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Elizabeth Weintraub
How to Handle Request for Referral Fee from Non Licensee
An agent cannot pay a referral fee to a non-licensee.
In between listings yesterday, I grabbed a call from a woman asking for a referral fee if she referred her friend to us to buy a home. Somewhere, from somebody, she heard that a Sacramento Realtor might pay her big bucks to refer a buyer. I don’t get many odd calls like this, but I get plenty of peculiar calls. Most of the time I hear my husband chuckling away in the other room at some of the conversations. This caller wanting to request a referral fee felt a bit odd. My husband laughed pretty loudly at this one, so I thought I would share.
The first thing I asked: Do you have a real estate license?
No, she says, I do not. I just want you to pay me a referral fee. How much do you pay?
Me: To an unlicensed person, maybe I would give you a $25 gift certificate. We are not allowed to pay referral fees to unlicensed individuals. It is against the law.
Why do you have to tell anybody about the referral fee? she continued. It would just be between you and me.
Don’t you love it?
Me: “Because it doesn’t change the fact that paying a referral fee to an unlicensed person is against the law and I would be putting my license in jeopardy. My real estate license is far too precious to put it at risk.”
She signed. Obviously, she wasn’t getting through to my thick skull. I could hear those thoughts in her sigh.
Me: “You know what? You can continue to call real estate agents and eventually you’ll find a crooked agent who will do exactly what you want, so maybe that’s the path you should follow. Just keep calling. You’ll find a crook. But I am not a crook.”
Maybe you could give me a really nice present, she suggested, because my birthday is coming up in January.
Where do these people find me? Oh, right, the internet. My team member Barbara Dow took over. They agreed on a $25 gift certificate.
Quicken Loans and Out-of-Area Sacramento Appraiser Issues
If we could just get Quicken Loans to use local appraisers, we’d be onboard.
When Quicken Loans first came on the scene in Sacramento, I was not overly thrilled but have since changed my initial opinion. The problem back then was no personalized service. You could not speak with a rep when you needed the person. Customer service was fairly lousy. Then, all of a sudden, it seems, Quicken Loans changed how it handles loans. The company became more responsive and equally effective, probably through implementing an overall customer service upgrade.
They learned it’s not enough to suck in the customers, you need good reviews. They learned that loan reps needed to out-shine local lenders in Sacramento. Home buyers choose Quicken Loans for several reasons. The first is interest rates and fees. Every lender advertises pretty much the same rates, but sometimes Quicken is a bit cheaper. I once worked with a lawyer who would feed his grandmother strychnine if he could save another one-eighth of a point in an interest rate. Customers also like Quicken because it makes the process easy for them.
However, like most Sacramento Realtors, I prefer that our buyers work with a competent local mortgage lender. A guy we know. A guy who doesn’t let us down, will always be available for us, and gets the job done when other lenders can’t. But we don’t always get to choose the lenders we work with. Sometimes the buyer has already contacted Quicken Loans, and that’s OK as long as the buyer is happy.
My main beef with Quicken Loans is they don’t often use local appraisal management companies. Yesterday, for example, I received a call from an appraiser pool in Minneapolis, of all places. She was ready to send out an appraiser as long as somebody could physically meet the appraiser at the property because the appraiser lacked the tools of her trade. This appraiser wants to play in the big leagues, but she could not afford to join our local Board of Realtors. Without board membership, she has no access to the Supra lockbox through a display key.
An out-of-area appraiser or an appraiser who is not equipped to do her job can’t enter a home without a lockbox key. We use Supra lockboxes in Sacramento. Not contractor boxes. Sacramento appraisers need board membership to get a key for access. By requiring an appraiser to belong to our board, we can provide access to the right information, increase the appraiser’s own level of professionalism and hopefully receive an accurate appraisal.
Realtors ought to ask themselves the tough questions. Don’t you want our business to stay local in Sacramento, if at all possible? Do we want to support an appraisal management company outside of California? Do we want to hire an appraiser from Stockton? A guy who doesn’t belong to our board or hasn’t done enough appraisals to afford membership in our board? Don’t our clients deserve an experienced local appraiser who won’t mess up our appraisal?
