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When the Seller is a No Show for a Curtis Park Agent
Front porch of a home in Curtis Park.
Although my calves ached like no tomorrow after our visit to Malakoff Diggins on Sunday, I showed up bright and early on Monday for a listing appointment in Curtis Park. I was to meet the owner of the home, and he had scheduled an appointment with the tenants. My husband says the reason my calves ache is due to the curse of the single-level home, but he doesn’t count our step-down family room which, if you count the step up to the living room as well as the kitchen could very well be steps.
I pulled up to the curb, crawled out of my vehicle and shouted out the address to the people sitting on the front porch because I could not see a house number. Is this the right house? I asked. Oh, yes, they replied but everything has been canceled. What? The seller had not called to make me aware of the cancellation. When he called, he said we met 10 years ago and while he did not buy a home, he was impressed with me.
I’ve come a long way in Sacramento real estate over the past 10 years, having moved from a Master’s Club member into mega-production territory, but I did not tell him that. I asked who else he was meeting with, and he told me. Asked if I had ever heard of the guy. The last time I heard of that guy was when his seller called me, no joke, and asked me to list her home in Curtis Park. She wasn’t happy with whatever he was doing and wanted to hire a different Curtis Park agent.
This realization didn’t hit me right away. It’s when I pulled up his last 12 month’s of production as a listing agent that I recognized the address of the property and looked the owner. Sure enough, same listing agent. That particular Curtis Park agent has listed and sold one house a month, whereas I have listed and sold more than one home a week over the past year throughout a four-county area. That person has been licensed for 5 years, and I’ve been working in real estate for 41 years. I believe sellers deserve a fair comparison.
I asked the tenants if I could tour the interior, since I was already there. Nope, no way, Jose, they said, tattooed arms folded. No can do. Uh uh. Not gonna happen. I continued to press and explain my situation. Because after all, there is a reason I have survived in real estate all of these years. I’m just a Curtis Park agent who would like to give the seller an estimate of value. Then I asked about something else and, voila, the doors to the home opened. Just like that. They gave me a personal tour.
Jealousy Can Lead Real Estate Agents to Badmouth Other Agents
Real estate agents who badmouth often feel the need to discredit another Sacramento real estate agent and can end up sabotaging their own career without realizing it. Before you can ask: how stupid are they, let me remind you that badmouthing another agent is stupid to begin with. There’s just no upside potential to it. It makes the agent who is doing it look horrible, not to mention small, petty, jealous and well, stupid.
I am often called to a listing presentation in which a seller who is hoping to choose a Sacramento listing agent has interviewed 2 other agents. I say, hey, good agents you called. But you would be amazed at some of the stuff I hear other agents tell the seller. Because the sellers tell me what they say when the agents learn that Elizabeth Weintraub is the competition to their presentation. First, I imagine the agents feel a bit intimidated when they look at my sales production and how much I sell. It can be 10 times the number of homes they sell, or more. This is intimidating because these agents can’t fathom how in the world I do it and remain competitive, because they can’t do it.
So they say stuff like, oh, Elizabeth Weintraub is too busy for you and won’t give you personal service. These agents should be shot and stuffed with mouse poop for allowing lies like that to leave their lips. You want something done right, you give it to a busy person, that’s what I have to say. Clients tell me that I treat them like they are my only client. I respond immediately to their concerns and address all of their questions, sometimes before the questions are even asked. I make them feel special because they are. Nothing should lead a real estate agent to badmouth. They should be better than that.
In my world, every client is important. Every situation is different. Another agent told a seller that I don’t negotiate my own transactions because, how could I? Yet, I do. It’s a fat lie to say I don’t. I personally handle every single listing myself. I shoot professional photography; I write copy and prepare the paperwork; I tweak my photos in Photoshop; I manage all of my listings; I collect feedback and deliver, provide suggestions, negotiate multiple offers, and there is no pawning off — I do it myself. Just because another agent can’t do what I do is no reason to make up crap about my real estate practice. You know what they call that? They call that attitude sour grapes. The Code of Ethics calls it unethical. I call it idiot real estate agents who badmouth.
A new client I’m meeting with this weekend asked me why none of the other agents she talked to didn’t tell her the things I suggested she do to get started. Well, I don’t know why. It makes sense to me that I bring up potential problems and solve them before we go on the market. I have no idea why other agents do what they do; I know only what I do, and that is I perform to high standards built on my decades of experience. When the only bad thing another agent can makeup is I must be too busy or I must not do the work myself, well, that tells you more about those agents than about me.
