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Elizabeth Weintraub
The Best Colors to Paint the Interior of Your Sacramento Home
Are you wondering about the best colors to paint the interior of a house in 2018? You’ve come to the right place. Sellers choose colors that are comforting, supportive of their life style and reflective of who they are as an individual. When a Sacramento listing agent marches into the living room to announce that the seller’s choice of color will cost them hard equity when selling, sellers might not agree. And, it’s OK if they don’t agree. Perfectly fine. Nobody is forcing them to make repairs to enhance their value. If a buyer writes a lower offer because of the paint colors, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Sellers, due to their emotional attachment to the home, don’t always see things as clearly as a Sacramento Realtor. Still, the best we can do is inform, educate, and let the sellers make the choice that best fits for them. We can’t make that decision for them.
Probably the worst color to paint any room in the house is a brilliant white. It tends to kill the space. Especially if other colors are missing in the room. The result can be bland, dead, non-exciting. Reminds me of the people in white on the HBO series, The Leftovers. My team member, exclusive buyer’s agent Amy McMullan, says: “You can paint walls gray, throw up subway tile next to a hardwood floor and you can sell that all day long to Sacramento buyers.” We know because we’re out there in the trenches.
When my parents were raising their children, they had specific ideas of colors for each room. My parents’ best colors to paint the interior were 1950’s pastel. Pink for the bath, living room was green, kitchen yellow and bedrooms brown, blue or rose. Then, the 1960s and 1970s fell into place and everything was more vibrant. Orange became wildly popular. Over the years, white faded in and out until it finally vanished about 20 years ago. Taupe or light brown, coffee and cream dominated after our horrible hunter green and mauve stage of the early 1990s.
Today, gray or greige (a grayish beige) are the colors of choice. However, light tan is still popular. If you like, you can read an article by Zillow boasting how 7 colors made certain houses fetch higher sales prices. Be aware that much of the data is more general, not local to Sacramento. When you’re wondering about the best colors to paint the interior of your house, it should be a decision based on what local buyers want. Ask your Sacramento Realtor.
Sacramento Agents Should Never Ask if a Home Buyer Has an Agent
When agents ask if a home buyer has an agent, it is the worst thing, pretty much, an agent can say. Sacramento agents inquire constantly whether a home buyer has an agent. Although, from the day an agent receives her real estate license, it is drummed into her head by trainers, brokers and managers, to qualify all potential clients. The standard way agents are taught protocol is to ask if a home buyer has an agent.
I hear agents ask this all of the time. Very common question. But what a freakin’ stupid question.
Let’s look at why an agent asks this question. Especially when working with internet buyers. Because I know some of you might be thinking, hey, whose business is it anyway? Why should I disclose anything about my personal situation? What right does this agent have to know whether I’ve been talking to anybody else? OK, valid points. However, the reason agents ask if a home buyer has an agent is due to the Realtor Code of Ethics. The Code says we as agents cannot interfere with another agent’s client.
If a buyer is already working with an agent, we are not allowed to try to swipe that buyer. By merely expressing our opinion about how we might handle a delicate situation differently, we could be accused of trying to sway a buyer who is already spoken for. Agents are instructed over and over to drop the conversation, wish the buyer well and to NOT interfere when buyers tell us they have an agent.
But most home buyers do not realize why we ask that question.
Further, how do you think a person feels when agents ask if a home buyer has an agent. At first blush, they might not even know what you’re talking about. Which can make them feel inadequate. Upon pondering, though, undoubtedly it occurs to them they are being asked if they have an agent. Well, who doesn’t have an agent in this day and age? Everybody has an agent. If they don’t have an agent, what does that reduce them to? I’ll tell ya. A loser. With a capital L engraved on their forehead. Who wants to be a loser? Nobody, that’s who!
So stop being those guys who ask if a home buyer has an agent and start asking a different question. Change the dialogue instead to a discussion. Maybe they have an agent who isn’t working out for some reason. Maybe they are very unhappy with the way their search has been moving along, and offers have been rejected over and over. An agent doesn’t know until an agent digs deeper.
Enough already, then, what is the question to ask? I’ll tell you. I know you thought I’d never get to it. The question to ask is: Wouldn’t you like to work with an experienced agent? Don’t make the buyer feel awful that she has no agent. Don’t put her on the defensive. Put a positive spin on the question and turn it into a conversation. If the buyer already has an agent, this is when she will say, “Oh, thanks, but I already have an agent.” Or, not. Maybe she will say, “Yes, I would love to work with YOU!”
Wouldn’t you like to work with an experienced agent? That’s your new question to ask. Try it. You’ll like it. And so will your clients.
Why My Team Members are Great Sacramento Open House Agents
You can stick 10 Sacramento Realtors into a room to talk about protocol for Sacramento open house agents and you’ll get 10 different answers about how to do an open house. Every agent has a different opinion. Many of my sellers want to corner our Sacramento open house agents and ask for advice. However, my team members don’t give advice. They tell the sellers to ask their Sacramento listing agent for direction. Just like I would not directly give advice to home buyers working with another agent. We don’t tread on each other’s toes.
However, some Sacramento open house agents can’t turn it off. They talk about everything and answer every question they are asked about somebody else’s listing. They feel like they are doing a good job by helping to answer the seller’s questions. They don’t understand that the listing agent might not see it that way. Especially if they gave conflicting advice that is counter-productive to the way the listing agent sells homes. Now, not only have they said the wrong thing, but the seller doesn’t necessarily like them very much anymore, either.
