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Elizabeth Weintraub Team Ranks in 3 Top Agents at Lyon Real Estate
Pat Shea hands award to Elizabeth Weintraub for 2016 production in 3 top agents at Lyon Real Estate.
A funny thing happened at the Lyon Real Estate Awards last night at Memorial Auditorium, not the least withstanding is the Elizabeth Weintraub Team ranks in 3 top agents at Lyon Real Estate for 2016 production. In fact, I was sorta thinking that somebody was gonna come up on stage and snatch the award out of my hands and say, sorry, Elizabeth, that award belongs to the #7 agent at Lyon Real Estate, like the Oscar snafu this year. I did not expect to end the year ranking in the 3 top agents at Lyon Real Estate. I knew I would be in the top 1% because I always am, but I thought that last year my top 3 ranking might have slipped, yet no.
But what was even weirder was there was no #7 in the top agent award category. Lyon always names the top 10 agents in the company at the awards celebrations each year. They count down from 10, stop after #4 and then they clear the stage for the 3 top agents at Lyon. Except this year they counted down: 10, 9, 8, 6, 5 and 4. What happened to number 7?
This year, Marilyn Goff from Cameron Park delivered a moving and noticeably challenging speech; she is so brave and I admire her courage. She received a bouquet of flowers with her award.
From left, Pat Shea, Marilyn Goff, Elizabeth Weintraub and Tom Phillips, 2016 Lyon Awards.
Lyon used to give its 3 top agents extra gifts, like a goodie bag. One year I received a tablet, among other things, but that tradition seems to have gone away. What we receive now is another huge glass vase that is inscribed with the year, status and our name. And the thing is heavy. Not as heavy as my evening bag, studded with rhinestones. That thing was so heavy you could use it as a weapon. One slam to the side of the head and an attacker would be flat on the floor. A girl’s gotta carry protection.
The Elizabeth Weintraub Team: Josh Amolsch, Amy McMullan, Elizabeth Weintraub, Shaundra Bradley, Barbara Dow
Hey, the Elizabeth Weintraub Team cleans up well, doncha think? The theme for the awards dinner was Red Carpet, which is why there were two tall statues that resembled Oscar but had minor differences to ensure Lyon would not get sued. For example, the real Oscar, although male, is fairly gender free of certain traits, but this particular Oscar version, well, let’s just say people were trying to cover up certain parts when they stood in front of it for photos.
Elizabeth Weintraub poses in front of Oscar R Us at the Lyon Awards 2017.
There is really nothing the 5 of us on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team cannot do. We operate on the premise of our clients come first, and we cover each other’s back. Nothing slips through the cracks with us. You might be tired of hearing me say we work like a well-oiled machine, but it’s true. I manage our listings; Josh, Amy and Barb place all of our buyers, and Shaundra is the glue that glides us in what seems like an effortless endeavor to closing.
Thank you, Josh, Amy, Barbara and Shaundra for another wonderful year at Lyon Real Estate. The Elizabeth Weintraub Team would not excel if not for all of you. Dan Tharp at Guild Mortgage was out of town this year and could not attend the Lyon Real Estate Awards, but Dan, we want you to know you are valuable and adored by us as well.
If you need help with Sacramento real estate, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
A Behind the Scenes Peek at the Best Real Estate Team in Sacramento
The best real estate team in Sacramento in our clients’ minds is the Elizabeth Weintraub Team.
If you ask me, I will tell you the Elizabeth Weintraub Team is the best real estate team in Sacramento, because that’s what I believe and how our clients brag about us to their friends. We are not the biggest by any stretch but we close a large number of transactions every year, enough to surpass the dollar volume of many of the luxury agents selling $25 million or more — who also close fewer transactions than us. We buck the norm and accept everybody, small condo buyers to million-plus home sellers. There are only four of us, plus a transaction coordinator; we are all Realtors.
Our clients truly receive the most incredible service available. Our real estate practice is specialized and each client receives individual attention. I suspect there are a lot of agents who don’t really understand how a real estate team in Sacramento works, and that would include consumers as well. That’s probably because many teams work differently than the Elizabeth Weintraub Team. We are unique. Efficient. Competent. Professional. Experienced.