I’m not too busy. I do the work myself. If you expect excellence, you will get it. That’s how an ethical Sacramento real estate agent stays in business and gets referrals year after year after year. Sellers can hire a not-so-successful agent for the same amount of money, but why?
The Sacramento REALTOR with the Highest List Price
Do sellers always pick the Sacramento REALTOR who proposes the highest sales price? Not if they’re smart they don’t. They should pick the REALTOR they most trust, like and who has the experience to do the best job for them. But what if they do take the REALTOR with the highest price and that REALTOR just happens to be me? That’s what happened this summer, and I wasn’t feeling really good about the fact that price might have been the main reason I was chosen to list that pool home in Carmichael.
I’m not underestimating my experience because I’m certain my decades in the business was a motivating factor, but I had the sneaky suspicion that if I had suggested a lower sales price, that seller might not have elected to list with me. It doesn’t mean I will sell out my ethics or tell a seller a price that I don’t think the seller will get just to obtain that listing. That’s not how I work. I do try to get the seller the highest price possible, though.
The thing is home pricing is so variable. There is no single list price, actually. There is a price it should be listed at, which is not necessarily the price a seller expects to get. There is a price a buyer might offer, which is not necessarily the price at which the home may appraise. There is market value and there is appraised value, and the two are not necessarily the same thing. It’s more of a strategy, mixed with science and emotion.
Much of my pricing is based on how the home feels emotionally to me. I know that might sound a little new-agey and touchy-feely, but buyers make offers based on emotion. I try to look at the home through the buyer’s eyes, and then I turn that feeling into a dollar figure, followed by a way to justify that price to an appraiser. It’s a different approach than most REALTORS use, and it’s been very successful for my sellers.
There were REALTORS in my real estate office who thought we had priced that Carmichael pool home too high. It didn’t have upgrades. It wasn’t remodeled. Some of the appliances didn’t even work. Other REALTORS at the listing presentations had suggested sales prices that were tens of thousands of dollars lower than mine. My suggested sales price was the highest. From a sole listing viewpoint, the price didn’t make sense. From a buyer’s viewpoint, though, it did.
We sold that Carmichael pool home at list price. It closed last week. So, while I always tell a seller do NOT pick the REALTOR who gives you the highest price, in this particular instance they might have just done that and it was not the wrong thing to do. Still, I hope they chose me for my willingness to always do what I believe is best for them and not because my suggested list price was the highest.
I don’t intend to beat out a competing agent by suggesting higher prices during a listing presentation. I do what I believe is right.
An Unusual Saturday for This Sacramento Real Estate Agent
It is not usual for me to meet with clients nor attend a listing presentation on a Saturday. I generally use this day for writing my blogs, articles and newsletters for my homebuying website at About.com. In between, I answer calls about listings, book future appointments, so it’s not like I’m totally tuned out to my Sacramento real estate obligations, but it’s mandatory that I set aside a little bit of time in schedule to write.
However, today, I have three appointments. They could not be scheduled at any other time, so I had to squeeze them into my Saturday. If I were a less organized person, this would not be possible, but I am flexible enough to be able to make last-minute changes. In fact, I seriously doubt another agent in Sacramento could survive the fast pace of my real estate business yet still maintain time to focus on each client individually like I do. Not one of my clients ever feel as though I don’t have enough time for them, because I make time for every client.
I’m meeting first with a couple who have a fourplex in downtown Sacramento, and I’ve already received preapproval on their short sale. I wanted to make sure they had no worries nor concerns when we go into the short sale. This meant juggling a few events for them so it better met their personal schedule. We have a preapproved price, so we’re basically meeting to shake hands face-to-face and sign the listing paperwork. This will go on the market on Monday.
Next, I have a seller who needs to sign a purchase contract and has no access to a fax machine nor a printer. She cannot scan documents. She could pop in to any of our 17 offices and I could email the documents to that office, but she prefers to come to my office, and that’s OK. I will bring the purchase offer with me and highlight the places where she needs to sign, just so we don’t miss any of those all-important initials.
Ending my day is a listing presentation for a seller in the Pocket. My team member Barbara Dow was out showing homes yesterday and called this seller to make an appointment to show her home. The seller said there were no showings. Apparently, the seller told her she was so mad at her agent that she had just dumped her agent. I asked Barbara to give me the phone number, and I checked MLS. Sure enough, the listing had been withdrawn. So, I called the seller and said: “Hey, I hear you’re looking for a real estate agent? Well, guess what? I am a Sacramento real estate agent! How lucky is that?”
I can always write tomorrow.
