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The Most Important Real Estate Tip This Realtor Learned From Marge Reid
This home on Vallejo Way took almost a year to sell at its highest price ever.
When I read that Marge Reid had died on October 7th, the news snapped my breath away. I was lounging about Sunday morning reading the Business section of the Sacramento Bee when I spotted an ad. It was right next to the ads for homes for sale and other agents advertising services. The ad was a reduced version of the death notice for Marge Reid that had appeared in the paper in the local section a few weeks earlier. Although it’s odd to see something like this in the Business section, that was a good place to put it because many of us who knew Marge Reid do not read death notices on a daily basis. It was also a nice way to let clients know her daughter and son-in-law are carrying on the family business.
Marge Reid had worked at Lyon Real Estate for 43 years before branching out on her own 5 years ago. How do you like those apples? An 85-year-old woman started her own family business. You’re never too old to start a new business. I had been talking to a prospective seller yesterday morning, and we were discussing at what age a person seems old. She suggested that age is when that person is at least 20 years older than you. Anything younger than that is not old. But that doesn’t apply to Marge Reid. She never seemed “old” to me. Experienced, yes, but old, no.
I might be going out on a limb here but I’m going to say it anyway. I believe that Marge Reid never met a listing she didn’t like. That was the impression she left me with. Some agents develop a superior attitude and won’t work on an overpriced listing. I once asked Marge about the price of a listing because it seemed too high. Marge’s attitude was walk down the hill and get them all. She didn’t judge people or refuse to take a listing that I knew about. There was nothing condescending about her. Marge was a legendary success in Sacramento real estate.
As such, I adopted the same principle. I rarely reject a listing, unless I don’t like the seller. But never over the sales price. One of my very early listings in Sacramento was a home on Vallejo Way. The seller had always been loyal to a different Land Park real estate brokerage but that broker refused to take his listing. The broker told him his asking price was unrealistic. So, he turned to Lyon Real Estate and to me. I wondered what Marge Reid would do. Well, Marge Reid would take the listing. I asked a coworker in my office and he said I should become the Queen of Vallejo. The price was $100,000 too high but I attempted to get it for the seller.
I was the Queen of Vallejo that summer. An open house every Sunday. After a couple of months, the seller agreed to drop the price.
By the time we got to the second price reduction, it seemed like a good idea to remove the listing from the market and put it back with a new MLS number. At that point, this home in Land Park sold with multiple offers at $10,000 over list price. After a Sunday open house, I had one agent in the kitchen writing an offer and another in the dining room writing an offer. While this seller did not get the $675,000 he had hoped to obtain, he did pocket $585,000. I had erased any doubt left lingering in his mind that his price was obtainable. I never did not want to work with him. He had a good sense of humor and I liked him.
Not only that, but a while after all of this happened, the Vallejo seller introduced me to the seller of a two-story Spanish home next door. She had tried unsuccessfully to sell through several other Realtors. She, too, had harbored unrealistic expectations. But I listed that home and I sold it. Now I can tell people I have sold the entire block, adding there are only two homes on that block.
When I mentioned to my team member, Barbara Dow, who is reaching a milestone herself this winter, that Marge Reid died at 90, Barbara said the smartest thing. She said that means she has another 20 years before retiring. We all tend to turn to our own mortality in times like this. Marge Reid taught me the lesson to accept all listings. Eventually a home will sell. Apply patience. Do your job. There are agents who disagree with this philosophy, but I am not one of them.
Rest in peace, Marge. You will be missed by many in Sacramento.
How to Stay One Step Ahead of the Sacramento Real Estate Scams
Nobody is really safe from Sacramento real estate scams.
In 1980, I won a trip to Jamaica and thought it was a scam. I called HBO and asked if they knew some scam artist was sending out letters on its letterhead telling victims they had won an all-expense-paid trip for two to Jamaica for a week. They promoted it as a collaborative effort between HBO and the Jamaica Tourist Board. And even though it was the early days of HBO when anything goes, I was still suspicious. Perhaps it’s my Midwestern upbringing or living on the streets as a child. In any case, HBO assured me that I had indeed won a trip to Jamaica. Hurricane Allen had devastated Jamaica the year before, and this PR event was supposedly a way to reinvigorate interest.
Which wasn’t entirely without its scam-factor as it had turned out. At the end of the year, I received a 1099 for $10,000. This was only 7 days, and it wasn’t luxury. In fact, I had to endure a midnight ride over tiny bridges suspended by ropes in a Jamaican taxi driven by a guy drinking Red Stripe and smoking Ganga. It terrified me to look down at the gorges. My white-knuckled taxi ride happened because the plane out of Kingston to Ocho Rios had been sitting on the tarmac filled with passengers for four hours by the time I climbed aboard.
