New Listing - 4938 Kipling Drive, Carmichael, CA 95608

Lovingly maintained by the same family for over 3 decades, this impeccable 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2,001sf Del Dayo Carmichael home is ready to be somebody's new beginning, and is the perfect blank canvas for your personal touches. You will love the spacious layout. The sizable kitchen is open to the family room and offers lots of counter and storage space. The family room has a cozy gas fireplace and overlooks the lush landscaped backyard. Separate formal living room and adjacent formal dining room. Master suite has lots of windows, door to the backyard, and walk-in closet. Inside utility room with extra storage, and 3-car attached garage. HUGE, .29ac park-like backyard with lots of sunny space to garden or play, planter beds, a patio shaded by tree canopy, and a built-in swimming pool. All this located near award-winning k-12 schools, parks, shopping, the American River Parkway & more. Don't wait! MLS# 20027978. Offered at $599,900. 3D tour and more photos and detail available at 4938 Kipling Drive, Carmichael, CA 95608.

New Listing - 6725 Swenson Way, Sacramento, CA 95831

Stunning 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1,632sf South Land Park Hills home! Ideally located on quiet cul-de-sac, you will love the spacious layout. The remodeled kitchen has quartz counters, apron sink, double oven, breakfast nook, and lots of counter/storage space. The formal living room has a fireplace and sunny dual pane windows overlooking the manicured backyard. Separate family room offers a fireplace and access to backyard. Large hallway bedrooms. Master suite has dual closets, and a remodeled master bathroom. Wood floors, composition roof, central HVAC, lots of storage space, 2-car attached garage. Storage shed, AND a 2nd shed with finished/drywalled interior currently used as a home office, perfect for hobbies or crafts! HUGE .31ac lot, park-like backyard, lots of sunny space to garden or play, planter beds, covered patio, manicured gardens. Backs to undeveloped city-owned property! All this located near award-winning k-12 schools, parks, shopping & more. Don't wait! Offered at $569,900. MLS# 20026715. 3D Virtual Tour available. For more photos and detail please visit 6725 Swenson Way, Sacramento, CA 95831.

Listing, AND SAFELY SHOWING, property during the Coronavirus pandemic....

Last week, the Sacramento County Public Health Director modified the our local directive to allow the showing of occupied property. Many of my seller clients rejoiced! And then, after that initial "yay, I can finally sell my house!" excitement, literally all of them had the same realization: "Oh, now I actually have to have a parade of other people in my home."

After having to "Stay at Home" in Sacramento County for nearly 7 weeks, and having limited contact with other people outside of the household, for many sellers this is a scary proposition.

So I have been having the same conversation over and over again lately -- how do I safely show my home? And I thought it might be helpful to post how my seller clients and I are approaching listing and safely (as possible) showing homes.

Given our unique public health circumstances, it is probably pretty important not to let just anyone who wants to see your house inside for a showing. In consultation with my sellers, I came up with a few different types showing options for them to consider.

Again, this is something every Sacramento home seller must contemplate and implement per their own comfort level. As agents we can make no guarantees that these strategies will prevent the risk of getting sick, but sellers may wish to take as many precautions as they believe are necessary.

I listed an occupied property late last week and the method we used to control showings seemed to work pretty well. Most importantly, we limited the flow of people through the property to only serious buyers, AND we didn't impede our ability to show and get offers on it. Basically we required buyers and their agents to jump through some hoops before a showing appointment was granted.

First, the buyers were directed to thoroughly review all marketing photos, 3D tours, inspection reports, and disclosures available in MLS in advance. Then if they had significant interest in the property they had to sign a document called a PEAD (Coronavirus Property Entry Advisory and Declaration) where they swear that they have not been exposed to Coronavirus, have not had symptoms, etc and that they will follow best practices for viewing another property (wear personal protective gear, not touch anything, etc).

Second, they had to prove they were either pre-approved or had enough cash to purchase the home for at least the listing price.

Third, they had to sign and submit all showing instructions documents 24 hours in advance of scheduling a showing.

This seemed to do a pretty good job of vetting the looky-loos and we ended up with serious buyers only. A sample of the showing instructions is pictured above.

