Email ElizabethThe Seller Always Has the Final Word
Are listing agents prone to sabotaging their own real estate transactions? It’s easy to do. I almost did it. And I certainly know better. I almost forgot the seller always has the final word. Nobody is infallible in this business, you know. I’ve been in real estate in some form or another since the 1970s. Yet, I almost put my big, fat foot directly into my mouth last month and am sharing this story in hopes of preventing this mishap from happening to somebody else.
First, let me say that this listing was not a short sale.
In this particular transaction, the home was owned by the seller free and clear, meaning there was no loan involved. It had been in his family for decades, and the seller was the executor of the trust. There were 5 or 6 other relatives involved. The seller confided in me that he was tired of being responsible for the home and wanted to sell it as quickly as possible. We priced it at market value.
Shortly after the listing hit the market, an agent called me. Said he was interested in acquiring the property for his own portfolio. He also asked if I would represent him, and he shared with me how much he wanted to pay. When I heard his suggested lowball price, I immediately said, “Ah, I don’t think so. The seller will never take that.” I regretted those words 5 minutes later. What the? Why did I say that, I wondered? That was pretty stupid. It was stupid, and it was presumptuous. If the seller were French he’d slap my face twice with a glove. I know the seller always has the final word. What I think of the offer has no bearing on anything.
The fact is I do not know what the seller will do. I never know what anybody will do. Even if they tell me what they will do — swear up and down what they will do — I still don’t know what they will do because I am not them. My fiduciary responsibility is to look out for their best interests, not to dictate the terms of those interests. The seller always has the final word.
I sent the seller an email and told him about the verbal offer. “You can say yay or nay,” I offered. I did not say anything else. I didn’t push him to take the offer, issue a counter offer or to reject the offer. This was his decision. His family’s home, his decision. I simply stepped back.
We’re closing today.
While Elizabeth is on vacation, we are revisiting some of her favorite blogs.
How Long Should Sellers Wait To Sign a Purchase Offer?
Like Christopher Guest’s Waiting for Guffman, I find humor in some situations that others don’t find amusing at all. One of my favorites is when sellers feel offended because they are asked to make a decision to sell within a specified time period. Some sellers think that when they receive a purchase offer, they should be able to table it, to wait a few weeks or so before responding. Where do they get this?
Knowing that home sellers can be like this, when I write an offer for a Sacramento home buyer, I generally give the sellers ample time to respond. I don’t want them to feel pressured or rushed. Back in the old days, like in the 1970s, I used to write my purchase offers to expire “upon presentation.” But sellers are more finicky these days.
Imagine how a guy feels when he asks his girlfriend to marry him and she says, “Let me think about it.” If I were a guy, I’d be crushed. Of course, if I were a guy, I wouldn’t ask my girlfriend to marry me unless I knew she would agree. The secret to winning a bet is to make sure you’re right in the first place. Eliminate the odds.
Like the time I was lying on the beach in Orange County with one of my ex-husbands and a plane flew overhead. I said, “Hey, there goes a 737.” He disagreed. He said it was 747. We argued — see, there’s a reason he is one of my ex-husbands. Finally, we made a bet. If he was wrong, he had to bathe my cat, Ashli. That was my terms, and I don’t remember his because I won the bet.
But it’s kind of silly to wait more than a few hours before responding to an offer. If a seller doesn’t like the terms of the offer, then make a counter offer. Do something. Don’t just sit on it. An offer is not just a piece of paper. It represents buyers who are in agony.
While Elizabeth is on vacation, we are revisiting her favorite blogs from previous years.
The Press Say If Your Mother Says She Loves You, Check It Out
Don’t deviate from the plan. That’s my motto. Because I’ve learned that 9 times out of 10, if I make an exception to the way I do business, it comes back to bite me. In other words, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Once you’ve got a system that works, stick to it. Don’t back down. Ever. The day you do, you’re screwed.
But I know that you won’t listen to me because sometimes I don’t even listen to me. I’ve been known to break my own rules. But at least I know better . . .
In the fall of 1998, it was cold in Chicago. I grabbed my then-boyfriend’s hand, pulled my fox fur collar closer to my neck and we scurried along Michigan Avenue. The wind was blowing in over the lake. Brrrr. You might think that Chicago is called the Windy City because it’s windy, but that’s not the case; Chicagoans say it’s named the Windy City for its windy blow-hard politicians. We had flown in from Minneapolis and were headed for that famous building with a sculpture of a rabbit drummer in front — I believe, if memory serves, it was the John Hancock Center.
