Email ElizabethReal Estate Tips
Reasons We’re Not Gonna Take It
We’re not gonna take it could be a Sacramento Realtor’s theme song.
We’re not gonna take it. I woke up this morning with a song running through my head. I could hear the guitar licks before my feet hit the ground:
We’re not gonna take it
We’re not gonna take it
We’re not gonna take it
We’re not gonna take it
We’re not gonna take it
Never did and never will
We’re not gonna take it
Gonna break it, gonna shake it,
let’s forget it better still
Now, I realize not every client wants to hear the truth — whether it’s the truth about purchasing power, inventory, comparable sales or whether objectives are realistic. However, I am generally very direct. I call it like I see it. Not everybody appreciates that. Some want their information delivered in small sugar-coated dosages. While I try to be accommodating and give my clients superior service, it doesn’t mean I am willing to sacrifice my ethics nor my integrity to do so. Because every time I am tempted to set aside my convictions and policies, I later kick myself.
In my experience, the best thing to do is to let go and remember: You can’t salvage every deal. You can’t take every listing. You can’t satisfy everybody. No matter how hard you try. If you and your client are worlds apart, that’s where deals go to die. Let them die. The world won’t come to a screeching halt.
My policy is six-month listings. Especially in this market. If you don’t trust me, don’t feel loyalty nor believe I will do a good job for you, we should not do business together. I will cancel a 6-month listing after 90 days but I won’t take a 90-day listing. There are plenty of other agents who will; I am not one of them. I spend a lot of money on advertising and marketing; I work hard and diligently for my clients, and I expect support. It’s me or a less experienced agent. Take your pick.
Buyers, if you insist on offering 80 cents on the dollar when the sellers of that home is receiving multiple offers, I’m not working with you. Because you are looking for a needle in the haystack. You are not a serious buyer. I excel at negotiation, but if you don’t get the property because you offered too little, we both lose. My job is to see that your offer gets accepted, not rejected. Take your pick.
To the buyer who now insists that the seller pay for Section 2 work that was not specified in the contract, this is the hill on which you will die. Especially since the seller is paying for your new roof and a home protection policy. The seller has no more money to give you. Your $10,000 deposit in escrow can sit there until the cows come home because the seller will contest its release if you try to cancel. Fight or close escrow. Take your pick.
To the seller who couldn’t sell her home for two years because it was overpriced, I’m not taking the listing at the same price. The reason your home didn’t sell is because it’s not worth what you are asking. Either you make repairs to bring it in line with other comparable homes in the neighborhood or you slash your asking price. Or, hire a brand new agent who hasn’t been around the block, because I’m not one of those. Lower the price or don’t sell. Take your pick.
Every time I stand by my guns, er, guitar, I end up successful. When I make a concession, go against my general nature, I always regret that action. When I am successful, so are my clients. We’re not gonna take it; never did and never will.
Insider Tips About Get Rich Quick Real Estate Seminars
You won’t get rich quick after attending a real estate seminar.
A couple decades ago, this Sacramento Realtor associated with a few real estate seminar companies in southern California. I didn’t promote nor speak at the seminars, in case you are wondering, but I did provide property for the attendees to purchase and, in some cases, I represented the seminar speakers for investment purchases. I had nine years of experience doing this with my own brokerage in Newport Beach. I’m not bragging and, in some ways, feel a bit guilty and ashamed that I was even associated with some of these people — I write this to provide insight and background.
Even today, I get questions from sellers and buyers about no-money-down real estate seminars. You see them splashed in full-page spreads in the newspaper. And clients attend them. They ask, “How can I buy a short sale and get cash back?” The answer is you can’t get cash back. Well, you can, but you’d be committing short sale mortgage fraud. Clients get confused. They think we’re hiding some real estate secrets from them because, believe me, these speakers are plenty charismatic. They could sell the Brooklyn Bridge twice.
People do all sorts of underhanded things in real estate. But it doesn’t mean consumers should do them. Many of the schemes seminar attendees hear touted from the stage are against the law.
I’ve known a few speakers to outright lie to the audience. When I’d confront them later to ask how they could say such an outrageous statement, they’d come up with some likely excuse that, on the surface, sounded feasible but was only part of their facade. Many of these speakers presenting real estate seminars are unscrupulous.
Here are truisms every consumer should know:
- There are no secrets in real estate.
- If an idea sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
- If the guy on stage could do what he promotes, why is he on stage talking to you?
- Many of the no-money-down techniques are impossible for novices to do.
- You will find more answers on the Internet or in a public library for free than throwing away money on buying books, tapes, CDs or videos.
Do Not Pass By the Overpriced Homes in Sacramento
Ask your Realtor to find the overpriced homes in Sacramento for you.
If you’re looking for a good buy, try looking at overpriced homes in Sacramento. Look at homes that have been on the market for more than 60 days. The longer, the better.
Most buyers pass up these opportunities. Agents do, too. They presume the seller is unreasonable or maybe insists on a pie-in-the-sky sales price. They also believe that the seller has probably turned down other offers, so they reason it’s wasting time to chase a lost cause.
