Email Elizabeth
Elizabeth Weintraub
What the History From the Sacramento MLS Will Disclose
As a real estate agent in Sacramento, I am fortunate to have access to a vast network of private subscriber information that is unavailable to the public. Oh, the public is clamoring for listings, meaning homes for sale and, if they peck around on enough websites they can piece together a string of homes that may or may not be available. Not to mention, a real estate agent can give a buyer access to MLS information directly through MetroList Prospector, with a portal and all kinds of goodies. But an agent can’t give a buyer or a seller access to behind-the-scenes information, and that’s where the all of the crucial data lies. The “meat” is not in the square footage or sales price.
Maybe it’s my title and escrow background that makes me naturally inquisitive. I used to search title and liens for First American Title in the early 1970s. Uh, oh, I almost typed that date as 1907. Transposing the digits would probably no difference to most people; whereas to me the 1970s seems like it wasn’t all that long ago, but further down the path than, say, 1990s. Although the 1990s was yesterday, you know, and I still haven’t adjusted to the 2000s. What, what, new millennium?
My how time flies when we are researching the history of property through the Sacramento MLS. The MLS provides access to other links containing essential data ripe for exploring through other companies as well.
One can learn so much by looking at history. For example, when I take a new listing, I will study how many times it has been listed before and by whom and when. I pay particular attention to the Days on Market. Those days on market could become mine. I might not differentiate much between the 1970s and today but I do recall — without question and with superior clarity — what the real estate market was like in any given time period since then, let’s say, 2004. If I spot a home that sold in 2004, and it was on the market for longer than a few weeks, there was most likely something wrong with the listing.
Then I have to figure out the defect. Was it price? Location? Condition? Agent expertise? I blow the dust off the comps from back then, flip through the photos, pull up the agent’s license and background. If I see that the home has been withdrawn from the market repeatedly during all sorts of real estate markets — including hot and cold real estate markets — then it might be a seller problem. I have to ask myself if I want to take on that kind of problem. I love challenges. I thrive on challenges, actually, but I try to draw the line at working with assholes and crazy nut jobs.
I recently skirted one such situation. A seller called, seemingly desperate to sell a couple of homes in South Sacramento. The prices she wanted were out of the realm of reality but I sometimes agree to take overpriced listings if other factors are compelling. Let’s just say during my discovery phase, not one of the other elements was compelling. Nada. So, those potential listings were not listings. It was an exercise in futility and, while the 1970s might not seem like that long ago, one would hope that I have learned a thing or two along the way. Experience is invaluable.
Is a Sacramento Real Estate Agent Worth the Money?
If you’re thinking about going into real estate because you want to make a lot of money for doing little work, you can figure on joining the 80% of real estate agents in Sacramento who don’t make enough money from the business to adequately support a ferret. This is not to say there aren’t Sacramento real estate agents who can’t even change out a light bulb who make money but they are not in the majority. Most of the agents who make a lot of money work very hard for it and have survived this grueling business.
I received an email this morning from a woman in Wisconsin who was very upset that she had to pay a commission to an agent, even though she agreed to pay it. Is a Sacramento real estate agent worth the money? She didn’t think so. She had read my article about How Much Do Real Estate Agents Make? She didn’t believe it was fair that she pay “6% on an $800,000 home,” which she also further stated had amounted to $60,000, so you can see she struggles a bit with math.
Apparently, she had hired an agent last year who had agreed to negotiate his commissions, whatever that meant. In my book, once you sign a listing agreement, you’ve pretty much agreed to the commission, but maybe they do things differently in cheesehead territory — which I can say because I’m from Minnesota and we are allowed to poke fun at those from Wisconsin, neener, neener. Regardless, this agent who would “negotiate” could not sell her home. So much for that agent.
Fast forward to this year, and she signed a one-party show agreement of sorts, I suspect. The agent showed up, brought a buyer, brought an offer and now they are about to go into contract. Is this woman overjoyed that her home finally sold at a price she was willing to sell? Hardly. The writer believes it is “offensive” and it is “insane” to pay an agent that sum of money. She wants to know how she can wiggle out of that obligation. For her, the question of is a Sacraemento real estate agent worth the money her entire issue.
This is a woman I can picture thinking about a career in real estate. The lucrative real estate business probably seems so simple and easy to her. She doesn’t see the years of struggling to pay the dues and learning the business. She imagines big stacks of gold hidden in the basement. In the overall scheme of things, agents tend to get paid exactly what they are worth.
I can’t say I’ve ever, in all of my 40 years in the real estate business, had a seller tell me I made too much money. I’ve had sellers give me gift cards as a bonus after closing, in one case recently, $500 extra, because they felt I wasn’t paid enough as a full-service agent. Nobody has ever asked is a Sacramento real estate agent worth the money when they hired me.
