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What Happens When You Hire a Cheap Sacramento Realtor?
Because agents are not the same, hiring a cheap Sacramento Realtor can be very expensive.
Would you like to hire a cheap Sacramento Realtor, the cheapest you can find? Not knowing any better, that is often the criteria some home sellers use, and it’s not really their fault that they think this way. It is perpetrated by websites touting “when Realtors compete,” which is not really true and, as Sacramento real estate agents, we are constantly warned not to advertise our commission because, due to Fair Trade Laws, all commission is negotiable. However, the truth is the negotiation wars are generally fought over a 1% difference, and most Mega-Star Realtors do not negotiate at all because their service and knowledge is in high demand.
I’d like to discuss some of the problems inherent with hiring a cheap Sacramento Realtor that you might not have considered. First, all real estate agents are not the same. Having a license does not an agent make. About 10% of us do 90% of the business. If you can hire a discount agent from the 90%, typically what you get is an agent who can’t get paid what he is worth. You might think that’s OK because they all provide the same service (they don’t) and once you get past his unprofessional cellphone photography, the lousy marketing attempts and the flimsy command of the English language, not to mention poor communication skills, what you end up with is a cheap agent who can’t negotiate for you the way you deserve to be protected. But you saved that 1% or whatever.
Yet, what did you lose? It’s always a trade-off, regardless of what a cheap agent might promise.
Usually, I do not knowingly participate in bidding wars among agents because clients who want the cheapest Sacramento Realtor don’t want the best Sacramento Realtor. They want a breathing body to toss the home into MLS, regardless of how much money they will lose. The best Sacramento Realtor earns her commission, and therein lies a major difference.
I’ll show you an example. Last year a seller asked me to compare homes in Elk Grove and give him an estimate of value. I explained how I work and delivered my CMA in person so I could tour his home. He said I was hired. Then, he called me back to say a friend of his had offered to list the home for 1% less than my standard commission. He wanted me to discount my commission, just because there was competition. That agent was not a competitor. She was a person with a real estate license. She was a cheap Sacramento Realtor who sells a couple of homes a year, little experience. I did not denigrate his agent because that’s not my style, but I did explain what would happen if he didn’t hire me. He’d lose money, not make money.
He refused to listen and was very angry that I would not discount my commission to match his cheap agent. Almost as though he believed I did not have a right to refuse his request. He thought I should be willing to work for less for some unknown reason. He screamed at the top of his lungs that he expected to hire the BEST Sacramento Realtor — he wanted me — but the truth is he did not want to pay for it. I could have found a way for him to win but I didn’t bother because he was too emotional, had a bad attitude and you can’t fix a person who won’t listen.
I spotted his home enter pending status after his “friend” listed it. Noticed it did not close escrow at list price. I don’t know if it was a home inspection that generated a request for repairs that his “friend” could not negotiate her way out of or if she just backed down for other reasons, but his closing also did NOT happen within 30 days. It was delayed. Moreover, he sold at a lower price that was thousands of dollars less than the 1% difference he did not want to pay. See, real estate is a service business, based on negotiation skills, strategy and experience. When you hire a cheap Sacramento Realtor, you probably don’t get top service or quality negotiation skills, and that little experience typically gets reflected in your bottom line.
But I get it. It’s not your fault. Consumers don’t know until it is too late.
Don’t let a supposed discount of a percent here or there keep you from hiring the best Sacramento Realtor. Even though “commission is negotiable,” many of us charge our standard fees, which tend to separate the wheat from the chaff, regardless of baseless claims by the cheap agents. I charge the same as I charged 40 years ago. Pick the agent who will save you the most money, even if her fee is slightly higher than a cheap agent. Her superior service will save you in the long run.
Professional Realtors Don’t Give Up on a Sacramento Seller
Professional Realtors in Sacramento stick with their sellers until the home sells.
When the seller of a unique home in Sacramento called this Realtor to inquire about whether I would list her home, she said it was already listed with a friend but not selling. Her friend had tried to sell her home for more than 140 days and could not do it, so he was giving up. Throwing in the towel. Abandoning her, in a sense, while encouraging her to make other arrangements such as renting the home or finding another Sacramento Realtor. I suspect he felt like he was disappointing his friend, but the fact is he probably should have never listed that home in the first place because he most likely was unqualified. Professional Realtors don’t give up.
I realize people hold the misperception that simply holding a real estate license means an agent is qualified and selling one or two homes a year is enough to gain experience when it is not. Agents are not supposed to list properties that they are unqualified to sell. For example, I would not list a shopping center complex because I am unqualified to handle that kind of transaction, and I don’t care how many zeroes are in that listing. If I were to attempt such a feat and any little thing went sideways, I could get sued for incompetence. I stick to what I know, residential real estate, and fall back on my decades in the business.
