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Elizabeth Weintraub
The Fifteen Second Rule for Getting Ready to Sell a Home
Although I will explain the 15-second rule for getting ready to sell a home, it’s something that agents who have sold thousands of homes can also do for you. You don’t have to do it for yourself. But let’s say you have hired an agent who has not sold thousands or even hundreds of homes. Then, you might want to try this exercise yourself. Because the number one thing I see many sellers do when getting ready to sell a home is they take on way more work than they should.
Sellers tend to want to fix things that have bugged them for as long as they have lived in the house. Or, they don’t want to fix things that should have bugged them but now they are used to it. So, it’s not a big deal anymore but needs to be. Point is they do the wrong things and not enough of the right things. Sellers often do updates they think a buyer would like if they were the buyer. Problem is they are not the buyer, they are the seller. And they can only think like a seller.
The 15-second rule for getting ready to sell a home should help sellers whose agents are not in a position to assist. It is simply this. Walk into a room, stand in the doorway and give yourself 15 seconds to assess the room. Whatever jumps out at you as odd or weird, well, that’s something you need to fix. If you don’t see it within 15 seconds, you probably do not need to fix it because the buyer won’t spot it, either.
What a seller should not do is get up close and personal with every item in the home. The only thing that sort of behavior accomplishes is to push you toward an obsessive compulsive disorder. All of a sudden, you can’t stand the way your baseboards are painted. Or, you fret about a cracked tile in a corner. Or, you decide at midnight to install a new fence around the house. Those little things are niceties but unnecessary.
Some of my clients I work with for several weeks or even months to help them with getting ready to sell a home. Not every home needs a lot of work but do be ready to spend a little bit and make a few little updates to make your home sale-worthy. Especially if you have neglected a certain repair you know deep in your heart you should have tackled. It’s amazing what we can overlook when living in a home.
Even sellers on a budget can make small fixes that will greatly enhance the ability to attract top dollar. Just make sure they are the right updates and repairs. If you’d like to know how much your home is worth, call your favorite Sacramento Realtor with more than 40 years in the business. Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916.233.6759.
To the Sacramento Realtor Struggling Over a Buyer Broker Agreement
To the Sacramento real estate agent struggling over a buyer broker agreement with a guy I will call ZT, I’d like to assure you that Elizabeth Weintraub did not violate the Realtor Code of Ethics. Although, you also might want to think twice about working with buyers who call other agents to make disparaging comments about their own agent. Perhaps you would be interested in knowing that despite my repeated attempts to disengage with a random caller recently, he continued to berate your abilities and questioned your practices.
First, I am not working with that particular caller because he is obviously a home buyer. My team members work as exclusive buyer’s agents, and I solely represent sellers. Why did some stranger call me out of the blue? No idea how I got to be so lucky. It was a Wednesday night, busy day with meetings, lockbox retrievals, new listings. Getting ready for dinner and my cellphone rings. See, now I know why so many agents do not answer their phone . . . although the downside is not bad enough to change my practices.
To the agent working with ZT, you may have an interest in the phone conversation that followed. He didn’t give me your name or I would have contacted you privately. Hence, this public blog. The truth is always the best defense.
The odd caller began the conversation by announcing, in a self-important sort of way that has no bearing on anything: I have a random question. This is when I felt like pointing out that perhaps he had mixed me up with the reference desk librarian at the Sacramento Public Library. So, I said, Hey, you have obviously reached random answer place. He did not get this.
Nervous laughter from the other side of the phone. This is when the ZT admitted he was working with an agent. I said: I cannot talk to you about your agent. He continued talking over me; apparently, he doesn’t trust his agent. Which is puzzling, but not my business. More than once ZT said he had bad thoughts about his agent. Why was he calling me? I’m not about to work with him. My caller ID reported his phone number, which ends in **78, came from Redding.
Bear in mind, I was about to sit down to dinner. I was not working with ZT, regardless. He will never become a client. Even if he wanted to fire his agent, which he did not, I would not work with him because I do not work with buyers. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to buy a house in Redding or in Sacramento. But none of that really matters except to the extent this conversation was returning zero financial reward to me. I am a top Sacramento Realtor who consistently seems to rank in the top 10 agents in Sacramento. Probably because I focus on business that pays.
