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Do Realtors in the City of Davis Prefer Dual Agency?
Do Realtors in the City of Davis prefer dual agency?
Realtors in the City of Davis called this real estate broker continuously yesterday. It was difficult to keep up with the phone calls, text messages and emails as I entered into a “no service” zone at a U. C. Davis Medical Center. That was kind of like the Twilight Zone. Eerily quiet. No zing, ping, snap, twinkle, or loud Louie-Louie song breakout while I sat in the waiting room. The doctors were 3 hours behind yesterday. Usually they are right on the button when I show up for my annual SI joint injection appointment. Yes, when you get to be an older real estate broker like me, sometimes you need an injection to keep the old body moving along another year.
The Realtors in the City of Davis were relentless. I figured it would be either me or my client, so it was better to make me the source of these telephone calls. That’s part of my job as a Realtor, to be the buffer. You see, once a listing is canceled or withdrawn from MLS, agents come out of the woodwork. In their excitement, some of those real estate agents don’t even notice that the listing has gone back on the market as a new listing. They still call the seller to beg for the chance to list the home. From their point of view, why not? Here’s a guy who wanted to sell and didn’t, for whatever reason. But still . . .
On the other hand, if a listing goes into Temporary Off Market status, the agents are prohibited from hounding, er, pursuing, the seller. The back story is I have a former client in Davis who wants to sell a home in Davis, and he asked me to list it in May with the hopes of going on the market at the end of June or early July, after a few repairs and sprucing up efforts. As things sometimes go, the projected on-market date was pushed further out a few days ago. MLS regulations are a listing can stay in off-market status for a maximum of 60 days. We would not be ready to go on the market by the end of July, so we were forced to take action on this particular listing.
To put the listing into TOM status requires going “active” in MLS for a few minutes and then off market. I asked the seller to sign a Modification of Terms reflecting this technicality. However, the Realtors in the City of Davis went crazy over this. One of the Realtors left me voice mails that referred twice to this “strange listing,” with a peculiar tone in her voice. I didn’t understand. Then, another Davis Realtor called and asked if this was one of those “games” that Realtors in the City of Davis apparently play or he thought they did. Due to no entiendo, I asked for clarification. What “game” is played by Realtors in the City of Davis, I asked?
I’m certainly not playing a game. Oh, you know, the Davis Realtor explained. You put the home on the market, take it off the market and then buyers call you directly (so you double-end the transaction). That had not occurred to me, probably because it is unethical. Anybody who knows me knows that is not how I operate. In fact, I prefer single representation. But apparently, in the close-knit community of Realtors in the City of Davis, real estate is, let’s say, different.
How to Close $2 Million in Sales in Sacramento in One Day
Closing $2 million in sales in one day in Sacramento is remarkable
A milestone day happened yesterday that is very rare in my end of the Sacramento real estate market and, in fact, I wouldn’t have even known that it happened if escrow had not pointed it out to me. Most of the listings that I take and sell, for example, fall within a wide range of price points, but I’m betting the mid-range of prices for homes in Sacramento is around $300K to $500K. Not only was it a surprise, but it was an odd feeling when escrow mentioned I was about to close $2 million in sales in one day. What? $2 million in sales for Sacramento home sales in one day?
All the home sales were very different from each other. One of the homes was one of those custom magnificent homes in Davis, which sold for $1.5m, so that home sale took up a big chunk of my $2 million in sales volume. An agent in Davis called last week to drill me about the buyer for this home. She wanted to know if there was financing, if the home appraised at the sales price, and insinuated it was overpriced. On top of which, she asked if the buyer was from out-of-the-area, i.e. Bay area, implying that a local buyer must not be in escrow. What business is it of hers where the buyer is from? She has no business knowing any of these details. I am generally not authorized to release personal information about pending transactions, so I was forced to deny her request.
Of course, it did close at list price, which might shake up some in Davis. My duty is to my seller. That home probably set a new high for Central Davis. Part of my $2 million in sales.
My second closing was a condo in West Sacramento, a short sale, which I have had the pleasure of selling 3 different times to 3 different buyers. Every time I got the short sale approval letter, the buyers were not in a position, for whatever reason, to close. It also involved years of delinquent HOA dues, and difficult negotiations between two separate HOA companies. The seller had been unable to get either of the HOAs to work with her and thought for certain she was destined for foreclosure. But she kept the faith and continued to work with me until we found a buyer who would stick it through. She got her short sale and did not have to face foreclosure.
I’ll probably get a Christmas card from that seller every year until I die.
The third closing was in my favorite stomping grounds, among homes in Elk Grove. For some unexplained reason, I sell a lot of homes in Elk Grove. When the seller and I examined the comparable sales, the top price we could justify for this particular home was a little bit below our list price. Listing homes is a little bit like going fishing, throw that line out there and bam, got a bite, reeled in the buyer and we went into escrow. The next day, the buyer freaked out and canceled.
We were NOT returning the listing to active status as a “back on market” listing, because perception is often the home is damaged in some way. We pulled a new MLS number and started over. This time, we got a bigger fish, and we pushed that price up another 2%. The buyer’s agent thought I was pretty mean because I shot down his idea of negotiating a request for repair, but we were clear at inception the home was sold AS IS. As a result, we don’t care what sort of defects they found on the home inspection — they were closing on a home in a limited inventory market when many other prospective home buyers in Elk Grove cannot buy a home at all.
When I look over transactions like these and the work that I have done for my clients, I feel gratified. I feel as though I have justified once again that sellers are better off hiring a full-service Sacramento Realtor who produces results. I earn my commissions. If you ask my sellers, they will agree. It’s also entirely possible that I never again will close $2 million in sales for Sacramento home sales in one day.
