Article I wrote for this month's Comstock's Magazine: The Changing Landscape of California Real Estate: What Home Buyers and Sellers Need to Know...

This month's edition of Comstock's Magazine includes an article I wrote about the National Association of REALTORS® Settlement and recent real estate practice changes, which became effective last month…and I underscore higher level of transparency and the continued importance of REALTORS as trusted experts in transactions.

Effective August 17, these key practice changes include mandatory buyer representation agreements, requiring buyers to formalize their relationship with agents before home tours, and the elimination of buyer-agent compensation offers in MLS listings. Buyers will need to negotiate agent fees upfront, enhancing transparency and shifting some of the dynamics of negotiating offers and terms with sellers. Sellers may adopt new marketing strategies to appeal to buyers navigating these changes, highlighting the importance of skilled real estate professionals during the process.

Read the article here.

Profiled in the March 2024 Sacramento Real Producers Magazine

It is kinda neat and definitely an honor to be profiled in the Sacramento Real Producers Magazine. The article profiles the series of life events leading to my nearly 19-year career as a top-producing agent, as well as my passion for service to the Sacramento, California, and National Associations of Realtors, and advocacy on behalf of our profession. You can read the entire article here.

Featured in a Comstock's Magazine article about how potential home buyers can expand their options...

I was featured this month in a Comstock's Magazine article about how potential home buyers can expand their options...It is no secret that our Sacramento real estate market is ever-changing, and we are approaching what is usually a really heated time of the year: spring. Buyers have surely been constrained by limited choices over the last year or so, and the increased interest rates definitely do not help affordability -- but there certainly are ways for buyers to win in this market. You can read the full article here.

The data from the National Association of Realtors reinforces the wealth-building potential of homeownership. With the median net worth of homeowners far exceeding that of renters, the benefits are clear. 

In the dynamic world of real estate, achieving the dream of homeownership can feel like an uphill battle, especially in Sacramento's competitive market. However, my nearly 19-years of experience as a Sacramento real estate agent has taught me valuable lessons on how potential homebuyers can broaden their search criteria to make their homeownership dreams a reality. 

I challenge the traditional notion that a 3-bedroom, 2-bath home in a specific location is the only path to homeownership. I urge my clients to have open and honest conversations about their true needs and priorities, separating them from mere wants. 

One strategy I often encourage clients to think about are alternative property ownership models. I've seen firsthand how clients have successfully purchased duplexes or other multi-unit properties and shared the property, or opted for condo living over traditional homes with yards. These approaches can offer both affordability and lifestyle benefits. 

Sacramento's diverse micro markets present a wealth of opportunities for motivated homebuyers. By understanding local trends and price points, buyers can find creative ways to make homeownership possible, even in the face of challenges like increased interest rates and limited inventory. While external factors like interest rates and inventory levels may seem daunting, I emphasize the importance of focusing on what's within one's control. Prioritizing aspects such as income, education, credit score, and debt levels can significantly impact one's ability to secure a home. 

Busy time at the California and National Associations of REALTORS board meetings!

It has been a busy last couple of weeks! I serve on the California Association of REALTORS® (C.A.R.) Board of Directors, and the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) Board of Director, and for the last couple weeks in addition to helping my clients buy and sell like any typical agent would, I have also been helping craft policy positions and advocate on behalf of my profession and homeowners.

In addition to being a Director on the Board, at C.A.R. I am the Vice Chair of the Federal Issues policy committee. This committee advises the C.A.R. board as to what federal policies to advocate for in conjunction with NAR. Pretty cool stuff.

In addition to being a Director on the Board, at NAR I am the Chair of the Federal Taxation policy committee. Last week my committee and our Board of Directors moved internal policy forward to advocate for reduced capital gains for owners of single family and 2-4 unit rental properties who sell to owner-occupants...

It is pretty exciting to be on the forefront of advocating on behalf of our nations 1.5M+ REALTOR® members and millions of property owners. As someone with a Masters Degree in Public Policy, operating at such a high level to advocate for policies that increase homeownership is really awesome. Our next meetings are in the fall and I can't wait!

Appointed as 2023 Vice Chair of the California Association of REALTORS® Federal Committee!

I learned of my appointment to be the Vice Chair of the California Association of REALTORS® Federal Committee for 2023. To say I am excited is an understatement! I have been serving on the California Association of REALTORS Board of Directors since 2010. 

