Remember when Dorothy of Oz found the Tin Woodman all rusted out in the forest? She grabbed an oil can and started oiling his joints, slowly restoring speech and movement. Well, when you reach the age of 65, you know what I'm talking about. All of these pesty little aches and pains begin to appear. Little shot there, little shot here, all better.For some people, it's severe pain. For others, like me, most of the aging process is simply bothersome so far. This journey makes you wonder what else can go haywire with your body and then something does. Fortunately, my health insurance is through UC Davis, so many specialists on staff. Cutting-edge medical care. Although most of my blog today is about this very common procedure that was prescribed for me, even though I did not suffer from any... 10/05/2018

3334 Luna Nuevo, Sacramento, CA Get Directions Click Here OPEN HOUSE October 05, Friday 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM October 06, Saturday 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM Description Photos Maps & Local Schools Print Brochure $ Click for current price 4 BEDROOMS | 3 (2 full, 1 half ) BATHROOMS | 1765 SQUARE FEET Classy yet Homey! This east facing home offers 4 Bedrooms, 2-1/2 Baths, and is move-in ready. Neutralcolors allow you to add your own personal preferences. Hardwood flooring downstairs is easy to keepup and upstairs carpet brings warmth and comfort. The kitchen is u-shaped and opens to the family room. An eating bar can also serve as a homeworkarea. The half-bath is downstairs, while the 2 others serve the upstairs bedrooms. The master bath hasdouble sinks. The inside laundry area is upstairs. The backy... 10/04/2018

Working in the real estate business since the 1970s has given me a unique perspective on homebuying that few agents possess. I've witnessed first-hand so many different markets and have survived the dips, ebbs and tides of real estate. There is always a way to buy a home in any given market. We are not limited by our choices, in fact, we are enpowered.I'd like to share a few homebuying tips I have learned over the years for a market just like our present market. If you have hired an excellent exclusive buyer's agent to help you along your journey of home ownership, you might not need these tips. Because your agent should be able to guide you. Maybe you should ask how many homes the agent has sold before you commit to Cousin Sue who lives one county over. Or, just take these tips with yo... 10/03/2018

Every 3 cubic yards of extra trash costs only $143.20 in Sacramento, apart from a base rate of $179 for the first 3 cubic yards of rubbish. The container itself is a bag and measures 30 inches high, 48 inches deep and 96 inches wide. That can hold a lot of stuff. Like up to 3,300 pounds of crap or 606 gallons. You can thank Jeff Dowler in San Diego for first reporting on this low cost trash removal that is available in California. So I checked it out for my area in northern California. You may also read more in my personal blog today at this link: How to Order Small Dumpster Junk Removal in Sacramento. 10/02/2018

My husband is not a guy who likes change. As we get older and more set in our ways, change is difficult for many people. Then there are the people who like changes simply because it shakes up things, makes life different, offers variety, a chance to explore, learn, grow. And you can bet which direction I lean, LOL.So you can imagine the shock my husband lives with day after day, never knowing when I might pronounce the death of something and the arrival of something new. Hopefully this new thing will make our lives better by increasing the amount of time we can walk by the cactus garden and not feel guilty that we have not weeded, pruned nor babied our creation.Ignored, the cactus garden over 10 years grew into massive proportions. Succulents reaching over the concrete. Cacti growing in... 10/01/2018

Shut your eyes for a minute. Imagine you are traveling back through centuries - long before white man had the audacity to show up and begin shuffling around the New World. You look at your hands - they are brown.  They may be weathered; but perhaps not.  In your right hand is a long conical stone pestle - unless you are a lefty.  You are using this tool to grind acorns in mortars formed on a massive marbleized limestone rock outcropping with 1,185 mortar holes.  There are others in your group performing similar activity.  You know each other.  Some of them are your kin.  All of them are of your tribe.  You are a member of the Miwok Native American people.  And you are among the FIRST people of this land, which will later become known as California. Meanwhile, back in today's world where... 09/30/2018

