Happy 4th of July!

Placerville: Brewfest Getting Closer!

Saturday June 28th is Brewfest Day and historic Main Street will be closed. Tickets are on sale now - click here. They are $30 a person, but you get to sample some of the best microbrews out there! James & I will be there pouring beer for you! So if you see someone obviously pregnant and pouring beer, chances are good that it's me.

Placerville Things to Do

It's finally summer up the hill as well as in Sacramento! And if you're wondering what to do the weekend of June 28th., be sure to head to Placerville and join in the Placerville Brewfest.

James & I will be helping out at the Wine Smith and pouring brews!

More details about the Brewfest here.

What am I Getting Paid For?

An old broker (not in age, but the temporal sense) I used to have mentioned this little nugget about real estate sales I still remember: he said that the worth of any Realtor is how much expertise, experience and market knowledge she brings to the table for her clients. Unfortunately, some of our clients seem to think we get paid to make flyers for our listings. Anyone can make a flyer, only the good ones can sell a house.

Quotable.

But also very true. I was reminded of this recently when I was talking with John Lockwood about the fact that we need to educate our clients on two things in today's market:
One, the fact that they will never potentially close a short sale purchase (statistically only 5% of short sales ever close) and
Two, foreclosures really are very competitively priced. Their chances of getting one goes down exponentially if they don't make full price offers.

While as a buyer's agent it is not up to me to tell clients what they should offer on a home or which house they should pick to make a purchase offer on, they should nevertheless be educated about the market by us.

Or what am I getting paid for? Typing?

Sacramento Ranked 12th in Clean Air

Sacramento might not be the best place for allergies, but a recent press release by Sacramento county claims that Sacramento ranks 12th for the least amount of carbon emissions per person nationwide!

Read the press release here.

Sacramento's I-5 Project Begins Tonight

If you travel to downtown Sacramento or will be using I-5 on a regular basis, go here for details on the repairs and to plan your commute.

Sacramento Real Estate Gal Shakeup and the Truth about Cats and Dogs

In spite of the fact that we're having a baby, my husband and I decided to get another cat. Actually, I decided it - he just thought it wouldn't be such a bad idea. Since moving from Sacramento to Pollock Pines, the number of cats we have has gone down from three to one. So, we get Fuggles. We also have a dog.

But besides the fact that they are cat and dog, there is one major difference between these two and that is this: for entertainment, Fuggles will irritate and aggravate things, people and animals around her. The carpet, the dog, the other cat, even us. The dog will just look morose and hope to be noticed.

But where am I going with this? Don't worry - I haven't finally just lost it.

I'm finally beginning to understand the beauty of Fuggles' world. When you feel like you're stuck in a rut, you just have to shake things up - even if it means aggravating everyone around you. Thankfully, the changes coming to Sacramento Real Estate Gal shouldn't be too aggravating - but I am shaking things up a bit.

For one thing, when you contact me, I have now opened up the floor to other Elite Properties agents. So don't be surprised if someone else besides me contacts you to follow up. This way, you know you have a great Realtor working for you regardless of how busy I get and your request does not get ignored.

For another, please subscribe to the blog! I have made a personal commitment to write more often and regularly. So if you enjoy this blog, please pledge your support by subscribing!

I have also noticed that other Realtors seem to enjoy reading this blog, so for all my associates out there, I'm adding a new feature "Realtor Book of the Month." This will feature one book a month that helped me in my real estate business. You can then buy it right here from Amazon.

Fuggles would be proud!

Memorial Day Video

Please take a minute or two today to think about and thank the real heroes.

Real Estate Lessons from a Baby Shower

Saturday was a whirlwind. And although I promised not to call it a baby shower (too many connotations) and wanted to go with the more non-traditional baby "party" it did turn out to be a wonderful and perfect day filled with some of my favorite people in the world. Sometimes you just have to sit back and count your blessings.

But as a blogger, and as a real estate blogger nonetheless, you also have to see how you can draw inspiration and meaning from it for the investors and the home buyers. So here are three of my bigest real estate lessons from the baby party-shower-whatever-you-want-to-call-it:

1. Invite people to share the joy, not to brag - I think too many people tend to gloat when they are successful. How many of us have heard about the investor who hit the good times with that one solid investment property and then bragged about it for the rest of his life? How different would it be if he just shared the joy of it with his closest friends and family?

