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What Kind of Sacramento Real Estate Agent Does That?
It’s not unusual for an agent to hire this Sacramento real estate agent, or for any of my clients to have held at some point in their lives a California real estate salesperson license, because roughly 1 in every 35 people in California has a real estate license. Having passed the real estate exam and being entitled to practice real estate for 4 years, however, is no guarantee of knowledge, and it certainly does not reflect experience, yet there is a certain comradery among us agents.
I say this because I just closed a real estate transaction in Fair Oaks for a couple of sisters, one of which is a real estate agent. They found me online and read many of my blogs, articles on About.com, and were impressed with my decades of experience. But they still wanted to interview several other agents. Actually, I don’t know if they ever did because after they hired me it didn’t matter. I presented a strong case to choose me over another agent they were considering because I have a strong case to present. I don’t have to sugarcoat any facts or make myself sound better than I am to attract clients.
After the sale of this particular duplex closed escrow, I called to let the sellers know I had received confirmation of closing. It’s important that I speak directly to the sellers when a transaction closes, even if we’ve been communicating all along through email or text. I don’t want take a chance of a technology failure to deliver the news. So, I do the old-fashioned thing: press my Bluetooth earpiece and demand a phone call.
Sellers often like to reminisce during these types of conversations, and this seller was no different, even though she was a real estate agent. She said that what I did to truly earn my commission in her eyes was how I handled the situation when we received an offer that was $9,000 below list price. I advised her to issue a counter offer at list price because I believed she could get list price.
I didn’t deliver this advice off the top of my head. I studied the way the offer was written, reviewed the proof of funds (it was all cash), looked up the history and production of the buyer’s agent, analyzed the deposit check, among a myriad of other things that I do upon receipt of a purchase offer. Sellers pay me to think, not to react without consideration. I’m not a messenger, I am a negotiator. Given the present inventory on the market, and the attractive price of this duplex, I believed the seller could demand list price so that’s what I advised her to do, to counter back to list price. Which was accepted, btw.
There is a fine line between telling a seller what to do and advising a seller. I am not a White Knight Agent. I don’t make decisions for my clients. I deeply care that my clients are informed, and I deliver my advice based on experience and knowledge. I’ve worked with agents who get themselves all worked up into a lather and somehow superimpose themselves into the escrow, which creates horrible nightmares. I don’t lose sight of my position nor fabricate answers for my clients.
The seller asked out loud yesterday, after her reflection on events: What kind of agent does that? What kind of agent tells a seller she should counter? I guess this one. She seemed to be blown away that a Sacramento real estate agent would actually do what is best for her client. Although, I don’t really understand why. We have a fiduciary to our clients. It doesn’t matter to me if the seller wants to accept a purchase offer or send a counter offer or ignore the offer as long as the seller is happy. I suppose I should ask her for a review.
Top Producer Sacramento Real Estate Agents and Objectivity
I have often said that if a client works with a top producer Sacramento real estate agent, the client never has to worry about her agent’s objectivity because objectivity is first and foremost. It’s very easy to keep a clients’ interests at the forefront of every transaction when an agent’s income is not affected by whether it closes. I can see some agents reading this blog now and exploding. They might think it sounds like I’m saying agents who don’t do a lot of business will compromise their ethics, and that’s not what I’m implying.
At least not consciously. I don’t believe a real estate agent looks at a pending escrow and contemplates what will happen to the agent if it doesn’t close. Agents are not necessarily counting on every transaction to close in order to pay their mortgage payment or maybe they are, I don’t know. I just know there is no conflict when finances are not a concern. When you’re busy all the time, the money just appears like magic. There is no wondering if you’re doing the right thing when advising a client because you know in your heart that you’re putting the client’s needs first. There is no internal struggle.
Besides, you’re too damn busy to think about yourself. All you have time for is your client’s wishes and desires.