The contention in ZT’s life seemed to be the agent working with him expects him to sign some sort of buyer broker agreement. He could understand a listing agreement but he does not know why he should commit to a buyer’s agent. That is a question for his agent, not a random stranger. After repeating myself over and over that I cannot interfere with another agent’s client, because the behavior is against the Realtor Code of Ethics, I could tell my words fell on deaf ears.
During the brief conversation, I explained my real estate practice to ZT. When I sign a listing agreement, it is a guarantee that regardless of who ultimately brings a buyer, I get paid for listing that home. A buyer broker agreement is no different. Buyer’s agents are not public servants. They do not work for free. Buyer’s agents deserve a commitment from a buyer and a promise they will get paid for services rendered.
Evidently, ZT mistakenly believes “all buyer’s agents are competing for his business”, like he was a LendingTree commercial. He said he used to work in sales for Skyslope. So, obviously he would know. Right? I don’t think so.
As the call neared its conclusion, I tried to disengage. ZT said he had one more question to ask. Bully for him. His tax dollars do not support me. This guy was some stranger who plucked my phone number from thin air to interrogate at dinnertime. Eight minutes on this wasted call already. No, I told him no, I addressed a question; this call is not an all-night marathon. I shouldn’t have even been on the phone that long, but sometimes I am too nice to people. As I reached over to push the hang-up button, he whimpered, “Please, pretty please.”
Click.
That might work on his girlfriend when he can’t get it up, but it doesn’t work on me.
Who would look up a question on WebMD and then track down the author of that article to demand answers? Without a working relationship, a normal consumer would not call a doctor or any other professional, much less a tattoo artist, and demand service. Because that kind of behavior would be disrespectful and pointless. Some people, though, believe the world revolves around themselves.
Case in point. Caught an Uber through Midtown yesterday after dropping my car at Midtown Autoworks for service. I watched a bicyclist on 15th Street suddenly decide to cut across moving traffic on this one-way street. He stuck out his arm in the middle of the block as though to warn traffic to stay away and not hit him as he peddled zigzagging across the street.
I mentioned that self-centered situation to Niko at Midtown Autoworks. This is what some people are like online. The conversation turned to why strangers enjoy spreading hate on the internet. Niko shared that some disgruntled Toyota stranger left a one-star review online because Midtown Autoworks does not work on Toyotas. They work on Porsches and Mercedes.
Don’t you agree that the integrity of online reviews is severely diminished when websites allow bogus reviews from strangers? Those are not reviews. That’s exactly what ZT did, though. Ran over to a website to rant and post a one-star “review.” Attempted to purposely disrupt and hurt my business. Such hateful behavior. Who does that? Because he did not appreciate the free information he received after I allowed him to eat up my time and resented the fact I decided to go. This is what we get trying to help some types of people.
So, if you’re the agent working with ZT, and you’d like to hear more about the conversation, you can call me. However, I also suspect the agent working with ZT would not have requested a buyer broker agreement if she didn’t think she needed it.
And this reminds me, I need to leave a 5-star review for Midtown Autoworks.
MLS Says Refrigerator Stays But Agent Missed Offer Inclusion
Nobody knows exactly how every agent deals with the mishap when MLS says the refrigerator stays but the agent missed including the refrigerator in the offer. I imagine some agents change their phone number and never get out of bed again. Reiterating that MLS says refrigerator stays is no basis to defend the selling agent’s actions. The selling agent is supposed to know that a refrigerator is personal property. It does not convey with the real property. Personal property and real property? Two different things.
A very expensive lesson for some buyer’s agents to learn. What do they do when the buyer says: hey, where is my refrigerator? The seller moved and swiped my refrigerator. You told me the refrigerator stays because MLS says refrigerator stays. And now the refrigerator is gone.
This always ends with, “and I want you to get it back.” Trust me, they do not care how the agent gets that refrigerator, either. The agent can steal it from her neighbor, go get it from the seller, or buy a brand new refrigerator from Lowes as a house-warming present.
