In the neighborhood where I primarily sell homes in Land Park, it’s not uncommon to find agents putting up sign riders on their sign posts that announce to passersby that they are an area specialist. The problem is some of those agents have never before taken a listing in Land Park and have never sold a home in Land Park. I call that dishonest marketing.

If I were a seller or buyer, I would not want to work with an agent who is lying to me. A consumer might wonder what else the agent is lying about. Typically, there are three distinct lies an agent will tell.

For example, they might puff their production and try to make you believe they have sold a lot of homes, when maybe they sell 3 homes a year. That breaks down to one home every four months, which is pretty lousy. So, how can you tell if the agent is telling you the truth or lying to you? Don’t rely on an agent’s pretty web site because many of those web sites are misleading, filled with bells and whistles and a complete fabrication of facts. Every agent can’t be number one in real estate, for instance.

Agents call it marketing. I call it misrepresentation and lying.

You can look up information about your agent online.

Information about an agent’s real estate license is readily available online in most states, and you can obtain this data from your state’s licensing division. For example, in California, real estate agents are licensed by The Department of Real Estate. On the home page of that web site is a button for “real estate license lookup.” If you enter the last name of the agent, records of all the agents with that last name and respective cities will appear. If you can’t find the agent you are looking for, perhaps that agent has made up an alias or maybe that agent isn’t licensed at all.

The DRE’s web site will tell you when the agent was first licensed, so you can determine how long the agent has been in the business. (You can also look at the agent’s real estate license number to figure out whether the agent is newer. Licenses that begin with a series of zeros means the agent has been in the business for at least 20 years or more.) The site will also tell if you the agent has completed the necessary educational requirements and whether any disciplinary action has been filed against the agent, including whether the license has expired. It’s very revealing.

What else could your agent be lying to you about? Read more about the Top Three Lies Told By Real Estate Agents.

Elizabeth Weintraub
Sacramento Real Estate Broker

Photo: Big Stock Photo

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EMAIL #1 FROM JONATHAN, OHIO

I’m interested in purchasing a condo-hotel. Is it a good idea to use it as an investment and also a vacation home?

Most people who buy a unit in condo-hotels use it part-time as a vacation home and have the management company rent it out when they’re not there. On-site managing agents reliably quote real rent values, but often overstate how many weeks a year they can actually rent your unit to a paying tenant. My point here is, be realistic about how many weeks a year you can rent out your unit when you’re not using it. That way you’ll have a clear picture of what you’re really signing up for.

EMAIL #2 FROM MEGHAN SCHMITT, HARWINTON, CT

We own a log house and would like to put it on the market. We already know that our buying population is smaller because log homes are not for everyone. Do you have any suggestions for making our sale happen quick?

The key to marketing your home is reaching the odd duck. First off, the likely buyer doesn’t live in the neighborhood and conventional marketing like newspaper ads won’t work. You’ll need to find a niche market online for people who love log homes. Think of it as a treasure hunt, out to find websites that sell ‘home on the range’ type stuff like ranch, cabin, and Western style furniture, or even lighting fixtures made out of antlers. You should post an inexpensive house on those sites and you can also showcase your home in the real estate section of Real Log Homes. If your not internet saavy, you can also place a small ad in the many specialty magazines targeted at people who love unique and old houses, like This Old House, Cozy Cabins and Log Home
Illustrated, or Timber Home Living.

EMAIL #3 FROM MARLISE, BELCAMP, MD

My husband and I were thinking about converting the garage into a family room, since we cannot move to a bigger house. The garage is too small to put a vehicle into it and serves as storage space right now. Do you think this is a good idea and would this be beneficial for when we go to sell our house in the future?

Most garages are dark, and if it’s too small for a car it probably wouldn’t make much of a family room. In some areas, garages are a must for homebuyers and some municipalities won’t let you eliminate a garage space because they don’t want additional street parking. But if you can convert your garage to living space, you would be better off adding the space to enlarge an adjacent room rather than setting it aside.

EMAIL #4 FROM RICK DENVER, CO

I own an older home in an area where a lot of older homes are being scrapped to build million to multi-million dollar new homes. Is it recommended to upgrade the existing home with newer amenities such as the kitchen, basement, bathrooms, etc. to maximize sales potential knowing that the property may be purchased as a redevelopment project?

Don’t waste a lot of your money on renovations unless you plan to stay for another ten years. You should think about making only surface improvements to make your house more enjoyable to live in but remember that developers only want your lot, not your house.

EMAIL #5 FROM JOHN, FORT LAUDERDALE, FL
My adjustable mortgage has gone up even though interest rates have been falling. In February, I lost my job. Although I hesitated to tell the lender, I knew that I needed to call. As soon as I told them I had lost my job, the mortgage company said they couldn’t help me. What can I do?

Yours is a classic case of someone who needs help and should receive it. Unfortunately, you talked to the wrong person because most mortgages like yours are being sold to third parties. Call back the lender and ask “who owns my loan, who is the investor?” By law, the lender must give you the information. Then call the people who actually own the loan. Ask to speak to the workout department, and insist on speaking to an officer at the VP level. They will modify your loan!

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Here is interesting news for owners in foreclosure and sellers trying to do a short sale. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been in the middle of short sale transactions when a listing agent calls to say that he represents the bank, which has just foreclosed, and will I please remove my listing from MLS so he can put his REO into inventory?

And just like that — poof — the short sale transaction is no longer viable. It disappears. The seller no longer owns the property, I no longer have a listing, and the shocked buyer has to call the movers to cancel.

Yet, somehow, this can be reversed. How do I know? Because Rep. Laura Richardson has found a way to bend the rules.

California Foreclosure Process: You know the rules. Everybody knows the rules. You miss a few months of mortgage payments, the lender sends you a notice that says it intends to foreclose. A few weeks later, you receive a Notice of Default.

The Notice of Default is also recorded in the public records because it is considered to be constructive notice to, guess who? The public. Everybody in their underwear has a right to know that your home has gone into default and is headed for a trustee’s sale. Ninety days go by, and then a notice of impending sale is published in a newspaper of general circulation for 20 days.

Then the trustee’s sale is held and the home goes to the highest bidder. If nobody bids enough, it goes back to the lender.

Rep. Richardson’s home at 3622 West Curtis, in Sacramento’s desirable Curtis Park neighborhood, sits at the corner of West Curtis and Coleman on a tree-canopied street. It’s one of three homes she owns, and this is her 7th or 8th time in foreclosure, I forget which. The facts are Richardson defaulted on this mortgage and now claims to have been in the middle of negotiations with the lender when the home was sold out from under her, without notice (cough, cough), at a trustee’s sale in May to James York, a mortgage broker. Hey, many sellers have walked in those shoes.

However, now, Rep. Richardson has persuaded the bank to rescind the trustee’s sale, even though York has recorded his deed and taken possession of the home.

What I’d like to know is how can the rest of us ordinary citizens and real estate agents undo a trustee’s sale? What do we need to do to save our escrows, our sellers and their homes? Rep. Richardson says she is not receiving special treatment. Then, how did she do it? Perhaps she’d like to share how it’s done with the rest of the world.

Here’s her contact information — in case you’d like to write to her to find out the secret:

The Honorable Laura Richardson
United States House of Representatives
2233 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0537

You can send an email to Rep. Laura Richardson, too.

Elizabeth Weintraub
Broker-Associate
Lyon Real Estate
Sacramento

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