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Why Trulia Listings Are Missing Homes for Sale in Sacramento
The delays in delivering Trulia listings to the public means that home is probably not available.
It doesn’t matter if you are looking for Trulia listings on Trulia or Zillow listings on Zillow, the information offered is not exactly the same data a home buyer could receive if the buyer obtained her listings from a Sacramento Realtor. That’s a major disadvantage to a buyer who does not have an agent. Relying on Trulia listings or Zillow listings is a very difficult way to hope to buy a home in Sacramento; almost impossible. Yet you wouldn’t know that because the photographs are pretty and the homes appear to be for sale, even when many are not.
Let’s say, just for the fun of it, that you find a home through Trulia listings that you would like to buy. Here’s what you don’t know. You don’t know if any of the four agents presented to you as authorities for a particular neighborhood have ever sold a home in that neighborhood. Fact. Many are new agents who pay to advertise their mugs on Trulia in hopes you will call them. If you do call one of those agents, realize the phone number is not the agent’s phone number. The individual phone numbers listed for agents belongs to Trulia or Zillow and . . . Big Brother is tracking and recording your call. Betcha didn’t know that.
If you do manage by some miracle to contact an agent who answers her phone, the agent will want to show you other homes if that home is pending, and that particular home is most likely pending or sold. Just realize the odds of that home being for sale are not very high. The market for Sacramento real estate is moving FAST. Often homes sell before the For Sale sign is pounded into the ground.
I can assure you there are homes you want to buy RIGHT NOW that are not among Trulia listings. I hear Trulia is working on this issue, but it’s been an issue for us agents forever. When will it get fixed? I don’t know. Like you, I want it now, and I can’t get it from Trulia. If a 40-year veteran agent can’t get it, what does it say about you?
The lead time for MLS data from brokers to download into Trulia is 48 to 72 hours. There is a delay. Two to three days for brand new listings to appear! Fact. Plus, Trulia does not pick up every listing that shows up on Zillow, either. Although Zillow tends to immediately reflects new listings for sale, providing they were not entered into its site in some earlier format, but loses points because it also lists homes that are not for sale at all such as so-called preforeclosures.
If you are not working a local Sacramento Realtor, the truth is you probably will not buy a home. Or, certainly not the home you really want. You need that connection to the inventory and our specific market knowledge, not to mention our networking within the industry.
If you want to find out if the listing agent presented to you is actually the listing agent, then you need to click on that agent’s website and look for the address. Or, you can decide to hire the best Sacramento buyer’s agent you can find. The agents who work on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team are top-notch, and we are crazy busy in this spring market, but never too busy for you. Call us. We can help you to navigate the maze of independent websites offering homes for sale. Your best bet is not Trulia listings nor Zillow listings. Your best bet is an experienced Sacramento Realtor. This is not a do-it-yourself situation.
Call your internet specialist, Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Top producer Sacramento Realtor at Lyon Real Estate, the #1 Sacramento brokerage for sales.
Top 3 Tips for Buying a Home in the Sacramento Spring Market
Following Elizabeth Weintraub’s 3 tips are likely to lead to buying a home in Sacramento.
Before I talk about my tips for buying home in the Sacramento spring market, let me say that the Elizabeth Weintraub Team, our small band of rabble-rousers, are shaking up the real estate market in Sac Metro this spring. We ranked #2 for the month of March among all Lyon Realtors, and we have about 1,000 agents. We might have had the same type of production for February, now that I pause. February was so long ago, though . . .
Our Sacramento real estate market is moving fast and furiously. This means when a buyer finds a home to buy, he or she should make an offer. Among the many tips for buying a home that you can find online, probably the first tip you will read is for the buyer’s agent to call the listing agent and ask: how many offers do you have?
Top 3 Tips for Buying a Home in Sacramento This Spring
In this market, among the best tips for buying a home a home that I can provide is pay list price or better. I see buyers trying to negotiate like this is 1999 instead of 2016. I’m not sure if their agents have been sleeping under a rock or if the buyers themselves never watch the news nor read a newspaper. This spring real estate market is made up of no sellers, too many buyers.
