Email ElizabethSacramento Real Estate Agents and Sucky Technology
If you’re going to work as a Sacramento real estate agent and rely on technology, you’ve got to always have a Plan B. It doesn’t hurt to have a Plan C as well because sure enough, if something can go wrong once, it can screw up twice. I’m not simply talking about cellphones, although it would be nice if they made an exceptionally GOOD cellphone but today most phones pretty much do double and triple duty, which renders them unreliable. I’m amazed you can’t stand on your phone and have it read your weight.
You can’t really blame the manufacturers, either. Because they’re just making crap that people want to buy; they are fulfilling needs and wants. We can look in the mirror and thank our own selves for this situation.
Websites go wonky. Internet coverage drops. Fax lines are continually busy. All this crap happens daily. Over the past few days, I’ve struggled trying to fix Trulia because it’s been messing up my listings. Photographs vanish. There are inconsistencies between agent profiles and agent inventory yet data appears pulled from a single source. Almost all of my listings at one point turned into Unknowns and disappeared from Trulia. I know you’re probably suspecting operator error — that good old OE, which is often responsible — but I hadn’t done a thing except visit the page to enter this weekend’s Open Houses. So, I uploaded once again all of the photography, listing by listing. Thank goodness I utilize other websites where I manage my listings. But those mess up, too, from time to time, so I’m not just picking on Trulia.
Digital online signing services sometimes don’t perform as smoothly as they should. So, I have backup plans for that. I also use 3 browsers for different functions. I have not only scanning abilities but two separate fax numbers that go to my email. Yeah, it costs another 8 bucks a month to maintain a separate fax, but when you’ve absolutely, positively need that document, that 100 bucks a year is peanuts in exchange for peace of mind. Forget the 15 bucks a month for the iPad when for $50 you’ve got a hotspot.
If I can’t get in the front door for a service, I’ll find a way to get in the back door or substitute another technology. It’s how I guarantee first-class service to my clients because they deserve it. I would not be an effective Sacramento real estate agent if I behaved otherwise. But jeez Louise I’m thankful for technology, even when it malfunctions.
What Sacramento Buyer’s Agents Want to Know
As a listing agent in Sacramento, I hear almost immediately from a lot of buyer’s agents when any of my new listings hit the market. Ding, ding, ding, my phone rings, one call after another. Especially if the listing is priced well and a turnkey home. The first thing agents want to know is if it’s still available, even if it’s only been in MLS for 30 minutes. That’s not as unusual as it may sound because my photos look enticing, the marketing verbiage is attractive and, in our competitive market in Sacramento, sometimes buyers don’t view the home before writing an offer. With digital online signing services such as DocuSign, buyers can quickly sign an offer within minutes for submission.
Of course, I check the Supra lockbox online showings to determine if the agent representing the buyer has entered the house. But that doesn’t tell me if the buyer was with the agent at the time. The buyer could live in San Francisco for all I know, but I can get a clue from the address on the buyer’s preapproval letter or earnest money deposit check. I can also just ask the agent. This is part of the information I pass on to my sellers as together we analyze the purchase offers.
The second thing buyer’s agents want to know is how much their buyer must offer to buy the home, on top of how many offers we have received. I will answer the third question but not the second, unless the seller instructs me to do it. And since it’s not really in the seller’s interest to disclose how high a buyer needs to go, few sellers will give me the go-ahead, yet buyer’s agents will still ask about it. They need to study the comparable sales and act accordingly; do their job.
Buyer’s agents will say: My buyers really wants to buy this house, so tell me how much they have to pay to get it. Well, I don’t know because it’s not my house. That’s the seller’s decision, and the seller probably doesn’t even know. If there is financing, the home needs to appraise. Moreover, if I tell that buyer’s agent how much everybody else offered, then I have to go back to all of those other agents and tell them how much the other buyers have offered. I can’t treat one agent with preference over another agent. They wouldn’t like it if the tables were turned and it was done to them. I am a REALTOR, which means I have to abide by the Code of Ethics, and I must treat all parties fairly.
It’s not just a made-up code that nobody follows.
A New Listing: Home in Citrus Heights For Sale
Just because life dropped an anvil on my heart doesn’t mean that my real estate business comes to an abrupt halt. I still have clients to take care of, listings to sell and escrows to close. It’s not like I can call in sick to myself when I’m self-employed. Besides, the grieving process for Pia will take time; it can’t be rushed. It helps to focus on something else during the day than feeling sorry for myself because the light of our lives has vanished from our home.
Pia’s death has left an unexpected hole in my world. You know how they say that sometimes we don’t realize what we have until we have lost it. Pia was the driving force, pretty much head of our household, even though she was the smallest weighing in at 9 pounds, and the cat who regularly interacted with us. It’s quiet now. The other cats don’t chat much. They sleep a lot. She used to talk to us in that Granny (from the Beverly Hillbillies) voice. She was better than Siri. You could ask her anything and her answer was never garbled or confusing. It was pretty clear. Meow. She had a definite opinion on everything, too.
