Sacramento Listing Agents Shouldn’t Forget The Seller Owns the House

No matter how you look at it the seller owns the house.

Many of my clients like to leave decisions up to me, yet I constantly remind them the seller owns the house, not the agent. I’m just their Sacramento listing agent. I can advise and guide, but I can’t make decisions for them. They actually say things like: you know what to do, you can just take care of it. While I might love to negotiate — and I am one of those twisted individuals who truly does love the art of negotiation — I can only make suggestions. Sometimes buyer’s agents will ask me if I sent their document to the seller. When they ask that question, it tells me they wrongly suspect I’m making up reactions or negotiating without speaking to my clients. I would never do that.

However, I know agents who do. The ones who blurt out “my client won’t do that.” Well, they don’t know that for a fact. They have absolutely no right to make that sort of statement. How often have you heard agents blatantly claim to know precisely what their clients will do? Unfortunately, in this business, all the freakin’ time. I don’t even know what my own husband will do on any given day, and I see him 7 days a week. Our cats are fairly constant creatures with habits and routines, and I don’t know what they will do, either. We can’t possibly know what anybody else will do or think or say. It’s impossible.

The sellers owns the house, which gives the seller the sole right to make independent decisions. Yesterday, for example, I received an appraisal and addendum from a buyer’s agent, asking us to reduce the price by $5,000 because the appraisal came in low. I sent it to the seller and suggested the seller ask the buyer to bridge that gap in appraisal in cash. This was based on my astute observations concerning this particular situation. I had enough information to tell me the buyer would be receptive to that idea. No happy, most likely, but receptive.

I asked the seller what he wanted to do. He said: Ask the buyer to pay the difference between appraisal and sales price. I relayed that bit of information to the buyer’s agent. The agent then asked me if they would consider splitting the difference. I told him my advice to the seller would be to stick to the original plan of demanding the $5,000, but I would bring it up. The sellers discussed it, and then the wife had a change of heart. The seller called back to say, because of his wife, they would like to split the difference.

Are you sure? I asked. Because I’m fairly confident we can get the $5,000 for you. But as you know, it ‘s not my house. My mantra is the seller owns the house, not me. If you want me to negotiate less, I will do it, I suggested. It’s up to you. The seller wavered a little. The seller asked, “Well, what would you do, Elizabeth?”

OK, fine, if it was me, I’d take the $5,000 and not feel guilty about it. But it’s not my spouse who is asking me to back down a little. It’s your marriage, I pointed out. Sometimes, that is more important than the money. You’ve got to maintain harmony and respect for other opinions in that union.

That made it easy for him. They decided to give the buyer a break. That’s exactly what we did. We split it. These sellers have a heart and are very kind, sweet people. Whether I agree or not with their decision is immaterial. It matters that they are happy and they make the decisions. Because the seller owns the house.