I can recall an instance in the mid 1970s when I was interrupted and asked how long it would take me to finish an appointment with a client. I had been behind closed doors talking with an elderly client for several hours. My answer was it would take as long as it takes. I’m still the same way today, 40 years later. I give my clients all the time they need to make a decision, and I don’t push or shove them into anything they’re not ready to do. I lose some clients this way because I don’t always follow up with them; I figure when they’re ready they’ll call me back — some do, but some get sidetracked.
If sellers want to sell their home, fine, I’ll sell it. If they don’t want to sell, fine, I won’t. If the buyer makes a demand that the seller doesn’t agree with, the seller can cancel and I’ll endorse that decision — if that’s what the seller really wants. Because if the seller doesn’t care if it closes, I surely do not. If the seller wants to close, I’ll do whatever it takes. It’s very easy to be objective. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that clear objectivity might be a reason why some people struggle a little bit with trusting a real estate agent and sometimes squint at agents out of the corner of their eye.
Sure, I get paid but it’s not my focus. I hope nobody ever looks at me with one eye closed.
Using Common Sense in Sacramento Real Estate
Common sense mixed with the truth must be a wild concept to some. I wish people would quit thanking me for being honest with them, because the message they’re really sending is they expected that I would lie. It’s not that I couldn’t lie if I wanted to because, let’s face it, I sell real estate in Sacramento and just to be successful in that profession there is a certain amount of enhancing the truth to push product; it’s the spin. Can’t be in marketing without the spin. But it’s that I don’t go out of my way to make up crap because a) it’s stupid and wrong, b) I’d have to remember it, and c) it’s easier just to tell the truth.
Years ago I had a girlfriend who was a pathological liar. You couldn’t believe a word that came out of her mouth. I don’t know if she lived in a fantasy world or just liked to fool people but she’d tell the most outrageous stories to complete strangers, and none of it was true. We’d meet cute guys at a party and she’d tell them we were flight attendants or we lived in Japan. There was no reason for it. Guys who are 22 don’t really care what you do for a living when they are seized by hormones.
Personally, I find being truthful rewarding. It’s second nature. It’s not that I don’t know when to keep my lips zipped, because I do, but the older I get, the more I enjoy telling people what I think. I say things at times that other people wish they could say but they haven’t yet given themselves permission to do so. This is one of the freeing benefits of aging. We give ourselves permission to speak our mind. They don’t tell you about this in Sunday school.
Not that I’m out there in my yard waving my fists at kids and yelling get offa my lawn you hoodlums, and that little pooping chihuahua with you, too. Reality and protocol are still embedded. But I will tell people what I believe.
Of the five senses, common is my favorite.
Like this guy yesterday from somewhere in the Northeast, maybe New Jersey. He wanted to know when he should do a price reduction on this home. It was listed with an agent. He poured out the entire listing history in his email, including suggestions made by his agent, which he had been ignoring. My-oh-my, whatever should he do?
He should listen to his real estate agent and stop asking for direction from strangers on the other side of the country.
Then, an elderly fellow called to talk about his friend whose husband had died, and he thought maybe his friend should do a short sale. I looked up the information in records that are not accessible to the public and easily sized up the situation. Yes, his friend was upside down but there was no reason for her to short sale. She wasn’t responsible for the mortgages. She should get out of title. I suggested he obtain legal advice. I was looking at it from his friend’s point of view, which was why go through the hassle and misery if you don’t have to?
See, common sense pertains to so many things. And it applies to Sacramento real estate as well. While it would be nice to lounge about and dispense sage advice all day while being fanned and fed seedless grapes, the fact is my job is to sell real estate.
Commission-Gate and the Sacramento Real Estate Agent
Who knew that selling Sacramento real estate was likely to turn into its own little Commission-Gate? Over my past 40 years in real estate, this was a first for me. Now, we know buyers are a bit desperate vying for certain homes, and agents can be all over the map when trying to help them buy those homes, too. But holy moley, you don’t throw a bag of money at the listing agent, for heaven’s sake. No, I don’t want to see the gold watches pinned inside your coat, button yourself up and get outta here.