It is this very involvement that inspired me to go to graduate school and earn a Masters Degree in Public Policy & Administration, which I finished in 2018. I love advocating for homeownership, private property rights, and importantly -- tax rules that incentivize and ease property ownership and property transfer. So to help drive our federal taxation policy agenda is really cool. All this while being a top producing agent...many people ask me how I balance all of this, and really when you love what you are doing everything is fun and does not feel like work. And this all helps me be a better agent for my clients.

Appointed as 2023 Chair of the National Association of REALTORS® Federal Taxation Committee!

2022 has been amazing thus far and I am really excited for next year already. Why? I learned of my appointment to be the Chair of the National Association of REALTORS® Federal Taxation Committee for 2023. To say I am excited is an understatement! I have been serving this year as the 2022 Vice Chair of the NAR Federal Taxation Committee, and I absolutely love being an engaged and active member of all three of my associations (being Sacramento, California, and National). 

It is this very involvement that inspired me to go to graduate school and earn a Masters Degree in Public Policy & Administration, which I finished in 2018. I love advocating for homeownership, private property rights, and importantly -- tax rules that incentivize and ease property ownership and property transfer. So to help drive our federal taxation policy agenda is really cool. All this while being a top producing agent...many people ask me how I balance all of this, and really when you love what you are doing everything is fun and does not feel like work. And this all helps me be a better agent for my clients.

Appointed to be on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Realtors for 2022-2024 AND to be Vice Chair of the Federal Taxation Committee!

I am super excited for 2022. Why? As an association volunteer leader since about 2008, this year the stars have aligned.

• I will be the President of the Sacramento Association of Realtors
• I will be on the Board of Directors for the California Association of Realtors
• I will be on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Realtors

And additionally, like the icing on the cake, I learned of my appointment to be the Vice Chair of the NAR Federal Taxation Committee for 2022. To say I am excited is an understatement!

I absolutely love being an engaged and active member of all three of our associations. It is this very involvement that inspired me to go to graduate school and earn a Masters Degree in Public Policy & Administration, which I finished in 2018. I love advocating for homeownership, private property rights, and importantly -- tax rules that incentivize and ease property ownership and property transfer. So to help drive our federal taxation policy agenda is really cool.

All this while being a top producing agent...many people ask me how I balance all of this, and really when you love what you are doing everything is fun and does not feel like work. And this all helps me be a better agent for my clients. 

REALTORS® awarding housing assistance grants to homeowners and renters affected by the Camp, Woolsey, and Hill fires...

Thanks to a generous donation of $1 million by National Association of REALTORS® Relief Foundation, as well as California Association of REALTORS®, other state and local REALTOR® associations (including Sacramento), and other contributors, C.A.R. is awarding housing assistance grants to homeowners and renters affected by the Camp, Woolsey, and Hill fires. Households can apply for up to $2,000 to provide assistance with mortgage relief or temporary housing, such as payments on the mortgage of a primary residence that was burned in a fire, lease, or rent payments on replacement housing, or payments to a temporary shelter.

If you or know anyone who has been affected by the fires and would like to apply for a grant, please apply online here or email disasterrelief@car.org.

What does the new Tax Reform Bill mean for home buyers, sellers, and homeowners?

A few weeks ago, right around Christmas and just before the end of the year, the president signed the final version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The legislation -- two separate bills -- was advanced in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate pretty quickly, then elements of the two bills were blended together (via a process known as "conference"), resulting in a final bill...

Regarding tax implications for homeowners, several items were on the table for pretty significant changes in both bills. And for a while it was difficult to determine what actually made it into the final bill that was signed into law.

Now that the chips have landed -- here is a summary of what is in the final bill that will affect residential home buyers, home sellers, and homeowners.

Capital Gains Exemption on the Sale of a Primary Residence
The good news here for sellers is the final bill had NO CHANGE. For as long as I can remember, the law has been that up to $250,000 (for individuals) or $500,000 (for married couples) of  the gain (aka profit) from the sale of a primary residence is exempt from capital gains tax, provided that you have lived in the home for at least 2 out of the last 5 years. Both of the original House and Senate bills sought to change this timeline for exemption to 5 out of the last 8 years. This would have placed a huge hardship on many homeowners. Life happens, and many people look to sell and move into larger homes, downsize, or relocate after a short time in a home...so thankfully that change was not part of the final bill, and homeowners can still sell and take their equity with them, untaxed to those amounts, after 2 years.