Hey, was I not a guest of the Jamaica Tourist Board and HBO? I am not sitting on the tarmac in a plane without air conditioning. That $10,000 income proposal was an insult. Because it didn’t cost $10,000. I had been to Jamaica many times before. My own mother was asking me why I didn’t fly to Europe instead. Sure, I’d fork out $3,000 if I could deduct $10,000 off my corporate taxes. I tallied the cost of the hotels. Checked out the airfare and submitted a request to HBO to issue a revised 1099 for about 1/3rd of that cost. I guess they wanted to shut me up because they revised the 1099.
But you can see how my initial instincts were fairly correct. No free lunch.
Other people often cannot tell when a scam is about to happen. Maybe they’re not expecting it. One of my sellers texted to say people were knocking on their door, inquiring about renting his house. He thought the buyer was prematurely advertising the place for rent. I had to explain the hard, cold facts about the rental internet scams. The crooks swipe my professional listing photos, whip up an ad for a place to rent an unbelievable price, demand immediate wired funds, and then they just sit back and collect free money.
When my husband and I closed our own escrow last summer, I didn’t even bother to consider wiring funds. Too many scams involving wired funds. The crooks hack your email and send bogus wiring instructions. Once the funds are in their account, it’s over. You lose. Nope, I went to the bank and obtained a cashier’s check.
People fall for all sorts of scams. The callers start out with “I’m with the fire department” or “I work with veterans” or they use scare tactics like “your bank account has been hacked” or “we’re shutting off your electricity.” Stuff is so weird nowadays involving the White House that it’s hard to tell what is real and what is not. You say to yourself, it is not possible that a guy who is in the pocket of fossil fuel giants and believes climate change is a hoax is running the EPA. Or, that a person against educating our children is our Secretary of Education and would like to teach Bible classes in schools. Or, that our Attorney General plans to return the country to a pre-Civil Rights era.
It’s no wonder people get scammed by the crooks.
Crazy scary crap happens every day in our real world.
You see the absolute worst options in power and you say, no, you do not live in the Philippines. This is not North Korea. This is the United States of America and this is not happening. But it is.
It is not normal.
I used to talk to people and be polite when I received a telemarketing call. Not anymore. In fact, I almost hung up on an agent the other day who was referring a client to me because his voice was overly energetic. Hang up and block the call is my method. I’d rather lose a potential listing than fall victim to a scam, I guess. The bottom line, though, is if it seems too good to be true, then it is. Unless of course, I’m telling you we’ll get multiple offers and sell over list price, because that part, actually, is often true in Sacramento. Don’t worry about offending an agent if you ask her to prove it.
Expecting the Unexpected is Easier Said Than Done in Hawaii
The mongoose is an invasive species in Hawaii.
Expecting the unexpected is something I try to avoid due to careful planning and organization of my life, but you can’t really live well this way. One pretty much needs to expect the unexpected in order to prepare for it. In the case of my Sacramento real estate practice, for example, this ability, predicting future problems and avoiding them, is very handy for my clients. It is also rather rare for me to get freaked out over something, especially when I’ve witnessed so many oddities in life. Still, there are things that freak me out.
Weird things that make me laugh at my reaction to them. For example, yesterday an internet lead followed up with me and called. She apologized profusely for taking so long to return my phone call. She rambled on and on about how she had picked me exclusively to represent her because I’ve been in the business since 1974. She was impressed by my online reviews. She really wanted to meet with me to discuss selling a home in Orangevale. I was her agent.
From what I recall, her property turned out to be a mobile home unsecured to a permanent foundation, so, not real property. Second, she stated in her email the structures on the property were old, dilapidated yet she believed the acreage was worth at least $800,000. Except I could not find any documentation to support this theory. She wanted to meet with me on Monday. When I disclosed Monday is not possible because I am in Hawaii, she did not ask when I would return. I expressed my confusion over her estimate of value, explaining the comps show her property is worth $250K or so. She cut me off and hung up.
I was not expecting the unexpected to happen. Although it was for the best, I tell myself. But the thing is even delusional people can be educated. I have patience. I will take time to explain the reality of Sacramento real estate to people because I realize they don’t really know what I know. I find when people understand the facts, often their opinion is altered. My job is not to avoid ignorance, it’s to transform it.
Within minutes of this phone call, I suddenly noticed a squirrel on our patio. Right by the sliding door, looking at me. This was unexpected. It was even stranger because my brain shifted, and I realized this was not a squirrel. It was a mongoose, an invasive species to Hawaii. I have never seen a mongoose that up close and personal, and certainly not in my yard. I was not expecting the unexpected.
Although, I don’t know why. Another example: I hired a housecleaning service to come in and tidy up things before we arrived at our house in Hawaii. Dust. Vacuum. Clear out any geckos. I do not want to find another dead baby gecko, like I did just before I left in June. It was rolled up on its back with its little gecko legs in the air and had been hiding under the toaster. Those baby geckos are so small they can slide under closed doors. When they don’t find food, they die.
Then, I removed a clock from our wall to relocate it to a different spot. I had bought a hand-painted scroll from Bali to hang over the bronze buddha resting on a stand because the clock in that spot seemed unnatural. What? Inside the back of the clock was a baby gecko. I managed to drop the clock without breaking it, and called my husband, official gecko remover. Shared my technique of quickly covering the gecko with an empty yogurt carton, only because I had already broken a glass doing that, and then slowly sliding a wok spatula under the carton and carting all outside. Problem solved.