It was clear to me when I visited with a seller in Curtis Park a few days ago. The seller is also a buyer, presently in escrow to buy a home by utilizing the services of a team member on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team. That team member is Josh Amolsch, an agent who specializes in offering exclusive buyer’s agent services to our clients. The client gushed on and on about how fantastic Josh is, his steadfast dedication and humble approach, which obviously our clients find endearing.
Josh, I should add, is a genuine person, which is a requirement to be on our team. We share progressive values; it’s the best way to work together. We have each other’s backs and it shows in our interaction. He is extremely conscientious and always puts his client’s needs first, above his own — even when he might prefer to be snowboarding or playing lead guitar in his band, he loves real estate and takes his role seriously.
I also listened to the seller complain about the agent he used when he bought his present home in Curtis Park. He said the agent had a team and passed off all the work to the team, and did nothing to help him to buy the home and ignored all of his requests. I could not imagine running a team in that manner. This happened years ago and the guy is still ticked off at that agent. Can’t say I harbor much respect for the fellow, either. I last worked with that agent on a transaction and never once received any communication. But not every agent, even agents who spend thousands on billboards and bus bench advertising, care about client satisfaction.
The way our team works, I handle all of the listings. Listings are my specialty. I represent only sellers. I do not personally work with buyers. I am a listing specialist. Although I’ve been in the business for more than 40 years, it’s really been the last 10 years that have brought crystal clarity to how well I perform listing homes. That job as a Sacramento listing agent plays to all of my strengths, and I thoroughly enjoy representing sellers.
Working in real estate in one capacity as a listing agent or the other as a buyer’s agent is what many agents aspire to become but never quite reach that pinnacle, so I feel pretty special. I’d say fortunate but I’m not really lucky when I worked hard to achieve this status. This is how many agents dream real estate should be. When a seller needs to buy a home, I pair the client with the team member best suited for the seller’s personality and targeted area.
My team members work exclusively with buyers, as a buyer’s specialist. We have no conflicts of interest, unlike many other agents who practice dual representation, which we do not. When you perform a job over and over, you become pretty darn good at it, when you’re not trying to be all things to all people. Their sole job, day in and day out, is to show homes, write offers, negotiate repairs and close escrow. I could not be prouder of my affiliation with each.
I saw something some agent had written recently that implied she was “old school” because she gave individual attention to her clients, “unlike a team,” and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Her “old school” is trying to be both a listing agent and a buyer’s agent at the same time, and probably double-ending the transaction by representing both the buyer and seller as well. Offering watered-down diluted services and bringing conflict of interests to the forefront, I imagine.
A real estate team in Sacramento like the Elizabeth Weintraub Team flourishes by concentrating entirely on the client and providing specialized services that few other teams provide in this manner. We run like a well-oiled machine. Clients would be hard pressed to find another listing agent who only works only with sellers or a group of buyer’s agents dedicated only to the buying end. It takes completely different approaches, skill sets and experience to do each of those jobs, which is why I predict we’re probably the wave of the future.
Years from now you probably won’t see individual agents trying to wear multiple hats in the real estate business. No jack of all trades in the business. Clients will become more sophisticated and demand separate services. You’ll have mainly only real estate teams, and we will still be here, striving continually to earn the trust and great reviews from our clients as the best real estate team in Sacramento.
I was one of the early adopters and pioneers of buyer broker agreements in the early 1980s when nobody knew what it was. Who knew back then buyers deserved to reserve services? I’m often ahead of the curve. If you’d like to hear more, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Why Sacramento Real Estate Teams are the Future
Sacramento real estate teams working together can work in the best interests of clients.
When I look back at my start in real estate in the 1970s, I would never have predicted that today I would lead one of the most successful Sacramento real estate teams in the state of California. In fact, back then I represented only buyers for the most part, and if I had a seller in my portfolio of clients, I matched that seller with a buyer in my portfolio. Dual agency? Who cared? My career began as a real estate consultant, and selling real estate was just a byproduct of an intensive counseling process.