There is your Sacramento Realtor, hanging out between the A and M in the Sacramento logo for our Farm to Fork Festival. And that thing behind me? Looks like a helicopter, right? Pretty space agey, high-tech.Since my husband works at the state, we have free parking for these events, but we could have walked from Land Park, too. The main thing about the Farm to Fork Festival is timing and the excessively long lines. Sure, the lamb booth when we walked in offered such a tasty menu that people were lined up down the block. I was hungry enough to eat anything that did not involve a long line.We were lucky to find two big sausage booths, across from each other. The one on the south side of Capitol had a long line, but the the sausage booth on the north did not. After grabbing a sausage, a bee... 09/30/2018

The olden days of selling short sales can change an agent. Why, I know some agents who would not step foot into a short sale property, especially if it wasn't maintained. They did not want to climb over piles of toys, clothes, papers strewn all over the floors. And the attitude hasn't much changed. Buyers aren't any better with their expectations. They would look at a house like that and typically spin around and leave. Today's Sacramento home buyers don't want home improvement projects. If they look at a home without updates, it's like being buying a new car with flat tires and no steering wheel. They don't want to replace the tires and buy a steering wheel. Better to simply buy a different car with all the parts working. And real estate in Sacramento is no different. You can read more... 09/29/2018

After crawling through crap the last few days, I am very happy to present my stunning new listing in Arden Manor. It's always such a pleasure to take a listing when there is nothing in the home I could improve. No furniture to move. No odds and ends to dispose of. Nope, everything is picture perfect and ready to move into.I originally sold this home to the seller 13 years ago. It was a pretty home then but she has really given the home its life and appeal. Great sense of creating comfortable spaces. This home features 3 bedrooms and 3 baths, secluded at the end of a gated community. You can see many more photographs and read more in my personal blog today at this link: Amazing Home in a Gated Community in Arden Manor Sacramento. 09/28/2018

The real estate market in Sacramento is starting to feel like two divided groups of people. Where have you heard this before? Sellers have not quite realized our seller's market is over and still think they can attract wild prices. Buyers expect to negotiate and they want a good deal. Very opposing thought processes. Conflicting. Plus, you know, this is California, so everybody is a real estate expert. You know how ridiculous that sounds, especially when half of those in the business itself are not. You can read more in my personal blog today at this link: How to Sell Your House in the Fall Sacramento Market. 09/27/2018

You hear more talk about buyer's closing costs and not seller's closing costs in Sacramento. Most likely because the difference between the two is pretty basic. The buyer generally takes money out of her savings account to close escrow. She needs to deposit usable funds into escrow. On the other hand, the seller's closing costs come out of the sales price, for all practical purposes. Not out of pocket. So some people think, well, they don't really pay but they do. It's also the reason buyers often ask sellers to make repairs or give them money because they feel the financial positions are unbalanced. That sellers have more money than the buyers, in many instances. But that's beside the point.You can read more in my personal blog today at this link: What Does it Cost Sellers to Close Esc... 09/24/2018

Yup, that is a photo of me 22 years ago building the first and only garage I've ever built. My husband did not want to build a garage but he also did not want to pay twice as much (or more) to hire a contractor. Besides, I had presented compelling evidence that it was not difficult to build a garage. He still complained the entire time.When we got down to the part of installing the garage door opener, turned out the city of Minneapolis (where we lived back then) had deeper depth requirements for our Romex ditch. It needed to be six inches deeper. Although code read 18 inches, our particular inspector demanded 24 inches. Something as simple as digging a deeper hole set us back. That's one thing we don't really worry much about in Sacramento. Freezing ground temperatures. Then a dayworker... 09/23/2018

Home buyers begin their shopping experience on the internet. It's not a secret that many Sacramento home buyers navigate to popular online websites that try to aggragate MLS listings. Even our own MetroList competes with its paid subscribers for eyeballs. Home buyers think it's all about the product. Sacramento buyer's agents know it's a difficult trek between the product and closing. How do you come to a meeting of the minds? Agents need to offer value. And we offer value as exclusive buyer's agents in Sacramento, which are a bit difficult to find in Sacramento. Usually you have agents hungrily scrambling to work both sides of the fence (buyers and sellers), but not with exclusive buyer's agents. A buyer's needs are very different from a seller's. Since it costs the same, which is noth... 09/22/2018

