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Is There Any Flexibility in the Sales Price for that House?
Agents have all kinds of ways they attempt to negotiate but the one that works.
Buyer’s agents who ask is there any flexibility in the sales price are really asking the listing agent if the seller will take less. You might wonder who would ask this sort of question? Or, maybe, what kind of responses would they receive? All sorts of agents ask this question. They ask because sometimes listing agents in Sacramento do not stop to think. They get caught up in the moment, forget about their fiduciary relationship to the seller and, as such, they can commit one of the worst blunders a listing agent could ever do. They could lose their real estate license. Yet, they spill the beans. And let’s talk about spilling the beans.
For starters, a listing agent who delivers messages without authority is in a heap of trouble. Further, even if the agent knows the answer or thinks she knows the answer, she doesn’t. You know why? Because she’s not inside her sellers’ heads. Try as I might, I cannot crawl into a seller’s gooey brain. Oh, geez, now I’m imagining Dr. Thackery on The Knick poking that long needle into that addict’s brain on Season 2. Further, what a seller tells me one day might not be true the following day. Things change. Circumstances can dictate different answers in direct opposition to the facts one thought she knew 2 minutes ago.
I take nothing for granted. When a buyer’s agent asks me is there any flexibility in the sales price, I tell them I don’t know. I don’t know because like I said, I don’t really know. But I do know how to find out.
You know how you find out? You write a purchase offer. I deliver the purchase offer to my seller and my seller makes a decision. We may discuss pros, cons and other strategies, but I never tell anybody what to do. Not my house. Not my monkey. I may offer alternatives, but the seller has the final say in the matter.
Please don’t tell me the buyer is “in love with the house” but won’t pay list price. People who are in love move heaven and earth for their heart’s desire. If you want to make sure you can buy the house, you write the offer at list price. In today’s real estate market, sometimes even list price is not enough. If a buyer’s agent asks if I have any offers and I hear of an offer coming, I tell them I have been told I will receive an offer but I don’t have it yet. Moreover, if I counted every offer as received that an agent promised was on its way, I would own an island in French Polynesia.
Sometimes it sounds like an agent is pressing for an answer because, as you know, the agent don’t want to waste his time. Wha? That’s the name of the game; it’s the job, write offers and negotiate. You might win, you might lose. That’s how you sell Sacramento real estate. There are no guarantees that a seller will take any offer, much less yours. You want a guarantee? You buy a certificate of deposit. You want to buy a home, you negotiate. There is no answer to is there any flexibility in the sales price for that house until an offer is submitted. Period.
Does Quantum Entanglement Apply to Sacramento Buyer’s Agents?
It is interesting to note Einstein rejected the theory of quantum entanglement, and he was wrong.
Some of the conversations I’ve been having lately with buyer’s agents in Sacramento seem as bizarre as the actual weirdness of quantum entanglement. For those of you who haven’t spent much time pondering quantum entanglement, this is an instant thing that happens in the universe. No, I’m not talking about the life-on-a-blade-of-grass theory, derived from dropping acid in the ’60s; this is not that foo-foo stuff. This is science. It’s a real phenomenon.
It’s what happens when two particles mirror each other after an interaction. You’ve got this one particle, which could be a Sacramento buyer’s agent, and another particle, which could be, say, a San Diego buyer’s agent. These two agents meet and become entangled to the extent that if the Sacramento buyer’s agent skins her knee, the agent in San Diego feels the burn. You think this sounds like craziness, a movie plot, but it’s real.
Even Einstein pooh-poohed this as a paradox and said it was impossible, which was the version I heard when in school. But along the way, scientists in the physics community managed to prove that entangled particles truly exists. Regardless of the distance between the two, when change happens to one particle, it happens to both. I read about quantum entanglement in the news a few days ago and it blew me away. I bring this up now because my husband picked up a book at the library for me about quantum entanglement, which I’m very excited to begin reading.
Further, I should point out that although quantum entanglement might be old news to some of you, it’s not to me. Even though I’m an old person now, my inquisitiveness remains in full force.
