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Need a Land Park or East Sacramento Agent? Hire a Specialist!
In this day and age, you really need a specialist, especially when it comes to selling homes in the Land Park area or East Sacramento neighborhoods. These homes are not your grandmother’s home in Elk Grove or Lincoln. These central city neighborhoods are long established and the homes are as different from each other as New Orleans is from New York City. If you need a Land Park or East Sacramento agent, I am your specialist!
In fact, it’s kind of hard to do anything without a specialist on your side. Like last Friday when I pulled into my driveway in Land Park, I noticed check engine oil illuminated on my dashboard. It had actually been lit up for several days, and I kept hoping that it was just a freaky thing that would eventually stop. The worst that would happen, I figured, is my car would stop running, and I’d abandon it at the curb and grab a cab, eventually calling for a tow truck, but that was unlikely. The way they make these warning features, you’ve generally got a bit of time before all hell breaks loose.
But I’m also a person who gets crap done. I take charge. I don’t sit around in the dark weeping helplessly because my lights won’t go on. Nope, I flip the breaker switch, grab a screwdriver, take apart my light switch and replace it. At least those things haven’t changed much over the years. Unlike a car. I opened my front trunk and looked for the engine. It wasn’t there. No friggin’ engine. I’m not really sure where my engine is located, but I suspect it’s in the middle somewhere, somewhere I can’t get to. I found the windshield washing fluid and the brake fluid, but no oil.
At this point, my husband ventured out. We opened the back trunk and dug through my piles of lockboxes and sold sign riders. Hmmm. What is this? My husband turned a cap and hot pink fluid sizzled out, which he quickly recapped. Well, that wasn’t the oil. Good thing I had had the foresight to have handed him a rag beforehand. I finally resorted to reading the owner’s manual. Yes, when all else fails. Read the manual. Turns out a person can check her oil by turning the key in the ignition, letting the engine idle and pushing a lever near the dash.
I had too much oil, that was the problem, and I just had the oil changed in Midtown. But I also had taken it to the dealer after that for warranty work, and some well meaning yo-yo must have topped off the oil, which is the wrong thing to do for a high performance vehicle like this. The mechanic was probably unsupervised.
You’d think the dealer is a specialist but the dealer’s job is to sell cars. The service department is auxiliary. Even the manufacturer won’t let the dealer perform warranty work without specific permission. My maintenance specialist is located in Midtown, and he removed a quart of oil for me.
If you need a real estate agent to buy or sell homes in Land Park or East Sacramento, call Elizabeth Weintraub. I live in Land Park, and my office is located at the edge of Midtown where it meets homes in East Sacramento. I know these neighborhoods. I know other areas in Sacramento, too. If you’d like to talk, please feel free to call 916.233.6759 or email me. I just might work in your neighborhood. I sold more than 150 homes last year, exceeding $32 million. You can trust that I know what I’m doing.
Sacramento Real Estate is a Service Business
A Sacramento real estate agent often multitasks.
I had a terrible experience buying my home in Land Park. I didn’t realize how horrible it was at the time because I had been juggling too many balls in the air, moving clear across the country from Minnesota, and it’s only in retrospect all these years later that I realize it was too awful to wish on even my worst nemesis. Without going into gory details, I can say the thing I hated the most was the non-existant communication. My agent rarely called me back. She did not respond to emails. This was way before the age of text messages, but I imagine she would not have responded to text messages, either. It was like a vast empty pit into which I dumped questions and never got anything back in return.
Because my husband was already living in Sacramento, my real estate agent might have thought her duty was to him. She might not have realized there were two of us she needed to address. But the fact remains, she ignored me. Let’s just say it cost her. And I vowed from that experience that no client would ever utter those words about me.
I try not to assume anything. I know that my clients do not buy nor sell real estate for a living. They can’t possibly know what I know — I’ve pretty much run out of fingers and toes to count my years of experience in real estate. I try to be very sensitive to the needs of my clients. If they ask me a question, I respond. In fact, I try to answer their questions before they have a question. No question is too simple to ask. For example, when people call to say it is time to do a short sale, I make sure they understand that to do a short sale means they are selling their home. Not everybody understands this premise.
Last week I listed a home and had to point out the commission to the sellers so they understood how much they were paying me. They didn’t ask about it. But they did ask who was paying the buyer’s agent. I explain agency relationships, and not just because the California Civil Code requires it but because it’s important to know.