Almost every client was an investor. I helped them to tap the equity in their homes to buy rental properties. Eventually I opened 3 real estate offices in Orange County as the managing broker / owner. I operated that way for 12 years before I decided I did not want to own a real estate company. But I still focused on buyers. Fast forward to my relocation to Sacramento in 2002, via Minneapolis. I volunteered for a year on the Building Unity in Oak Park committee, briefly worked as the marketing manager at the Sacramento SPCA, while eventually hanging my real estate license in 2003 at Lyon Real Estate.
My real estate career in Sacramento began slowly, too tediously. At one point, I asked the managing broker if perhaps I should join one of the Sacramento real estate teams. Her reaction was absolutely not! I can see why she responded that way today, but at the time I didn’t really understand how Sacramento real estate teams operated, so it was confusing to me. I just knew I could do so much more than I was doing. It was an unfulfilled yearning.
It took at least another 5 years of selling Sacramento real estate, working with both sellers and buyers, before I figured out that Sacramento real estate teams are the future of California real estate. My friend, JaCi Wallace, pointed me in that direction. I am grateful to her. Now, many Sacramento real estate teams are different. They don’t all follow the same protocol or rules. I set up my real estate team the way that I feel it benefits everybody on the team. We each pursue our own specialities. I dare say that we have redefined the way to sell Sacramento real estate.
Sacramento Listing Agent Speciality in Sacramento Real Estate Teams
For example, I work closely with sellers as a listing agent. With very few exceptions, I handle all of the listings for the team. Turns out I have a passionate calling as a top producer listing agent. Who knew? I love working with sellers exclusively. It’s easy to make sellers happy. I know what they want. They want maximum price / profit, minimum hassle and excellent communication. I can give them that. That is my focus. I love marketing homes, the creative aspects, and I excel at fine-tuning negotiation strategies. Being a listing agent hits all of my hot buttons. My 40+ years of experience obviously pays off for my sellers.
Sacramento Buyer’s Agent Speciality in Sacramento Real Estate Teams
On the other hand, my team members are free to work madly on their own passions, which is helping buyers purchase a home. We cover four counties. My team members find homes for my sellers who want to sell and move up. They spend countless hours scouring inventory, escorting my clients to view homes and treating them to white-glove service, just the way that I would. We truly complement each other. We probably do twice as much business as any one of us could accomplish alone. Clients always have an agent available to them. We cover each other’s backs, too. The Elizabeth Weintraub Team members are buyer specialists.
No longer do I have to worry: am I representing my sellers fairly? Because without dual representation, my focus is on my sellers. It’s a freedom for me and an absolute joy for them. Teams within a real estate brokerage are the upcoming thing in California. I’ve been managing my team for just about 7 years now. It’s the best of all worlds for everybody. When you only do one thing, you tend to do it really, really well. If you’d like to know more, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Expert House Hunting Tips Serve Sacramento Home Buyers
Elizabeth Weintraub’s house hunting tips leave no stone unturned.
Below are a few house hunting tips that I developed for use when working with Sacramento home buyers, but they can apply to most home searching efforts in California and probably outside of the state as well. The first tip is to know what the buyer would like to buy and needs to buy. Likes and needs are two different things but if we can accomplish both, then buyers have found the perfect home.
Little is worse than managing an irritated buyer, I imagine, who might say something like: the house is a total disaster — because the agent showed her relocation buyer the wrong home. Yet, that seems to happen on a regular basis around Sacramento. It is as common as a summer day in Sacramento topping 100 degrees; I often receive feedback on my listings from agents that indicate the agent should never have showed that home to that particular buyer.
Some of the reasons agents show homes that do not fit their buyer’s requirements are:
- The agent does not know the neighborhood and therefore does not know what to expect from certain price points. For example, if an agent spots a 3,000 square foot home in Midtown that is, oh, let’s say priced at $525,000, that’s because the home is a fixer.
