The Most Important Real Estate Tip This Realtor Learned From Marge Reid

This home on Vallejo Way took almost a year to sell at its highest price ever.

When I read that Marge Reid had died on October 7th, the news snapped my breath away. I was lounging about Sunday  morning reading the Business section of the Sacramento Bee when I spotted an ad. It was right next to the ads for homes for sale and other agents advertising services. The ad was a reduced version of the death notice for Marge Reid that had appeared in the paper in the local section a few weeks earlier. Although it’s odd to see something like this in the Business section, that was a good place to put it because many of us who knew Marge Reid do not read death notices on a daily basis. It was also a nice way to let clients know her daughter and son-in-law are carrying on the family business.

Marge Reid had worked at Lyon Real Estate for 43 years before branching out on her own 5 years ago. How do you like those apples? An 85-year-old woman started her own family business. You’re never too old to start a new business. I had been talking to a prospective seller yesterday morning, and we were discussing at what age a person seems old. She suggested that age is when that person is at least 20 years older than you. Anything younger than that is not old. But that doesn’t apply to Marge Reid. She never seemed “old” to me. Experienced, yes, but old, no.

I might be going out on a limb here but I’m going to say it anyway. I believe that Marge Reid never met a listing she didn’t like. That was the impression she left me with. Some agents develop a superior attitude and won’t work on an overpriced listing. I once asked Marge about the price of a listing because it seemed too high. Marge’s attitude was walk down the hill and get them all. She didn’t judge people or refuse to take a listing that I knew about. There was nothing condescending about her.  Marge was a legendary success in Sacramento real estate.

As such, I adopted the same principle. I rarely reject a listing, unless I don’t like the seller. But never over the sales price. One of my very early listings in Sacramento was a home on Vallejo Way. The seller had always been loyal to a different Land Park real estate brokerage but that broker refused to take his listing. The broker told him his asking price was unrealistic. So, he turned to Lyon Real Estate and to me. I wondered what Marge Reid would do. Well, Marge Reid would take the listing. I asked a coworker in my office and he said I should become the Queen of Vallejo. The price was $100,000 too high but I attempted to get it for the seller.

I was the Queen of Vallejo that summer. An open house every Sunday. After a couple of months, the seller agreed to drop the price.

By the time we got to the second price reduction, it seemed like a good idea to remove the listing from the market and put it back with a new MLS number. At that point, this home in Land Park sold with multiple offers at $10,000 over list price. After a Sunday open house, I had one agent in the kitchen writing an offer and another in the dining room writing an offer. While this seller did not get the $675,000 he had hoped to obtain, he did pocket $585,000. I had erased any doubt left lingering in his mind that his price was obtainable. I never did not want to work with him. He had a good sense of humor and I liked him.

Not only that, but a while after all of this happened, the Vallejo seller introduced me to the seller of a two-story Spanish home next door. She had tried unsuccessfully to sell through several other Realtors. She, too, had harbored unrealistic expectations. But I listed that home and I sold it. Now I can tell people I have sold the entire block, adding there are only two homes on that block.

When I mentioned to my team member, Barbara Dow, who is reaching a milestone herself this winter, that Marge Reid died at 90, Barbara said the smartest thing. She said that means she has another 20 years before retiring. We all tend to turn to our own mortality in times like this. Marge Reid taught me the lesson to accept all listings. Eventually a home will sell. Apply patience. Do your job. There are agents who disagree with this philosophy, but I am not one of them.

Rest in peace, Marge. You will be missed by many in Sacramento.