2. You really can pick your neighbors - Sometimes you have no idea they're so wonderful, though. My neighbor did all the work for this party. And I mean all. She decorated the house, brought serving dishes, prepared some dishes, bought the baby cake, and cleaned up afterwards (and a million other things I can't think of right now). I don't know what I did to deserve her, but thank God for good neighbors!

3. Remember what's important - I have a very strong sense of time passing since we decided to have a baby, so I have no interest any more in wasting my time or thoughts on people and things that don't matter. In the past, I've engaged in conversations and arguments with real estate nay-sayers on this blog, but no longer. There are too many great people and beautiful things in this world and the time to enjoy them is too short, so I'm just going to focus on having a great time!

Sacramento #42 for Allergies

If you think you're imagining it, you're not. Sacramento was recently ranked at Forbes.com as the #42 worst city for allergies. And if you're new to this city and thinking, I don't know what the fuss is about, wait a year or three. It will get to you! I thought everyone around me was insane too when I moved to Sacramento from Bombay almost eight years ago. Now I know better.

Where is Sacramento Real Estate Gal?

If you've been wondering at the lack of posts lately, both here and at Sacramento-home, it's because I've been on a week-long vacation. The real estate business always promises to pick up around Memorial Day, so I thought now was just the perfect time to take a break.

Yes, I'm still on vacation (technically) but still writing. How's that for dedication?

So what am I doing? I went to Fresno for about three days to see some friends of mine that I will probably not see for a while, what with baby coming and all. And tomorrow, we're having a baby party.

For someone so tiny (she's apparently 2 pounds by now) she sure is commanding a lot of attention, stuff... and real estate in the house!

How Hard is it to Sell... Really?

I've always maintained with my real estate clients that they should be more interested in buying a property than me in selling it to them. If at any moment I notice that I am doing anything more than facilitating a transaction, I wonder about their motivation, and eventually, their passion for actually getting the home they claim to want.

Why the question? Because I went to get my snow tires replaced with regular summer tires today and I got a lesson in sales.

Amazing the places you learn things!

So here's what happened - I went over to Walmart Tire Service thinking I'd get it done cheaper than Big O. After waiting for about ten minutes while the staff bickered amongst themselves (well, you get what you pay for, so I thought, oh well...) a lady comes out from behind the counter to ask how she can help.

"I'd like to get my snow tires replaced with my summer tires."

After that, she proceeds to take down my phone number and name and then says, "I need to see what tires you have."

When we get to the car, she realizes that I already have tires and after a moment of staring at me blankly, says, "Oh, you want them changed out."

I guess "replaced" has been replaced with "changed out" in WalMart territory.

Anyway, she stares at the tires and says the tread looks bad... "and you're pregnant." As if that needed to be pointed out. So she calls another guy from the staff to look at them. He says they would need to be replaced soon, but they're fine for now. But Miss Sell-Me-Tires is adamant. The tread is bad; if it was up to her she wouldn't do it.

"Why don't you just come back when you want to buy new tires and we'll change them," she says. "Now it will cost you more."

Now, I'm dreading the idea of driving around in my snow tires any longer. And if the law says they're safe for now, they're safe for now! But by this time I'm so tired of the woman's holier-than-thou attitude that I decide to leave and head over to Big O, even at the cost of paying more.

Yes, this story does have a happy ending: Big O replaces my tires, no questions, no comments, no "let me run your life for you" attitude. They also give me a discount because I've been a customer there before - and the whole thing costs less than it would have at WalMart. How's that for wanting to save a few bucks?

The story also has a moral: Within the law, do what the customer asks you - don't badger her with a holier than thou attitude to act like you care. Contrary to popular belief, it's not considered professional behavior. It's annoying and downright interfering.

How Optimistic am I about Real Estate?

As optimistic as ever. And perhaps will be more so when this market recovers, because then I will have been there, done it (or seen it).

