Email ElizabethMetroList in Sacramento Could Use Updated Technology
I wish MetroList would be more like me but if wishes were fishes most of us wouldn’t eat. When it’s 9:30 AM and you’re still on the computer typing away in your nightgown and you haven’t had breakfast and you’re starving to death, I would say that is most likely the sign of a dedicated real estate agent. If you ask my husband, he would say something different. He would use other adjectives and nouns, which I won’t mention.
If said husband walked into a certain home office and said his doctor ordered him to go immediately to the E.R., that same pertinacious real estate agent might have to download stuff to a flash drive or upload documents to the cloud before she could confidently grab her laptop computer and hightail it to Mercy Hospital before said husband croaks right there under the ceiling fan.
If it’s 3 PM and a lunch salad sits lonely and forlorn, half-made on the kitchen counter, because every time said real estate agent stops what she is doing to chop veggies her email dings with an urgent matter, that’s an agent who just can’t get off her computer. Some days are like that. Some days are not.
If every single day delivered 7 AM to 7 PM constant high pressure, I’d go insane. But fortunately, they do not. And that’s what makes being a Sacramento real estate agent interesting. There is variety. Intense situations, followed by a calmness. Who needs to be bipolar? (No offense to bipolar people.)
This morning MetroList totally messed up on-market listings. I heard it was a coding that caused the problem. Why-oh-why is a major software conglomerate like MetroList, on which millions of people depend, relying on a wonky plugin? No idea. But it prevented two new listings from going live last night so my photos did not download nor did the listings. You can’t always depend on MLS and technology. It seems real estate tool providers are always the last to adopt new systems. Yet, this is where much of the money is, in real estate, and the worker bees get crap.
But you can depend on this Sacramento real estate agent to be glued to her computer and responsive to callers, even if MetroList is down.
When Will New Homes for Sale in Sacramento Be Listed?
Near the end of August every year, this Sacramento real estate agent begins gearing up for the fall real estate market by listing more homes for sale in Sacramento. Normal people, on the other hand, are winding up family vacations, buying school gear and getting ready for Labor Day celebrations. Not busy real estate agents because we are not necessarily normal. We are loaded with listing appointments on our calendars to meet with sellers getting ready to list their homes for sale in Sacramento.
This is the second swing and revived housing interest period in town. The Sacramento real estate market is different from other parts of the country in that even with four seasons, the weather is so mild that we don’t deal with snow or much of a down market as the year winds down. Our fall real estate market generally starts off with a bang and then fizzles around Thanksgiving. If there is any time of the year that is a good time for vacation, and that’s questionable, December is generally the best time to escape for a Sacramento listing agent.
That’s because we work our tails off from January through November. But the second biggest months past the spring market are typically September and October. If you haven’t been able to sell your home all year, maybe it’s time to take a fresh approach? Re-list as a new listing at an improved price? Make a few repairs? Some homes take longer to sell than others, especially if they are unique and appeal to a smaller pool of home buyers.
I have new homes for sale in Sacramento coming on the market around Labor Day. A duplex in Fair Oaks, an affordable ranch home in Parkway Estates, a single-level in Natomas, a gorgeous waterfront home in the Pocket, among others. If you’re looking for a home to buy in Sacramento, why not use that first week in September to find the perfect home? This is typically when new inventory opens, not to mention, we desperately need more homes for sale in Sacramento to meet demand.
Throw Like a Girl
Yes, I want to throw like a girl. Picking your battles is half of the battle in Sacramento real estate. I am fond of repeating the adage is this the hill on which you’re gonna die? Because it helps me to figure out which issues are worth fighting for and which to let fall by the wayside in hopes a semi-truck will slam by and mash its sorry remains into the pavement.
By my background, I am a fighter. A seller told me yesterday that she chose me to list her home in Fair Oaks among other candidates she had interviewed because I possess that competitive spirit and it shows. I get things done. Experience breeds confidence and authority.
I don’t think I was born that way, though. Yet, I had great outside role models, apart from my mother, while I was growing up in the 1950s: Pippi Longstocking, Mae West and Amelia Earhart, to name a few. I admired all three as a child and aspired to become just like them, apart from the fact there are some people who will say I have not yet grown up, I do believe I have come close to possessing some of their spunk. We don’t have enough strong women role models in the country for young girls to admire, although Mo’ne Davis is certainly an inspiration. I love what fans say about her: Throw like a girl. John Oliver did a segment about this superstar sensation on his HBO show: Last Week Tonight.