I can tell you that I’ve had buyers sign an addendum with the seller agreeing, for example, that the washer and dryer will stay at no consideration and no warranty. Then sure enough, the seller takes it. Well, buyers have a legitimate gripe and should pursue the seller. Most likely the seller’s movers did not pay attention to what stays and what goes and just took everything. They can bring it back.
However, when a buyer is under the impression that because MLS says refrigerator stays yet the buyer’s agent forgot to include it in the offer, somebody is responsible for this. Who do you think it is? Your choices are as follows:
- listing agent
- selling agent
- buyer
- seller
- MLS
Well, I would say it is the selling agent. (If you agreed with me, you are a smart cookie.) Followed by the buyer because, let’s face it, buyers should read their purchase contracts and take control of the buying situation. It’s their danged house. But we all know they rarely do. They hear what they want to hear.
I noticed when reviewing the paperwork for one of my listing sales recently, a buyer’s agent had asked for the home warranty to cover the refrigerator, washer and dryer. That looked odd and out of place. Sure enough, the buyer’s agent did not ask for the appliances to stay with the property. I let the agent know that perhaps his buyer did not want to start paying for extra home warranty coverage on appliances she does not own.
The agent, realizing the snafu, then said it would be appreciated if the seller left the refrigerator because it looks so cool in the kitchen. Right.
First-Time Home Buyers in Sacramento Just Closed on Anna Way
All kudos in this transaction have to go to the selling agent, Julie Reardon, a Lyon Realtor, for making sure her first-time home buyers in Sacramento got their home. Julie did everything right. In fact, if it wasn’t for Julie, I’m fairly certain her buyers would not have been able to buy this home. It was her attitude that made all of the difference. She was upbeat, positive and earnest, presenting her buyers in the best light possible while remaining respectful of the situation and the sellers.
She also persuaded me to want to work with her. No easy feat somedays in this business, LOL. I can be stubborn and grouchy. This was not a circumstance of bulldozing her way into a purchase offer, either. Quite the opposite.
I listed this home on Anna Way from our second home in Hawaii last month. Although my team member Josh Amolsch sold the home to the sellers, I had not seen it yet, apart from photographs. There was quite a bit wrong with the house. Deferred maintenance. The pest report was not pretty.
On top of this, I’m not sure any of the occupants in the home spoke much English except for the Cambodian seller. He had his parents living with him, and 3 little girls, and his wife. His hands were full. He also owned a bakery in the city of Davis, but people were not buying luxury doughnuts anymore. So he planned to move to Maine. Haul his entire family to Maine. I only hope they are not in for a shock when it snows and blizzards set in. Having traveled to Cambodia, I have a special soft spot in my heart for Cambodian immigrants trying to make it in America.
The lender had asked for a copy of the pest report, and my heart began to sink. Oh, no. I thought for certain they would want all of that work completed. Our agreement between the parties was the home would be sold AS IS unless the lender required repairs. In that event, the seller would cure any defaults demanded by the buyer’s lender.
Fortunately for the seller, the only thing the bank insisted we fix was a leak behind the shower. It meant removing drywall. Drying out the area. Repairing the leak. Treating the wood. Replacing the drywall. And it was almost $1,800 to fix, not nearly the total amount on the pest report, though. At least these first-time home buyers in Sacramento do not have to deal with a stinky bath anymore.
These buyers had been evicted after living in their home for 16 years. Their landlord decided to sell the house and evidently not to them. They have 2 children of their own plus they care for 2 other kids. They needed an affordable home, and there are not very many homes on the market anymore that suit the needs of first-time home buyers in Sacramento.
Julie downplayed her experience, saying she has not been in the business as long as I have and welcomed any tips I could give her. She doesn’t need tips. Ha! She’s doing a great job. There aren’t many agents with the kind of longevity I have in the business but it doesn’t mean agents without as much experience are any less effective. No siree. Julie is a perfect example of a fabulous Sacramento Realtor who wants what is best for her clients and it shows.
Congratulations, Julie, on a smooth closing.