Elk Grove Pool Home with a Four-Car Garage
Selling a pool home in Elk Grove without showings is not as difficult as one might think in the Sacramento real estate market today. I’ve got a lot of agents calling me on my pending listings, for example, and asking if they can write backup offers. Of course, these are very attractive homes, too, in high demand, and not your usual run-of-the-mill listings. Mostly the agents don’t want to make those phone calls yet do so because their buyers ask.
Sort of like my husband agreeing to go with me last weekend to see the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. He’s not a huge fan of that genre. Probably because he was in kindergarden when Roddy McDowall made his mark as Cornelius. But I have to say I understand his reluctance to see the movie because halfway through I didn’t care which side won the war. It could be the apes; it could be the humans; I didn’t give a damn. I just wanted the thing to be over and the yawning to cease.
Calling on pending listings is kinda like going to see that movie your spouse wants to see and you do not. So I have done you a favor here, believe it or not, and now you do not have to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes until it comes out on DVD and your kids are screaming for it. Then, you can go into another room, down a six-pack and pass out.
But before you do that, call me on a new listing that you can’t see until you make an offer. That’s because the home is occupied by the seller’s ex-wife, and she gets to stay there until December. However, the seller wants to sell that home now. It’s beautiful: marble floors, granite counters in the kitchen, a single-story around 2,000 square feet in Camden Estates. This Elk Grove home also features 3 to 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a pool with a waterfall and, a spectacular feature many will drool over is that 4-car garage with boat parking.
You can buy this home for $369,000. Just call your Elk Grove agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916.233.6759 at Lyon Real Estate. I’m always ready to talk as long as we don’t have to discuss Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
The Enormously Big Deal of Buying a House
When it comes down to choosing between buying a house in Sacramento or having a baby, the latter is a bigger deal for most people, yet you can’t rule out the enormously big deal of buying a house. The Washington Post talks about the financial constraints felt by many in today’s economy and how, while waiting for improvement, some decisions are postponed, as in this part of the article: “Choices large and small hang in the balance — whether to buy a house, go to college, get married. Have a baby.”
I don’t know about you, but all of those choices seem ginormous to this Sacramento real estate agent. I don’t spot a “small” choice in that grouping. Not only that, but buying a house is often said to be the single most expensive investment a person can undertake. They are all big choices and decisions, accompanied by their friends: anxiety, risk and anticipation.
As a person who works with people to sell and buy Sacramento real estate, I can tell you it’s also a highly emotional experience, mixing the love of all things drywall and wood with Ben Franklins. One moment a person is hyperventilating and the next cooing. I never know what I might find on the other end of the phone when I answer.
It’s my place to be empathetic and listen. To be that rock to lean on. To offer support and guidance and help sellers and buyers through my decades of experience to make the right decision. Sometimes it means taking the lead and saying, OK, look, here’s what we’re gonna do. Offering that solution. Other times, I need to sit back and wait for the information to sink in and for the parties to reach a state of calmness, awareness and decision-making capability.
I help people make a transition. And transitions are a big deal in life. Your Sacramento real estate agent is a coach for you, not a crutch, but we can be that, too, if that’s what you need.
Don’t Knock Real Estate Paperwork
The Sacramento courts are filled with disgruntled buyers who lose case after case because those plaintiffs believe they have justified cause to break the rules of real estate and they found a lawyer willing to file a lawsuit. That’s the interesting thing about our court system. Sometimes you can win, depending on the argument and the lawyer’s strategy. Sometimes you can lose, and get kicked to the curb, but whatever you do, you’ll generally end up paying for the privilege.
Whichever way it goes, nobody really wins. If there is a win of sorts, it can be more often than not bittersweet. People can slam down that open Budweiser, shooting beer into the air, and scream about deserving justice, but our court systems are not really about justice.
Still, it makes sense as a Sacramento real estate agent to document every file and retain every email for each and every real estate transaction. Because the best way to stay out of court is to not get there in the first place and show the opposition there is no case.
Clients wonder why they have to sign piles of paper and so many documents, and this is why. It’s to stay out of court. It’s not to win.
There are people in the world who believe they don’t have to conform to the rules. I have been guilty of that attitude myself, so I understand it. But there are certain types of rules and demands that can’t be ignored. If a police officer finds you sitting in an idling vehicle at the side of the road, for example, slumped over the wheel drunk, you can be pretty well assured you’re going to jail and you’ll lose in court . . . unless, maybe, you’re a legislator.
Don’t ever knock paperwork. When your Sacramento real estate agent presents you with documents to read and sign, there is a good reason. Paperwork is the cornerstone and foundation of real estate.
