Working With Lawyers as Clients in Real Estate

Working with lawyers as their Sacramento real estate agent is not high on the priority list of many agents in Sacramento, if you want to know the truth, but I really enjoy that type of personality. I enjoy working with many types of personalities except for the you-know-who’s. I’ll also take the harmless nut-jobs, but not the explosive guys. I draw the line there. Yet, Type A personalities and the analytical guys are interesting and fun for me. Lawyers also tend to care more about their transactions, sometimes as much as I do.

You might find that difficult to believe but lots of people don’t put a lot of credence into what agents do for them, especially when we are talking about listing agents. The public has this impression that it’s easy to sell a home, that all we do is stick a sign in the yard and people call us. They don’t always understand why we are so highly compensate for what we do, because they don’t view the inner workings of real estate and often agents don’t share that information.

One of the things that I try to do with my blog is share what goes on inside a transaction without giving away any personal identifying data about anybody so people can understand what agents do. OK, maybe not all agents, but this particular Sacramento real estate agent. I do things a little bit differently. I constantly evolve, reassess.

I focus completely on my sellers and what’s best for them. Ordinarily that part is pretty easy, because what’s best for them is usually netting the most money out of a sale and closing without headaches. When I’m working with lawyers, they expect me to handle the details efficiently and effortlessly.

For example, when my seller receives a purchase offer that entails crediting closing costs of say, $15,000, to the buyer, I go that extra step. I will call the buyer’s lender to schmooze. In the middle of schmoozing, I might say, “Hey, this borrower of yours, how well do you know her?”

Then, they tell me all kinds of things they wouldn’t ordinarily spill.

I might also say, wow, this borrower is very strong and you are lucky to work with somebody like this who can afford to pay her own closing costs. Not many borrowers today can do that. This borrower has a lot of assets and is fortunate.

Then the buyer’s mortgage lender confirms it.

See, right there I might have saved that seller $15,000 or more. Turns out the buyer did not “need” a closing cost credit. Because I think about purchase offers and strategize counter offers. The seller didn’t ask me to go that extra step, I just did it because that’s my job, and I like my job. It’s another reason that lawyers love to work with me. So, you sellers who are hemming and hawing about paying a full commission, you have no idea what you get when you don’t. You want to save $5,000, yet throw $15,000 away.

You would be really hard pressed to find an agent who loves working with lawyers in Sacramento real estate more than this agent. Lawyers get it.