Email Elizabethbest sacramento real estate agent
An Accepted Purchase Offer in Sacramento is Only the Beginning
When buying or selling a home in Sacramento, the parties often don’t realize that it’s hardly over when both sides sign an accepted purchase offer; in fact, the process is just beginning and anything can go wrong. This is where FSBOs (For Sale By Owners) tend to struggle and where real estate agents with less experience can mess up as well.
Think of this point in time as that scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy, all freshly scrubbed and sporting her sparkly ruby slippers, is merrily laughing and singing with her gangly companions, setting out from Munchkin Land to skip down the Yellow Brick Road, just before Glinda vanishes in a puff of twinkly fairy dust. Everybody is happy and excited, looking forward to arriving in the magical Emerald City. They have no idea what lies in store for them.
And neither do most Sacramento home sellers and buyers.
This is when your Sacramento real estate agent can make a world of difference to you. Selling a home in Sacramento is a lot more than just finding a buyer. It means qualifying the buyer, thinking ahead and predicting what could happen, and taking steps to prevent the trees from strangling you and throwing apples at your face. It means fighting off the winged monkeys.
And, if it’s necessary, making it snow.
Keeping everybody on the path to closing. And happy. It’s not the money, either, because a commission check can lose its luster fast if the seller or buyers are unhappy when it’s all over. This is no easy feat. But it’s what I do every day, and I believe I do it well. Going into escrow is just the beginning. If you’re looking for a veteran Sacramento real estate agent, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759.
Preparing Your Home For Sale Before Going on the Market
Before fixing anything in your home to prepare that home for sale, you should ask a Sacramento real estate agent what needs to actually be done. Because your idea of making a home improvement repair might be different than a repair the agent might advise, not to mention, you could end up spending money that you don’t need to spend. This is a valuable service experienced agents provide to sellers, advice on what to fix and whether the home should be sold in its AS IS condition.
If your agent has little to no experience, you’re at a disadvantage when it comes time to sell. But a veteran agent who sells a ton of homes can be a god-send to you.
The advice for what to fix and what not varies from home to home and neighborhood to neighborhood and market to market. I recall way back when I sold my first home, and I grabbed the city home inspection report that I paid for when I initially bought the home. I combed through that report thoroughly and fixed every defect on it as a precursory to preparing the home for sale. What a waste of money, time and effort. Most of that stuff, I discovered later, were items the buyer didn’t give a hoot about.
Obviously, if you have visual distractions, those should probably be corrected but again, it depends on how much money it costs, what’s involved labor-wise and whether the market demands it. I have listing that’s coming on the market next week which has vinyl siding and in some places the posts have been chewed, a few J channels are busted or cracked and, in another area, the siding is missing all together.
It’s almost impossible to match vinyl siding panels on a reorder from the manufacturer because the sizes and colors vary. The seller doesn’t have any extra pieces. Not to mention, vinyl siding is not vogue anymore and stucco is considered a better exterior option. The cost to change out the exterior is more expensive than the return on this particular investment. Plus, for what this type of property is, the siding is OK. It won’t affect the sales price. Not for this home and not in this market.
If you’re thinking about preparing your home for sale on the market, hire the best Sacramento real estate agent you can find, and then follow her advice. Don’t spend more money than you need to spend.
The Sacramento Bee Masters Club Edition Arrives
The Sacramento Bee Masters Club edition came out today, but I know this primarily because I belong to that old fart’s group of individuals who still pick up the newspaper off the front porch. Our Sac Bee home subscriber numbers are dwindling, and it’s kind of sad to me to see an old institution like our daily newspaper in print slowly lose its life.
Crap, it was sad for me to see Ladies’ Home Journal bite the dust for home subscribers, and I would never read that magazine even if I was bored to tears at my doctor’s office reception, sitting there without cellphone reception. Watching time-honored institutions die is like watching little bits of my flesh get chipped away by the hammer and chisel of technology.
Print has its purpose. One of the problems with looking at the Sacramento Bee Masters Club edition online instead of holding the paper in your hands is you can’t draw devil horns on those grinning agents with the eye teeth exposed. You can’t put a mustache on that blonde grandma baring cleavage or draw horned-rimmed glasses on Mr. Surfer Dude. Who wants to look at photographs of a bunch of real estate agents in Sacramento online? I mean, outside of the ad department of the Sacramento Bee. Which didn’t do such a hot job with my online photo which, for some reason, is different from the print version.
All of the Sacramento region print publications have this racket going on with real estate agents and Masters Club. Let’s see, they ponder, who can we hit up for advertising dollars and make all of them pay for a wonderful opportunity? Because if an agent is in Masters Club and her photo isn’t there, the public will think she is not a member, so we’ve got ’em all by the balls, um, lady parts. You don’t get your photograph in any Masters Club edition of any newspaper or magazine unless you pay for that privilege. This is not a charity nor public service.
The Sacramento Bee “supports” Masters Club because agents pay the Sacramento Bee to do so.