As such, I would never abandon a client who treats me well. If the client needs me, I am there for the client. I am committed and dedicated and loyal. I don’t care how long it takes to sell that home, I will stick with it until it is sold. Not every home is easy to sell. Some present unique challenges but it doesn’t mean they won’t sell. How do I know this? Well, due to 40-some years in the business, but also I represent the seller who obviously loved the home. If one person loved it, another person will too, I just need to find that buyer. Professional Realtors don’t give up.
This home in Sacramento was a bit of a challenge because the bedrooms were small, there were too many doors to the exterior for most parents’ tastes, the back yard was not private. The first thing we did was remove the fence from around the pool, which blocked the pool and made for terrible photos. Second thing, professional photography. Third thing, home staging. And then we held open that home almost every single Sunday for 4 solid months, until our buyer stopped by.
The buyer wrote a lowball offer, which was countered, and the buyer gave up. Went back to looking at other homes in the neighborhood and after a few weeks concluded this was definitely the best home. We went into escrow and closed yesterday without a hitch. It was a lot of extra work to sell this home, but the Elizabeth Weintraub Team did it. Professional Realtors don’t give up.
Top 40 Sacramento Real Estate Agents Names Elizabeth Weintraub
Homes sold by Elizabeth Weintraub over the past 5 years in Sacramento
The Homelight Top 40 Sacramento Real Estate Agents for 2015 was released on Friday and I’m waiting for the crap to hit the fan. This is a website that showcases agents in Sacramento by 5 different categories and exposes statistics. Of course, this Sacramento Realtor, namely Elizabeth Weintraub, appears in all 5 categories. The categories are: Sacramento Agents Who Sell at Top Dollar, and the stats for Elizabeth Weintraub are 100%. Number of Sacramento Buyer Transactions for the past 12 months, Sacramento Buyer Sales Volume for the past 12 months, number of Sacramento listings, and Sacramento listing sales volume for the past 12 months.
I talked with a representative at Homelight yesterday about my statistics being actually much higher than Homelight shows on its website. The rep had called me as I did not seek her out. I thought about calling Homelight to get the stats corrected but then the thought occurred to me, just how fabulous do I have to appear anyway? Does it really matter if they showed my 2014 production was 63 homes when I closed almost double that number? Do I seriously care if the public thinks I sold only 63 homes? Compared to most agents, I mean. Isn’t that splitting hairs? Pettiness?
I asked the rep where they pulled the stats from for the Top 40 Sacramento real estate agents because, for example, MLS shows my sales for 2014 at 106, a far cry from 63. But it makes me wonder why they are so far off on the numbers. My 2012 sales show 144 homes, and that’s low, too. The overall stats on Homelight show my sales from 2010 to present much lower than my actual 540 sales, so they are way short for me, no matter how you look at it.
Still, here I go whining when most agents are happy if they close 8 sales a year. It’s the principle, though, if you’re going to expose an agent’s real estate production, at least get the numbers right.
Other companies have tried to rank agents and got blasted for it. That’s because out of the 6,000 or so agents in Sacramento, very few, as you can see, rank at the top. But does it mean an agent isn’t any good if she or he does not appear on any of those lists for the Top 40 Sacramento real estate agents? Not at all. And that’s why agents will get upset.
On top of this, Homelight holds a real estate broker’s license, and therefore is allowed to tap MLS for stats, but I imagine the Sacramento Board of Realtors and MetroList will not see it that way. They are very protective of the data, and rightfully so.
I’ve closed a referral from Homelight, and it was a wonderful experience. I love to receive referrals. Other agents, I have to admit, will complain about that aspect, too, and say that Homelight is selling our own leads back to us when it is not. Although, I did run into a situation where I had written a purchase offer for a buyer and was in escrow with this buyer when, for some reason, she accidentally signed up on Homelight. This action generated an agent referral, which tells me that the public isn’t sure how Homelight works or else they are filling out applications after a few bourbons.
On the other hand, I’ve discovered that when I’m signed in to my account at Homelight, my agent photo floats to the very top of the list. Pretty smart, Homelight.
Map Photo of sales for Elizabeth Weintraub Homelight
WSJ, Trulia and Zillow List Best Real Estate Agents in America
Best Real Estate Agents in America for 2015
The purpose behind the Real Trends 1000 List of Best Real Estate Agents in America is to sell crap to the agents on the list. Being named to this list means I will endure yet another year of harassment and haranguing from manufacturers who want to make me a plaque to celebrate my accomplishments and charge me an enormous sum for the privilege of hanging the ugly thing on my wall so our 3 cats can shoot spitballs at it. Real Trends will also sell my name to thousands of spammers. It’s the price of success, and it sorta sucks. Still, it also means the Elizabeth Weintraub Team ranks #7 in the Sacramento region, which is impressive, I suppose.
Real Trends now works in collaboration with the Wall Street Journal, Zillow and Trulia. Every year they put out a list of the best agents in America.
