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How a Sacramento Realtor Earns That Full Service Commission
How an agent who charges a full service commission returns bigger profit margins to her sellers.
There are agents from the Blue Fish Realty Company who tell sellers in Sacramento that they don’t have to pay a full service commission because Blue Fish offers the same services for less, but that is a falsehood. I have proven time and time again it is not true. Cheap agents can’t do what I do for less. It’s impossible. In fact, I often tell sellers who want to list with Blue Fish to go ahead, and when they figure out they’ve sold their home for less plus they can’t get through the home inspection without paying for repairs or giving the buyer money, they can cancel and call me.
And often they do. I earn my full service commission. But why-oh-why do they have to learn this the hard way?
I will tell sellers if I think they can negotiate for a higher sales price. My services are more in line with those of a top-notch defense lawyer. Maybe that’s why I attract so many lawyers as clients. I’m a different kind of Sacramento Realtor. Because I’ve been in the business for so many decades that I can tell by looking at the offer and chatting with the buyer’s agent whether we should counter. Would another listing agent tell a seller she is selling for too little and should demand a higher price? Maybe, maybe not. I think the likelihood is no, though. Because an agent would have to care. And there are many who do not. They care if it closes, but they don’t care how much money the seller makes or loses.
When the sellers of a home in South Land Park interviewed agents, they decided to pick me, even though I quoted them a higher commission than a discount agent. I pointed out why I’m worth more. Because I can give them more money in a stress-free transaction, I’ll negotiate the highest price possible, and I’ll get them through the inspections without paying for anything. That’s a certain skill I’ve acquired. And when an agent has a refined skillset, she gets paid more. Because sellers profit from that knowledge. It doesn’t cost more, it pays the sellers.
We just closed yesterday on that home in South Land Park. The list price was $545,000 and our final sales price was $552,500. That’s a difference of $7,500. Not to mention, some of the other agents suggested a lower list price of $499K. My suggested price of $545,000 was $45,000 more right off the bat. That’s a whopping difference. But the clients didn’t pick me for that reason. They chose me because I defended my estimate with proof.
Further, during the home inspection, a lot of defects popped up. For starters, there was $5,200 worth of pest work the sellers did not have to pay. In addition, the water heater had problems, the roof leaked, and the master bath shower needed to be replaced. Oh, and there was asbestos. That’s a scary word to many home buyers, asbestos. Does a salaried Blue Fish agent know how to resolve these issues without leaning on the seller to pay? Probably not. My sellers didn’t pay a dime toward any of that.
So, while a seller might hope she is saving money by hiring a Blue Fish agent, in comparison, she is instead paying through the nose. From the sales price all the way down to closing. And let’s not even discuss the drama. I don’t do drama. I just do my job, get the sellers the highest price without the usual hassles that befall other agents. My services returned more than $57,000+ of extra profit for these sellers. That’s over 10% more.
These sellers believe it was worth paying a full service commission to enjoy those benefits. If you’d like to do the same, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Sacramento Home Sellers’ Warning
You might be tempted to believe that all real estate transactions are win-win, even the phrase win-win makes me cringe, but a win-win real estate transaction is not necessarily always the case. The win-win misperception was misappropriated many years ago by long-dead real estate gurus. Much of the time, it’s just not true. In real estate, one party typically makes out better than the other party, not much different than some divorce cases. Although you might say, hey, in the end they are both divorced now, one party is often a little bit better divorced than the other.
I know there are buyers and sellers who want to be good friends with each other. After all, they have something in common — the house! I’m all for enjoying friendships with the people who are buying or selling your home, just don’t try to cultivate that relationship during the transaction. Bad, bad idea. Sellers belong on one side of the fence and buyers on the other. You can kick the fence over after escrow closes.
Let’s say your home was built, for example, during the geological time known as the Asbestos Era, which is sometime during the Cenozoic period, in the Quarternary. Perhaps the buyer suddenly became worried that your home might contain asbestos, but the buyer’s inspection period had expired. On top of that, say the buyers had removed all of their contingencies. As a seller, you might feel it is OK to let the buyer complete an asbestos test, even though you’ve already paid for such a test and the results were negative.
You might believe that since the home is sold AS IS, the buyer has no claims against you. You might also believe that if the buyer finds asbestos, the buyer will have to give you the earnest money deposit if they were to cancel because that’s what the contract says. But you haven’t met the buyer’s lawyer who might argue the contingency period is reopened after the discovery of new information. The lawyer might further argue that somehow the seller possessed knowledge of this defect but failed to disclose it. Little is black-and-white in the law.
The fact is once a buyer’s investigations are completed, the inspections are over. If you are a seller, don’t be a buddy and let the buyers continue investigating. The friendship a seller may have forged with the buyer (or vice versa) could come back to haunt. For maximum protection, expect your Sacramento real estate agent to handle such discussions and arrangements.