People might question whether one needs to fight in real estate because we’ve been brainwashed into thinking it’s always a win-win situation. I hate to smear those rose-colored glasses but both sides don’t always win. Sometimes the winning party gloats. Sometimes the losing party is angry, and vice versa.
Even when a home buyer pays more than list price and wins a multiple-offer situation, the buyers might tend to be a bit irritated at closing, after the glow of victory subsides. They think to themselves that maybe their agent coerced them into paying too much or not asking for enough because they listened to friends / relatives explain how they bought a home and what they demanded. They don’t realize every situation is different and each deal has its own peculiar set of circumstances.
If at the end of the day you sold your home in Sacramento, you won. If every morning you wake up in your new house, you won. It was probably a woman who helped you to get there.
The Personality and Kind of Home Buyers Fits into 7 Different Types
Here is how to figure out what kind of home buyer are you?
If you have ever wondered how real estate agents generalize about you and what kind of home buyer are you in their eyes, this article is certain to entertain. Why, you might believe that you cannot be categorized and that there is nobody else on the face of the earth just like you, but, you might be surprised by that assumption.
Before I venture further, let me confess that yes, I have been frequently accused of anthropomorphism, but it’s sometimes the best way to define a stereotype as it is easy to understand. We harbor certain types of characterizations about other people and ourselves that often relate to the animal kingdom. One can tiptoe about as quiet as a mouse or plod on clumsy as an ox, although our cats, if you notice, prefer ballet, the little acrobats that they are. Even they must wonder what kind of home buyer are you.
I might be drawn to categorizations lately because I’ve watched a handful of movies recently about the order of future societies: The Giver, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Divergent and yes, even The Lego Movie. It’s also not unusual for me to apply thoughts about other situations to real estate because I am engaged so heavily in the practice of real estate. I spend most of my waking hours thinking about selling or buying homes. It’s a passion.
However, if you asked me which category I fit into when describing the different types of home buyers, I would readily admit that I am a rebel and therefore do not fit neatly into any category. Although, I could be the fox. I am a square peg in a round hole. I can be obstreperous if pushed, which is probably why I excel at negotiations and do so well with short sales. I’ve got spunk.
Enough spunk to write an article called What Kind Home Buyer Are You, in which just about every kind of home buyer is defined and aligned with the characteristics of our favorite creatures, and not necessarily narrowed to the four-legged. But please, let me know what kind of home buyer you are, OK?
When People Do Not Do What They Say They Will Do
Part of my secret to success in Sacramento real estate is due to the fact that I am consistent. When I find something that works, I continue to do it. I do what I promise to do. I pay attention to things that don’t work and I don’t do those things. You can see it’s a pretty simple philosophy but one that is difficult for many real estate agents to perform. When I try to share this philosophy with other agents, they sometimes mumble, “Yeah, thanks for nothing.” It’s as though they do not appreciate its profundity.
I also follow up. If I promise a person I will call at a certain time on a certain day, I do it. Because I do what I promise to do. Again, something that sounds so incredibly simple, yet some people just can’t do it. It’s not as though we don’t have a task reminder on our cell phones, in our email programs, through online software or, for the non-technical, a hard-copy calendar on our wall and even sticky notes with clever messages about dogs loving you unconditionally and cats demanding your resume.
We live in a world where many people do not live up to our expectations. They set those expectations themselves and then fail to deliver. This can be irritating or annoying for the rest of us. They might say, Oh, I will call you tomorrow, and then they don’t do it. You can’t shoot them because under those circumstances they will never call you again. You can’t change somebody else’s behavior; you can only control how you react to it.
Besides, they have excuses. They justify, reason, explain. It doesn’t mean they will change their behavior and, if you continue to expect them to live up to their word, they may only disappoint.
I am not suggesting that we need to lower our expectations by any stretch to interact with other people, just that not everybody else in the world plays and lives by the same guiding principles that we may set for ourselves. Sometimes, you have to let it go. Direct your attention elsewhere. Other things are more important. Just continue doing what you promise to do, and you’ll be OK, even if everybody else is not.
Sorry we are experiencing system issues. Please try again.
