best sacramento listing agent
A Sacramento Listing Agent Tackles First What Is Wrong With My Listing
When I accept a listing in the Sacramento area — and I sell homes all over the place in Sacramento as far out as Galt, to Yolo County: West Sacramento, Woodland and Davis, including Roseville and Lincoln in Placer County — the very first thought that enters the mind of this Sacramento listing agent is almost always: What is wrong with this listing? What needs to be addressed? In case you’re wondering, my mind works the same way when we receive a purchase offer, and unfortunately there is almost always something wrong with purchase offers as well.
The reason I want to examine the listing so closely is because a buyer will scrutinize the home for sale too. I prefer to handle any objections a buyer may have before they pop up because I know how buyers are. One small drawback, one little defect, one objection, and they tend to latch on to the next house in their buyer’s agent tour. They feel no loyalty whatsoever to the house they’re standing in and looking at. It’s just a house and there is another right around the corner. They aren’t desperately trying to find a way to make the home fit their needs as some sellers believe; au contraire sugar bear, their wants and needs need to fit that particular home.
This is the thing that sellers often do not realize. It’s hard for them to put themselves into the buyer’s shoes, not to mention, let me tell you that not all Jimmy Choo shoes are comfortable, regardless of the price tag. Sellers will say things like, the buyer can always change this, that or the other thing. And no, the buyer won’t. Sellers think buyers will overlook an item because the seller has lived with it for so long and the seller has been able to ignore it, and they absolutely cannot believe it is sticking out like a big sore thumb screaming at buyers to run away.
All agents have different ideas about what these sorts of problems are, and some of the agents are right about them and some are completely wrong. How is a seller to know whom to believe and which agent is off his rocker? Common sense and gut instincts, I guess. Track records speak volumes.
I have more than 40 years of experience in this business, and those years have yielded extraordinary results, a wealth of information. When I am hired as a listing agent, I share all of my suggestions with my clients. Sellers who are shopping for an agent might call in 3 or 5 different agents to look at their home and try to pick everybody’s brain, but it doesn’t really work that way, and agents can tell when sellers are looking for free advice. The agents who provide free advice tend to stay unemployed as sellers pick, pick, pick and then choose the DNA agent.
Any fool can tell a seller her home is beautiful but the true goal is to efficiently tackle the delicate problems with diplomacy. All homes pretty much possess one problem or another. The talented Sacramento listing agent will find a way to either correct that condition or to deflect attention elsewhere.
How Much is My Home Worth in Sacramento Will Shock You
If you’re wondering how much is my home worth in Sacramento, prepare to be shocked. Could you use an extra $200,000 of equity right now? All the market reports in the world won’t prepare you for the actual value of your own home until you talk with a seasoned Sacramento Realtor. Even Zillow won’t give you a solid number, as the estimates on Zillow are only that, an estimate and, there is no actual website available online that will give you all of the information you seek. Realtors pull data from a number of sources, and we are specialists in many areas of Sacramento.
We have the missing pieces you need.
It’s no secret that during the crash years of 2005 to 2011, I worked with more short sale sellers than any other agent in the area. But then that period ended. I still handle a few short sales here and there, but for the most part, short sales in Sacramento are basically over. Today I specialize in real estate in four counties, ranging from entry-level homes to luxury homes, designing individual marketing strategies for each of my sellers, paying enormous attention to detail, which returns maximum profits to my clients. My team members show homes, and I work with sellers. It’s a winning combination!
Earlier in the week, I ran across a folder from 2012 filled with potential short sale clients who, for one reason or another, elected not to do a short sale. They were sellers who were underwater. That was four years ago. I began looking up the market values of their homes, because it seemed to me they were not underwater anymore. I was absolutely correct. Every single one of these potential sellers now have equity, some have acquired more than $200,000 of equity since that time!
Discovering How Much is My Home Worth
What a shock to examine how much is my home worth and discover it’s not what you thought. People get busy with their lives and are not aware of how much their home has gone up value. It happens even to Realtors. I know an agent who woke up one morning in Minneapolis, realized her home had tripled in value over the past 5 years, and decided it was time to grab the money and get out of that frozen tundra. You might think the same way. You might also think if you’re not planning to sell, what does it matter how much your home is worth?
It matters because if you knew that number, you might decide to sell. To change your life. To upgrade to a larger home, downsize to a smaller home or get the hell outta dodge, whatever. Call me. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759, and I’ll be happy to answer the question of how much is my home worth. Could you use an extra $200,000 of equity right now?
The Search for a Strong Sacramento Listing Agent Ends Here
Let me say this right up front that I never set out to swipe another agent’s client but sometimes they approach me years later and ask this Sacramento listing agent to list their homes. It astonishes me a little because I tend to assume they would have had more loyalty to their buyer’s agent, but I don’t push the issue. They are looking for a strong Sacramento listing agent, and that’s why they call. They remember their experience in escrow, through offer negotiations and prefer to be on the winning side.
Is that interfering with another agent’s client? I don’t believe so because to have a client you need to establish Agency, and Agency is over when the transaction closes. Even though agents say they expect to be the client’s “agent for life,” nobody owns another person. These people are former buyers who used to be represented by a different real estate agent and are now turning into sellers who want a strong Sacramento listing agent.
I should also add there is a huge difference between being “strong” and being “mean.” Those terms are not synonymous with each other. There is never any excuse on Earth to be cruel or overly aggressive. Assertiveness is not aggression. Wikipedia says: Assertiveness is the quality of being self-assured and confident without being aggressive.
I don’t email these buyers or send them direct mail or stay in contact in any way after escrow closes, not like their buyer’s agent probably does. But I guess they witness first hand how a strong Sacramento listing agent operates and they want that benefit when it comes time to sell. They saw that their agent did not get the repairs completed they had hoped for during the Request for Repair dog-and-pony-show portion of the escrow. Or maybe they did not get the sales price they wanted and felt forced to pay over list price? In any case, they don’t feel their buyer’s agent served them with as much focus as this strong Sacramento listing agent had served her sellers.
Why is that? It’s not because their buyer’s agents are weak or inefficient. No, not at all. Far from it. It’s because their expectations were not properly prepared and set prior to escrow. It’s easy to look good against the backdrop of ill-prepared buyers.
I’m always a little uneasy when I show up at the house to collect my lockbox after a listing closes escrow. I’m not sure if the buyers are going to dash out with a water gun and blast me. Take THAT for not letting us move in early! Whoosh. But that never happens. They are always polite, shake my hand, and thank me for the opportunity to buy a home. And then they call me a few years later when they’re looking for a strong Sacramento listing agent.
To put 40 years of experience to work for you, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.