I was thinking about this yesterday as I stood in the kitchen of a home in Citrus Heights. The seller of that home was grieving, too. A close family member who once owned that home had died. He wasn’t crying or looking exceptionally grief stricken but it takes a long time to remove that lump in your throat and the pain in your heart after the loss of a loved one. I could see the sadness in his eyes.
There were no jokes or funny stories. Just a quiet, sensible discussion about the comparable sales and how I will market the home in Citrus Heights. It’s an incredible place, and the previous owner had made many upgrades. It has a new furnace and AC unit, the carpeting is new, the roof has been replaced, new water heater and water softener, brand new washer and dryer, plus the drywall job in the garage is impeccable, coupled with a beautifully painted finish, with plenty of electrical outlets on the walls for power tools and lots of overhead lighting. It’s the kind of home that a home buyer would be hard pressed to find anything wrong with.
Except for one thing. He left the wallpaper in the kitchen. It’s pretty wallpaper and unobtrusive, but buyers generally don’t like wallpaper. There is a thin strip about an inch wide on one side, running full length. I pointed it out. The seller touched it and gingerly smoothed the seam with his thumb. People who have hung wallpaper know how important the starting spot is. We talked about which sides of the kitchen the seller’s relative had started the wallpaper. For a minute, just a minute, he was there in the kitchen with us, papering those walls.
This home in Citrus Heights will go on the market, August 23rd, Friday at $205,000. It’s turnkey and affordable and ready to move into. It’s a nice home for first-time homebuyers to build memories together.
Our Sweet Ocicat Pia and Feline Heart Disease
One day, everything is hunky dory and the next day, whammo, life throws a curve ball aimed at the heart; knocks the wind out of you. I was sitting at my computer yesterday late afternoon answering emails from buyer’s agents and uploading new listing photos when I heard my husband call my name from the other end of the house. His voice was interspersed with the sounds of our Ocicat, Pia, crying. I thought he had captured Pia and was ready for me to give her a daily Pepcid pill, so I grabbed the pill plunger and dashed toward my husband’s office. She tends to disappear around pill giving time.
Instead, I found my husband clutching Pia with an alarmed look on his face. He said she somehow broke a leg. Maybe fell off the back of his desk.
She had crawled out from under it, pulling herself on her two front paws, whimpering, legs dragging behind her.
It took two of us to get her into the carrier; I called the vet to make an emergency appointment.
It wasn’t a broken leg. It was much worse. When my husband called to tell me it was much more serious, my mind could not grasp anything more serious than a broken leg. I had expected her to come home with a cast on her leg and wearing another cat collar. She was diagnosed with heart disease. A blood clot had formed in her heart, traveled to her leg and was blocking blood flow. The vet cut her toe nail into the quick and it did not bleed.
It’s commonly called saddle thrombus. Caused by feline heart disease.
The options were options but they weren’t really options. Just things that would prolong her pain and suffering and other options that had a slim chance of working. She had already survived two cancer surgeries. Pia was fussy, prissy, and her own way of doing things, thank you very much. Purrrrrr.
She was only 9.
Here is a video of Pia going crazy for Chicken treats. I believe I posted that link only yesterday in my blog. No idea what was coming for me that day. Who knew about feline heart disease?
Selling Homes in Sacramento is Like Herding Cats
Working in real estate and selling homes in Sacramento is somewhat like herding cats. Just for the record, I don’t run a cat ranch or anything, but there are 3 cats who live in my home in Land Park, so I know a little something about herding cats. Cats will do whatever they want to do. They are somewhat predictable, but there are times a cat will completely freak you out, and the Sacramento real estate market is a good comparison. Just when you think that cat is headed for the litter box, it will abruptly stop and throw up on your feet.
I always look for trends because, as a Sacramento real estate agent, it helps me to properly advise clients. You know, just because buyers were wild and crazy last spring doesn’t mean that activity carries through to August. August is typically a slowing down month. A time for families to finish vacation plans, shop for back-to-school clothes, and prepare homes for winter which, in Sacramento, means closing the garage door.
I’m looking forward to the Sacramento Autumn Home Selling Market. It’s generally spectacular every year, and it shouldn’t be any different for 2013. About a week after Labor Day, the flood gates will open. That’s my prediction. But getting into escrow and closing are two distinct things. Any monkey can get into escrow. Closing is another story.
There are signs of increased listing activity right now. Sellers are calling and asking about selling homes in Sacramento. From just yesterday, I have 3 new listings in Elk Grove on the horizon, a home in Roseville will hit the market today, and I’m meeting with another seller in Citrus Heights this weekend.
Buyers, on the other hand, are a bit slower to submit offers now. They are spending more time thinking about it. Not every transaction that every agent has in escrow will close. I’m seeing more fallouts from buyers with cold feet, buyers who can’t qualify, buyers who probably should not have been trying to buy a home in the first place. There are also buyers who can’t understand that a rising market means if they’re buying a short sale, that price might be higher after waiting a few months.
What we need are incentives like my cat Pia’s freeze-dried chicken treats that we can throw in front of these guys. We need to continually check in with our buyers and make sure they’re still on board and headed for closing. Remove obstacles from their path. Keep the positive vibe going. Because I tell ya, it’s not easy herding cats when you’re selling homes in Sacramento.
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