Listing agents should stop saying yes to allowing inexperienced or ill-equipped appraisers into our lives. All it does is endorse, perpetrate this sort of business, and that’s not the kind of message we want to send to Quicken Loans. The message we sent to Quicken Loans recently was: please choose a local appraisal management company that works with experienced appraisers who belong to our board. Get professional.
Did Metrolist Name Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Realtor of the Year?
Did Metrolist name Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Realtor of the Year?
Metrolist called to say that I was probably going to be named “Sacramento Realtor of the Year,” like last year, but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks, anyway. Now I feel like I have to explain this satire because there will undoubtedly be some sorry excuse for a human reading my blog who will say, what? Metrolist didn’t do that. And then the loser will report me to Metrolist Compliance, and I’ll have to send another call to voice mail.
I’m reminded of this because Metrolist did not leave a voice mail yesterday. My physical self was planted in a chair at the Sacramento Board of Realtors for almost 4 hours listening to our Lyon Legal Update. Twice a year I attend Legal Updates, filled with incredible information about new laws, new forms, popular lawsuits and how best to keep myself and my clients out of the slammer. As I sat there paying rapt attention to the speakers on stage, I happened to glance down at the cell in my lap, flipped past Alphabear, and my Caller ID identified an incoming call from Metrolist.
Call me silly, but somehow I did not think it was to tell me I was probably going to be named Sacramento Realtor of the Year. Despite my long-running love affair with Metrolist, nothing good ever comes from a phone call that originates at Metrolist. It’s not the fault of Metrolist, though, so let me be clear about that. The calls I get from Metrolist are generated via jealous agents. The agents are always wrong. When I say “always,” I mean always. I can’t think of a time when they were not.
What these poor agents so often do when their buyer’s offer is rejected or they feel misplaced confusion, well, they call Metrolist to report a problem with my listing. No such problem exists, of course, but then Metrolist is forced to investigate and request documents to substantiate the fact that there is no problem. Why? Because at Metrolist you are guilty until proven innocent. They do not email and apologize for interrupting your day with nonsense. They automatically accuse you of wrongdoing. It’s the Metrolist way.
None of this would ever happen if there wasn’t such animosity among some Sacramento agents toward the successful agents. There are times of course that I submit my own compliance reports but those are not due to irrational anger nor green eyes. My hope is to improve our profession. I don’t even know the agents I report. I feel like if I keep my mouth shut about an infraction, I’m part of the problem. But nobody really appreciates that effort, either. Spittooey.
Doesn’t matter what I do. I cannot accept the nomination for Sacramento Realtor of the Year. I have much better things to do. Like clean out litter boxes.
How Rare Is It for a Sacramento Realtor to Work on Sunday?
How rare is it for a Sacramento Realtor to work on Sunday?
The impression the public gravitates toward, that it’s unusual for a Sacramento Realtor to work on Sunday, where do they get that? Every successful Sacramento Realtor I know works on Sundays. You might see a Realtor at an open house, which we typically hold open from 2:00 to 4:00, and think the agent works only 2 hours. But what you don’t see are the signs loaded into the vehicle, the setting up of signs about town. Getting to the house early to turn on heat and lights. Sweeping leaves off the steps. Assembling buyer handouts at the home. Last minute market research and then preparing to welcome guests. Combine the drive and we easily work 4 hours or half a day.
Throw into this mix the last Sunday of November is the last day sellers and buyers can go into escrow by financing a home and hope to close before the end of 2017. Unless maybe the lender is Wells Fargo. I heard from a reliable lender that Wells Fargo doesn’t issue the CD until all loan conditions are met, so you can add another 5 to 7 days to any loan with Wells Fargo.
What a crazy Sunday. For starters, I slept in an extra hour. So I missed the 7:30 AM voice mail from a frantic buyer begging us to take his offer, which we don’t have. While it is not rare for this Sacramento Realtor to work on Sunday, I am usually at my computer around 7 AM. Next on the agenda was a fully executed counter offer that aced out the offer not yet received from the 7:30 AM frantic buyer. Bingo, another into escrow.
