Email ElizabethWhat Happens If You Do Not Hire a Sacramento Realtor with Experience
Ever wonder what happens if you do not hire a Sacramento Realtor with experience? Well, here is a good example. While reviewing multiple offers on my East Sacramento listing last evening, It got me thinking about some of the sour grapes responses from buyer’s agents who had made offers. One of the agents called a bit upset. Muttering that he had called and texted about his offer, submitted the day before, and had not yet had a seller response. I explained that the seller had no obligation to respond to his offer. Additionally, that the MLS disclosed the seller is out of state so instructions were to give plenty of response time. His offer was a low offer price compared to the pile of top offers we had.
There is a definite benefit if you hire a Sacramento Realtor with experience, especially a team like Weintraub & Wallace, with 80 years of combined experience. Our exclusive Weintraub & Wallace buyer’s agents write offers to win by using a carefully designed strategy. I informed this agent that the MLS agent confidential remarks disclosed that there were multiple offers, and we were multiple-countering the top offers, so in fact, he had previous access to the information. Not a word more was uttered about his offer. He said a swift goodbye and hung up. Some agents will blow up your phone, rather than read. It is sad but true!
When should you hire a Sacramento Realtor with experience? Every step of the way! This agent said if had he known there were so many offers, he would have written a better offer. Well, that’s not an effective strategy, I blurted out, If your buyers wrote their highest and best offer, you could have been in the top offers. This agent acted like I should help him to win the offer process. I guess it slipped his mind that I work for the Seller exclusively.
It is not ethical to give a buyer’s agent an advantage over another agent. We treat everyone equally as it is written in our National Association of Realtors “Standards of Practice.” When you’re selling East Sacramento real estate, you must understand that it is a very popular place to live. There are several ways a Sacramento real estate agent could win in the offer process
One way to compete and win is to remove the appraisal contingency. This means that if the bank providing the buyer’s loan, doesn’t appraise the property for as much as the offer price, a buyer has to pay the difference between the loan amount and the listing price. An example: if your offer is $ 565,000 and it only appraises for $ 550,000, a buyer would have to pay the $15,000 difference, in addition to their down payment. By the way, the agent who was sour grapes, I also left him a message reminding him he could amend his offer. Another agent did just that amended her offer and now she is one of the top offers.
Just because an agent does not receive a multiple seller counter offer, an agent can always send over a higher offer as it is never over, until an East Sacramento listing is pending. An agent is duty bound to present all offers to the Seller during the listing period. If you want to win the offer process hire the Weintraub & Wallace team because it always pays to hire a Sacramento Realtor with experience.
— JaCi M. Wallace
Hitting the Royal Flush on an East Sacramento Listing
Weintraub & Wallace took a new East Sacramento listing last week in a very popular area of East Sacramento. We worked tirelessly preparing our pre-launch efforts. Friday evening, it went live in MLS with the first open house scheduled this last Sunday. There were about 70 people through the open house!
There were plenty of buyers through with solid interest looking to make one of many multiple offers on a new East Sacramento listing. Additionally, we had about 20 + agent showing appointments over the last 3 days. Buyers had seen it online, advertised on our Facebook Boost or any one of the other search engines such as Elizabethweintraub.com, Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, Metrolist, REMAX.com and many others.
It was no surprise we had so many offers as this was marketing by design, starting with a Coming Soon sign, and so many other executed action steps. When there are multiple offers on a new listing, buyer’s agents have to sort of play poker as they don’t know what the competition has offered in their offer. Sometimes they have the winning hand, sometimes they don’t. You have to think that the offers are over the list price, especially when you have so many offers, so much traffic, and so many agent appointments to show it. The interest was tremendous!
Our exclusive top producer buyer’s agents on the Weintraub & Wallace team, submit offers with proof of funds, lender letters attached, client letters that express a personal connection of appreciation for the home, from the buyer to the seller. Also, the offers are written completely no missing information or signatures with all appropriate boxes checked.