2512 Anna Way, Sacramento, CA 95821 closed escrow on July 30th at $230K.
Fixing Bay Area Offers Involves Finesse While Closing Sacramento Sales
Fixing Bay Area offers without offending the parties involved often means stepping back and putting your client’s needs first and foremost. There is no easy way to tell a Bay Area agent that so much stuff in the agent’s buyer’s offer is wrong. At first blush, I was tempted to quickly judge the parties as not being serious. They made demands that nobody asks for in our Sacramento seller’s market. The buyer asked the seller to pay for things no other seller pays for. In fact, it was about as one-sided as a buyer’s purchase offer that I would have written myself in 1978, but certainly not in today’s market.
To make matters worse, it wasn’t just a matter of fixing Bay Area offers, there were also 2 or 3 other offers on the table. After talking to the sellers, it was clear to me they would like to find a way to make the Bay Area offer work. After all, it was cash, so no appraisal. Getting an appraisal on this home would be difficult because there were really no comparable sales. The home was a white elephant. Overbuilt for the neighborhood.
After every open house, buyers would ooh and ahh over the upgrades and improvements. But after driving the area, they said no thank you. It was one of the nicest homes in the area. Plus, with cars parked up and down the street, basketball hoops blocking driveways, well, it didn’t present the neighborhood in its finest light. However, we knew that walking into the situation. The sellers were patient because they didn’t have to move until the end of October. They felt now would be a good time to sell over October, and they were right.
I decided to try to find a way to make the purchase offer work because that’s what my sellers desired. The buyer was doing a 1031 exchange, although the home would not be a rental. It would be occupied by family. Not even about to argue how it is not a 1031. Not our problem. So, I asked the buyer’s agent if the buyer would consider renting back to the sellers until the end of October. The buyer said yes and named an agreeable rental amount. This was a hugely important benefit to the sellers. Not moving twice.
OK, the dilemma was how to handle the fact the buyer refused to purchase the home in its AS IS condition. The way I saw it, we could argue over the black-and-white verbiage in the purchase contract which clearly states the home is sold AS IS. Or, we could find a way to make it work. The agent said the buyer expects all repairs from inspections to be completed. What? And we didn’t even have a home inspection yet. How could we agree to do all repairs when we don’t know what they are? That sounded like a recipe for disaster.
Well, what we could do is have the seller pay for a home inspection from a reputable home inspector. Not some fly-by-night idiot. There are idiots doing home inspections in Sacramento because they don’t need to be licensed. Anybody can pretend to be a home inspector. An teenage mouth-breather can be an inspector. So I drew a counter offer that included the seller paying for a home inspection, subject to successful negotiation of a Request for Repair. We agreed not to open escrow until the Request for Repair is executed, and if it can’t be, then the offer is void and canceled.
Seemed like a perfect solution. We signed all the counter offers and the purchase offer. A few days later, the buyer’s agent noticed we were holding an open house because our status was changed to Active With Release Clause. The agent accused us being dishonest and underhanded. What? The agent threatened if we did not cancel the open house, the buyer would cancel the offer. Then, the agent tried to cancel the offer.
However, the offer could not be canceled until the terms and conditions were met. We had a binding agreement.
But they do things differently in the Bay Area, and not every Bay Area agent sells a lot of real estate. Many sell only a few homes a year. So you really can’t hold it against the agents. Some agents just don’t know what they don’t know. All I really wanted to do was spare my sellers the anxiety and drama. Very difficult under the circumstances. I was fully prepared for the buyer to make more unreasonable demands, especially after receiving all of the inspections.
However, suddenly we received the Request for Repair from the buyer and it was not completely unreasonable. Very surprised and excited over this. In keeping with fixing Bay Area offers, I also rewrote the response to the Request for Repair to make it very specific. The Bay Area agent copied the numbers from the home inspection report but it was not easily understood and could be misinterpreted. The report did not identify how to make repairs, and it alluded to further inspections. After laying out each specific repair, we went into contract. We signed the Request for Repair, which also stipulated the buyer would immediately release all contingencies.
By being very clear from the beginning, we can often avoid misunderstandings later.
This is also the first escrow I’ve ever closed in which we entered escrow ready to close. I’ve closed thousands of sales over my 40-some years in real estate, not one like this. Twenty-day closing. No monkey business, no weirdness. Oh, and it sold over list price.
