Email ElizabethListing Specialist Sacramento
Why Would Elizabeth Weintraub Want to List That Home in Sacramento?
Nobody ever asks themselves, why would Elizabeth Weintraub want to list that home in Sacramento? That’s because most sellers figure all listing agents want to list every house they can get their grubby little paws on. But that would not be true about this Sacramento listing agent. There are listings I don’t want to take. For starters, I don’t want to list a home if the seller doesn’t need my help or won’t listen to my advice. If a seller believes she already knows exactly how to sell a house, she doesn’t need a listing specialist. She might need a stiff drink, but not a specialist.
Further, I work with the complete package. Every listing is customized. Every sellers’ needs and wants are different. Getting on the market is one thing but closing escrow is totally something else. Selling for top dollar, leaving no chunks of change on the table is what most sellers want, but my service goes beyond that. Everything about my client’s sale is personal to me. I’m very hands on.
Why would Elizabeth Weintraub want to list that home in Sacramento? Another reason is because it will sell and I can sell it. That’s what I do. List homes and close sales. If I can’t sell it, I do not want to list that home in Sacramento. You can bet I look at days on market from previous listings. Most of our archives go back at least 15 years. I remember every market from the last 15 years. I can tell when I look at the history if there was a problem due to the type of market at that time. If not, the house has a problem.
If I can pinpoint that problem and fix it, then I will want to list that home. That’s not to say I do not enjoy a challenge, because I most certainly do. If I really like the sellers and we have a meeting of the minds, then I will list even the worst house on the block, the hardest house in the world to sell. If I feel the sellers are disrespectful, no amount of money would entice me to take that listing.
I have a no-asshole rule. People know if they exhibit those types of tendencies. It’s not like I can come right out and ask a prospective seller over the phone, hey, are you an asshole? They would probably hang up. Although it’s not a bad question. Because sometimes, no matter how good my a-hole radar is, I can’t always tell right away. There have been situations I’ve had doubts about but they turned out to be OK. And others where I felt it was workable, which turned out not to be.
Since I am all out of our listings right now, I’ve been thinking about all the new appointments I have this week. Yup, I’ve sold my entire inventory. That hasn’t happened to me in 7 years. But even having no inventory at the moment does not mean I would consent to work with . . . you’ve already figured this one out . . . the asshole. So there you have it. Why would Elizabeth Weintraub want to list that home in Sacramento? Because she’s crazy good at it and likes you.
The Story of Closing a Home in Greenhaven in Sacramento
This pool home on Greenhaven Drive is now under contract.
Our story of closing a home in Greenhaven begins with an email I received from the sellers last September. I’m finding many of my listings lately involve sellers who are planning ahead. I could be working on a listing for 6 months before it hits MLS, unlike the fast-paced world of 2016 — a distant memory now. My experience shows better results when working in advance on a listing because that gives us a lot of time to get it just right. To tweak and perfect.
The seller mentioned his wife might find a job out of state. It could happen a year from then, or two months or a couple of weeks. Their timeframe is mine. They wanted to know if I could please come over to discuss which things they could fix up. What could be sale-worthy improvements. They also mentioned that they had been reading my blogs for years. Which means they decided a long time ago that when it came time to sell, I was the listing agent they wanted to hire.
Apparently, they weren’t very happy with their agent when they bought the house. There were also quite a few drawbacks to their house. But because every listing is a customized job for me, I don’t give cookie cutter advice. I consider the market conditions, how much a buyer is likely to pay, and minimum work required to sell. Part of how much a buyer is likely to pay in my mind depends on how I market the listing as well. Not any Sacramento Realtor can take my suggested sales price and run with it. To get top dollar, you need strategy.
Every super blood moon or so, I spot a listing in which the seller hired some other agent at a price lower than perhaps I suggested. I just think to myself: their loss. And then I get a bit irritated with myself that somehow I failed to show what I can do. They hire a cheap agent at a cheap price and I feel a bit sorry they lost money. But they don’t know. They wrongly put too much emphasis on commission.
Not these sellers. They wanted to hire me and I wanted to do a good job for them. That’s a good match. To spruce up the kitchen, I suggested they replace the worn, tired counters with granite and replace the broken electric range. We discussed staging and moving furniture. The rest of the house could stay in its present condition because we have a hot market in Sacramento. Yes, it is on a busy street. Yes, you can hear freeway noise. Can’t ignore the funky layout.
Time passed and I did not hear from them again until January. I was working from our home in Hawaii then. We agreed on a price of $395K. In line with the comps for a 4 bedroom with that square footage and being a pool home on Greenhaven Drive. I promised them I would work diligently for an AS IS sale without any credits or repairs. My goal was closing a home in Greenhaven with no hassles. I listed the home from Hawaii, and a team member attached a lockbox for me.
Sure enough, after 2 open houses, we had a full price offer at $10,000 over list price. I warned the agent that if her buyer tried to cancel, I would drive over to the agent’s house and let the air out of her tires. So many buyers go into escrow today and immediately cancel. But the agent assured us her buyer was committed. However, the buyer made a contingent offer, with her home presently in escrow. That status allowed me to keep the listing active in MLS and to hunt for backup offers.
This all happened with me working from Hawaii. Due to technology, I do not have to physically be in Sacramento to work miracles and focus on my Sacramento real estate business.
As luck would have it, we later received a back-up offer that was now $20,000 over list price. We held on to that offer as insurance, just in case the existing buyer wanted to renegotiate. (I’m telling ya, if you have a difficult home to sell, this is the market for you.)
We met the goal of closing a home in Greenhaven with no repairs or credits and closed last Friday. I called the sellers on the East Coast to let them know the home recorded. At that point, the seller confided to me that I did exactly what I said would do. He said many agents say they will do a good job and they talk a good game, but it’s just talk. I actually performed on everything I promised. They got exactly what they had hoped for and then some. I exceeded expectations.
Well, I did not realize they had any doubt, LOL, but even so, the best thing a seller can tell me is how happy they are. That means I did my job right. I want every review to be a 5-star review. That is my goal and I never lose sight of it. Further, there is no question that the sellers wrung every dime out of that sale they possibly could. A very happy ending to closing a home in Greenhaven.