When clients send me a thank you after an escrow closes, they say how happy they were that I kept them informed throughout the transaction. That I responded immediately to their needs. They are thrilled. It’s the WOW factor. Others read those thank-you letters and my reviews and ask how can I be so responsive to my clients when I am so busy with work? I am a very busy Sacramento real estate agent. I sell from Lincoln to Galt. It’s because my clients are my work. When I am working, they come first. What’s so difficult about that?
Go to The Kitchen Restaurant and Cancel Halloween
A Halloween alternative for those of us with homes in Land Park. Here is another option if you’re ever thinking about a way to cancel Halloween. My husband tacked a note to the front of our home in Land Park. It told visitors that werewolves lived there and we were out because it was a full moon last night. Perhaps you came by and spotted that note? The note also said if you took more than one piece of candy from the bowl on the front porch that zombies would eat your brains. Which reminds me that I have to see if there is a new version out of that Plants vs. Zombies computer game. No, there is not. Not until spring. Darn Pop Cap.
Our idea of canceling Halloween last night entailed going to The Kitchen Restaurant for a 4-hour dinner and a flight of wine. They call it a flight of wine because flying is exactly what you feel like doing after consuming all of that wine. True, you’re also stuffing food down your face to soak up much of that alcohol, but it’s still a lot of wine to drink with dinner. I shared my flight of wine with my husband, but he couldn’t drink much of it because he was our designated driver. This is a reason in itself to get married. Designated driver. Otherwise, both of you would have to take a cab.
The last time we were at The Kitchen was the day after Thanksgiving. My sister was in town from Minneapolis, so we hauled her and my niece out for a 7-course dinner at The Kitchen. As we were sitting at the counter at The Kitchen last night, my husband snapped a photo of me with his iPhone. He took the photo to send with a response to the text message my sister just sent him wishing us a Happy Halloween. He told her we were at The Kitchen. Except she had no idea where we were. I know her. She thought he meant we were huddled in the dark at home in our kitchen, avoiding trick or treaters. Because she knows us.
Nope, we were sitting at the counter at The Kitchen and spooning pumpkin bisque into our faces — followed by butter-poached maine lobster, swordfish, sea scallops, and a main entree of beef tenderloin with black truffle. I really enjoyed the apple pie dessert, with that delicious scoop of butter-chocolate crunch ice cream. All the ingredients at The Kitchen are farm fresh and mostly local. In fact, on Halloween yesterday, Mayor Kevin Johnson proclaimed Sacramento “America’s Farm to Fork Capital.” It’s true, he held a ceremony downtown, attended by all the top chefs in Sacramento.
I tell you the thing that really struck home with me last night was how passionate everybody is about their job at The Kitchen. There is a hierarchy but also a strong team spirit among the cooks and staff. There is distinct honor and respect among the workers. It’s clear that the job is serious business and everybody takes pride in their work. You don’t see that commitment to quality in many other establishments around town. In fact, you don’t see that passion in other professions, either. except maybe that of a Sacramento real estate agent. I care deeply, for example, whether my clients are happy at closing. When people say there is no pride in American jobs anymore, they should check out our restaurants in Sacramento.
When we got home to Land Park, we found our note still stuck to the front door. There were still a few pieces of candy in the bowl on the porch, too. They didn’t take everything. They also did not stomp on our Cinderella pumpkin. Yay! The kids in Land Park are a good bunch of kids.
Representing Two Buyers for Land Park Homes
Representing two buyers for the same Land Park home doesn’t happen very often. But in our crazy Sacramento real estate market, it’s possible. Yup, an agent can represent more than one buyer to buy the same home. Especially with limited inventory. Our California Association of REALTORs team of lawyers have even designed a form for this called a DA — Disclosure and Consent for Representation of More than One Buyer or Seller. It lets an agent engage in dual agency, too, as well as disclose the terms and conditions of an offer (without a confidentiality agreement). When I read that document, I no longer wonder why the public has problems with trust issues concerning real estate agents.
Can you imagine a lawyer representing two different clients who were competing with each other? I work with a lot of lawyers. I’m not sure why lawyers tend to gravitate toward me but I like to imagine we speak a similar language; we probably approach the same subject matters in an analytical way. They know I will be direct. I suspect they appreciate that directness as not every person does.
