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Elizabeth Weintraub
A Sacramento Real Estate Agent’s Words and Photography
Almost every Sacramento real estate agent who knows me realizes that I will help out other real estate agents when they’re in a pickle. If they need my help or advice, I’m generally available to give it to them. I’m not sure if it’s my sense of responsibility to the profession, the fact that I’ve been in the real estate business for almost 40 years, or if my willingness to reach out to other real estate agents is because I might have been a teacher in an earlier life if it had paid enough, which it doesn’t. (It’s appalling how poorly paid teachers are, the backbone of our society.)
That’s why it’s puzzling when I see a Sacramento real estate agent swipe my content or photographs and try to use my personal creations as the agent’s own without permission. It’s even more confusing when an agent in my own company plagiarizes, but it happens. We’ve got almost 1,000 agents and I don’t know all of them — although, last year I ranked as the #2 agent, a top agent at Lyon. Here is an instance that occurred recently.
Earlier this year, a seller came to me to sell a home. It wasn’t located in the Med Center but this seller wanted to receive the higher Med Center prices. Another agent probably would have refused to accept such a listing, but I try not to be that judgmental. Plus, I liked the seller. Sellers can change their minds down the road, a rogue buyer can pop up out of nowhere, real estate markets can change with the wind; I just want to help and be the Sacramento real estate agent who sells it.
I developed an extensive marketing plan designed specifically for this client, put the home on the market, and a short while later the seller received a very fair offer and rejected it. At that point, a prominent party in the seller’s life pushed the seller to change agents. Or, that was the story. It doesn’t matter. I will always cancel a listing if a seller asks me to do it — which is so rare I can pretty much count on one hand the number of seller-requested cancellations. Other agents will often make a seller stick to the term length of the listing, but not this Sacramento real estate agent. There’s no point. Not to mention, I prefer to generate tons of glowing Elizabeth Weintraub reviews.
This morning, I spot the listing pop up again in MLS in my daily hot list. I’m perusing the marketing comments, and they sounded so familiar to me. Why, those marketing comments were something that I would write. I can recognize my own prose because I have my own definite style.
It was odd, I thought, when the seller asked a few days ago if the new real estate agent could use my photographs. If the agent needed my photos, the agent needs to ask me, which the agent did not. If a client wants my photography, I gladly supply a CD of my professional photos at closing. I use a high-end Nikon digital camera with a Tamron 18 / 24 wide-angle lens, and I’ve sold some of my photography to newspapers over the past 40 years. I’m proficient with Photoshop. My photographs make a home sparkle and shine! No wonder the seller coveted the home photos.
I suspect some sellers don’t give us enough credit for what we agents do. They don’t really understand that when they hire a Sacramento real estate agent, they are hiring the entire package. They get top-notch photography and my years of marketing experience to write the ad copy, on top of my excellent, says my clients, communication and negotiation skills. It doesn’t mean another agent can snatch my photos nor my words.
I’m sure there will be some lame excuse from the agent simply because I called the agent on it: I ran out of gas, I had a flat tire, I didn’t have enough money for cab fare, my tux didn’t come back from the cleaners, an old friend came in from outta town, someone stole my car, there was an earthquake — a terrible flood, locusts, it wasn’t my fault, I swear to god. (Excuses Credit: John Belushi.) I wrote to the agent this morning to say I had no idea my words were so brilliant that she needed to copy them word-for-word.
If the agent is that desperate, the agent can have my words. That which I have been educated to do and worked for years to perfect. Just take it. The agent obviously needs it or the agent would not have swiped it. If the agent were standing on a street corner holding a sign that said I don’t want to work, I’d still throw the agent a $20 bill.
If you want the real thing, the whole package, a Sacramento real estate agent who knows how to sell your home, including how to market it, then call Elizabeth Weintraub. Don’t try to hire a substitute.
Hiring a Sacramento Real Estate Agent From the Internet
If you never met me in person, you would probably think I was at least 6-feet tall. That’s because there are advantages and disadvantages to meeting your Sacramento real estate agent in person. Actually, I think I look just like my photo, and I’d look even more like my photo if I had a photo on my webpage of Susan Lucci. OK, I’ve wandered into delusion-ville, but people do say I remind them of her but perhaps that’s in reference to the number of ex-husbands I’ve killed off or kicked to the curb.
You may find this difficult to believe, but oh, my God, Susan Lucci is not the first thing that clients say when they meet me. They say: You’re so much shorter in person. If they don’t say it, they’re thinking it, or I’m wearing my 6-inch heels and they’re uncertain.
When I was much younger, friends used to say they were afraid of me until they got to know me. After we hung out for a while, it was then that they realized I’m really very easy going and down-to-earth. I get it; I have a strong personality because I voice strong opinions and, I guess in print, I come across as tall as Michael Jordan when I’m really much shorter, more like Mickey Rooney.
I say this because people’s impressions can be skewed before they get to know a person or meet them in the real world. Take, for example, my recent trip to the Superior Court to serve on Jury Duty in Sacramento.