I drafted three alternate "showing instructions" scenarios for them to consider. These are of varying rigidity and can be modified based on a seller's comfort level.

Option A is what this most recent seller opted to do. It seemed to work well and seemed to successfully screen the looky-loos out while offering a little flexibility to buyers and agents to request showing days/times.

Option B is a bit more rigid -- I replaced the bullet points with spots for buyers to initial (which should ideally convey certain concepts more strongly). I added a section where the buyers/agent can indicate which showing day/time(s) they prefer, where in Option A we allow the buyers/agents to request times. I also added a requirement that the buyers are not making an offer contingent on the sale of another property -- which you may or may not wish to limit, as that will eliminate some showings/buyers.

Option C is very rigid and requires that the buyer actually makes an offer (relying on the virtual tour, photos, and reports) in order to schedule a showing...it also provides fewer appointment time options to see the home.

Of course all of these can be adapted for specific situations.

The California Association of Realtors published some COVID19 Best Practices that you may find useful as well.

While Option A is pictured in this post, if you would like the verbiage from Options B and C, I am happy to share via email. Shoot me a request at erin@erinstumpf.com. And of course if you are thinking about selling your Sacramento home, I am happy to discuss this and welcome your call to see if we are a good fit to work together.

New Listing - 7848 Meadowriver Way, Citrus Heights, CA 95610

Lovingly maintained by the current owner for nearly 3 decades, this impeccable 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1630sf Citrus Heights home is ready to be somebody's new beginning. You will love the spacious layout. The sizable kitchen is open to the family room and offers lots of counter and storage space. Eat in nook and separate formal dining room. The family room has a cozy fireplace and overlooks the manicured backyard. Separate formal living room. Large hallway bedrooms. Master suite has lots of windows, door to the backyard, and a full wall of closets. Composition roof, central HVAC, inside laundry room with extra cabinets, and 2-car attached garage. HUGE, park-like backyard .28ac lot with lots of sunny space to garden or play, planter beds, a deck shaded by tree canopy, and a large shed. All this located near award-winning k-12 schools, parks, shopping & more. Don't wait! MLS# 20024415. Offered at $369,900. 3D tour and for more information please visit 7848 Meadowriver Way, Citrus Heights, CA 95610.

New Listing - 4412 Belcrest Way, Sacramento, CA 95821

Lovingly maintained by the original owners for many decades, this impeccable 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms 2038sf Sacramento home is the perfect blank canvas for your personal touch! You will love the spacious layout. The sizable kitchen has a double oven, lots of counter and storage space. Adjacent formal dining room and large utility room with a half bathroom. The living room has a fireplace and sunny windows overlooking the manicured backyard. Separate family room has built-in shelving and fireplace, access to backyard. Large hallway bedrooms. Master suite has lots of windows, door to the backyard, walk-in closet. Wood floors, composition roof, central HVAC, lots of storage space, and 2-car attached garage with additional covered carport area. HUGE, .39ac park-like backyard with lots of sunny space to garden or play, planter beds, covered patio, manicured gardens, and gated RV access. All this located near award-winning k-12 schools, parks, shopping & more. Don't wait! MLS# 20022812. Virtual 3D Tour and for more information visit 4412 Belcrest Way, Sacramento, CA 95821.

New Listing - 805 Titanium Lane, West Sacramento, CA 95691

Stunning 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom, 1,626sf unit in the high-demand Ironworks at the Triangle community in West Sacramento. You will love the light and bright open layout, high ceilings, and many windows bathing the interior in natural light. Several high end upgrades such as custom lighting, built-in professionally-designed media center, LVT flooring, tasteful interior paint colors and custom mouldings. High end, remote-controlled black-out window shade for the sunny loft area window and sliding door vertical blind. Kitchen is open to the living room, ideally set-up to entertain! Enjoy your private courtyard set-up with outdoor speaker. Upstairs find 3 bedrooms, laundry room, hallway bathroom with dual sinks. Master suite has large walk-in closet, master bath has separate tub and shower, dual sinks, and ample storage. Attached 2-car garage. Exterior recently painted. All this in close proximity to the Sacramento River and the scenic River Walk, Sutter Health Park (home of the Rivercats baseball team), The Barn, Riverfront Urban Farm, Downtown Commons, Golden 1 Center, and Old Sacramento. Don't wait! Offered at $465,000. MLS# 20021247. For more photos and information visit 805 Titanium Lane, West Sacramento, CA 95691.