However, the truth is most buyers do not make substantially low offers to sellers. Agents advise against it, too. Few agents want to gain a reputation among peers in the community as being a low-baller or a time waster. Besides, if you look at MLS statistics for averages, you won’t spot these homes. Even in buyer’s markets, most homes still sell between 95% and 100% of sales price (not accounting for concessions), if they are priced right.
So the lonely, neglected listing just sits there. Collecting cobwebs. The listing agent pleads with buyer’s agents to submit an offer — any offer — but buyer’s agents tend to gravitate toward well priced listings; it’s simply human nature.
I advise buyers to hook up with an area agent who is on top of the inventory, be it me or some other Sacramento Realtor. That’s the only way they will know which properties might be a bargain in disguise. I’m always on the lookout for gems. They don’t pop up all the time, and every transaction is different, but if agents poke around in MLS and get to know neighborhoods, they probably already know which two or three homes in an area might be worth pursuing.
Area specialists should feel comfortable enough to share that knowledge with buyers and write those offers. You know what the listing agent said about the last overpriced home in Sacramento? She said not a single real estate agent had shared with her that it was overpriced. Why? Agents don’t want to insult other agents. Sometimes out-of-area agents face blackballing from local agents, too, because locals tend to frown on territory infringement. Ha! Spittooey!
It’s a complicated business. It pays to have a buyer’s agent on the side of buyers.
Sacramento Realtor: I Found You on the Internet
People who say I found you on the Internet are interested in hiring a Sacramento Realtor
The first words I hear from many callers when I answer my phone is “I found you on the internet,” like they are almost embarrassed to admit they were not personally referred to me or they are taking a long shot. Since I’ve been online for the past 25 years and in the real estate business since 1974, I’ve got a lot of experience that shows up online.
You can’t turn around on Google without running into something I wrote or finding a home that is listed for sale in Sacramento popping up. It’s like you can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant. Not only do I write articles for About.com as their homebuying expert, but I write plenty of stuff on my own blogs and am interviewed a lot by the media. I suppose this is the stuff agent dreams are made of. I’m very fortunate that people can say I found you on the internet.
Right place at the right time sort of thing. It’s organic traffic that drives people to my website. No trickery, no SEO, no hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on PR companies to market and raise my internet presence like UC Davis. I write stuff people want to read, and they remember my name.
Just yesterday I received a call from a seller in Santa Cruz. We had a long talk. She seemed astonished that she found me online since the internet is not a place she visits. She doesn’t even do email, if you can believe that, but there are plenty of people who lead productive, happy lives without the internet. Just because you and I cannot fathom that reality doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
She was a bit upset that my cellphone number began with 916. She said that probably means I am a Realtor in Sacramento and she needs a person like me in Santa Cruz. Have you ever tried to find a duplicate you in a parallel universe? I did go on a hunt and found an agent I think might be a good fit her. It’s not really an agent that I can say I found you on the internet, but I did do a search for low level license numbers.
My license number is 00697006. That means I was licensed as the # 697,006 agent in California. We have more than 2 million real estate licenses now. I got my license in the late 1970s. If you want to call me and say I found you on the internet, that’s perfect OK. That’s music to my ears. If I can’t work with you, I’ll refer you to an agent in your neighborhood.
Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Sacramento Seller Dumps Discount Agent for Elizabeth Weintraub
A discount agent cannot possibly deliver the same quality of work as a 40-year veteran in real estate.
Sacramento sellers who don’t know any better might wrongly believe a discount agent is a better choice when it comes time to sell a home. I write about this topic from time to time because it can come up during a listing presentation. A seller might act, for example, like he only wants to hire this experienced Sacramento Realtor, but when I get over to the home, complete my visual inspection and shoot photographs, that’s when the bomb goes off.
Oh, they say, forgot to mention we are talking to a discount agent, and he will do everything you will do for less money. Um, no, he won’t. He might say he will, but he won’t. Nobody can do what I do except for me. And then I have to explain in detail what kind of magic my particular skill-set brings to a transaction. How a monkey can pop a sign in the yard, but it takes experience to go from a signed contract to closed sale. Why would you want a cheap agent?
Many discount agents are paid a salary by their broker, and there’s a reason they can’t make it on commissions.
Apart from that, who will negotiate the request for repair and deal with unreasonable home buyers? Who will vet the buyer and the buyer’s agent? Does the discount agent even know the Realtors who work in this area? How can a newer agent anticipate problems and head them off before they happen when there is no magnitude of experience?
The seller shook his head and said he didn’t know which agent to believe, but he would choose the discount agent. We’re all the same to him, even though we are not. He would do it to save on the front end, and then he will lose even more on the back end. He’ll be in the negative with a discount agent. That’s a lose / lose proposition in my book, but the seller’s choice to make.
He listed with the discount agent, much to my dismay. I saw the listing was still pending after 5 weeks, which is never a good sign. Then, out of the blue, yesterday the seller called and asked if I would pick up the pieces of his broken listing and start over with him. He needed to learn the hard way. We all have our own way of learning the lessons of life, and it’s OK. Of course I prefer to be hired as the first agent, but I have no real objection to being the second or third agent.
Either way, I will sell the home. And I will never say I told you so. I’ve listed his home in Curtis Park, and we’ll be live on the market next Friday.
If you would like to make the right decision at the beginning, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