There I was, sitting in the jury selection box, along with 3 rows of other people, thinking to myself how fortunate I was that my court-wearing outfit so nicely complemented the grey and pale yellow tear-drop pattern in the plush seating. Somebody had to purposely choose that pattern and color combination for a courtroom. I hope the design decision didn’t go to committee: Orange, orange, I think inmates are tired of orange. Black, red, too racist. It was then that my eyes flickered over to the table situated before the judge and at the people seated at the table.
Whoa, Nellie, I thought to myself: Since when do they let meth freaks become lawyers? I realize I’m a bit out of touch with the younger generation sometimes, but that seemed to be taking things a bit too far. I mean, a lawyer should dress up for court and perhaps brush her hair, put on some makeup, and not appear before the bench with a blotchy face looking like a drug addict. But that’s kids for ya.
Then the judge appeared and welcomed everybody and gave us the speech about how we must presume the defendant is innocent unless we hear all of the facts and evidence of the case that could prove otherwise. The judge read the charges against the defendant, which were driving under the influence of drugs. It was then that I realized that person at the table was no lawyer.
That was Amy Sedaris. I swear, deadringer for Amy Sedaris in her role as Jerri in Strangers With Candy. If you were in that Sacramento Superior courtroom that day, I know you would agree. She even sported the same goofy smile, turned down at the corners. Stringy hair. Pants that dragged the floor. How lucky was this? Amy Sedaris’ character was in the same courtroom with me.
Uh, oh.
I was hosed. I knew it.
There was no way I could presume that defendant innocent. She was guilty as hell and I knew it. Even though I wanted to perform my civic duty, I could not in good conscience serve on that jury. No way, Jose.
See, this is what happens when we meet people in person. We form opinions. We make judgments. We rely on our gut. And sometimes people don’t want to go into a real estate transaction unless they meet their Sacramento real estate agent, even though that’s not always possible or even necessary.
Last weekend I met with sellers from the Bay area before listing a duplex in Midtown Sacramento. We’d been talking about the property by phone and email for a while, but they really wanted to meet in person, so I accommodated them. Now, I’m certain they feel much more comfortable after hiring me as their listing agent.
On the other hand, I just closed a short sale this week in Citrus Heights, which I’ve been working on since March. Like I do after all my transactions record, I called the seller to let him know I had received confirmation. We talked a little bit about how we had never met in person. He was OK with it, although I suspect it was a little bit strange for him on the concept side, yet not odd on the implementation side. I did a good job, he said, as I got his daughter a relocation incentive, and I made the process very easy for him.
I sell a lot of real estate for out-of-town sellers whom I never meet. I also sell a lot of real estate for sellers I meet face-to-face and shake their hands. Either way, virtual or real world, you’ll get good service from this Sacramento real estate agent. No crackhead here.
3 Tips for Submitting a Purchase Offer to Buy a Home in Sacramento
Apart from the fact that this Sacramento real estate agent could probably write a book about how to submit a purchase offer, I don’t have that much time in my schedule this morning and nobody has offered to pay me for it. Yet, I would like to address 3 tips that would help a buyer’s agent to get an offer accepted. These are things that if any agent thought about it for a few minutes or looked at it from the viewpoint of a listing agent, they would automatically do. But many remarkable ideas are simple.
Before sending an offer, please review these simple tips:
- Send one PDF
- Don’t send disclosures
- Email in low resolution
There is no reason to send a bunch of different files. Let’s set aside the fact that by sending more than one PDF, a buyer’s agent is taking the chance that a PDF file might not end up as an attachment by oversight or a seller might not open it, and look at what a hassle it is from a receiving viewpoint. First, I have to set up a folder to accept all of the PDFs I receive from a buyer’s agent. I can’t just save the offer to my desktop nor dump the offer along with its supporting documents into the property folder because they will get lost and separated. All separate documents require their own stinkin’ folder. I hate to think what the seller does with the documents.
Second, then each of those PDFs have to be opened to be read. Some require separate applications to open. For example, if a preapproval letter arrives in a Word format, and I don’t happen to have Word open — because it’s not a program I use very often — then I need to sit and wait for Word to open. It’s annoying.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am very excited to receive an offer for my seller. That is my job: to get a purchase offer. But let’s say it’s a seller’s market, like the market is today in Sacramento, and the seller might receive 5 offers or more. And the offer that arrives in piecemeal is just like most of the other offers. A seller might open only the purchase offer and none of the supporting documents just to note the price and forget about whatever else was sent.
Think of the end user, the seller. Are you making it easy for the seller to read your offer and accept your purchase offer? Are you sending documents that the seller doesn’t need such as disclosures and market condition notices?
To go into contract, sellers in Sacramento need the purchase contract, the agency disclosure, the earnest money deposit copy and the prepaproval letter (or POF). That’s it. No other documents or disclosures.