Then an offer on another listing arrived. The seller almost signed when a new agent called to say her buyer loved the home! Welcome news, especially since the first agent raked me over the coals. He was very upset because when he called, he put the call on speaker phone in front of his buyer. I pointed out that perhaps he should let an agent know when she is being broadcast. If not law, etiquette demands it. I said it appeared as though his buyers could not afford to buy the property. Because they didn’t have enough money to pay for their own closing costs.
What’s wrong with the truth? Since when does a seller become a charity in a seller’s market? The agent called me names. What? Then he continued to attack me professionally while blurting out even nastier things to me. What a way to go when you’re trying to get your buyer’s offer accepted, huh? Those poor people.
Another seller emailed to say buyers somehow talked to the seller’s mom about buying his home and she wanted him to sell to them. I do not argue over things like this. I contacted the agent, obtained an offer, but it wasn’t to the seller’s liking. We issued a counter. No, Siree, not rare at all for a Sacramento Realtor to work on Sunday.
In a different escrow, I dealt with the standing issue of a bad pest inspection. I usually don’t see too many wrong pest inspections, like calling out subterranean termites when the termites were long ago eradicated and the tubes empty. A new guy at the pest company apparently produced the bogus report. The buyer’s agent did not review the pest inspections. Multitude of problems there but I smoothed them over.
My husband knows it’s not odd for a Sacramento Realtor to work on Sunday, but I worked all day yesterday. No breaks at all. Didn’t get up from my computer except to grab a quick lunch. This is the last chance we’ll have to go to lunch until next year, my husband prodded. He really hoped to go out to a restaurant for lunch. I told him no can do. Reluctantly. A typical Sunday at the end of November. What a mad house this year.
Agent Told Buyer Elk Grove is Unsafe Due to Security System
Claiming Elk Grove is unsafe due to home security is absurd.
Any agent who would tell a buyer that Elk Grove is unsafe because the owner has a security system needs to have his head examined. When I hear things like that, the first thing I do is take a peek at the agent’s Cal BRE license number. If it’s a really high number, say, near or over 2 million, it means the agent has been licensed for less than a year. To be fair, new agents are not always a problem if they are supervised and trained. Those who work for small brokerages, though, sometimes are not. Only thing worse are those who think they know everything simply because they have a license.
A license means the agent passed a test. It’s not a competence factor.
The basic way an agent learns about real estate is by closing transactions. The more sales an agent closes, generally the better informed. Lately, most of my problems seem to be with agents attached to license numbers over 2 million. In fact, I didn’t even realize we had obtained the 2 million pinnacle in California. Yes, this Sacramento Realtor holds number 697,006 from when I became first licensed in the 1970s. It’s taken us over 40 years to reach 2 million real estate licensees. That doesn’t mean that we have 2 million agents because the majority never renew their license.
I ran into 3 of those agents yesterday. All three said silly things. The agent who said Elk Grove is unsafe pointed to security cameras inside the home in Elk Grove. He noted several neighbors also had security systems. Therefore, the conclusion his tiny brain reached? This must be an unsafe neighborhood. When I looked at his sales numbers, he has never sold any homes in Elk Grove. Such really bad information to lay on a poor unsuspecting buyer.
Almost every home in Sacramento has some sort of surveillance. The number of security systems goes up when you move into newer areas like Natomas and Elk Grove. But saying Elk Grove is unsafe for that reason is absurd. Not to mention, even I have a security system installed in my home, although we don’t use it. I don’t think I’ve ever listed a home in Elk Grove that did not have a security system. Either builders include them or security companies go door-to-door offering free systems and free installation.
You would think the agent would have exercised his right to faulty reasoning by at least noting the security alarm was not armed. If the neighborhood was so bad, wouldn’t the security alarm be set? But now his buyer probably wouldn’t buy in Elk Grove if his life depended on it because his agent told him Elk Grove is unsafe.
Notwithstanding, many risk management plans don’t cover agents who speak to buyers about “safe” neighborhoods. Further, any bonafide real estate instructor would tell an agent never to make comments about crime because agents are not criminal specialists. An experienced buyer’s agent would refer a buyer to the police department or other websites for crime statistics and would never put themselves in such a precarious position.
I’d like to predict this is not a guy who will make it in real estate. But experience has shown me over the past 43 years that would not be a true statement.