The best thing Sacramento open house agents can do is not give listing advice. They are holding the house open to find buyers and provide exposure for the listing. If they find residual business among buyers who want to buy some other home, more power to them. But they should not, under any circumstances, give listing advice. Unless maybe the house is on fire. In that event, they would call 9-1-1.
It’s a tough job for Sacramento open house agents. Sellers are anxious and want the home sold. There is a warm body in the house who holds a real estate license. So they start firing questions toward the agent. What do you think of the price? Should we stage the house? Do you think we should clean out the garage? Those are questions for the listing agent. Not for Sacramento open house agents.
Most Sacramento Realtors know they are not allowed to interfere in another agent’s transaction. So most Realtors don’t violate that. But there are always the handful who forget, who shrug what harm is there? Who blab whatever thoughts pop into their heads. And they won’t last very long as Sacramento open house agents with that kind of behavior. You gotta respect the relationships between sellers and their listing agents.
Members of the Elizabeth Weintraub Team already practice this. I wish every agent did. They greet buyers at the door, introduce themselves to visitors. The team knows enough about the house to talk intelligently to buyers about its condition and wonderful features. We often get offers after a successful open house. They never once give listing advice.
The Best Sacramento Real Estate Agents Via Real Trends 2017
Nobody really knows how Real Trends compiles its list of the best Sacramento real estate agents, but it seems to be divided into groups. Your lone agents and then your team of agents. It also seems to be divided into dollar volume and number of individual sales. But it is difficult to say where they extract that information from. If it is MLS, not every sale in MLS is closed out correctly. Assistants for the listing agents sometimes mess up how the data is entered or they credit the sale to the wrong associate. Sometimes, these people refuse to fix their mistakes. Legally, they really can’t just refuse, but some don’t care if they’re a dick. Those types of situations are not worth the effort to force them to comply.
In any case, Real Trends named the Elizabeth Weintraub Team to two different categories on their list for 2017 as best Sacramento real estate agents. Of course, Real Trends doesn’t know our stellar reputation in the community nor the 5-star Sacramento client reviews we receive. That company, strictly looking at statistics, says the Elizabeth Weintraub Team closed 97 sides last year and sold over $36 million. That’s almost two houses a week. When many agents sell two houses a year or so, our performance, as compared to others, is spectacular. But for us it’s just day-to-day routine business.
Sacramento real estate is our full-time passion and job. We love negotiating real estate, maximizing seller profit potential and finding our buyers that perfect dream home. When we do the same thing enough times, even though every situation is different, we gain a wealth of knowledge not available to agents who do not sell very many homes. As one of the best Sacramento real estate agents, we always put our client’s needs first, above our own. That’s really our secret for success.
Heads down, pedal to the metal and making miracles happen. That’s our work schedule. We often do what appears impossible to others. Thank you, Real Trends, for including the Elizabeth Weintraub Team in your list of Best Sacramento Real Estate Agents.
I only know this because my company, Lyon Real Estate, emailed me yesterday to congratulate the team on our achievement. You would think Real Trends would notify its winners, but I didn’t hear anything from them yet. Lyon Real Estate is always on top of what’s going on, though.
Fall Gardening in Land Park Involves Excessive Pruning
When a person ignores her garden all summer, it means fall gardening in Land Park involves excessive pruning. Look at how overgrown everything is. The jasmine growing on the back fence is causing a few fence boards to separate and, in some cases, fall over. Its tentacles are climbing over the fence and up my neighbor’s tree. The jasmine also blocks sunlight from the tomatoes growing right in front of it. Some of it wound its way into the rose bushes that line the back fence behind the flower garden. Not to mention, the rose bush grafts sent out shoots over the flower garden.
Well, the whole thing is just a mess. Seems like only yesterday it was spring and I cut down all the butterfly bushes to eye level. Now they are growing over the garage. I sprayed RoundUp in the flower garden over several days to ensure I could kill everything. Yeah, yeah, I know everybody hates evil Monsanto and I don’t want it in my food, either. My objective was to get ready for fall gardening in Land Park. To see if we can’t remedy the overgrown weeds. Starting over with our flower garden.
That objective also involved trimming back the orange tree, which was growing over the roses and spreading. In addition to pruning the hydrangeas. Our hydrangeas were just starting to bud on the stems, so that’s always a good time to prune back to the wood. Fall gardening in Land Park also involves hauling a bunch of debris to stuff into our garden waste can, and it’s full. So that means leaving piles around the yard to decompose.
The best part is the fact our gardeners will pick up all of the debris and stuff it into our waste can when they come on Friday. Although it makes me feel a bit guilty to leave it lying in the yard. It also made me feel guilty to cut back the jasmine because the plant bleeds milk. Sticky white residue streaming down all the shoots. Like I hurt it.
My husband pulled most of the weeds in the flower garden and started digging. But the job was bigger than it seems. We did not get the Amador Flower Farm daylilies planted. But we’re further along than we were. Wait until I show you the after photos of our cactus garden in Land Park. Well, it’s no longer a cactus garden. Right now it is dirt. But soon it will be grass. A lush and lovely garden of grass. Don’t see that very often anymore!