One last tip, make sure your PDF is not so large that it can’t be downloaded. Some buyer’s agents accept one-page scans returned as JPGs from the buyer. Those JPGs can be such a high resolution that the file becomes too big to email. Downsize it. Look at the MBs before hitting send in your email. If it exceed 5 MBs, that listing agent and seller might not be able to even open your attachment.
Can you imagine losing a home because the seller couldn’t open your offer?
On Selling That Real Estate Listing in Sacramento
No matter how many homes a Sacramento real estate agent has sold — and last year I sold around 165 — it is still exciting to have a new listing in Sacramento entered into MLS. It’s a feeling that never goes away for an agent. I’m not alone in this as other agents have expressed the same sentiment. Whether that new listing is 2 homes on a lot in Midtown or a highly desirable single-level home in Elk Grove, it’s still a thrill to baby a new listing. It’s also a reminder to pay extra special attention to the listings that might still be in inventory.
It’s easy for an agent to think after a couple of weeks on the market that an older listing is not quite as important as a newer listing, and that is a trap only naive listing agents fall into. An older listing is often more precious than a brand new listing because a) it involves a lot of work to get it b) a lot of work to input it and tweek photos c) an agent has seasoned feedback after a few weeks, and d) it’s easier to tell exactly what needs to be done to get that listing moved if it hasn’t, for some odd reason, already sold.
I never ever ignore an “aged” listing. I just try all the harder because my goal is never to lose a listing, and I have never had a listing in Sacramento that I could not sell.
My job is to figure out what makes a new listing different from every other listing on the market and to get that listing sold.
I just closed a listing in Sacramento yesterday that by all practical means should have blown up in smoke. I can’t begin to describe all of the ways the buyer’s lender messed up the closing. We were supposed to close at the end of the month and, when I suspected the lender, a major bank, had its share of difficulties, I asked Seterus to give us an extension to July 7th. Nope, said Seterus, no can do.
Part of the problem was I had nothing substantial to give Seterus in hopes of closing. I’ve learned a long time ago in this business that you don’t deliver bad news without a solution, a silver lining to soften the blow. So, I waited until docs were in escrow, when I had proof we could close, and asked again. This time, we received an extension from Fannie Mae that expired on the day we received it. Such a joker, that Fannie Mae.
I asked again for an extension from Seterus. It took a little bit more than a week, with the 4th of July and all, but Fannie Mae gave us 3 days this time to close, and close, we did! The buyer’s agent has one very happy buyer right now. It probably wouldn’t have been so tough on the buyer if the poor buyer didn’t also work for the stupid bank that couldn’t find its way in the dark with two maps and a flashlight. In fact, the buyer’s agent sent me an email that said I was the best agent he’s ever worked with. I hope that means he’s worked with hundreds of real estate agents and not just with those one can count on one hand.
Article 16 and a Sacramento Agent’s Listing
It’s not often that I have to ask another real estate agent to stop contacting my clients, but generally when I remind an agent that asking sellers pointed questions about selling their home — apart from making sellers uncomfortable — could be considered interference in another agent’s listing and a violation of Article 16 of the Code of Ethics, the offender stops.
Article 16 pertains only to a REALTOR. Not all real estate agents are REALTORs.
The agents might get ticked off at me for calling them on it, and some of them do. Comes with the territory; it’s a risk I take. There are agents who practice ethics and those who don’t. Those who practice ethics respect agents who do, and those who don’t, well, it doesn’t really matter what they think.
Agents sometimes interfere because they haven’t stopped to consider the consequences of their actions, or they feel that what they are doing is innocent (in their minds) and they haven’t looked at the hard, cold facts of how a Sacramento real estate agent or anybody else with a rationale mind might view it. Some agents think they are “helping” and they forget / overlook that they are interfering. I get that.
But if I sit on the fence and say nothing, I am perpetrating this behavior.
It’s a fine line to walk in this business.
Last week I asked an agent to please stop emailing my client with questions about selling her home. This particular seller’s name and personal information is not in MLS. If a buyer’s agent has questions, the agent can ask me, and I’ll be happy to assist. I don’t care if the agent knows the seller from church, through another professional association or spotted the seller at the gas station and struck up a conversation at the gas pump. Buyer’s agents are not supposed to grill, discuss or ask represented sellers questions about selling their home.
Like I said, this seller’s name and contact information is not even listed in MLS. There was no permission given to contact the seller. It’s bad enough when an agent calls a seller to schedule a showing, for example, and asks how many offers the seller has received. Big no-no. But agents have absolutely no right to even call a seller when the showing instructions state otherwise.
The real estate agent responded that the agent was not emailing my client, the agent was texting.
I see. It would seem that this Sacramento real estate agent might need to explain that:
- sending emails
- texting messages
- calling on a walkie-talkie, cell or landline
- writing letters
- dipping one’s finger in vanilla to write a secret message on white paper
- sending up smoke signals or
- standing out in front of the seller’s house and yelling
are all methods that are unacceptable behavior to contact the seller of a listed home to discuss details about selling the home.
All we are trying to do here is get to the closing table in one piece. We are all in this business together.
