Pacita Dimacali - e-PRO, SRES, CDPE, MBA East Bay, North CA real estate

Mixed bag of emotions --- that's par for the course.

OH, JOY!

Today, I received a call from a prospective seller who told me I got the job of their realtor, beating out two other realtors in bigger local offices. I am thrilled. This is a very good listing in a desirable part of the island. This is a home with very good bones...needs a lot of work, but it is on a great street. A visionary will rejuvenate this home in no time. It should generate a lot of interest.

Keep your eye on this home....it's coming soon!

OH, NO!

Then later, I receive an email from a client whose 10-unit apartment building I had listed and marketed last year. Against my advice, he wanted a higher price than I thought reasonable. Although I generated a lot of interest and had many showings, the numbers just didn't add up for the prospective buyers. So he took it off the market in March. He expressed profound gratitude for everything I've done for him, but he decided to list the property with a big commercial brokerage. How do I combat that?

OH, JOY! I just received a verbal approval for one of my offers on an REO listing. It was a competitive situation so we wrote an offer over list price, following the Do's and Don'ts when writing an REO offer

OH, NO! I just received a verbal rejection for one of my offers on an REO listing. So many bidders, they picked the top 3 out of 8 offers. My client didn't want to write a higher offer even though she knew we would be competing.

So onward, forward. Just another typical day in the life of a REALTOR.

Ever since I moved to the Bay area, I've been going to Craigslist for all kinds of stuff. The first places I rented/sub-let were from posts I answered in craigslist. Also found furniture I use for staging on craigslist.

But best of all, I get the most exposure for my listings via craigslist. I my listings 2-3 times a week, using Postlets and Vflyer.

Many times, I get calls from people who "found" me on craigslist and wanted to use me as their agent. One client named Stella said that since every time she clicks on an intereting listing, my name pops up, she thought "you must be a really good agent!"

Then this morning, I received an inquiry about my listing of a duplex in Alameda. Seems like he needs to do a 1031 exchange. I told him that this may not work for him if he's looking for a positive cash flow since at the price of $648K, rents will be a little over $3K/mo. So I talked with him at length, and he has asked me for help in finding properties that may meet his requirements.

Guess it all depends on how one responds to each inquiry.

Bottom line, Craigslist has been good to me.

Sometime back, I was successful in posting some pictures of my beloved city, Alameda CA

Now that we've "claimed" or sponsored communities, I am inspired to tote my camera more frequently so that I can post additional pictures.

But once I logged on, I realized after clicking here and there. that we don't have an intuitive method to post pictures.

Okay...maybe it's just me. I've forgotten how. Or I am just too blind to see what may be obvious to a lot of people. But shouldn't we have some kind of very visible instruction like "Click here to load pictures" or something like that for realtors like me whose mind gets fuzzy late into the night?

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures I intended to post.

This one is a typical clear day in Alameda, while fog banks begin to unfold in San Francisco.

And I'm not sure what to make of Alameda Theater....I think interior shots of the restored theater may be more interesting than the exterior.

Venting....can't believe the attitude of some of the REO agents who must be so drunk with power and so busy with their listings that they have forgotten the simple rules of courtesy and professionalism.

My clients and I went to see an REO house, but when I opened the lockbox, there was no key. So on Tuesday and Wednesday. I called the listing agent named Jerry and left messages about the absence of a key. I even followed up with two emails, asking when can we see it.

On Thursday, I reached his partner Val. I told him I haven't had a call back from Jerry. Val tells me he hasn't seen Jerry in over a week. So I told him about trying to show their co-listed property but that there is no key in the lock box. Val asks, "So what do you want me to do about it?" Well, for starters, how about putting in a key?

So Val says he will get a key there either Friday or Saturday. Saturday, no key. Sunday, no key. I convinced my clients who are still very interested, to write an offer subject to inspection.

Monday, I called their office to get instructions on where/how to send the offer, and they tell me there's already a ratified offer, and that the offer was on the table for some time, but that they were waiting for the bank's response.

When I tried to voice a complaint about the unprofessional attitude, their not returning calls or emails, and their not telling me that they have an offer on the table, the assistant said she doesn't have my name on the list of people to call back. I said I left messages and also wrote emails. So the assistant puts Jerry on the phone. Jerry says, with a very dismissive attitude, "Yeah, we heard you."

And that was it.

This is not the first time I've had a run-in with an REO agent. What's with the attitude?

Keeping tabs on various blogs and websites, and I am dismayed at some of the buyers' (or perhaps) non-buyers' continuing fear that if they buy now, they may over pay for a house. Many pundits say we haven't hit the bottom of the market yet. But just when is bottom? When it's several months behind us.

A recent LA Time Article asks, "Should you buy a home now?"

I'm interested in seeing what other REALTORS say, what facts you back it up with, and how you illustrate why this is the best time to buy. How do you overcome buyer's fears?

• I've pulled up information from www.DQNews.com.
• I've given them links to, and copies of feature articles on home buying. One of my favorites is David Bach's Automatic Millionaire Homeowner (easy read, easy to understand)
• I research information on the history of the property they're interested in (like how much the home sold for last).
• I give them Home Buyer's Guide, walk them through the buying process.
• I've given them links to calculate Buy vs Rent as it applies to their situation.
• I've given charts on the 30 plus years history of the mortgage rates

What else do others do?