Adapting to virtual meetings as I work from home...

I do miss meeting clients in person. But for now, with the current Sacramento County "Stay-at-Home" directive from the department of public health, my clients and I are adapting to using things like Zoom to have group meetings, or FaceTime to virtually meet one-on-one.

I'm not gonna lie -- physical distancing is a pain. But I can't think of anything that is more important than my health or my client's health.

This is normally the busiest time of the year in Sacramento real estate, and the current COVID19 situation may be keeping people at home, but my clients and I are still in close communication.

For example, one of my sellers has been packing and putting her belongings away. Typically I would pop by to chat with my client and see the progress, but in this case we did a little tour of her home via FaceTime. She was able to show me all of the work she's done to prepare her home for sale.

Many buyers and sellers are highly motivated to buy or sell despite the health directives. I have buyers who are relying heavily on virtual tours and inspection reports to contemplate purchasing decisions. I also have sellers that will likely be listing their properties for various reasons in the near future, hoping to find buyers who feel comfortable making offers before they can personally view the properties. Luckily, using 3D tours, video, or other virtual technology to market my listings is not a new concept to me, so it was not anything I had to figure out with my hair on fire. I have been doing that for many years.

I am hopeful that this current situation is relatively short and we can ease back into some limited in-person meetings soon...of course from 6 feet apart and with hand sanitizer in tow.

SCAM ALERT! Beware of fee-based services claiming to be able to lower your property taxes...

Be on the lookout for scams.  As a part of the leadership of the Sacramento Association of Realtors (I am the current Secretary/Treasurer of the Board of Directors), often other association members will come to me with questions or to alert me to things that don't look quite right.

BIG shout out to loan officer Scott Short with Mason McDuffie Mortgage who forwarded me a solicitation he received from a service claiming to be able to reduce homeowner's property tax.

The solicitation claims that, with the market potentially softening, it is time to submit an application to the County Tax Assessor for a reduction of your home's property tax assessment.

Please be aware that this is extremely misleading, and probably a predatory solicitation for a fee-based service that will be a fruitless attempt at property tax reduction.

For one, property tax assessment for the current tax year, which is the state’s fiscal year that runs from July 1, 2019 June 30, 2020 is based on the value of the property as of January 1, 2019. There will be no justifiable reason to expect that an appeal can be filed based on any current market activity for the value as of January 1, 2019.

Additionally, the values for the upcoming fiscal year that begins on July 1, 2020 and runs until June 30, 2021 will be based on the property value as of January 1, 2020. Any current market value volatility that we may – or may not – experience as a result of our current public health situation will again provide little, if even any, basis to justify an application for a Proposition 8 decline in property tax assessment.

It should also be noted that even if a homeowner files a legitimate property tax appeal, the timeframe in which to file an application does not even start for more than three months from today. The period opens on July 2 and runs to November 30.

A homeowner can request that the county assessor complete an informal review of the tax assessment FOR FREE. There is a non-refundable $30 fee to the Sacramento County Assessor to formally file an assessment appeal. And you do not need to hire a third party to do this.

I need to point out that if there is a decline in property value in Sacramento, it will take at least a few months of data to be able to determine what the impact will be to real estate values this COVID19 public health situation. As of right now, while we are seeing homes withdrawn from the market and certainly a likelihood of shrinking inventory, MANY agents are getting creative while limiting face-to-face contact and MANY homes are still going into contract with multiple offers. It is really too premature to say what the market will look like when the public health directives are lifted.

Please be on the lookout for these types of opportunists looking to take advantage of homeowners. We are definitely in a time of economic uncertainty, and like we witnessed during the last recession, scammers will prey on the most vulnerable people who are desperately seeking financial relief.

Here is a Q&A on the Sacramento County Assessor's website about Proposition 8 Decline in Value adjustment and assessment appeals. The assessor's office also has a an overview on how to reduce property taxes in other circumstances as well, and that link is here.