Mortgage Interest Deductibility for Primary Residences
The good news here is that the final bill only capped tax write-off for mortgage interest at loan amounts of $750,000 or less. The original House bill sought to cap the mortgage interest deduction at loan amounts of $500,000 or less (in fact you may recall I made an appearance on the KCRA News when the original bill was announced). Overall this is still a reduction from the $1,000,000 cap that had been in place for as long as I can remember...though at $750,000 that will not affect too many people purchasing homes in the greater Sacramento region. Our current median home price in Sacramento County is in the mid-$300k range. For those with pre-existing home loans between $750,000 - $1,000,000 -- you are grandfathered in and may still write-off that mortgage interest. Also of note is that interest on home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) is no longer deductible, however it is still deductible on home equity loans (aka, second mortgages). Clear as mud, yes?

Mortgage Interest Deductibility for Second Homes
The good news here is that the final bill did not eliminate the mortgage interest deduction for second homes! The original House bill would have completely eliminated the mortgage interest deduction for second homes (aka vacation homes).

So that is enough information to use as a guideline. The National Association of Realtors also published a detailed Q&A which you can refer to here. Please be sure to confer with your CPA to determine how these things apply specifically to your situation.

Earned the Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES) Designation...

As I was completing my continuing education for my real estate broker license renewal, I thought it would be useful to couple that effort with earning a new professional designation - so I earned the Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES) designation. It was a great refresher on some of the issues I regularly assist clients and their families with when buying or selling - probate sales, sales via a living trust or an estate, relocation into senior housing, or finding homes that meet the special needs of someone who is aging, etc. And I also thought it was fitting that, while every other designation I have earned emails an electronic certificate of completion, the SRES Council snail mailed a certificate to me.

Erin Attardi breaks through the Sacramento bubble...and visits San Diego. Ok so it was a working trip...

Well, as much as I love Sacramento, I was not bummed about leaving our foggy and cold weather last week in order to attend the California Association of Realtors winter conference and attend the C.A.R. Board of Directors meetings -- in sunny San Diego. In fact, it was about 80 degrees and sunny there all week.

Ironically, as beautiful as San Diego is, I had very little time to enjoy it. Most of our committee and board meetings were held in these stuffy, windowless rooms at the San Diego Manchester Hyatt, and they started early and went late. I did walk through the Gaslamp Quarter for a couple hours one afternoon...but that was about all the fresh air I got. Even my daily running regimen and half-marathon training was spent on the treadmill (mainly because it was dark by the time we were done for the day, and I didn't want to run in unfamiliar territory in the dark by myself).

So what did I do down there, you may ask? Well, in short -- as a current member of the C.A.R. Board of Directors, I attended meetings, meetings, and more meetings.

Did you know that the local, state and national associations of Realtors work to defend consumer private property rights? Lemme guess - your answer was no. Most people (heck, many Realtors for that matter) are not aware that we do this. We are constantly out trying to convince lawmakers that proposing pieces of legislation that do things like add more taxes to real estate transactions, require certain home retrofits at the point of sale, eliminate the mortgage interest tax deduction, and things of that nature are BAD ideas....while at the same time trying to convince lawmakers that proposing pieces of legislation that do things like prohibit advanced fee loan modification contracts, extend forgiveness of paying income tax on "phantom income" created by short sales, give additional rights to tenants of foreclosed homes, and things of that nature are GOOD ideas.

So without going into all of the boring details, we worked all week strategizing things like that. There were some interesting forums and roundtable discussions regarding issues involving short sales, foreclosure, appraisal fraud, etc. Very productive...

A great Thanksgiving...and Realtor.com names me one of the "Top 100 Real Estate Influencers"

Wow...I awoke this morning to a nice Thanksgiving surprise! Realtor.com has named me as one of their "Top 100 Real Estate Influencers." I didn't even know about it until one of my Realtor colleagues posted the link to my Facebook page. Pretty neat.

I then spent the morning freezing my buns off with some other Sacramento Association of Realtors colleagues at the 17th Annual Run to Feed the Hungry. We had a team! I actually ran the 10k race. My official time was 1:08:23...not really a great time - but I am not really much of a runner just yet, so my goal was just to run the entire thing and finish it. I actually registered for a half marathon in Sacramento in March that I plan to start training for very soon. My goal is similar - I want to run the entire thing and finish. Anyway...

