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Where Do Buyers Come From for Homes in Sacramento?
When greed and the need for shelter love each other very much, buyers for homes in Sacramento pop outta nowhere. Well, that’s the answer my husband came up with when I posed the question to him — where do buyers come from for homes in Sacramento — but he enjoys making me laugh. On the other hand, sometimes sellers think we real estate agents hide buyers under our beds. I’ve heard sellers say that they did not want to list their home, per se, they just want me to bring them a buyer. Buyers come from listings, they aren’t under my bed.
It’s true that we have some buyers who will wait forever to find that special deal, but typically what these buyers want is a home under market value. They often don’t want to pay list price for homes in Sacramento, and they don’t want to pay what the home is actually worth. They often want to steal the home. And every so often, I run across a seller who wants a buyer to steal her home, and I put the two of them together, but that is not the norm. It’s not really how homes in Sacramento are sold. It’s not how Sacramento real estate works.
Our listing agreements contain a big ol’ paragraph about why pocket listings are not in the seller’s favor. Sellers ask me when they see that paragraph if they should be a pocket listing because they don’t understand the verbiage. I realize C.A.R. thinks they are doing a service for sellers but instead it’s complicated and convoluted, like anything becomes when a committee is involved in the decision. When I explain pocket listings to sellers, which I shouldn’t have to do because I don’t take them or believe in them under ordinary circumstances, sellers then ask me why anybody would ever do it. Mostly because they’re bamboozled, I guess.
And then they want to know whether I have a buyer for the home.
We Sacramento listing agents get buyers for a home after an agent lists the home for sale. The agent looks for a buyer when the homes goes on the market. Often, the buyers might find another agent to represent them, but we are actively looking for buyers every single day. That’s what listing agents in Sacramento do. We dangle that beautiful listing in front of the eyes of every single buyer we can find. It’s like fishing. When we get a bite, we reel ’em in and toss ’em into the escrow boat.
Picking the Buyer When Selling Homes in Sacramento Could Violate Fair Housing
Regular sellers with equity — and even sellers of homes in Sacramento who end up doing a short sale — can choose their buyer and establish requirements that the buyer must meet. You know why they can do this? Because they own the home and, with some legal exceptions, sellers can decide what kind of person buys it.
This is not to say that a seller can discriminate against any of the protected classes under the Fair Housing Act. For example, a seller could not say I am interested only in selling to a family with kids or to a guy in a wheelchair. You can’t pick a protected class and exclude others or vice versa. This is yet another reason to hire a top Sacramento real estate agent because agents are supposed to know, understand and follow the Fair Housing Act, among other regulations.
I’ve personally had buyers say to me they did not want to buy in a neighborhood in which minorities of any color live and, believe it or not, I have stopped the car and told them to get the hell out. Fortunately, we were still in the parking lot and not on the W / X freeway. They can go find some redneck yo-yo to work with them, but not this agent. Sadly to say, there is always some doofus moron who doesn’t give a flying fig about Fair Housing, but I’m definitely not one of those.
Sellers are allowed, though, to choose an owner occupant, for example, over an investor. I asked our lawyers. That’s almost a moot point as most of the investors have left the market in Sacramento, which leaves a bit of breathing room for Sacramento home buyers now, but it’s good to know. Btw, if you see that sales are down by 1/3rd, it’s because the investors have split. But some are still hanging out, writing lowball offers in hopes that if they throw enough crap at the wall, something will stick.
If you want to ensure the quality of your neighborhood and care enough to please your neighbors when you depart, then you might want to consider selling to an owner occupant over a buyer who will rent out your house. Even if that home needs fixing up, a rental investor is not always the answer. Whenever there is an increase of rentals in a neighborhood, the value of the other homes around it tend to go down.
Don’t Wait for Buyers to Tell You What’s Wrong With Homes in Sacramento
The colors of homes like these in the Netherlands do not work in Sacramento
What works for house colors in countries such as Italy, Ireland or Mexico, does not necessarily work as colors of choice for homes in Sacramento. Personally, I adore colorful homes and would love to see more Americans adopt color, but then again, pioneers tend to get arrows in their backs, so I don’t want to initiate the trend. If you’re expecting to put your home on the market, though, the color of your home down to the color of your carpeting can be the difference between selling or not selling.
