Email ElizabethEstablishing Priorities from a Top Sacramento Listing Agent
Establishing priorities comes very easy to this top Sacramento listing agent. For example, after 44 years in the real estate business, I know what is important. People who rely on you. Younger agents are often all over the board on this but not me. Just like Lyon Real Estate values its agents and makes agents its #1 priority, I identify with that approach and have established my own priorities. Lyon has always been good to me (except that one time a long time ago). Everybody makes mistakes.
But I am not a drama queen.
If a loose cannon gets bent out of shape, Lyon will smooth it over because they take care of their agents. I know without a doubt that the managing broker of my office always has my back. No matter what. They know me, my personality, my quirks, as I’ve been working at the Sacramento midtown office of Lyon for 15 years now. That’s a long time not to jump ship, fly the nest. Because Lyon is a good brokerage. #1 in Sacramento. I am also its #2 agent, out of 17 offices and almost 1,000 agents.
Establishing priorities for me means I never ask my team members to do something I would not do myself for them. I screen many of our buyers, too, and will jump into any transaction if I am needed. Barbara Dow and Josh Amolsch are not just team members to me. Or only marvelous exclusive buyer’s agents, which they are. They are also my dear friends and I love them to pieces. Moving heaven and earth for either is not too much to ask.
All three of us have a method of operation identical to each other. Establishing priorities for us means one thing. Our clients come first. They always come first. Like yesterday, I caught a community theatre performance of The Addams Family the Musical. What a hoot. But a client texted and wanted to discuss a potential buyer. I shared all the information I had during intermission.
Sure, I could have gone to the concession stand and picked up a bottle of ice cold water, but no I sat thirsty in my seat (because I am demented) and texted with all of the parties involved. Primarily the seller. My sellers know everything. I keep no secrets. Because I only work with sellers I care about and, sure, some are more challenging but that does not make anyone any less deserving of stellar service. I care about each and every client.
Some of this is probably because my own immediate family, outside of my husband (also an orphan), has shriveled. My brother died a year ago, my parents are gone, and I have only a sister and niece, whom I rarely see. An aunt in New York who doesn’t write. My other sister has faded into non-existence, blended into a lonely wall in her house where she sits all alone.
In a way, the sellers I work with become my family. My team members are also family. I dunno, do you think that is weird?
When You Have to Report a Real Estate Agent
Trust me, nobody really wants to report a real estate agent. But sometimes the violations are so flagrant one must. We all make mistakes, honest mistakes. We’re only human. But what about the agents who deliberately set out to deceive and then claim they made a mistake? Or worse, refuse to rectify it? I wonder if I should report them. On the one hand, I pretty much leave other agents alone and don’t turn them in, even when I spot blatant, unethical behavior. I’m not the ethics police.
Although, there was that agent who published a map of “bad neighborhoods” in Sacramento. On top of that, he gave the areas racist nicknames and thought he was clever. That was beyond an ability to ignore so Fair Housing heard about that. I subscribe to the theory that you don’t want to be part of the problem. That agent? He moved his operation to Arizona and is still selling.
Whether to report a real estate agent for a violation is one thing, but another aspect is whether one should one talk about it in public. If it’s information the public should probably know, I say, yes, even if it tends to taint the profession. Other agents may disagree. Agents as a group try to protect each other so nobody discovers what idiots some are.
So, I’m just gonna tell you what happened. Without naming the website, I tried to update a new listing but the site told me the home had been claimed. Not surprising; it was listed before. I clicked on the details and noticed the home was listed for sale by an agent other than the previous listing agent. But it had the old listing number attached to it.
I called the seller to find out if she had any knowledge of this agent. Nope. The seller called the agent. Immediately, the agent dove into bait-and-switch mode. The seller made it clear that it was her home she was calling about and she was not a buyer. The agent mumbled something about this being a very confusing situation and promised to remove it.
A few days went by, and the listing was still published under that agent’s name. Hmmm. I wondered how many other Sacramento listings were swiped and misrepresented. Usually, people who would do unethical things do other unethical things. That agent had a couple of pages worth of listings. I ran the first 5 addresses in MLS. Not one listing belonged to that agent.
I finally notified the staff at that website, and several people responded. It’s difficult to regulate, they say. Well, how about you make the poster check a box that says, “If this listing doesn’t belong to me, I authorize you to charge my credit card a $1,000.” I heard giggles. At least the website removed the listing.
Why should the public care? Because the Internet is unregulated. It’s difficult to trust some of what you read. You should not rely on information found on questionable or unknown websites. If you’re searching in Google for “how to make dog biscuits,” you might not want to follow the recipe published by survivalists-who-eat-dogs dot com.