There were very few complete offer combinations like this, I’m sorry to say. With multiple offers on a new East Sacramento listing, every detail should be attached and completed to present the highest and best offer and agents have an opportunity to show a high level of competence. If the offer is poorly written with missing information how are the next 30 days of the escrow going to go?
The good news, we have many offers to choose from and the seller will review them this evening. I can prepare a counter offer to respond to the top offers to ensure we have the highest and best possible offer for our seller.
We are listing specialists with over 80 years of combined experience and we have top producing exclusive buyer’s agents to represent buyers. The beauty of this approach is each client has their own agent representing their client’s individual interests. If you would like to sell your home with listing agents that work tirelessly to receive multiple offers on a new listing, then please call the Weintraub & Wallace team today.
— JaCi Wallace
Introducing Weintraub & Wallace at RE/MAX Gold
Meet Weintraub & Wallace of the Sierra Oaks office of RE/MAX Gold. Yes, we have merged our teams to create a Super Team of Realtors in Sacramento. If Lyon had encouraged JaCi Wallace, she and I might have stayed at Lyon Real Estate. But as it is, she was already at RE/MAX Gold, after relocating a few years ago, and happy enough not to budge. Since she was not returning to Lyon, it meant my team and I would move to RE/MAX.
But that is not the only reason to join RE/MAX nor to team up to form Weintraub & Wallace. RE/MAX Gold was founded 25 years ago with just two offices and 40 agents. Today, the company has 63 locations, and over 1,350 of the industry’s most productive agents. Our new location is at 3620 Fair Oaks Boulevard, near the intersection of Fair Oaks Boulevard and Watt Avenue, but we are also free to work from the Midtown office next door to Waterboy on Capitol Avenue.
Our reason to form Weintraub & Wallace is to expand our business to help more sellers and buyers in the Greater Sacramento Region. By combining the strengths of two strong listing agents, we offer sellers more alternatives and better service. Weintraub & Wallace combined years in the industry are enough to make your head spin. We also have the best exclusive buyer’s agents in the business: Barbara Dow, Josh Amolsch and Carol Crestello.
Elizabeth Weintraub began her real estate career in 1974 as a title searcher, eventually becoming licensed in 1978 after a few years as a certified escrow officer. JaCi Wallace entered real estate in 1980, with a background in law enforcement, and she serves on the SAR Pro Standards Committee. We have both earned the status of Outstanding Life Members of the Sacramento Association of Realtors.
Together, that is almost 80 years of unprecedented experience from Weintraub & Wallace! Further, since there is no real estate school and agents learn by doing, imagine how much we know after all of these years. Don’t know of an agent team who can hold a candle to that. Our sales since I moved to Sacramento in 2002 involve almost 1,200 transactions, totaling more than $387 million. MLS shows 1,173 sales but we have sold homes that are not in MLS.
We are thrilled to move forward our careers at RE/MAX Gold and deliver to our clients unsurpassed luxury marketing at an affordable price. The RE/MAX Gold brokerage model offers our clients a global reach, with national and international exposure, cutting-edge technology and the type of support required in our fast-moving Sacramento real estate market.
Our number one goal is to continue achieving 5-star reviews, because we will never stop providing exceptional service.
Using a Translation App to Sell Sacramento Real Estate
It dawned on me today I have three buyers with whom I’m using a translation app. These buyers’ primary languages are Hmong, Chinese and East Indian. I was showing homes in Elk Grove this last weekend where I met one of these buyers for the first time in person.
You probably won’t believe I had interviewed these buyers online using a translation app. First I explained to them how agents work; I didn’t speak any differently than I usually do as it was all translated using the app. They were asking if I was the listing agent. I explained that they’d be so much better off using a buyer’s agent instead of the listing agent. They said great, they wanted to meet me.
