Email ElizabethWhy Some People Hate Their Real Estate Agents
If you hate real estate agents, get in line; lots of people do and, as agents, we’re not supposed to talk about it. They say the easiest person to sell to in the world is a salesperson because salespeople are gullible (they believe their own lies), which makes them susceptible (an easy “mark”), and a Sacramento real estate agent is no exception. The third-party vendors to real estate agents realize this as do the trade associations who pander to us. I also realize it when I work with other fellow agents because there are telltale signs that give it away.
I use it to my advantage when I spot it. I can’t help myself. It’s just lying there like bundles of thousand dollar bills on a sidewalk. I could lay out all of those signs for you but it wouldn’t really make much difference because I find the tendency is then to separate one of those peculiarities, focus on that one thing, and one sign by itself is not enough to deserve a bad rap except maybe that REALTOR Badge graphic. I’m bringing this up to help explain why some people dislike and even hate their real estate agents. It’s because they feel like they’re being played and being sold to.
Nobody wants to feel like they are being manipulated, even if they know they are, they don’t want to personally feel those grabby little fingers of lies. It makes them uncomfortable. It’s much better to be straight with people and tell your clients what they don’t want to hear as long as it leads them to the direction they want to go.
That’s where I come in, and one of the reasons I sell so much real estate in Sacramento. I will tell my sellers and buyers what they don’t want to hear. But I try not to be rude about it, and I also want to give them what they want. They want an agent who is smart, pays extreme attention to detail but doesn’t sweat the unnecessary stuff, is empathetic to their situation and cares about them. Somebody else once said that a client won’t care about how much you know until you show how much you care about them. When you naturally care about other people, this is easy to do.
I am reading a book I love called #GirlBoss, written by my freaky twin sister Sophia Amoruso, CEO of Nasty Gal. She doesn’t know she is my twin sister — and she’s also 32 years younger than I am — but we’ve led parallel lives in many ways. She discovered what is unique about her, stayed true to it, and her company has revenue exceeding $100 million. But that’s not the only reason to listen to her. She has common sense, probably realizes it is the best of the 5 senses. A great sense of humor, too, the second most important sense.
I am unique in how I sell real estate as well; it’s how I got to where I am. I relate to people both emotionally and intellectually. That’s a weird combination. I also filter out the noise. Stuff that doesn’t need to enter my brain doesn’t get in there. I focus on what my client wants and on getting it for my client. If you need to hire a Sacramento real estate agent, you’ve come to the right blog. Send me an email above by clicking the envelope titled email or pick up any old phone and call. I still answer my cell, 916.233.6759.
How Much Will Your Sacramento Home Seller Take?
A common question asked by Sacramento real estate agents and directed toward the listing agent is how much will the seller take for that home? Now, you see, I could swear that there is a listing price attached to that home, but maybe the print is too small to read. I know, we could outfit buyer’s agents with those big honkin’ magnifying glasses like you see in photos of Sherlock Holmes. Or, maybe we should attach spectacles to a chain they can keep in their pockets or wear around their necks to whip out for such an occasion?
When an agent asked me that question yesterday, I immediately suggested he look in Zillow. I was being facetious, of course, but he didn’t realize it because I made that suggestion by projecting a lot of excitement and enthusiasm in my voice. I can’t help it. I have fun at work; and I like to make people laugh. Except the agent didn’t laugh because he didn’t know I was joking. I mean, let’s face it, Zillow is the last place for any reasonable much less professional real estate person to look for a market value, but that doesn’t mean the public doesn’t go there because they do. The professionals, on the other hand, use MLS for comparable sales to determine market value.
But it’s such an innocent question, an outsider might presume. How much will the seller take? It is . . . for a person who is not a real estate agent. And I suppose that question is OK for an agent to ask as well if they can get an answer. As my husband is fond of saying: a guy can ask 10 women to go home with him at the bar and the first 9 might slap his face. But that 10th . . .
I asked the buyer’s agent why he would ask me, the listing agent, because I am not the seller. I don’t make decisions for the seller and all that I really know for certain is the seller will accept list price. Not to mention, it’s a breach of fiduciary to utter any kind of different answer.
Well, he didn’t want to “waste time” writing an offer the seller would reject. What? Isn’t that the name of the real estate game? An agent writes an offer on behalf of a buyer and a seller either accepts, counters or rejects? And there is one way to find out what a seller will do, too. If you want to know how much the seller will take for that home, there is one sure-fired, tried-and-true-method to get that answer. You write a purchase offer and send it to the listing agent.
What it Takes for Cash Investors to Buy Homes in Sacramento
Many of the cash real estate investors I run into believe that Sacramento real estate agents are dumber than a bag of nails. They must, or why else would they send these stupid emails all about their cash offers and how much they love to pay cash and oh, wait, did they mention they have cash and it’s a cash offer? It is it possible we real estate agents can be blindsided by cash and forget all about ethics and, let’s not overlook, the sales price?