Sometimes, these things are not evident to a homeowner nor necessarily apparent to the agent, either. But you find out what’s wrong by putting the home on the market and obtaining buyer feedback. You can do this on your own before putting your home on the market, which is what I advise. You can ask your neighbors and your friends and, what the heck, grab somebody you don’t know off the street and invite them on over. Ask for their honest opinions. Walk through the house and assess every room. Stand in each doorway and stare. What’s wrong with your house? Ask your agent, too. Some agents don’t want to tell you the truth for fear you won’t like them. Tell your agent: go ahead and offend me.
Because you know what? There’s probably something wrong with it. Not in your eyes, of course, but in the eyes of today’s buyers. Your eyes don’t count. You’re leaving and moving away where you can do the same horrible things to your new home. But this home, the one that you’re living in right now? This home needs to change to meet the needs of the buying public. Buyers have certain requirements that homes in Sacramento need to meet.
Yes, I realize you don’t wanna paint that wall or yank up that shag carpeting but you’ll pay for that stubbornness when selling. A neighbor of mine painted her Land Park home the same orange color as the light rail station over on 21st Street. I like it, I just wouldn’t buy it nor want to buy a home next to it because it doesn’t conform. It looks weird. People like homes in Sacramento to be similar and not stand out like a sore thumb. Trust this Sacramento real estate agent, you don’t want to be that weird home when you’re selling a home in Sacramento.
How Many Agents Can A Sacramento Home Buyer Hire?
The consensus seems to be lately that if one Sacramento real estate agent is good to have in your corner as a Sacramento home buyer, then 5 Sacramento real estate agents would be 5 times better, right? Just hire them all and ask all 5 of those agents to beat the bushes searching for homes for you, right? This is what some Sacramento home buyers believe. It’s also probably why they aren’t buying any homes. Hiring more than one agent is just not a good idea.
Buyers don’t seem to understand that the answer to how many real estate agents can you work with is one.
If a Sacramento home buyer is unhappy with her agent, then the solution is easy, fire the agent. But if the buyer is happy with her agent, why would she call another Sacramento real estate agent and try to put that agent to work for her? I refuse to work with other agent’s buyers, but not every Sacramento real estate agent operates in the same manner. Some don’t care if they are wasting time or interfering in another agent’s transaction. If a buyer looks hard enough, a buyer will find some desperate agent somewhere who will let ethics slide in hopes of putting together a deal.
The bottom line is there are no secret listings, really. Everybody gets their listing information from the same sources. True, I might tell some of my buyers about a new listing before it is official in MLS, but these are buyers who are exclusive to me and my team. At Lyon Real Estate, for example, we have the right to withhold listings from MLS for 3 days and put them into our internal database.
But please, don’t ask me to step on the toes of another agent just to bring some Sacramento home buyer who is not loyal to either of us a transaction — because that’s not how most of us do business. Pick an agent, and when your agent does a good job for you, stick with that agent.
Selling Homes in Sacramento Now or Wait for Spring?
Seems like a lot of sellers are asking this Sacramento real estate agent is now a good time to be selling homes in Sacramento? They are wondering if they should put their home on the market now or wait until spring. The only thing spring brings, besides spring flowers, is more buyers. But spring also brings more homes, so there is more competition. How many buyers do you need and how many competitors do you need? I say you need one buyer and fewer competing homes for buyers to choose from.
That’s why I’m telling you that right now is an excellent time to be on the market. Great market for selling homes in Sacramento. But only if your home is priced properly. Only one of out every 2 homes is selling because half are priced too high.
The other questions I’ve been receiving are from people who ask if the price increases in Sacramento mean they can ask a phenomenal price for their home. The thing is your home is worth only what it is worth. It’s not worth more than that and, in fact, might be worth less.
To sum it up simply, your home is worth more than last year. Might be worth more than next year. Prices are stabilizing a bit.
I’ve heard of sellers begging their agents to leave their homes on the market or hold an open house after they’ve received an acceptable offer. They are under the misguided impression that they are missing out on some unforeseen cash strewn at the side of the road. Makes me want to grab these people by their shoulders and shake them because their brains have gone haywire. If you’ve got a good offer, take it, because you might not get another offer.
Take a look at the chart above. At first glance, the uninitiated might say, whoa, look at the number of homes and pending sales that are declining in November and December. But what they are not realizing is those home sales were originally sold in September and October. It takes 30 to 60 days to close an escrow. Take a look at January and February sales. Those pending sale numbers exceed the number of homes for sale. That’s huge, huge, huge and extremely important to know that January and February sales are a result of homes going on the market in November and December.
Now is an excellent time to sell your home. Don’t wait for spring when interest rates might rise. Do it now. If you’re looking for a Sacramento real estate agent with her finger on the pulse of the market, call Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759.
Chart: Trendgraphix