Another agent with me was so surprised at my using a translation app to sell real estate in Elk Grove. The pre-qualified buyers had a lender letter. So they knew how much money they had down, and what they were looking for!
All the work thus far was completed by my using a translation app. I asked these folks if they would rather have an agent that spoke their primary language as I could transfer them? They said no they’d rather hire me and they prefer to work with me.
These particular buyers didn’t have the app so I sent them a link and they installed it on their phone. This let me be very direct with them and to explain how I work. There is such an opportunity, especially in the diverse community of Elk Grove, to work with clients who speak different languages. It’s an untapped market for a Top Producer in Sacramento like me who only speaks English and a little bit of Spanish.
My mother is 100% Spanish, her parents immigrated here to this country. At that time when I was growing up it was not popular to be bilingual so my mother didn’t teach us Spanish when we were small and in school. Now of course, I practice my Spanish with her on a small scale. One of my bucket list items is to learn to speak Spanish fluently so I could help Spanish speaking clients. Although with this app it isn’t necessary to speak several other languages but still might be fun though.
All three of these clients expressed an interest in working with me exclusively. My clients from Iran invited me into their home and made wonderful green tea and pistachios and dates. They were most kind and so welcoming and they introduced me to their children.
Getting to know people from different cultures, for me, is rewarding and interesting. It doesn’t appear that speaking someone’s language is necessary; isn’t that incredible? Perhaps more agents should think a little more outside of the box?
In my 23 years of selling real estate in Sacramento, I didn’t know the day would come where I would be using a translation app to sell real estate! I must say I love it, as I love diversity and I love technology. These tools allow us to do great work for others and to be able to explain things in their own language, in writing on the app.
By not being afraid to try something new, I have opened up a source of business where I can help so many people to have professional representation. In 2019, this is a practice that will separate me from other top producers in Sacramento. They may be afraid to sell houses by using a translation app to sell real estate in Sacramento.
For more information call JaCi Wallace at Weintraub & Wallace 916-233-6759 at RE/MAX Gold.
Why the First Offer Often Wins in Sacramento Real Estate
As a big listing agent in Sacramento, I know first-hand it is common that the first offer often wins in Sacramento real estate. But buyer’s agents tend to disagree. Not sure why except that they are vested in having their buyers win, and perhaps they are not thinking through the entire situation. You hear it in their voices when they say, “Oh, maybe we’ll wait until after the open house.”
For what? For more buyers to submit offers? To become a speck of dust in the pile of offers? What are they waiting for? Offers, no offers, makes no difference.
Not only that, but sometimes agents sabotage their efforts from the get-go. A buyer’s agent called another listing agent recently to disclose that his client was part of a profession known for causing problems. Followed it up by asking about the cracks in the exterior stucco (all stucco has cracks), and making other comments that made the agent feel like this guy was gonna be a PITA. Not a smart move, you know, telling the listing agent you are a PITA and your client is a potential PITA, too.
If agents would just think through what happens, it would be easier for them to properly advise their clients. Be the first offer. The first offer often wins.
Say a home goes on the market on Friday with an open house scheduled for Sunday. Buyer tours on Friday and loves the house. But the buyer’s agent wants to wait to write an offer. I say no, write the offer right now. Write that offer although it is already Sunday afternoon and there are 2 other offers, because that could very well happen. Submit it now.
As a top listing agent, I am likely to advise my seller to wait until Sunday before making a decision. Because that is in my seller’s best interest. But the seller might love the offer and not want to wait. There is always that possibility. Odder things have happened.
However, if the seller takes my advice and waits, what do you think the seller will think when she wakes up on Saturday morning? She will second-guess her decision, wonder if she made the wrong call. Further, she will spend most of the day and the following day thinking about this wonderful and patient buyer, probably feeling a bit uneasy that she is making the buyer wait.
Come Sunday, even though there are several other offers, which buyer does the seller feel closest to?
Bingo. The first offer. Because the first offer often wins.
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