While I am really not saying that agents share any sort of quantum entanglement, sometimes the similarities between agents amaze me. Over the weekend I received several offers that contained the requirement for a security deposit to be paid on a free rent back by the seller. That’s a new one on me, too. It’s fairly insulting, don’t you agree? To tell a seller she needs to pay a security deposit to the buyer on her own home, a place where she’s been living for years without destroying the property.
I know what the real problem is. The real problem is the buyer’s agent is not spending enough time educating the buyer. This is probably a situation that requires face-to-face dialogue and in-depth discussions to get buyers over that fact that many sellers expect a little break in today’s HOT HOT HOT Sacramento real estate market. That little break is to give them a week or more to move out without demanding rent or deposits. It speaks volumes to the seller. It tells the seller the buyer is completely serious about buying the home and isn’t planning to nickel and dime us to death.
It can be what entices a seller pluck that one offer out of multiples. If you’re thinking about selling a home in Sacramento, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759, and put 40 years of experience to work for you.
Timeshare Ripoffs and Reasons to Never Buy a Timeshare
This Week 21 Whitebirch at Breezy Point Resorts Timeshare is for sale at ZERO.
If only my sister had called me before she bought a timeshare in northern Minnesota and, if she had listened to my advice, I might have spared her the grief of getting involved with timeshare ripoffs. Buying a timeshare sounds like a good idea on paper, but mostly the good idea benefits the developer. The way it works is instead of selling a building, a developer can divide the building into units. Then the developer can sell each of the units 52 times to 52 different owners. Talk about a way to leverage profit. And the timeshare presentations themselves are heavy-handed, high pressure sales.
They lure unsuspecting would-be buyers into a free vacation, although some can be bought for as little as a free dinner or cocktail. Consumers think they understand the sales, and they chuckle to themselves and say, yeah, give me that free vacation because I’m not buying anything. And then they buy. Not wanting to admit they have been suckered or perhaps they are a bit embarrassed over the whole thing, they just keep paying those maintenance dues and taxes.
These timeshare ripoffs are like Hotel California. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
You know, in the late ’70s or early ’80s, a timeshare developer approached me when I sold real estate as a broker in Newport Beach. The developer flew me and my team of agents to Mammoth Lakes in a private plane and tried to induce us to sell timeshares in Mammoth Lakes. It was the first time I saw home staging in action. My enthusiasm level for this was nil. It seemed so slimy. Having said that, I will say there are a probably some people who love their timeshares. They go there on vacation every year. I don’t personally know any of those people, though. And I know that trading your timeshare time for a vacation elsewhere is very hard if not impossible to do. I’ve heard timeshare sales people encourage suckers, er, buyers, to purchase a timeshare not because they will use it but because they can trade it. Right. Not.
When my sister tried to sell her timeshare, Whitebirch at Breezy Point Resort in Breezy Point, Minnesota, she was contacted by a bunch of timeshare ripoff crooks. They asked her to wire upfront money and then they would donate the timeshare to charity. Except those are scams. They take your money and never take your timeshare. These guys use strong arm tactics and threaten timeshare owners with wage garnishment or attachment of accounts, which they can’t do without a judgment. Further, the likelihood of a timeshare pursing a judgment is slim. The real estate company at Breezy Point seems to have a list of sellers a mile long, but not really many buyers. Breezy Point won’t take this timeshare back.
My sister has a really cute 2 bedroom, 2 bath timeshare at Whitebirch at Breezy Point Resort. She paid more than $8,000 for it. She owns week #21, around Memorial Day, every even year. Not odd years. Her taxes and maintenance fees are $527 every two years. She apparently can’t give away this timeshare. She would sell it to anybody for ZERO as long as that buyer would pay Breeze Point Resort its $400 to prepare the transfer paperwork. My sister is unemployed and lost her disability recently, which makes her even more vulnerable to timeshare ripoffs.
Buying a Sacramento Home Subject to a Sunday Open House
Sunday open houses tend to attract buyers in Sacramento.