I then spent the afternoon and evening at my mom's house with my family...she's one heck of a cook! I practically rolled home that night...ahh, so much to be thankful for! Great family, friends, loved ones, job, health...life is good.

Trying to do a short sale on a Wells Fargo loan? Facing Foreclosure? Read this...

For those folks dealing with Wells Fargo for a possible short sale, take note;

Earlier in November, Wells Fargo informed the National Association of Realtors that it modified its criteria to postpone trustee sale (foreclosure) if the property was under review for a short sale. For loans owned by Wells Fargo (and former Wachovia / World Savings loans they acquired), as well as other loans serviced by Wells Fargo but owned by another investor, the policy allows for ONE foreclosure postponement, but only if: (1) Wells Fargo has a short sale purchase contract in hand that has been already been approved (including approvals from junior lien holders --2nds--, and mortgage insurers, if applicable), (2) the buyer has proof of funds or financing approved, and (3) the short sale can close within 30 days of the scheduled foreclosure sale.

However, Wells Fargo also noted that not all investors (other non-WF entities that actually own the loans) allow for these foreclosure postponements and stressed that in jurisdictions where the courts will not approve the delay, the postponement policy will not apply (this does not really affect California, which has a non-judicial foreclosure process). All other situations that do not qualify under these guidelines will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

More proof I'm a geek...and featured on HP's Blog!

Because I won the top honor in the National Association of Realtors "Real Estate Technology Contest" a year ago, I am periodically contacted by representatives from Hewlett Packard (the sponsor of the contest) asking about my continued use of technology, my thoughts on how both consumers and real estate agents use technology to buy and sell homes, etc.

Most recently, they asked if they could write a post about me for their blog. So - if you care to read the post, here it is!

Final Blog Post of 2009...

I can not believe 2009 is basically over! It just does not seem that long ago that I was sitting in terminal A15 at Sacramento International Airport, waiting for a flight to Phoenix and writing my final blog post of 2008. I have been doing a lot of reflection on 2009 lately - from both a personal perspective and a professional perspective.

In 2009, professionally I:

• qualified for the Sacramento Association of Realtors "Masters Club" again - and met the requirement for all of 2009 by the middle of the year
• again qualified as a Lyon Real Estate "Senior Executive Associate" based on my production. As of the end of November, I was ranked within the top 50 agents in my entire company (out of something like 900 agents)...not sure what my final ranking will be just yet
• was the #1 Listing Agent of the Month in my Sierra Oaks Lyon Real Estate office of +/- 130 agents two separate times (for the months of February and November)
• successfully closed 14 short sale transactions, and have written lender approval for several others that will close in 2010
• hired a Full Time assistant (yippee!) who is amazingly helpful
• 46.26% of my earnings, and 13 closed real estate transactions resulted from my internet presence (someone finding me online via google, one of my websites, my blog, etc.), while 42.03% of my earnings, and 11 closed transactions resulted from referrals...the remainder of my transactions and income were generated from other sources (sign calls, open houses, etc)
• was quoted for different media articles regarding real estate
• was awarded the Top Honor in the National Association of Realtors / Hewlett Packard "Real Estate Technology Contest"
• was a featured speaker for the California Association of Realtors at their June and October conferences, and I have also been an instructor on several occasions for classes at the Sacramento Association of Realtors
• helped raise almost $11,000 for charitable causes through different Sacramento Association of Realtors fundraisers
• was elected to serve a 2-year term on the Sacramento Association of Realtors "Masters Club" Steering Committee.
• was appointed as the Chair of the Sacramento Association of Realtors "Young Professionals Council" for 2010, and appointed as one of seven "Advisors" to the California Association of Realtors "Young Professionals Network"

I have set many new professional goals for myself for this year, including increasing my production, possibly hiring another assistant agent to work with me, running for a seat on the Sacramento Association of Realtors Board of Directors for the 2011-2012 term, and much more...look out 2010!!

Official confirmation that I am a HUGE Tech Geek Realtor...

Ok so if you were not already convinced otherwise, this should confirm once and for all that I am a Tech Geek Realtor.

Yesterday I received confirmation that I was awarded the top honor in the National Association of Realtors / HP Real Estate Technology Contest. You can read the press release here.

I am absolutely honored to have received this recognition! I wear my geek badge with pride!!