It’s hard to believe when you listen to me rant about cash investors that I got my start in real estate in the 1970s by working with investors. But these were first-time investors who generally put down the minimum required, which back then was 7% (enough to pay commission and closing costs) and obtained owner financing. I generally wrote the offer in my name or assignee and then assigned it to the investor in exchange for the commission.
Further, I was so young and foolish that I thought there was no point in looking at the property because it was just four walls and a roof. Before the 1984 Easton vs. Strassburger decision.
Our Sacramento market is attracting a different kind of cash investor. These are not the cash investors buying in markets such as Beverly Hills and San Mateo, in which almost one out of every 3 sales is to a foreigner with cash. These are second-rung cash investors who may or may not be actual cash investors. They might be investors with a handle on a hard-money source and parading the offer as a cash offer when, in fact, it is not.
Typically, these investors want to buy the home under market value. That doesn’t work so well with short sales, and it doesn’t work with Sacramento home sellers who demand market value, either. It works better with the desperate sellers who need to quickly sell and are willing to discount the sale, and our market is not exactly brimming with those.
As I used to say to my first-time investors from the 1970s, there is no shame in paying market value or even above market value if you end up with the property. One way you own real estate and another way you do not. The guys in southern California understand this, but in Sacramento they still want to get a “good” deal.
I’ve had investors call and demand that I do business with them when their cute tactics no longer worked. They try to appeal to my logical side, being the side that wants to work with investors and bring on new buyers, but they forget that I am working for the seller. Their words fall on deaf ears, and they don’t much like it. You know what? That’s too bad for them.
A Listing Agent Explains All Home Selling Steps
Sacramento real estate clients rely on their agents to explain what’s going on in a transaction and the next home selling steps, even if the clients appear knowledgable. Because an agent never wants to disappoint a client or fail to keep a client informed. Even at the risk of being overly simplistic, it’s important to communicate and inform. I realize that agents don’t want to insult their clients, but clients are insulted if they don’t understand, take your pick.
Not to mention, every home seller has her own perceptions about how she believes things work.
Earlier this week for example I was talking to a seller about putting a sign rider on the post outside that says: Don’t Disturb Occupant. I often put up sign riders like this on vacant homes to try to dissuade the thugs who break into them, but I also use those riders for occupied homes in some areas. The seller said she didn’t need that sign rider because if anybody approached her doorstep with evil intentions she would shoot them. This astonished me, mostly because the seller was old enough to be my great grandmother. I asked if she had a gun. Her response was yes, everybody has guns.
Well, no, I don’t own a gun.
Regardless of how many homes this seller might have sold in her life or how much she might know about home selling in Sacramento, I still explained every step of the transaction to her; fully cognizant that I may need to repeat the steps later on. I try to imagine what is likely to happen in a real estate sale and then I share that knowledge with my sellers.
One of the worst things that could happen to me as a real estate agent is to have a seller wonder what comes next and not know.
Well, I guess I could be shot.
What’s In It for Agents To Do a Sacramento Short Sale?
There are days I ask myself why as a busy agent would I ever do another short sale, and then before I answer that question, I take it on. It’s not just me, the short sales in Sacramento, the few that still exist, are becoming more convoluted and complicated, if that’s possible after all these years. Nothing is a straight story anymore. There is no such thing as a simple hardship letter and automatic short sale approval. Nope, all of the short sales seem to involve years of delinquent dues, past due utility liens, judgments, court settlements, bankruptcies, horrific medical setbacks, in addition to having two or more mortgages to short sale, layered with mortgage insurance on top of Fannie Mae.
Not to mention, some of the buyers for these are no walk in the park, either. They’re probably VA buyers or obtaining CalHFA loans, and the properties probably require repairs, which could involve 203K loans and / or energy efficient mortgages. These additional complexities are more than most agents can handle or want to handle.
There are not very many Sacramento short sale agents in town who a) know how to handle these and b) are willing to handle these types of transactions. Why would any agent in her right mind do a short sale today when she can sell a regular sale and be done with it in 30 to 45 days? I’m sure that’s a question that some agents ask themselves. It’s a question I brought up to sellers last week as well, and I just put it out there on the table.
Now, I made them wonder. What was in it for me, the agent? Why would I agree to do their short sale when it’s so much more work and extremely time consuming? It’s not like I get paid more to do it because I don’t. I charge the same commission to do a short sale as a regular sale. I get paid the same. And I do tons more paperwork, all of which is contingent until the bank approves the sale. There is no transaction unless the bank approves it.
So what’s the deal? See, now I have you wondering, too.
The answer is somebody has to do it because otherwise sellers would have to pay a lawyer. And most sellers can’t afford to hire a lawyer. So, I handle the short sale for them at no out-of-pocket expense for them. All of my fees are paid from the proceeds of sale. It’s basically a free service for the seller. I know how to close these tricky little suckers, so what the hey. It’s a little bit like combining a public service with a business enterprise. A little pro bono work.
Then, yesterday, I received approval on 3 short sales that each had their own particular set of circumstances that would cause a normal agent to drink Draino. Because a normal agent would not have received approval on those short sales. I have a talent for it. What can I say?
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