My husband was and still is a journalist. He just doesn’t work for anybody now. Like many journalists who hailed from Chicago, he cut his teeth by working at the City News Bureau. It has a fond place in his heart. Rough, rowdy and real. In 1998, the City News Bureau was closing after more than 100 years of service, and we were going to the top of the John Hancock building to attend a farewell party. It was bittersweet for many alumni in attendance. The slogan that every beat reporter knows and repeats from the City News Bureau is: “If Your Mother Says She Loves You, Check it Out.”
I latched on to that phrase because I know it is true. It’s good to be skeptical. Like Dr. Gregory House says, “Everybody lies.” It’s even more important to be skeptical as a Sacramento short sale agent — or any kind of Sacramento real estate agent, for that matter.
I received a very attractive offer last week from a buyer’s agent on one of my Sacramento short sale listings. Everything about the offer screamed take it. It was well written. Healthy earnest money deposit. The buyer’s agent and the buyer promised to wait for short sale approval. It was above the asking price. However, the buyer’s preapproval letter did not match the loan amount. It was for less.
When your mother says she loves you, check it out. We wrote a counter offer asking for an updated approval letter that reflected the loan amount. No, problem, the agent scoffed. The buyers are fully qualified. I was tempted to let it go but I didn’t. Don’t deviate from the plan. Guess what? The buyers did not qualify for the higher amount. No joke. Especially in a short sale, you do NOT want to find out the buyer is unqualified upon short sale approval.
While Elizabeth is on vacation, we are revisiting her favorite blogs from previous years.
Dealing With Negatives in a Sacramento Listing
Some Sacramento real estate agents don’t want to say anything to a home seller that sounds negative about a home. I suspect they are afraid of offending the seller. Besides, lots of sellers don’t notice the negative aspects of their home, especially after a number of years go by. They get used to it, whatever the problems are — deferred maintenance, dated condition, undesirable location or bad layout, to name a few.
I’ll tell you who will immediately spot those problems, though, and that person is the buyer. Those problems will become drawbacks, obstacles to overcome in order to sell. If a seller and her agent do not address the negative aspects, the home won’t sell.
Of course, you know me, as a Sacramento real estate agent, I have no problem being straight with a seller. Nobody ever accuses me of skirting around the bush. I lay it on the line. It’s not always a comfortable thing to do, to be realistic and share bad news with a seller. But it’s necessary to properly do my job. I’ve got to tell sellers the bad stuff and then devise a plan to overcome a buyer’s objection.
Don’t ever bring up a problem without offering a solution — that’s my M.O.
I do that partly by figuring out who the buyer will be and appealing to what is important to that buyer. If an agent or the seller don’t know who the buyer is, how can the agent create a home marketing plan to target those specific buyers? The other thing I do is find out why the seller bought the home. Because the reason that seller bought is the same reason a new buyer will. The last thing is to address the negative. Quickly. And offer a solution for overcoming that drawback.
Smart Women Sometimes Ask for Tech Support
My husband says Betty Friedan would rollover in her grave if she knew. That my behavior would cause Gloria Steinem to wag her finger at me and cancel my membership in NOW. Asking your husband for tech support is akin, he says, to expecting Dudley Do-Right to come galloping in to untie Nell from the railroad tracks and rescue her. But I suspect he doesn’t want to make my life easier because dealing with my crises interrupts his Angry Birds game on his cellphone, although his score ranking is off the charts.
Of course, you’ve gotta define crisis. My definition of crisis is what causes my work to come to a crashing halt. My husband’s definition of crisis probably has more to do with life-or-death situations.
See, I’m one of those people who don’t like to read manuals unless I absolutely must and there’s no other alternative available. When I buy a new digital gizmo, I prefer that I figure out how to use it myself. It should be intuitive. When I’m out at a client’s home in the field, I don’t have the luxury of time to study a manual. This is one of those rare times that having a kid around the house would be useful.
My second approach to solving a problem when I can’t figure it out myself is to ask a person who either knows the answer or knows how to look up the answer. That person, in many instances, is my husband. Manuals, as a general rule, are rarely very helpful to me, especially manuals that are missing a step or translated from another language.The first thing I read is the troubleshooting chapters. The first thing my husband reads is the directions. We make a good team. I wish he would jump into real estate instead of pursuing his career in freelance journalism, but that’s gonna happen when cows fly.
I am always looking at which technology tools can improve my marketing. If I need to ask my Lyon IT department oreven my husband for tech support, that doesn’t make me a damsel in distress, right? Hey, Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat. Again? Presto.
While Elizabeth is on vacation, we are visiting her favorite blogs from previous years.
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