Dear Sacramento Buyer’s Agent:
Thank you for showing my listing and asking about how the seller will handle offers with a Sunday Open House on the horizon. Oh, and thank you for sharing your buyer is fully qualified through The Internet Lender. I would be remiss if I didn’t share my opinion of The Internet Lender. It doesn’t necessarily mean your buyer is qualified. We’ve all had transactions with internet lenders fall apart because the monkey, excuse me, I meant monkeyfied mortgage loan officer, did not take the time to thoroughly scrutinize the loan application.
Further, these types of internet lenders often end up with out-of-area, and by that definition, non-qualified, appraisers. We all know where the rabbit hole that leads, but I’ll spell it out. Low appraisals. Unhappy sellers. Kicked out into the street buyers. Your buyer might get an edge if she were to get qualified with a local lender, which tends to carry a lot more weight with experienced listing agents and their sellers than an internet company. This is just a suggestion, not a requirement. Unless it is, and we’re just not telling you.
We also expect to receive multiple offers, so a list price offer probably won’t get her the house. We are holding the home open on Sunday, and there is no guarantee the seller will take an offer before the open house, although I will send an offer immediately upon receipt. You never know, the seller might take it. Then again, maybe not. I may advise against it.
My suggestion is you write the offer as though it is already Sunday afternoon, and we’ve held the Sunday Open House. You may want to advise your buyer to put her best foot forward in that offer because she might not get a second chance. There is no guarantee a seller will consider a counter offer. Much of the time in these situations, I see sellers just take the best offer. On page 9 for acceptance of offer, you might give us until after the Sunday Open House for a decision . . . so your offer doesn’t expire, of course.
Moreover, the home is sold AS IS. Although we are not aware of anything wrong with it, you and I both know a home inspection will reveal a bunch of defects. Please be advised the seller will not issue a credit, renegotiate the sales price nor make repairs. It is best if the buyer is prepared in advance to accept the fact there might be a few things he or she will need to later on fix. That is an ongoing fact of life, btw, whether it’s a house or yourself.
How One Person Can Sell a Home With Two People on the Deed
It’s not common but one signature on a listing is enough to put a home into MLS.
Most Sacramento Realtors do not know how one person can sell a home with two people on the deed. Perhaps it’s because they did not realize it was possible or never had reason to ponder the feasibility. Or, maybe they don’t really understand how title and escrow works. Of course, my title and escrow background has been instrumental to me throughout my 40+ years in the real estate business. I spent only a couple of years in the title industry and two more as an escrow officer, including as a certified escrow officer, but that training has been most beneficial throughout my long career.
The way it works in Sacramento is say you have a husband and wife, both on title, and one person is not available to sign the listing paperwork. Or, maybe it’s a family trust, and the successor trustee is in the process of transferring title to an heir, but that deed is not yet recorded. Can either of these people who appear not to possess full capacity sign a listing agreement? Of course they can. I am informed they can also sign a purchase contract. What they cannot do, without full authority, is close escrow, but as long as that happens prior to closing, it can work.
In the case of a married couple, one person already has an interest in the property. It’s how one person can sell a home with two people on the deed. I often take listings with just one signature from a spouse, waiting for the second spouse to either sign the listing paperwork or sign an interspousal transfer deed. It takes only one signature to put the listing into our Sacramento MLS. Didn’t know that? Well, you do now.
I checked with the title company in the case of an heir signing a listing agreement prior to recordation of the deed from the successor trustee, and that’s fine, too. As long as the deed records during the term of the listing and prior to closing. Actually, to really nitpick, delivery of the deed is what constitutes title transfer, not recordation. Didn’t know that? Well, you do now.
When I met with a prospective seller yesterday, her lawyer told her she could not sign a listing agreement until her husband signed off on the deed. Which is not true. But she might have also misunderstood. Often the case, people misquote or impose their own thoughts. Or, her lawyer might not be a real estate lawyer. I do whatever makes my sellers the most comfortable. Just because I know how one person can sell a home with two people on the deed, doesn’t mean it must be done that way.
Knowing when not to argue is a gift. Likewise, knowing not to give legal advice without being a lawyer is also good risk management. If you’re looking to sell a home in Sacramento and need an experienced Realtor, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Happy birthday to a certain birthday boy today.