Looking for unicorn buyers is always a bit more tough than appealing to the masses for a Sacramento Realtor. But once you know the sellers' parameters and expectations, you either accept the job or decline. As a Realtor, I generally accept. Even when I suspect it may take longer to sell the house. Which is the case with the Sacramento remodeled house with white walls. The sellers picked that particular shade of white and love it. It is very sterile looking. Perhaps colorful artwork would help to brighten up the spaces? But I don't think a buyer will walk into that house and exclaim they need to write an offer today because most buyers will want to repaint. Repainting costs money that buyers cannot visualize. I've heard buyers say they think it costs $25,000 to paint the interior so they... 09/21/2018

Agents just think of it sometimes as that hard question nobody wants to ask. It's personal, too. Plus, they might not want to hear the answer. I think that's why some agents say, Sure, I'll show you that house. Meet you there in 10 minutes. Without a moment's hesitation. Then, they show up and the buyer says, "Hey, I thought you were the listing agent. Thanks for driving over here for nothing."So the agent slaps her head, blaming herself: darn, if I had just asked the stupid question I could have avoided this. But the problem is the way an agent asks the question. Nobody should ever ask: are you working with an agent? That is a set up for direct failure. There is a better question to ask that serves the same purpose.You can read more in my personal blog today at this link: Sacramento Ag... 09/20/2018

Yes, I'm preaching to the choir here on Active Rain about Sacramento open house etiquette among agents. Most of the agents who participate on this website discussing real estate know enough to not interfere in another agent's transaction. But like with any group of people, there are often exceptions.The other day my client asked me why she hasn't completed her disclosures. The open house agent (who was not my team member) had a discussion with the seller about types of disclosures they should make. I know, right? WTH? She seemed insistent that the disclosures should already be completed, which is in direct opposition to the way I do business. My method is to prepare disclosures as close to the time of an offer as possible. Fresh data is always better than stale.By the time I finished ex... 09/19/2018

One of the strangest things happened yesterday. Without advance notice, I received an email stemming from our corporate office that congratulated agents on production. Agents you can pretty much count on one hand within the 1,000 or so possible agents in the company who made the Real Trends 2017 list of best agents in Sacramento. This is the first time I have received a company-wide email from corporate about agent online ranking elsewhere. I guess Lyon RE decided to be proactive and get in front of these announcements. As it probably should. But this is good to see because when the agents are recognized, so is the company. They never want to alienate any agents, so they usually say things like, we value the efforts of all of our agents, but here are a few exceptional agents who made a ... 09/18/2018

One of the really nice features about the newer Apple Watches is you can walk away from a cellphone and you can still get phone calls on your Apple Watch. That means when I do gardening work, which is rare, I don't have to stick my cellphone in my pocket where it can fall out or, worse, get sat upon. Squished. It is also too hot to leave a cellphone in the sun in Sacramento. But boy, when my hands are filled with thorns and dripping jasmine shoots, it's easy to answer the phone. All I have to do is raise my wrist to my ear. Lifesaver. You can read more in my personal blog today at this link: Fall Gardening in Land Park Involves Excessive Pruning. 09/17/2018

Agents I've been talking with and sharing our listing experiences all pretty much say the same thing. We have a perfectly average house, a nice home, but once the buyer flaked and fell out of escrow, nobody else is making an offer. It sits. Why did the buyer flake? Most likely because they could not believe their eyes after a home inspection and freaked, a few probably can't qualify for a loan despite the worthless preapproval, but others found a house they liked better.Since buyers can cancel escrow for any reason during inspection periods, they can cancel because another house became available. So they flit off. It's not ethical nor necessarily legal but they manage to do it. Leaving the seller of a perfectly good home in the dust. Fortunately, there are HOT homes selling in our Sacra... 09/15/2018

Over the last 40-some years of my business life in real estate, I have had one home buyer ask to clear suggested repairs in a home inspection report. Count 'em. One. That's one buyer out of thousands of real estate transactions.  A Bay Area buyer --  alongside her misguided, inexperienced agent -- pulled that tactic; blew our minds. It's just not done in Sacramento, but we made it work because (fortunately) the home was well maintained. Making it work is part of what makes real estate so fascinating.But most home buyers can benefit from the knowledge base shared by an experienced buyer's agent. The trick seems to be to find an experienced agent. You know, an agent who has closed many transactions, not just an agent who has held a license for a few years. Possessing a real estate license... 09/13/2018