There are some Sacramento real estate agents who won’t work with lawyers. They flat out refuse. They call lawyers “deal killers,” and maybe they’re worried a lawyer will sue them; I don’t know. The way I see it, I’m least likely to get sued by a lawyer, knock on wood. And I really love the fact I get to tell them that I can’t give legal advice. Especially when they ask me for legal advice. But I also realize that lawyers specialize in certain types of law and not every lawyer knows much about real estate, much less short sales. But they do understand strategy. I respect lawyers, and I like them. I wish all my clients were lawyers. That would be a happy day for me.
I recall a few years ago I was working with several lawyers to buy homes in Land Park. This was back when law firms were flourishing and hiring new lawyers, bringing new talent to Sacramento. As luck would have it, both of these lawyers decided they might be interested in buying the same home. Let’s just say I was not about to whip out the DA form. Instead, I explained the problem to both of them individually.
I suggested one of them could choose to work with me and the other could choose to work with a different buyer’s agent. However, as I reminded them, the lawyer who drew the short end of the stick would be competing against me in negotiations. Which Land Park agent did they want to represent them? This Land Park agent or my associate? Put that way, one of the lawyers decided to look at a different home and keep me as their agent. The other lawyer bought the home through me.
Not every agent employs this approach. In fact, not every agent who represents more than one buyer for the same property even uses the DA form. I received this week two different offers on the same listing from an agent, and no DA form with either offer. The second offer was much better than the first offer. Coincidinky? We just don’t know.
Selecting a Land Park Agent as a Dual Agent
When a Sacramento home buyer says she wants only to talk to the listing agent, that is generally not good news. I often ask: Why? Is the house on fire? Because I’m telling you, if the house is not on fire, telling the listing agent that one wants to deal only with her is absolutely insulting. It’s insulting, it’s irritating and it’s idiotic. There, you have three I-words to describe that kind of thinking. It’s implying that the listing agent is unethical at best and establishes an adversarial relationship at worst.
True story — some years ago, my neighbor decided to buy a home in Land Park. Because I am a Land Park agent who lives in Land Park, she asked me to show her homes in Land Park. We worked together for several months. She said her reason for selecting me was due to the fact that Lyon Real Estate is the market leader in Land Park. She figured our buyers hear about new listings first, they get an edge, and they do. Then, all of a sudden, her enthusiasm vanished. She said she no longer wanted to buy a new home. I guess she figured I would never find out what she did, but there are no secrets in real estate. Certainly not in Land Park real estate.
Despite the fact that she had signed a buyer’s broker agreement with me, she went directly to the listing agent at a competing brokerage and bought a home. When I asked her why, she became very sheepish and apologetic. She said she asked that Land Park agent to represent her because she believed if she did not, she would not have been the lucky buyer to buy the home. There were multiple offers at that time. She truly felt that she had to make sure the listing agent would be paid both the listing commission and the selling commission in order for her to have a shot at home ownership. In other words, she wanted an agent who would throw her grandmother under the bus. She evidently found one of those.
There are Land Park agents in Sacramento and elsewhere who will give priority to their own buyers with their own listings, I’m sorry to say. That kind of practice is unethical, but they do it anyway. Who’s to prove it? That’s the nasty underbelly side of real estate. Everybody suspects it exists but nobody talks about it.
The implication when home buyers want to buy only from a listing agent is that the listing agent will do whatever it takes to put the deal together. It’s saying we agents are motivated solely by greed. It’s saying maybe we will push the seller and persuade the seller to take a buyer’s lowball offer because we’ll get paid more money for a lowball offer than we would to suggest the seller take a higher offer from a buyer represented by a different agent. I know very few agents like that. But buyers seem to think these kinds of agents are a dime a dozen. A few bad apples give all of us a bad name.
This particular buyer called me again many years later. She noted that I am a prominent listing agent now, having worked my way up the ranks. I am a top producer. I list more than a 100 homes a year. She asked me to work with her. She is still working with a Land Park agent but asked for first shot at my listings, too. Now, she wants to buy investments.
I don’t throw my sellers under the bus. I don’t play favorites. I don’t give priority to anybody but to the seller whom I directly represent. That investor is barking up the wrong tree. If I personally represent a home buyer, my agency and duty is to that buyer. If I personally represent a home seller, my agency and duty is to that seller. I don’t want to mix the two through direct dual representation. It makes people uncomfortable, and it makes me uncomfortable. That’s not to say if a Team Member represents a buyer it won’t show up as dual agency at closing, but I prefer a little more arm’s length.
I never want to feel conflicted about fiduciary. Without saying, ethics is important. That’s one of the secrets to my longevity in real estate and why I’ve lasted more than 35 years in this business.