The second tip is do not assume the listing agent will not receive an offer by the time your agent submits an offer. Just because there are no offers on the table at the time your buyer’s agent calls does not mean a half dozen might not show up between then, later and after your offer arrives. Don’t base your offer on the state of affairs at the time you write it. Base that offer on the future. Put your best offer out there because you might not get another chance.
There is no law that says a seller must counter all of the offers through a multiple-offer situation. Sellers are free to choose just the one offer that meets all needs. Some do that just that.
The final of my tips for buying a home in Sacramento this spring, you may want to pass on the cobweb agent and consider a professional buyer’s agent. All agents are not equal. Choose your buyer’s agent based on the type of lawyer you would want on your side if you had to go to court. If you wouldn’t want that agent representing you in court, don’t choose that type of agent to write your offer. Find an experienced agent who is busy in this spring market, and you’ll go into escrow.
Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. We serve four counties.
Selling Luxury Homes in Sacramento With Team Weintraub
Flowers delivered to Amy McMullan from happy home buyers in Sacramento.
How would you like to get your real estate license and close a multi-million transaction as one of your first? I suspect that scenario is every new agent’s dream. It’s probably also the way many in the public view the work of real estate agents; that it’s glamorous, just like on HGTV, and we wash our hair in champagne for extra bounce and body. In actuality, it is extremely hard work, especially starting out when there is so much to learn and not much in time in which to acquire that knowledge. It’s not always a case of selling luxury homes in Sacramento for a newer agent. In fact, it’s rarely.
In some ways, being a brand new agent is like standing in the middle of a public street at rush hour, while cars whiz by and you try not to get killed. Stuff coming at you from all directions and not just at eye level. Birds overhead pooping as they fly past and you’re ducking to avoid the droppings.
I know this because even though it’s been more than 40 years since I entered the real estate profession, I do personally mentor my Elizabeth Weintraub Team agents. Sometimes, when you’re a team leader who is searching for that perfect team member, it’s more advantageous and smarter to work with an individual who has all the right traits to become an enormous success in the business and help them get licensed than to choose an agent with decades of experience.
Amy McMullan and I go way back. She was one of my first clients when I came to Sacramento. When she called last year to talk about obtaining her California real estate license, I knew without a doubt in my mind that she will soar in this business. She and I share similar personalities and outlooks. Amy loves the real estate business with an irrefutable passion; she has focus, tenacity, intelligence and tons of common sense. She just closed a transaction for a little under $2 million. She now knows early on what it’s like to be an agent selling luxury homes in Sacramento.
The clients called me out of the blue on a Saturday morning, quite early, and I answered the phone. Chatted briefly and decided the personality of the buyer fit Amy’s personality perfectly. At the time, I had no idea they wanted to look at multi-million homes, but it would not have changed my opinion that Amy could handle it. We poured over listings online. Talked incessantly. Discussed each listing and how to handle showing it. Intense training.
Negotiated our way through the purchase contract. Once in escrow, we spoke almost daily about the inspections and repairs. Amy sought advice from other Team Weintraub agents, too. Thank you, Josh and thank you, Barbara. We all work together. Amy was never alone in this. Both Josh and Barbara have experience selling luxury homes in Sacramento, just like me.
However, it was definitely Amy’s incredible strength, her dedication and her wisdom that closed the transaction. I am extremely proud that these clients were ecstatic and thrilled to the extent they sent the beautiful flower arrangements pictured above to our office for Amy. Congratulations, Amy. You are on your way to becoming a rock star! I am jazzed to call you my friend and team member. We all on the Team envision greatness for you. And after other brokers see this blog, they will undoubtedly try to steal you away. It’s the nature of the business.
But we know where your heart lies.
Sacramento Real Estate Team Celebrates Friday at the Riverside Clubhouse
Clockwise, Dan Tharp, Shaundra Bradley, Elizabeth Weintraub, Josh Amolsch, Amy McMullan and Kim Hedges.