Let’s set aside the fact that it’s against the law, probably violates the Code of Ethics, and it breaches an agent’s fiduciary relationship with her seller, and look at what buyers or their agent — hard to say where the idea originated — were coming from. See, Mikey here really wants this house, see. Poor Mikey and his dame, they just wanna buy a house, and they know it’s uncool to be packing heat. They don’t wanna wear no bracelets, much less end up in the stinkin’ meatwagon heading off to the Big House; so, instead, see, they’re just gonna sweeten the deal with moolah.
I can’t believe a buyer’s agent asked this Sacramento real estate agent yesterday to accept a kickback on the commission. She offered 25% of her commission to me as a bonus if I would just get her buyers into that house. What?
Yeah, my jaw is still hanging open. I had to tell her to hang on her to cabbage and just write the best offer that her buyers could write. I’m nobody’s stool pigeon but I’m kinda floored that she had the gall to ask such a thing. Is this Chicago? What’s next? No, I’m not going there because sure as crap somebody will try to do it if I say it. I’m not putting ideas into anybody’s head, not even as a joke.
This market is not bringing out the best in people. Some real estate agents are becoming forgetful. To some, the Code of Ethics is something dark and murky, in their past; they’re too busy crawling over dead bodies to get to that pile of gold. We simply cannot set aside our professionalism because the market is hard or inventory is low. I find this kind of behavior troubling because it reflects poorly on all of us.
The Press Say If Your Mother Says She Loves You, Check It Out
Don’t deviate from the plan. That’s my motto. Because I’ve learned that 9 times out of 10, if I make an exception to the way I do business, it comes back to bite me. In other words, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Once you’ve got a system that works, stick to it. Don’t back down. Ever. The day you do, you’re screwed.
But I know that you won’t listen to me because sometimes I don’t even listen to me. I’ve been known to break my own rules. But at least I know better . . .
In the fall of 1998, it was cold in Chicago. I grabbed my then-boyfriend’s hand, pulled my fox fur collar closer to my neck and we scurried along Michigan Avenue. The wind was blowing in over the lake. Brrrr. You might think that Chicago is called the Windy City because it’s windy, but that’s not the case; Chicagoans say it’s named the Windy City for its windy blow-hard politicians. We had flown in from Minneapolis and were headed for that famous building with a sculpture of a rabbit drummer in front — I believe, if memory serves, it was the John Hancock Center.
My husband was and still is a journalist. He just doesn’t work for anybody now. Like many journalists who hailed from Chicago, he cut his teeth by working at the City News Bureau. It has a fond place in his heart. Rough, rowdy and real. In 1998, the City News Bureau was closing after more than 100 years of service, and we were going to the top of the John Hancock building to attend a farewell party. It was bittersweet for many alumni in attendance. The slogan that every beat reporter knows and repeats from the City News Bureau is: “If Your Mother Says She Loves You, Check it Out.”
I latched on to that phrase because I know it is true. It’s good to be skeptical. Like Dr. Gregory House says, “Everybody lies.” It’s even more important to be skeptical as a Sacramento short sale agent — or any kind of Sacramento real estate agent, for that matter.
I received a very attractive offer last week from a buyer’s agent on one of my Sacramento short sale listings. Everything about the offer screamed take it. It was well written. Healthy earnest money deposit. The buyer’s agent and the buyer promised to wait for short sale approval. It was above the asking price. However, the buyer’s preapproval letter did not match the loan amount. It was for less.
When your mother says she loves you, check it out. We wrote a counter offer asking for an updated approval letter that reflected the loan amount. No, problem, the agent scoffed. The buyers are fully qualified. I was tempted to let it go but I didn’t. Don’t deviate from the plan. Guess what? The buyers did not qualify for the higher amount. No joke. Especially in a short sale, you do NOT want to find out the buyer is unqualified upon short sale approval.
While Elizabeth is on vacation, we are revisiting her favorite blogs from previous years.
