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Listing a Home in Sacramento and Interviewing Realtors
There is no rule about interviewing Realtors that means you can’t pick the first agent.
Many of the sellers I’ve been meeting with lately to list homes in Sacramento have been interviewing Realtors. It makes sense to ensure it’s a good fit between client and agent. On the other hand, most of my sellers already know they are going to hire me just by talking to me on the phone and reading my online reviews. I also encourage them to hire me. You betcha. I mean, who else has as much experience as I do? I’ve worked in real estate since the 1970s, and I am not ashamed to admit it. I don’t sell 3 or 4 homes a year like 90% of the agents in town. I have real hands-on, day-in and day-out experience that saves my sellers a world of future headaches.
One seller told me yesterday that she’s already interviewed a couple of agents. One agent suggested to her that she should interview more agents; said the seller should talk to at least 3 agents. What kind of agent would say that? I don’t know. I tell sellers they don’t have to interview anybody but me, but if they insist, I’ll probably look that much better by comparison. That always gets a laugh. When the seller said one of the agents told her we are in a slow market, I razzed her, “Hey, was this the same agent who accused you of doing a bad job of interviewing Realtors?”
Our market in Sacramento is still red hot. Listings that are priced right are getting attention and quickly selling. We have more buyers than we have listings. Some lucky sellers are the only game in town, the only home for sale, so you can bet I’m going to position them to attract top dollar. It’s what I do. It’s unusual for me go on a listing appointment where the seller is interviewing Realtors and not walk out with the listing.
Success breeds confidence. But even when I wasn’t so overwhelming successful, like when I first moved to Sacramento and was getting to know the marketplace and everybody in it, I never felt like a failure. I was talking about this topic with my husband yesterday because some people, like BoJack Horseman, OK, he’s not a real person, well, some people are insecure. They second-guess their decisions and down deep worry about everything.
An example. We watched the new Mike White movie, Brad’s Status, at the Tower Theatre in Land Park on Sunday, starring Ben Stiller. A very adult-looking Ben Stiller, unlike the guy from Midnight at the Museum or Zoolander, where he sucked in his cheekbones and pretended to be a model. In Brad’s Status, he has a mid-life crisis, worried that he’s failed in life. It also stars the guy from Masters of Sex, Michael Sheen, and Luke Wilson, who was also in Roadies. Stiller imagines everybody else is better than him. I’ve never had that feeling. I’ve always known I had the ability to do whatever I wanted to do.
Motivation is not a problem for me either. I am self motivated. I set goals and achieve them. Winning listing presentations when sellers are interviewing Realtors is one of those goals. I believe in myself and my clients do too. It comes through loud and clear.
Making a Contingent Offer When Your Home is Not Yet on the Market
Few sellers take a contingent offer seriously if the buyer’s home is not for sale.
If you don’t eat yer meat, you can’t have any pudding. It’s not just Pink Floyd who says, among other disturbing insights, there is a certain order to the world if you want to get things done. If one can’t abide by customary procedures, then there could be ways around it, which is often my specialty as a Sacramento Realtor. To operate within the confines and restraints of a system with the goal of discovering a loophole designed to bestow an advantage for clients, while minimizing risk. And a contingent offer certainly falls within those parameters.
Part of that success means I need to know the residential purchase agreement inside and out and all of the accompanying documents. You won’t find me at a loss for words when a client needs advice. It might be complicated, but I’ll give it to them straight.
I wonder what other agents tell their clients? When I receive a contingent offer from a buyer’s agent in a pre-acknowledged multiple-offer situation without any preface, just: here it is, it makes me wonder. First I check to see if the agent showed the home. Nope, not that I can determine. That would mean the buyer probably came through a Sunday open house and then called his agent after being informed all offers would be considered immediately thereafter. Yet, why would a buyer submit a contingent offer when the buyer’s present home was not only not in escrow but not even on the market?
Having posed that question, let me add that I am sometimes lucky enough to get a contingent offer accepted for a home not on the market when we’re working with buyers, but we don’t just dump the offer on the listing agent without an explanation. We also produce an MLS number for the contingent property and explain our extensive marketing system. We give the other listing agent a solid plan to pass on to her seller. Then it’s no skin off the seller’s teeth to accept our offer because that listing can remain in active release clause.
Giving a listing agent a contingent offer subject to selling a home when said home is not even on the market is like Wimpy: I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. It’s like saying: if I could afford to buy your home, I most certainly would, Ollie, and flipping your tie around. Such a thing can make you feel like you’re Bojack Horseman, trying to explain to Princess Carolyn that her date is really 3 little boys stacked on top of each other under a trench coat.