Nobody wants to report a real estate agent. It’s a big hassle and half the time the authorities do nothing because they do not understand the finer nuances. I recall a time an out-of-area agent wanted to co-list a home with me, and I did not want to co-list with that agent. That agent gave me his marketing plan that included cutting out buyer’s agents so he could double-end all of his transactions. That was his schtick. Unethical. Against MLS regulations, too.
The California Department of Real Estate did not care. This is what we face. Ambivalence.
How to Tell if You’re Not Ready to Buy a House
While few agents are in the business of talking people out of buying a house, some buyers are not ready to buy a house. Oh, a buyer might think she is ready but down deep she is not. For starters, if you do not have a preapproval letter, you might not be ready to buy a house. This is assuming, of course, you are obtaining financing and not paying cash. Or, perhaps your benefactor is buying the house on your behalf, in which case, no preapproval required.
Another way to tell that you are not ready to buy a house is if you find major flaws in every house you look at with your agent. Enough serious drawbacks to know that none of the houses you viewed for the past couple of weeks fit what you desire. In that event, you should reassess with your agent your priorities. Are you looking for a unicorn house? That could be a sign that you need to design and build your own house.
Few houses are perfect, except, of course, the home you build yourself. Most buyers make concessions because they know they will not find everything on their list. If you want to buy a house with a view, for example, you might need to give up another requirement to get that view. Or be willing to make upgrades to outfit the house the way you want it.
Some buyers cannot find anything to buy in their price range or they harbor unrealistic expectations about what they can get for their money. They might spot a short sale, for example, that is severely underpriced because the listing agent is an idiot. Then, they take that particular listing and fixate on it, hoping to find another priced the same way. Which they won’t because that listing is not a “real” listing.
Another way to know a buyer is not ready to buy a house is the cold feet syndrome. Especially after going into contract to buy a house. Some buyers develop cold feet within a few days. Other buyers can make it all the way to loan docs before they freak out. If you have misgivings or an inner voice pulling you in another direction, you might not be ready to buy a house.
Just last month I encountered an odd situation. I sold a bungalow near downtown Sacramento to four different sets of buyers. Each went into contract and each group canceled without provocation. That poor seller. I felt a lot of empathy for him. Because there was no explanation. Other than the fact we can’t pick our buyers, that’s the buyer’s agent’s job, and somehow every single one of those buyer’s agents also failed.
Most committed home buyers who are ready are very excited. They are jazzed and ready to go. It is not unusual to fall in love with house after house and have a hard time deciding between a handful of homes because they are all so gorgeous. So many of those homes fit the bill of wants and needs. There is anticipation that the next house will be “the one.” Buyers who are ready can’t stop talking about their purchase.
If you feel so-so about it and are not consumed by a passionate driving force to settle down in your own house, you might not be ready to buy a house. That’s OK, too. Your Realtor is your advocate.
The Kona DMV is no Picnic but the State Workers are Great
Very few people have a good feeling about the DMV, much less the Kona DMV. However, from what I read about the long lines and problems lately at the DMV in Sacramento, I am much happier going to Kona DMV. You should know, too, that if you ship a car to Kona, whether it is from a neighboring island like my vehicle or from the mainland, you need to eventually register it in Kona.
The upside is the Big Island has the cheapest rates. It costs almost $300 to register my car in Maui, but in Kona, it is only $175.
Silly me, I thought Hawaii was its own state so it wouldn’t matter which county I registered the car in but it does. The dealer in Maui had the car inspected in Honolulu. That vehicle inspection is worthless in Hawaii County. Owners need to have the vehicle inspected again, even if the existing inspection has not expired.
I discovered all of this shortly after arriving at the Kona DMV. The deal is you line up outside. Granted, you’re covered overhead, but it is still HOT, little air circulation. Because everybody is in the same proverbial boiling pot, there was much conversation in line. Hey, I yelled out, do you guys remember the DMV sloths in that movie Zootopia? High fives.
At one time, the “greeter” was stationed outside but when I met her, she seemed like a relatively intelligent individual, which is why she is stationed inside the air-conditioned building, I imagine.
After you stand in line for 30 minutes (to an hour), you get a ticket number. I did not realize that after buying a car in Hawaii that I would have to go to the Kona DMV in person to register it again. Assuming your paperwork is in order. My paperwork was not in order because I had a registration from Maui. I also had a renewal notice and a perfectly valid vehicle inspection certificate from Honolulu. The greeter gave me directions to the Vehicle Inspection place down the street.
Of course, I cannot follow directions. Especially when they are given as take a left and after a driveway take another left and go two blocks from the end before you turn right. All I hear is it’s by Costco. So naturally I turned into the wrong driveway. As a person who is not afraid to ask for directions, I accosted the fellow in the sign shop.
