

When I called her back this is how our conversation went.

dwo34:  I got a message you called. What can I do for you?

Escrow Officer: Your buyer needs to bring in additional funds. He was short. 

dwo34: What do you mean? You confirmed you had the funds and we are on record. As a matter of fact we brought in more than what was needed to close. You owe him money.

EO:  I cannot find the other check. Are you sure you gave it to me?  Maybe you only gave me one check.

dwo34:  You confirmed receipt of the funds. If you did not have enough, you would not have let it record.  Did you lose one of the checks?

EO:  I don't know.  Can you see if it is at your office, or in the buyer's car, or maybe you still have it.

dwo34:  We gave it to you. You confirmed it.  I would have more respect for you if you just admitted you lost it or misplaced it.

EO:  I don't know where it is.  I take full responsibility for the check.  I cannot find it. Can you have the buyer cancel the check and get me a new one?

dwo34: I will call him, I know he cannot do it today, he is out of town. I will see what he can do.

EO: Thank you

Amazing!! Misplacing a check for $50,000!  I know she received it, because you will not close an escrow when there are not enough funds.  The thing is with banks, they will not give you access to your funds for 90 days! Even though we stopped pay on the check, we cannot get another check for 90 days!  The head brass at the title company did not act the way I thought they should.  They wanted me to have the buyer sign back the deed to the seller.  I said "Give him his money back, including access to his $50,000 and we would.  The story is not over.  My client has a home and the seller who sold it to him is probably short $50,000.  Not a good way to start your weekend if you were the escrow officer!

I'll finish this blog this upcoming week.  We need to get this ratified.  One of the reasons I wanted to blog on this is simple:  Use qualified service people!! Use people who will pay attention to details.  Even the simplest tasks can be botched.  In this case, a simple depositing of a check would have made all the difference in the world!  

It's Saturday, October 24, 2009, and I am very Bullish on Sacramento!

David Ohara

@dwo34

dwo34@aol.com

Changing Market in Sacramento

Hello Everybody!

The tides are turning folks! These past few weeks have been very busy for me and for a lot of my colleagues.  I wanted to talk about some of my experiences in the past few weeks to give you a "bird's eye view" of the real estate market in Sacramento.

The first Buyer, I will refer to as Mr. K.  Mr. K wants to purchase an investment home in certain targeted areas.  He is looking at homes that are priced under a $100,000.  He prefers that the homes he looks at, needs some repair work.  Seemed like a simple task.  I had heard that there were a flood of these homes on the market.  One other key factor that would make my job a bit easier, Mr. K, was going to pay cash for his investment home and close in 10 days.  A motivated Buyer is a good thing!

Off we went. To the specific areas that he had targeted.  To our surprise, there were not that many homes to look at.  We pared our list down to five homes and checked them all out.  We really liked this one home near the Valley High area in South Sacramento. The home was listed for $89,000.  I knew the listing agent and I placed a call to her and told her I would be faxing an offer to her.  She told me that she expected multiple offers "So come in with your best shot David.."  We wrote the offer up and I emailed it to her.  We were notified the next day that our offer was NOT accepted, someone else had offered more than us.  We offered $94,000! We felt that the home was well worth $94,000, so we offered more than full price.

Not to be discouraged, we set out with a new set of homes to look at.  We even went out to the North Area and toured some homes off of Elkhorn Boulevard.  Our thoughts were that this area may not be as competitive as the South Area.  After we looked at 4 homes, we decided to submit and offer on a nice home on Longdale Drive.  The listed price was $79,900.  Once again, I called the listing agent and informed her that we would be submitting an offer on the home.  She told me that there were already three offers submitted! What!?!???  Needless to say, we did not get this home neither.

Several more times since those two initial tours of duty, and we have submitted 6 more offers and Mr. K is still without an accepted offer.  We are awaiting on an answer on an offer we submitted on Monday.  From what I hear, we have a good chance to get this home.  I will keep you posted.  Amazing how the view looks from the trenches.  The media should pay attention to what is really happening. The market is definitely getting better!

Tomorrow, I will tell you about the buyer I will call Ryno.  

It's October 7, 2009 and I am very Bullish on Sacramento

David Ohara

@dwo34

dwo34@aol.com

Complimentary Foreclosure List - Services

Happy Wednesday to you All:

I recently received an email from a client who was asking about foreclosures. He wanted to know if there was a away to get a weekly updated list on all bank owned properties that went on the market in a specific area.  He had the minimum square footage, the number of bedrooms and baths, the preferred lot size, the garage space minimum, and did not want a two story home.  I told Raul, "Absolutely"  

Raul, in his search, is so specific, that it makes the job easier for me.  I can search an area, a price, a street, proximity to a school, the age of the home, whether the home has a pool or not, and even the type of roof.  The list that I send to Raul has about 3 properties a week on it.  He likes it that he does not have to purge the list of homes that do not interest him.

Since I have begun to provide these lists, more clients have begun to ask for a specific list.  So, I offer this to everyone! Anyone looking for a property (home, land, ranch, etc.) can ask me and I can provide you a list.  Whether it's a foreclosure, short sale, private sale, or probate sale, I can get the list for you.  You set the parameters and I will do the rest.  All complimentary! It's a service I do not mind offering to the public.  The more knowledge one has about the market, the easier it is to make a decision. Any real estate questions, please ask.

It's August 5, 2009 and I am bullish on Sacramento

David Ohara

@dwo34

dwo34@aol.com

916-600-9495