A couple of new clients called yesterday to request help with Sacramento real estate, people who probably did not know this list exists yet called me anyway. One was a buyer who said he had previously worked with a team in Nevada and was thrilled with the results. Because it’s difficult for one person to be in 10 places at the same time unless that person has a team for support. He gets it. He understands why working a team is the way to go. Happy-as-clam clients, that’s what we strive for. Clients for whom we strive to meet every need. Instantly.
This buyer wants to move his family to either Curtis Park or East Sacramento, probably with a more dedicated focus on homes in Land Park. Those neighborhoods happen to be my specialty. I live in Land Park. He hit the jackpot with us. I personally match buyers to team members who possess intimate knowledge, and we work together to make magic happen.
He knows the benefits of working with a team in Sacramento, so one less thing to explain. It doesn’t cost extra to get a team to work for you, either.
Another client, a seller with a home in Natomas, called to talk about sales strategy and market conditions. She wants me to list her home in Natomas as soon as the tenant moves out next month. She found me online and read my reviews. She gets it. As a natural course of progression in these types of conversations, she asked how much I charge, and I explained my standard fee that has remained unchanged over the past 40 years. Then, I went one step further to justify and to explain that she can find some cheap-ass agent, and she cut me off right there.
Said she’s been down that road with an agent who would cut the commission, and she does NOT want to work with a discount agent. I don’t blame her. She understands the value full-service agents bring, and knows the entire transaction will be smoother and she’ll make more money with an agent who is full service. And she’s absolutely right. I love working with smart people.
While my team and I are honored to be on the list of the best real estate agents in America, we much prefer focusing on clients and making them happy. I work with my sellers one-on-one by providing personalized and customized service. My sellers enjoy the privilege of sole access to me. I handle the listings and my team shows homes. That’s what sustains a successful Sacramento real estate business year after year. Not the top 1000 list of best agents.
Highest Sales Price $1,085,000 Closes in Riverlake Sacramento
Pool at 774 Still Breeze in Riverlake Community in the Sacramento Pocket
There are many ways to sell a luxury home in Riverlake, Sacramento, that involve overcoming objections to a low appraisal, which is why I employ different strategies for my escrows depending on the circumstances at hand. It’s a custom-designed strategy, I guess you could say. I won’t sugarcoat the process and say it’s completely stress-free for sellers, but like childbirth, I think they focus more on the end result after it’s over.
I recently closed two waterfront homes in Riverlake, almost directly across the water from each other. The first home was in Cobble Shores and smaller than the second home in Stillwater. The views were different as well as the home in Cobble Shores enjoyed a north facing view of the water and the back yard of the home in Stillwater faced south. Personally, I prefer the south-facing view.
I spent a lot of time working on the sales price before I met with either of the sellers. Most sellers already have an idea of how much they want for their home, but they also appreciate hearing my opinion of value and how I arrived at that number. I’m generally very close to market value, closer than they are. I take into consideration market movement, buyer desires, the emotional portion, and then temper it with reality of the closed comparable sales. Having a good story ready for the appraiser is always important.
Sure enough, the home in Cobble Shores at Riverlake sold at list price of $895,000 within 6 days. That’s a good length of time to be on the market. Enough time to let everybody know the home is for sale and to give all buyers a chance to bid. The home in Stillwater at Riverlake was more expensive, more than $1 million, and we had a decent amount of showings, even without a lockbox. It was an impressive home that captured the waterfront lifestyle in just about every room.
The sellers interviewed a fair number of agents to list their home and settled on Elizabeth Weintraub. I felt a kinship with them, and maybe that’s what pushed them to list with me but it could also be my analytical mind. I constantly think about my listings and don’t run on autopilot; and I focus on selling, no matter what it takes. I scrutinize every single detail. I’m fanatical that way.
Sure enough, we sold the home in Stillwater at Riverlake Sacramento, after 9 days of showings and, sure enough, as I predicted, we received a low appraisal. I sensed that the appraiser used a particular pending sale’s square footage, applied the number to the square footage of my listing and came up with a value that did not really take into consideration its top-of-the-line upgrades. The appraiser also used homes 15 miles away on the Garden Highway. I suggested the sellers hire their own appraiser, because even though the buyer’s lender would not accept the appraisal, it would prove a point.
The new appraiser just happened to be the appraiser who originally appraised those homes on the Garden Highway, so she immediately eliminated them from the appraisal because they did not apply. She came up with an estimate of value much higher than the original appraiser, using homes closer in proximity and employing the principle of substitution. After much negotiation, we settled on a higher price with the buyer bridging the gap in cash. The difference in cash paid for my full-service commission and then some. It sold at $1,085,000, the highest price we have seen in Riverlake.
If you are looking for a Sacramento Realtor who is willing to do what it takes to sell your home, give Elizabeth Weintraub a ring. Selling your home is not just a job to me; it’s a passion, and I do it well. 916.233.6759.