Who’s got the money? It’s always who’s got the money. The people with the money are Sacramento real estate agents who sell at least 8 homes a year at $3.5 mil, say the advertising departments, and so they run after real estate agents and thrust their grubby little paws into agent pockets. I pay for most publications except for one that nobody else reads. Soon, though, this nonsense can stop. When the newspapers stop printing all together and the magazines shrivel up and die.
And that will be a time of sorrow.
So, even though I yipe about it, I pay for Masters Club print editions year after year.
Jealousy Can Lead Real Estate Agents to Badmouth Other Agents
Real estate agents who badmouth often feel the need to discredit another Sacramento real estate agent and can end up sabotaging their own career without realizing it. Before you can ask: how stupid are they, let me remind you that badmouthing another agent is stupid to begin with. There’s just no upside potential to it. It makes the agent who is doing it look horrible, not to mention small, petty, jealous and well, stupid.
I am often called to a listing presentation in which a seller who is hoping to choose a Sacramento listing agent has interviewed 2 other agents. I say, hey, good agents you called. But you would be amazed at some of the stuff I hear other agents tell the seller. Because the sellers tell me what they say when the agents learn that Elizabeth Weintraub is the competition to their presentation. First, I imagine the agents feel a bit intimidated when they look at my sales production and how much I sell. It can be 10 times the number of homes they sell, or more. This is intimidating because these agents can’t fathom how in the world I do it and remain competitive, because they can’t do it.
So they say stuff like, oh, Elizabeth Weintraub is too busy for you and won’t give you personal service. These agents should be shot and stuffed with mouse poop for allowing lies like that to leave their lips. You want something done right, you give it to a busy person, that’s what I have to say. Clients tell me that I treat them like they are my only client. I respond immediately to their concerns and address all of their questions, sometimes before the questions are even asked. I make them feel special because they are. Nothing should lead a real estate agent to badmouth. They should be better than that.
In my world, every client is important. Every situation is different. Another agent told a seller that I don’t negotiate my own transactions because, how could I? Yet, I do. It’s a fat lie to say I don’t. I personally handle every single listing myself. I shoot professional photography; I write copy and prepare the paperwork; I tweak my photos in Photoshop; I manage all of my listings; I collect feedback and deliver, provide suggestions, negotiate multiple offers, and there is no pawning off — I do it myself. Just because another agent can’t do what I do is no reason to make up crap about my real estate practice. You know what they call that? They call that attitude sour grapes. The Code of Ethics calls it unethical. I call it idiot real estate agents who badmouth.
A new client I’m meeting with this weekend asked me why none of the other agents she talked to didn’t tell her the things I suggested she do to get started. Well, I don’t know why. It makes sense to me that I bring up potential problems and solve them before we go on the market. I have no idea why other agents do what they do; I know only what I do, and that is I perform to high standards built on my decades of experience. When the only bad thing another agent can makeup is I must be too busy or I must not do the work myself, well, that tells you more about those agents than about me.
I’m not too busy. I do the work myself. If you expect excellence, you will get it. That’s how an ethical Sacramento real estate agent stays in business and gets referrals year after year after year. Sellers can hire a not-so-successful agent for the same amount of money, but why?
There is a Limit to How Much Help a Sacramento Real Estate Agent Can Give
Elizabeth Weintraub can help with relocation referrals.
If your home isn’t selling in Sacramento, call Elizabeth Weintraub, a top-producer Sacramento real estate agent, to fix it. She’ll know exactly what to do, what’s wrong with it and how to correctly price that home. That seems to the general consensus lately based on some of the phone calls I’ve received. While it is true, and I try to help everybody if I can, there are only so many hours in the day and, besides, let’s face it, if it’s not my listing, I don’t get paid for this assistance. I am not a nonprofit entity. Agents don’t work for free (unless they’re working on short sales in bankruptcy). If you’re not planning on canceling your listing, don’t call me. This agent cannot interfere in another agent’s listing. If you’re canceling your listing, though, that’s another story.
People call and say I found you online, and you seem to be so smart with great reviews, I need some help. Sure, flatter and then stab me in the heart when you say you’re working with another agent. I’ve asked sellers why they stay with an agent who is not producing results and whom they complain about, because I don’t understand that attitude. It sounds so defeatist. Maybe it’s like people who are attracted to torture and get off on it, what do you call those people, there’s a noun for that, oh, yeah, politicians.
Another agent in Sacramento asked yesterday if I would be willing to meet with him privately and advise on best real estate practices and marketing plans for his brokerage. Do I look like a representative at the Small Business Association? I am a hard-working real estate broker who sells real estate under the Lyon banner in a four-county area in Sacramento. I run a business. My own business. I have team members who support and work with me. My own clients to take care of and produce results for. Even if the agent was willing to pay me, I don’t work in the field of agent support.
This is what happens when a person gives advice on the internet. People tend to forget that you are a business entity who works 12 hours a day in her own business. That’s not to say I don’t answer a quick question here and there or that I wouldn’t help an agent if I could be of assistance, but that’s not really my job.
My job is to sell homes for my sellers and make sure home buyers get into a home. If you want to buy or sell a home in Sacramento, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759. If you need a referral to an agent elsewhere, I’ll be happy to assist.