He pointed me to a Subaru mechanic shop a few doors down. What the hey, I say to myself, I own a Subaru, how lucky is that? Turned out that was not the Vehicle Inspection place. But they could do it for their own customers. Not only did they give me a vehicle inspection, but they gave me the phone number of the senior inspector at the Kona DMV so he could sign off on it as I entered the crosswalk.
See? My life is now back to normal, and the fairies or angels or whatever forces of nature tend to continually sprinkle goodness in my path, well, they have returned. Not like a few days ago when everything went wrong because life threw curveballs at me. One after the other. Which was so weird and unusual.
The inspector gave me a ticket number so I could begin my wait. A really nice thing about the Kona DMV is there is a sandwich store between the waiting area and the parking lot. The guy who runs the store is blind so, since he doesn’t pay sales tax, he doesn’t ask his customers to pay it, either.
When I sat down in the waiting area, which you can see in the above photo, I gobbled my sandwich. Shortly, a young Asian girl toting a Coach bag, dressed in designers, dripping bling attached to her Apple Watch and presenting a perfect purple and pink manicure spoke to me. She wanted to know if all of the road tests had been canceled.
She had no ticket for entrance and did not want to stand in the line. I encouraged to just walk in the door. You can do it, nobody will say anything, I said. Just open the door and go in. Approach the greeter to deliver your quick question. I am such a troublemaker, always looking to find a way to buck the system. Most people are sheep. My methods only work because people are sheep. Can’t have everybody being a rebel.
She didn’t want to do it. It was disrespectful to all the people waiting in the line that she did not want to wait in.
The woman across from us also pitched in. You can’t sit there and do nothing, she admonished. Either go in the door or stand in the line. Sitting here is pointless.
Just before they called my name, at the 90-minute mark, the young girl bravely stood up, took a deep breath, smoothed her hair and marched in the door. She emerged two seconds later with a big smile on her face. Question answered. Road tests were not canceled. And this is what you have to do in Hawaii to get answers.
Photos of the Central Bark Dog Park in Kona
As I finished putting the finishing touches on my open houses for Sunday, Linda presented me with the opportunity to hang out a bit at Kona Haven Coffee and then go to the dog park. It is called Central Bark Dog Park, and is sponsored by the Kona Humane Society, among other donors.
Now you may find this difficult to believe, but this Sacramento Realtor has never been to a dog park. Hey, I don’t have a dog. Why would I ever go to a dog park? But I was up for an adventure. The tiling guy was at our house in Hawaii working away, so he didn’t need me. We already discussed wrapping the tile corners and the focal point.
Which leads me to a funny story about my dead brother. He tiled my sister’s bath, and it was obvious to me that he used the wrong focal point when tiling. When I asked my sister why he chose the corner he chose, she said he picked it because that’s what you look at while on the John.
What a doofus.
So, yes, I was game for going to the Central Bark Dog Park in Kona. They have benches donated to the space, chairs for tired people, and a place to chat. It’s just like hanging out at Kona Haven Coffee without the coffee service.
Is this little guinea pig dog the cutest dog ever?? He is 5 years old, if I recall correctly. Not a baby, in other words. The black chihuahua is Mel’s dog, and his name is Cowboy. There was a time, Mel said, that she could carry Cowboy in one hand to introduce him to people. As a busy Realtor, I don’t have time for dogs, but it doesn’t mean I can’t go to Central Bark Dog Park and hang out.
This dog park in Kona is located by Hawaii County Water Department in Keauhou Mauka. As for the Humane Society in Kona, I had never been there, either. Later in the afternoon Linda and I went to Reflections Glass to order a glass wall for my shower. Along the way, I stopped at the Kailua Kona transfer station at Kealakehe to get rid of boxes the contractors left at my house.
The Hawaii Island Humane Society is located up the road to the Kealakehe transfer station. Hey, I said, why don’t we stop at the Humane Society? Linda wasn’t overly excited. She had been there before and found the personnel a bit off standish.
Well, they ignored us when we walked in. One woman was talking with a couple, and the other was glued to her computer. Nobody said welcome, or come in. Nothing.
We went into the room where the cats are, and every single cat was lying in a cage sprawled out, some of which were severely overcrowded, very hot. Paws hanging out the wires. There was no AC in that room. Just a few fans. Those poor cats. The woman at the front desk ignored us again as we walked out the door.
You would think every person who walked in that door at the Hawaii Island Humane Society in Kailua-Kona would be greeted and issued an invitation. Either to:
- Donate.
- Adopt, or
- Volunteer.
Oh, man, if only I ran the world.
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