I was talking to a potential real estate investor yesterday. One thing that always strikes me about people that have been investing in real estate for a while (a while = more than a decade) is that they seem very calm about what's going on in the market. They see prices falling and REOs and they realize it is only part of a cycle. What's more, they all insist it has been much, much worse.

I yearn to have that knowledge first-hand.

I am as invested in this market as ever. True, when we bought our rentals, we probably did not time the purchase perfectly. But we haven't panicked and sold them either. There is a method to this madness and it is this: TIME. What is debt today is equity tomorrow. And the houses are rented, so why sell anyway? What difference does short term fluctuation make except to my net worth and that too for a short while?

Real estate investing is all about learning and the learning curve can sometimes be pretty sharp. But life on the other side is worth it and I can't wait!

Some have criticized my "uber enthusiasm" (And for heaven's sake... Please stop using that U word - it's so pretentious!) for real estate, but I'm sticking to my guns. Even in a down market. I just wish I had seen it coming and had enough capital to buy more rentals at this time. Oh well, I'll be better prepared the next time.

Yes, as optimistic as ever! That about sums it up.

A Sick Realtor is Better than None?

No, it isn't a case of the market blues - I have really fallen ill this week. Woke up on Monday after a hectic weekend and a hectic last week of showing homes in Elk Grove and Rancho Cordova and I seem to have caught my husband's cold. It the kind that drains you of energy and won't let you stand upright for longer than ten minutes... you know the kind.

So bear with me while I recover. And in the meanwhile, if you're searching for some great investments, you might want to search online for Elk Grove. I noticed some fantastic homes there - 3 bedrooms, 2 baths for right around $200,000 - some of them right in Laguna West!

Sacramento Real Estate Gal Is One Year Old!

The blog not the person (of course!) Yay!

Selling 101

While in search of good customer service, in the last year, I have come across three basic types: the ones that don't care, the ones that involve you in their drama and the ones that talk down to you. The third kind is by far the worst. I shudder as I think what would happen to my clientele if I started telling them that the house they were in love with is just too horrid to be inside.

See, I'm not even good at making this up.

But it seems to be the lead selling companies out there that do this most often. In my early days of Sacramento Real Estate Gal, someone from one of these House-or-Home-Something-Value-Something-dot-com called and asked me how I was generating internet leads. His big argument was that's the new frontier. I told him I wasn't interested in internet leads, which was true at the time.

"Not interested in internet leads?" he repeated and laughed.

Maybe it was the same guy that called today. Because this time he wanted to sell me an exclusive zip code and bragged that someone before me from Big Brokerage had bought some zips. I told him politely I wasn't interested right now.

"So you'd rather have _____ (insert name of Big Producer/other Realtor) get them all, huh?" He laughed.

I'm sorry. I don't get the joke.

You would think the the Salespeople of the Third Kind would have learned that as selling 101 - don't talk down to the prospect. Or is the idea to make the prospect who answers the phone feel so crappy about herself that she buys your product just to feel better?

Come on. I have better use for my phone minutes.

And I will never buy anything from any salesperson that devalues the profession. That would be terrible business.

Real Estate's Unexpected Fortunes: A Perspective

It occurred to me this morning in the middle of a phone conversation that I may have changed. (Insert scary dramatic music here.) In a good way. I realized that selling real estate - and certainly buying it as well, may have contributed in a more positive way to my life than I ever thought possible. And before you write me off as another pollyanna, read for yourself and see if it isn't true for you as well, especially if you are a fellow Realtor or investor.

Selling real estate forced me to become more social - earlier article about not doing well in an office not withstanding. I was one of those perpetual student types - you know the kinds that don't really ever quit school because they don't know what to do next. I had a long and happy road to a Masters Degree in Writing but wasn't really the best communicator outside of writing well and getting a few stories published in various magazines and anthologies.

In my first few weeks of selling real estate though I was out around my neighborhood knocking on doors and introducing myself. Besides the unexpected rewards of homemade pies and tamales my neighbors bestowed on me, I quickly established myself as the neighborhood expert and still owe much of my business to those first few doorknocks. And I really know my neighbors by their first names. Even when I'm driving through Colonial Village today, houses don't just have numbers, they have names.

