About Sacramento's Land Park

I get a lot of emails about buying and selling homes in Land Park. That's because I live in Land Park, and I specialize in Land Park. Out of any neighborhood in my four-county Sacramento area, I know the various Land Park neighborhoods the best. I do so much in Land Park that I am Zillow Land Park agent as well. But I've also been in the business for more than 30 years. Last month I earned top agent at Lyon Real Estate out of the 900-or so agents in the company. As a Life Member of Master's Club and a Top Producer, I must be doing something right or you would think.

That gets me noticed by sellers and buyers. Especially sellers who want to sell in Land Park. They see my For Sale signs in Land Park and they find me online. I also have clients call me because of stuff I write for The New York Times-owned Homebuying website at About.com. You'll find thousands of pages of content. It's hard to search for any real estate-related term and not find something I wrote online in the top results. I'm not bragging, it's just how it is. I've been at it a while.

So, when a prospective seller emails me to say they would like to interview me about selling his or her home in Land Park, I am not surprised. But I am wary when they don't act like a seller.

I have discovered that sellers are either actively searching for an honest and experienced Land Park agent, or they want confirmation of sales price. If they want confirmation of sales price, they will generally ask for a CMA and not want to meet. I don't blame sellers because they don't always know how the real estate industry works. My job is to figure out which sellers are serious and who want to hire the best Land Park agent. Those are the sellers I want to work with.

I have really good intuition. I can sense when something is amiss. Like last week a seller emailed and asked to meet. She didn't ask any of the qualifying questions, just mentioned she was interviewing agents. My intuition told me she had no plans to hire me. She had already made up her mind to hire some friend. She's in the business of buying homes and flipping them and she has no agent? I was fairly certain she was not entirely truthful with me. I felt a little guilty that I did not take the time to put together a marketing package or any of my regular materials. I ran a fast CMA with 3 comps, clipped it together and dashed out the door. I always try to give a benefit of doubt. Because what if I am wrong? I could be wrong.

We met. She spent most of her time talking about the house and the work she did. When I mentioned she should do a virtual tour, she whipped out her iPad and wrote it down. That was interesting. I tried another. I said she should print four-color flyers on 100-bond paper with a glossy coating. She wrote that down.

People ask me: am I not worried that I am giving away all of my secrets when I write my blog or articles for About.com? See, the thing is no two people will ever perform alike. Regardless of the information they have. There is no competition. It's not something I ever worry about. Nobody is me, and I am not them. We all develop our own style based on our own strengths and experiences. I am a baby-boomer writer, a flashback from the '60s, with a graphic arts designer / remodeling background who has been in real estate since college. That's a very weird combo.

This seller never asked me for a sales price. She never asked how I would market her home. I live within blocks from her flipper house. I know the neighborhood hands down. She never asked me about the neighborhood, except to announce that where my home is located is a scary place. News to me. I also sold a nearby Land Park home recently that is very similar to her flipper, but it has dramatic differences, which I tried to discuss but she was not interested in the comparison. I began to wonder why I was there. I listened to this seller tell me how much she admires me and my work, how she reads my blogs and my articles, and is so impressed.

The agent she will hire could be her boyfriend. Hard to say. Maybe a cousin. But this is not the ideal way to sell a home in Land Park.

This is how we've finally solved the cat tree problem at our home in Land Park. The problem is we've had multiple cat trees but only spots for 2 cats to sit, and we have 3 cats. We have a cinnammon-spotted ocicat named Pia. She is the cat on the bottom rung, but she rules the house.

On the second rung, I present Jackson, the flamepoint ragdoll, who is always looking for trouble because he's barely a year old. Trouble is Jackson's middle name.

On the top rung is Pica, a marbled silver chocolate ocicat. He came to live with us because breeders can't show marbled ocicats. They can only show those cats with spots. Pia, on the other hand, was a breeding cat who retired at 18 months and was looking for a good home.

We went to the movies at Arden Fair last weekend to see Hugo and stopped by Petco to pick up the crazy chicken for Pia. She loves those PureBites chicken treats. We spotted this cat tree and bought it on the spot. I've been looking for a 3-tiered cat tree for years.

See, I knew there was a reason we jumped out of the long line at the Tower Theatre. We had originally gone to the Tower to see George Clooney, but the line was out to the street. Some of the people didn't even know why they were there -- I asked a woman which movie she came to see and she told me The Defenders. It was the The Descendents. So, we'll have to go see that movie some other time.

The Land Park Community Association was all for the cell tower going up west of Riverside in the cemetery. They didn't want the cell tower on the other side "where everybody could see it." That's because we don't want the wealthier residents of Land Park to be forced to stare at the cell tower. It's much better to stick it on the side of Land Park where the poor people live. Where people who live in the low-income housing units or drive up or walk down Muir Way have to look at it.

However, as cell towers, go, it's not bad. Although I live and work in Land Park, I do have a few listings in Antelope. That's because as a busy Land Park agent, I also sell a lot of short sales in Sacramento. It's the nature of our economy at the moment. To reach this listing in Antelope, I have to drive north on Walerga from Greenback. There is an awful looking cell tower there. Looks like something from outer space.

But here in Land Park Sacramento, our cell tower is somewhat camouflaged. I mean, nobody will mistake it for a pine tree, but it's not staring you in the face. And at least when I am west of Riverside, maybe T-Mobile won't drop my cell phone calls.

The after photo of the Land Park cell tower is to the left (it's the tallest "tree"), and the before photo to the right. Land Park cell tower photos: Elizabeth Weintraub