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About Realtors Who Do Not Return Phone Calls
Realtors who do not return phone calls are like a bad apple. About two weeks ago, we received a call from a buyer who had found us online. She was looking for agents who specialize in short sales. She had been trying to obtain information about a condo listed for sale in Rancho Cordova; it was a short sale. This property is listed by an agent from out of the area, by an e-brokerage.
I have been calling, texting and emailing the agent for information for two weeks. These efforts were made to help this poor frustrated buyer as the agent would not even call her back. My phone log shows repeated calls, texts and emails made to this listing agent. To date, no communication from the listing agent. This behavior reflects poorly on Realtor and often is the cause of buyers not having the utmost respect for our profession.
The property is listed as a short sale. The MLS states there were three offers made originally, before the property went pending sale. The commission offered to the buyer’s agent is below the standard buyer’s commission rate. There is not a fixed rate for buyer’s agent commission, but there is a trend you see in MLS. On top of that, lenders mostly approve full commissions, so there is little need to short-change anybody.
I was happy to help facilitate contact information for this very frustrated buyer. She took the time to find us based on a book, the “Short Sale Savior,” written by Elizabeth Weintraub. Maybe a new title could be about Realtors who do not return phone calls on short sales, just kidding.
There are no real estate police to force this agent to cooperate and treat all parties honestly and practice fair dealings. Not doing these things is a potential ethics violation. However, if an out of area agent is not a member of our board, there is little than can be done. Even then the time to file a complaint with the board and make your way up the process can take months.
My suggestion to this buyer was walk away. If you want to buy Rancho Cordova real estate, let one of our exclusive buyer’s agents help you to find another property. She was very grateful for our efforts to help her.
The motto of this story is if you want to buy Sacramento real estate, hire a local Realtor with 5 star reviews, to help you. Additionally, to have any repercussions the listing broker must be a member of our board, Sacramento Association of Realtors. Complaining about Realtors who do not return phone calls will not solve the immediate problem. Our advice, move on and work only with Realtors who are within our local board.
To have phone calls returned when you need professional representation, call Weintraub & Wallace Realtors with RE/MAX Gold at 916-233-6759.
— JaCi Wallace
Dealing With Identical Purchase Offers for a Fixer in Rancho Cordova
Identical purchase offers need something to make the best offer stand out.
When I first introduced this fixer home in Rancho Cordova to the market, I did not think we would receive a bunch of identical purchase offers. Usually the way these things go, agents advise their buyers to submit sales prices all over the place. Plus, there are usually always those kind of buyers who won’t pay list price for any home. They don’t care if it’s underpriced, they simply refuse to pay list price and expect a break on the price. But we didn’t get any of those kinds of buyers. That’s not to say we didn’t get a knucklehead here and there.
I should point out this was a home we had priced at $225,000. Not because we deliberately wanted to cause a ruckus but because that’s the amount at which the last fixers in the area sold. Identical purchase offers? Wasn’t even a goal. We just hoped for the best offer from the most motivated buyer who could quickly close. One agent wrote to ask why the confidential remarks stated “submit your best offer over list price.” Um, because we wanted to pick the best offer that exceeded our sales price and we were not considering any offers less than that?
Another buyer submitted an offer at $237,500. They were doing a 1031 exchange and were running out of time during their 45-day time period to select a property. The seller said, hell yes, that’s a good offer. We had motivation. Except we also had a pile of $240K offers on the table. So we countered the 1031 exchange buyers at $240K. They had to “think about it”, initially, which meant they probably had written other offers which is definitely not kosher nor legal. They did not seem like ethical buyers. We withdrew the counter offer.
There were also a few of those brown noses insisting on working directly with the listing agent. Hoping we would sooo love to double-end the transaction that we’d double-cross our sellers, break fiduciary. They think they can throw money at agents, and obviously sometimes they can, or they wouldn’t do it. Doesn’t work in my situation. I won’t work directly with them, so their evil little plans backfire. They can work with my team members or they can get their own agent, I don’t care.