I handle rejection extremely well. This will come as no surprise to those of you who followed this blog through the bubblehead days. And no, the bubbleheads haven't left yet. Besides trying to be annoying, they are also incredibly angry and make claims of wanting to hurt not just me but my family as well. One of my fellow Realtors is considering filing a lawsuit against one of them. And more power to him, but I've developed thicker skin than that.

Selling real estate does that. You have to be able to hear a lot of "no, no, no" and still come home with your self esteem intact. Besides, some of the most successful people in the world have more critics than friends. It doesn't make them any less successful.

Selling real estate taught me to have difficult conversations. Most properties are not worth what the sellers want. Other homes will sell for more than what buyers want to pay. Somewhere in the middle of this is where Realtors come in as experts on market trends and numbers. Difficult conversations have gotten easier as a whole and I draw on my professional emotional fortitude consistently to remind myself that sometimes, even in difficult conversations, people still need to hear the truth of the matter, whether it is a seller in foreclosure or a tenant who is late on the rent.

This post promised to be a long one when I began it, but I can't possibly end without mentioning something about real estate teaching me to see opportunity when others didn't - a quality I greatly admire in my mentors, from whom I have learned so much and the fact that I wouldn't have met some of the most wonderful people and been able to contribute in such a meaningful way to their lives if I wasn't doing what I am.

What more could I want?

"Doesn't Play Well with Others"

The other day I received a call from a tele-marketer hoping to sell me real estate advertising on Google. Well, nothing came of that, but our initial interaction was interesting. He asked me if I had made it into the office yet. And I said, of course - my office is at my home. So essentially I'm here all the time - unless I'm out showing houses to prospective buyers.

Now I didn't always used to work from the house. Initially, when I worked at _______ (insert name of big brokerage) I used to go into the office every day at 9 a.m. and leave at 4 p.m. Interestingly enough, I sell more real estate when I work from home than when I go into the office. Now I understand everyone has different opinions about how they motivate themselves to work and for them it helps to have people around that, for the most part, look busy.

What bothered me about an office environment - let me correct that - what bothers me to this day about every office environment I've ever been in, is that very little really is ever being done. I contend that if every person in that office did only what they were supposed to do in a day and leave, they'd be out of there by lunchtime. A lot of what goes on in an office is unproductive.

So no, I guess I don't play well with others.

I got tired of the snarky remarks behind people's backs, the forming of cliques and clubs which - if you weren't part of - you were automatically treated differently. I got tired, essentially, of being forced to be like everyone else. So that if a client walked in wanting to sell his house, we all appeared the same. All they knew was that they listed their home with a _________ (insert name of big brokerage) agent. And perhaps that is what all offices want - an army of copies of one another that sound the same and say the same (nice) things about their brokerages. Hence, the need real estate agents feel for titles, distinctions, and letters of the alphabet after their names that make no sense to the customer.

So when I moved to _______ (insert name of another big brokerage), I was determined not to work at the office. I became an at-home agent, which besides making me sound lazy, ensured that I was always thrown in with the newbies at meetings. There was an underlying theme of "I haven't seen you before, so you must be new."

That's why I'm so glad to be at Elite Properties. I think we're true individualists here. Here I can work at my own pace, we have (almost) no meetings, all clients and transactions are handled electronically - really, is there anything we can't say by email? - and there is no attempt at making me just like everyone else. In fact, I recognize most people at the company by their personalities, not just by their faces, or names.

How refreshing. For both us and our clients.

Reads and Feeds

A few great articles came up on my radar in the past few weeks, so of course I want to share them! Enjoy!

This one has got to be my favorite by far. Someday, I will learn to great and brief and say so much by saying so little, just like Seth Godin.

Bankrate.com came up with this one today - one of the more balanced articles I've seem about the truth of the real estate market and if you should worry.

And finally, you may have more in common with Fred Flintstone than you think!

It's Tax Time!

I actually like this time of year. We're one of those couples that get a refund (the rental homes and our own home help immensely!) every year - I know, I know, most financial advisors would say that is a way to give the IRS an interest-free loan for a whole year. But I feel like I'm more motivated around tax time if I have a refund coming... and no matter how crazy the year has been financially, we can look forward to a little relief at tax time.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!