- The agent does not read the marketing comments in MLS nor the confidential agent remarks in the listing, which typically set forth expectations and provide a wealth of information.
- The agent does not understand the buyer’s wants and needs.
- There is nothing else available in the buyer’s price range. Otherwise, how does that explain an agent, say, showing a 600-square-foot home to parents with many children? Yet, that happens. And the feedback is, no surprise, oh sorry, the home is not big enough.
- The agent doesn’t have enough experience to know how to offer variables and solutions to help a buyer expand her horizons and / or parameters.
My house hunting tips are to thoroughly investigate available properties. Before showing, the professional buyer’s agents know almost everything we can possibly discover about that home. We know, for example, how long the listing agent has been in business and how many homes she typically sells, and at what percentage from list price. We know how long the seller has owned the home and the approximate unpaid mortgage balance. We know how many days on market it took to sell the home the last time it was on the market, which signifies appeal.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg; we study the photographs to look for defects and, if possible, we preview. A home buyer’s time is valuable and top agents know that maximizing showing times is paramount. One of my best house hunting tips is for the buyer’s agent to call the Sacramento listing agent. Yes, phone to ear. Call. Old fashioned stuff that still works.
And let’s not forget our party girlfriend: Google.
If one can find the seller on Facebook, often an agent can read all about his plans to sell and hopes for a new home or whether he has been transferred out of state, getting divorced or, say, borrowing to meet the demands of a bail bond. It’s amazing what people disclose through social media. If you need a professional buyer’s agent, call the Elizabeth Weintraub Team at 916.233.6759.
The Best Review for Sacramento Realtors From Happy Clients
Barbara Dow and Elizabeth Weintraub on vacation in Hawaii
Nobody ever says it as well as our Sacramento real estate clients in this best review for Sacramento Realtors. Usually I read a review from a client and I think, wow, this is the best review I’ve ever received, and then a few months later, BAM, we get a better one. I don’t put ideas or thoughts into anybody’s head, and our clients write their own reviews. Without further ado, here is a best review for Sacramento Realtors about Elizabeth Weintraub and Barbara Dow:
“. . . Imagine you are in a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE scenario in your own home . . . We were, and we had consulted with all of our knowledgeable friends on how to successfully accomplish it without anyone getting hurt. Of course, we turned to the WEINTRAUB TEAM for the perfect solution. . . The MISSION Elizabeth chose to accept: Put our condo on the market at the best price, attract multiple buyers, work effectively and quickly, achieve a price auction so the accepted offer is above the asking price–
“MISSION ACCOMPLISHED . . . and, at the same, in another part of town, another key member of the “Weintraub TEAM” was triangulating our parameters to zero-in on our desired home to purchase. Barbara Dow tirelessly found, showed and continued to find worthy candidates for our consideration. She worked smart, hard and fast. Meanwhile, back on the home front, Elizabeth was approaching closing only days after listing. (hear the intense theme in the background, the fuse is rapidly burning). We must find our new home NOW! Can we really pull this off?
“In a nick of time, Barbara called the next morning with a new listing. She sped us to the scene where we found the perfect home and had our offer in only 90 minutes after it was listed. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Epilogue: The Weintraub Team pulled off a perfect CONCURRENT CLOSE with the sale over asking and the purchase below asking . . .
“MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, and in a mere matter of weeks, well before that burning fuse reached its end. TOTAL SUCCESS.
“The WEINTRAUB TEAM will accomplish your MISSION, contact them NOW! By the way, randomly search almost any real estate question on the internet, and you will find Elizabeth providing your answer. She is a nationally recognized real estate expert. This is the second home we have found thanks to her and her team. I cannot recommend her more enthusiastically or wholeheartedly. If is seems impossible, remember to ask Elizabeth first.”
Thank you, Paul and Leslie. I’ve gotta ask my readers though, isn’t this the best review for Sacramento Realtors you have ever read? I asked if they would write a couple of lines about their experience, and we got a screenplay for Mission Impossible, with a commercial at the end! We love these people!