Before I left for my Minneapolis trip last week, all of my Team Weintraub members got together for a Friday happy hour at Riverside Clubhouse in Land Park. The only thing I regret from the experience is that Barbara had to leave early and, as a result, was not included in the photographs we later shot. But what a blast for this Sacramento real estate team to meet for a couple of cocktails and dinner on a Friday. We often talk by phone, email and communicate through text, but meeting up with each other is a rare occurrence, to get us all together in one place.
The problem was the engagement was too rich, too full of laughter and sharing with each other that we didn’t think to take a photo earlier. I did that last week in Minneapolis. I was sitting in a bakery cafe at Bachman’s on Lyndale, visiting with Gary Lee Joyner, an old friend, extremely talented musician / artist. We had hitchhiked to Washington D.C. together in 1969, along with my girlfriend from Wayzata, to march against the war in Vietnam. I thought to shoot a picture of the Christmas decorations in the lobby of Bachman’s, but I never got a photo of the two of us, much less of him, even though it had momentarily crossed my mind. I was too focused on the conversation. The moment at hand.
Your work family is like family when you’re in Sacramento real estate. We all support each other and I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I can go anywhere in the world and my Sacramento real estate team members will take care of business, and vice versa. We are not Paul Simon; we are not an island. We’re a group of veteran professionals committed to the core philosophy that our clients are the focus. We don’t want simply “satisfied” clients, we want our clients to be ecstatic and to find comfort in the fact that we will always go that extra mile for them.
Our Sacramento real estate team work does not fall through the cracks. We rarely make a mistake, probably because we’ve made so many decades ago as we learned the Sacramento real estate business, and we learn from our own mistakes. We don’t want to repeat a mistake twice because that’s idiotic.
I hand-picked the members of my team because they show the same work ethic and dedication to excellence that I see in myself. We are similar stock, although we come from all walks of life and bridge generations. If you are hoping to buy or sell a home in the four-county area of Sacramento, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. You’ll get a Sacramento real estate team to support your transaction, along with a top ranking Sacramento Realtor.
Sacramento Home Buyers Can Buy Today and Move Before Christmas
Sacramento home buyers have enough time still to close before Christmas.
Sacramento home buyers have got to be driving up the insanity level of buyer’s agents. There seems to be an increase of activity in which buyers are submitting purchase offers and, upon acceptance, withdrawing those offers. I would almost be tempted to suggest that agents are not counseling nor vetting their buyers prior to writing an offer, but I know for a fact that is not the case in many situations. Just the other day a buyer canceled an existing escrow because the state-mandated natural hazard report disclosed the property is located in a flood zone, although the lender did not require flood insurance. Or, at least that was their story and they were sticking to it.
Most of Sacramento is located in a flood zone. And even if a property is not located in a flood zone, if Folsom Dam bursts, we’re all hosed downstream. Sacramento County is the most at-risk area for a flood in the entire country. Believe it, baby.
It is not the job of buyer’s agents to drag their clients kicking and screaming into escrow. I know some Sacramento home buyers think agents can be pushy but most of the agents I know truly want what is best for their clients. That attitude might be for somewhat selfish reasons because a happy client is a client who refers business to the agent. Unhappy clients push business away. Nobody in her right mind wants an unhappy client. Yet, it’s tough for agents right now.
It’s tough on sellers, too, when Sacramento home buyers fail to perform. Especially when sellers receive a full-price offer and the buyer cancels before the paperwork can make its way to escrow. I’ve had two of those types of situations yesterday, on two different listings. The buyers flaked out. Well, in one instance the buyer could not perform because the agent wrote the wrong kind of offer and made a mistake when she did her homework. The proper way to view that particular situation is: a problem averted down the road. We did not go into escrow as a result but at least we were not the dreaded “back on market” home listing.
With my ear to the ground — the good ear, not the one that I stuffed soda straws into when I was a kid and punctured my eardrum — I hear that almost half of the listings that are pending right now are blowing up. This means we are unlikely to see an uptick in closed sales for December. If it’s gotta happen in any month, December is a good month for a slow down because it’s seasonally a quieter time of the year.
There is still time to buy a home today and be settled by Christmas, though. Call the Elizabeth Weintraub Team at 916.233.6759.