Let’s not even talk about the agent who damaged the home by kicking in the garage siding, twice. With his client standing right there. Then allegedly he swore at the witnesses who shot photos of his car. Good thing he didn’t write an offer.
So many identical purchase offers. And then one identical offer was suddenly different than everybody else. It contained no contingencies, they were actively removed, a huge earnest money and the buyer agreed to deposit all of the cash into escrow right away. Same price but much better terms. We closed escrow 7 days later at $15,000 over list price with 11 offers.
Realtor Magic When Getting Pulled Over by Sacramento Police
Obviously, this fellow is not a Realtor, therefore Realtor magic does not protect him.
One of the craziest lessons passed down to me from the guy who trained me in real estate, in the 1970s when I was first licensed to sell real estate, involves Realtor magic and getting pulled over by the police. Now, I have to admit, I did not believe Realtor magic when it was first presented to me because it sounded too far fetched. I also wasn’t sure that the agent who relayed this principle wasn’t joking around, but he swore by it. He said that holding a real estate license gives an agent permission to overlook the rules of the road. Traffic violations don’t apply to us. It’s Realtor magic.
I saw him apply this principle in action one day. We were driving together to view a property, before the days of GPS. The only instrument we could use to find our way was to carry a Thomas Guide under our car seat, and those books weren’t always up to date. Especially concerning new subdivisions. Which means we often got lost. And that particular day, we were lost. Albert, who also had the distinction of being one of my many husbands, made a U-turn right in the middle of crossing the railroad tracks.
Soon as we spun around, a police appeared out of nowhere. Albert rolled down the window and said, “Officer, I am a real estate agent, and I am lost. I did not mean to make a U-Turn and I will never do it again.” And the officer gave him a brief lecture and let us go. Albert smirked: See, I told you, we are immune. Realtor magic protects us. Albert is not around anymore. He died a few years ago.
I thought of this yesterday as I was driving through Rancho Cordova to visit a a seller. She’s moving to Las Vegas shortly and needs to paint a few brightly colored bedrooms before we can put her home on the market. Her street came up abruptly, faster than I had expected. I began to turn the wheel with my left hand. With clipboard in my right hand, I glanced down at the house number. When I looked up again, oh, my gosh.
Whoa! There was a police car approaching, right in my lane! What the heck. On a quiet residential street. Oh, no, wait, this wasn’t my lane, it was his lane, and I was on the wrong side of the street because I had turned too wide. Oopsies. Oh, well. At least I avoided hitting the police car. You know, it’s not so much what you do wrong but how it doesn’t go as wrongly as it could, particularly if you sidestep disaster, and everything is OK, right?
Why didn’t people paint house numbers on the curbs on this street? I glanced in my rear view mirror and sure enough, the police car had turned around and the lights were flashing. Back in the 1970s, I might have been concerned about being pulled over, but now ha. I am old and, let’s not forget, a Sacramento Realtor! As such, I am protected from getting tickets. It’s that Realtor magic.
Oh, hello Officer! I smile brightly. He was pretty gruff. License, proof of insurance and registration, please. I handed over two of those documents. Surely he was not about to demand I dig up my registration card, and I was right, he didn’t. He studied the documents, looked at me, back at the documents. He seemed rather angry. You made me slam on my brakes, he raised his voice. I did no such thing. If he slammed on his brakes it’s because he probably wasn’t watching the road. Maybe he was playing with his police radio. Did I slam on my brakes? No.
At that point, I suppose he lectured me about traffic safety or maybe he was talking about something else, I don’t know, I wasn’t really paying attention. I’m like that Labrador cartoon about the dog getting scolded by his owner, and all the dog hears is blah, blah, blah. The cop wasn’t about to haul an old woman from Land Park off to jail.
“I’m a Realtor, Officer,” I offered, “I’m sorry, I was looking at house numbers. I’ll never do this again.” Hey, I’m an old person. I look like a Realtor. I’m driving a new foreign car. My iPad is on the seat with my Google map print out.
He didn’t write me a ticket. He let me go. And there, once more, is the proof of the Realtor magic when getting pulled over by a police officer. I sensed Albert rolling over in his grave with a thumbs up.