I picked up the clock again and examined the back of it to assess whether I had broken any part of it. Holy shit. Another gecko! Another baby gecko! This time the clock flew across the living room and onto the ceramic floor, while the baby gecko flew in the opposite direction of our bedroom. My husband tried to stomp on it but it slid under a bamboo transition piece. You never know what you will see or where you will see it in Hawaii. You’ve gotta expect the unexpected at all times.
Why Does an Agent Prepare an Agent Visual Inspection?
All real estate agents should prepare an a thorough agent visual inspection.
Agents who don’t prepare an agent visual inspection deserve what they get. For many real estate agents working in Sacramento today, the 1984 case of Easton v. Strassburger is nothing but a legal phrase they recall from a real estate exam and meaningless to them today. Since I had already been working for years in real estate when the California court of appeal ruled on this legendary case, the ramifications of Easton v. Strassburger struck fear in my heart and it’s never left. This landmark lawsuit changed the way I forever since have done business.
It’s odd for me to think back at that time and realize I practiced real estate for so many years before that ruling and I never inspected homes. I had team members who showed homes, but I handled the offer preparation and was responsible for all negotiation. I never personally looked at the home myself. My feeling back all those decades ago was the house had four walls, a roof and somebody would live in it, so what did I care? My job was to get our investors a good rental property. Prepare an agent visual inspection? Why?
After Easton v. Strassburger, I changed my tune. Easton bought a home on a hill in Danville from the Strassburgers. After escrow closed, the house suffered extensive damage from sliding soil and the Easton sued. The court ruled the broker had a duty to conduct a reasonable inspection and to disclose. Further, agents have a duty to disclose what they know or should have known, which could have been concluded from a routine physical inspection. There was evidence of previous slides that the Strassburgers did not disclose, which the agent should have picked up on. Ever since then, I inspect.
As Sacramento Realtors, we are not required to conduct a home inspection. But we are expected to walk the property, identify possible defects and point out areas that could become a concern. Sometimes, I shoot photos of defects I spot and include them with my agent visual inspection. If I spot a crack over a door, I note it. It could be a settling crack or it could be indicative of something more serious. I’m not a home inspector, so I wouldn’t know. Yet, I disclose.
Imagine my shock yesterday when I received a buyer’s agent visual inspection for one of my listings. The agent didn’t complete the inspection at all. The AVID was blank. Instead, the agent wrote across the face of the document verbiage to the effect that the buyer is advised to obtain a home inspection. Lazy-ass moron. I’ve encountered other difficulties in the past with this particular agent, things that left me scratching my head and wondering why this agent is not in jail. And here is yet one more piece of concrete evidence. A disaster waiting to happen. Buyers deserve so much better.
Sacramento Agent Deliberately Damaged a Home When Showing
Two holes in the siding are from an agent who damaged a home when showing.
With all the things going on at our trio of Sunday open houses, I did not expect to hear that a Sacramento agent deliberately damaged a home when showing his buyer the house. Granted, the agent called to admit his guilt because the neighbors had taken photographs of his red car, with the prominent real estate sign on his door, and he knew it. This was about an hour before the incredible Barbara Dow had arrived to open the home for showings. The agent’s excuse was he was trying to show his buyer there was dry-rot damage to the siding, because agents are such dry-rot experts — NOT — so he kicked the siding with his foot. He left a large hole. Then, for some unknown reason, he kicked the siding a second time. What was his excuse then?
I told him I would not be driving about town with a large real estate sign engraved into my car door if I were prone to kicking in siding. I asked why he thought his actions that damaged a home were permissible in this business. Out of all the training manuals and books about showing real estate and my 43 years in the business, I’ve never heard anybody suggest an agent should kick or poke or prod or otherwise damage a home while showing it. For any reason. This is absurd.
Buyer’s agent damaged a home at 2430 Stokewood Way.
After he kicked holes in the siding, he still went in to show the home, apparently with a line of neighbors screaming at him. They said he was arrogant. He allegedly told the neighbors he didn’t care if the Sacramento Realtor or owner was informed of his actions. You can see in this photograph how obvious those holes in the siding are from the street. Very noticeable.
Another neighbor sent the photographs to the seller’s niece who forwarded the photos to the seller. The seller asked what he could do. He was furious, and I don’t blame him. I would be livid myself. When that agent damaged a home and didn’t offer to make amends or even an apology, it made everybody wonder if he should have a real estate license. Unfortunately, the Bureau of Real Estate doesn’t discipline agents who damage personal property. That’s the job for the police.
The seller filed a police report, including photos and testimony. This is simply inexcusable, extremely unprofessional. The open house guests all talked about the holes in the siding. The seller also has the agent’s name and contact information. Perhaps he’ll take him to Small Claim’s Court and collect damages. Just because this is a fixer home in Rancho Cordova does not give anybody the right to damage a home.
