Email Elizabethmls showing instructions
Reasons to Review Sacramento MLS Before Showing
Always review MLS for status before showing
The good news is this morning the elk head that was sitting in my family room has gone to its new home at the Elk’s Lodge in Sacramento. Sometimes I feel like my life is a TV sitcom. As though I am but a mere viewer, sitting on a stool at a bar, glass of bourbon in hand, neat, and watching the goofy antics of some other Sacramento Realtor and not myself.
The bad news is I had 2 cancellations to deal with before the sun rose, but like my blog of yesterday, good news is often on the tail end of bad, and one of those cancellations is back in escrow with a new buyer. That home never saw the light of day back in MLS because I keep meticulous records of interested parties. When one collapses, another can slide right in.
My client who shot the elk will get a nice donation letter from the Elk’s Lodge, which she can most likely use as a tax deduction on her income taxes because she technically made a contribution to a charitable organization. Even if the elk did park itself temporarily to live on my family room floor. And thousands of US Service women and men can now appreciate Elkie daily. It is a fitting home for him.
I wish I could solve all of the problems we face in Sacramento real estate like this. The most pressing issue lately has been real estate agents and Sacramento REALTORS who do not read the MLS property information sheets they print. It seems like such a simple thing to do, just read the property data and the confidential remarks. If there are attachments to MLS, download them by clicking on the paperclip. Yet, I’d venture to guess that at least 1 out of every 3 agents do not.
The worst violation is showing instructions. They don’t seem to know that Call First Lockbox means call the seller (and not the agent) when the seller’s name and number are listed. If we meant Call Listing Agent, then that box would be checked instead, and the instructions would be Call Listing Agent. But that can be ambiguous if the listing agent doesn’t complete the listing correctly as well. The worst showing instruction violation, though, is when the buyer’s agent just sails into the house without calling, and it’s occupied. Hello?
I want to get down on my hands and knees and plead, please please read MLS showing instructions. Don’t use the Supra lockbox and unlock the door if you haven’t read the instructions for showing. Because you know who the seller blames when this happens? I lost a listing last week because a seller completely freaked out when an agent did not call and tried to enter his home unannounced. It almost makes me want to go back to the days of no lockboxes, when you had to pick up a key at the listing office.
If in doubt, review the MLS before entering a home. It’s that simple. Just double check yourself. While you’re standing near the lockbox, read the instructions one more time. I realize the MLS app for the iPhone 6 Plus seems messed up but it can work in a browser window like Safari. Believe it, many buyer’s agents are using worthless apps to access information from their mobile devices (like Trulia and Zillow), but only MLS shows the correct information. Please use it.
A Private Group Showing is Not an Open House
If the idea just occurred to you that now is a good time for buying a home in Sacramento, you need to talk to a Sacramento real estate agent pronto. I’m not gonna say this is not a good time because I am a real estate agent, and in my playbook it’s always a good time to buy, but it’s not an easy time to buy a home. It’s difficult. Exceedingly difficult. When your real estate agent tells you there will be multiple offers, let me tell you, there will be multiple offers, and some of them will undoubtedly be crazy, wild offers.
Our inventory is very low. There are not a lot of homes to choose from in certain neighborhoods. Even the number of homes in Land Park, for example, are about half the normal. But in neighborhoods like Natomas and Elk Grove, I might run a half-mile to one-mile radius to pull comparable sales and find nothing for sale whatsoever. Everything is pending or active short contingent.
In most situations, we might want to give a wide berth of exposure to try to attract the largest number of offers and the highest number of offers. Ordinarily, an offer is good for 72 hours, unless the buyer changes the time for acceptance. This means if a seller does not respond to an offer within 3 days, the offer expires. It’s no longer on the table. So, what’s a seller to do who wants to maximize exposure? Keep it on the market with instructions to review all offers on a certain day in the future.
In short sale situations, the approach might be different. It all depends on who the seller is and whether the seller is in an emotional state to handle the volume of traffic generated by this type of seller’s market in Sacramento. In some areas, it can be brutal. Buyer’s agents calling at all hours of the night, showing up without calling, parking on the lawn, barging in without an appointment when an appointment is required, this Sacramento real estate agent has heard it all. These are desperate times, but they do not call for desperate measures nor for losing one’s professionalism.
In a short sale, we need one offer at market value. An offer that will appraise as well. An offer from a committed and dedicated buyer. We don’t need 55 offers. Just one that will close. If it’s cash and the buyer is serious, that’s a good sign, too, but it doesn’t mean that a cash offer will win out over a financed offer. Cash buyers can sometimes be distracted by shiny new things. Owner occupants, buyers who want to buy a home to live in, tend to be more committed.
The approach to marketing a home and receiving / presenting offers differs with each situation and is tailor-made for the individual seller. There is no one-size-fits-all. Now, more than ever, the confidential agent remarks in MLS are crucial for a buyer’s agent to read prior to submitting an offer.
We’ve had situations in the past in which the confidential remarks stated showings would be held on a certain day for a two-hour period. Buyer’s agents need to accompany their buyers on a showing. That’s how the real estate business works. Buyer’s agents cannot simply send their buyer over to the property because the buyer’s agent is unavailable on that day. No buyers will be admitted to a seller’s home if the buyer is unaccompanied by an agent. This is not an open house.
My sellers are instructed not to let strangers inside their home. A buyer’s agent needs to produce a business card at the door. If the buyer’s agent sends over an unescorted buyer, we can certainly arrange for another agent to represent an unrepresented buyer or we can send the buyer back home to get her agent. After all, buyers don’t have access to the confidential remarks in MLS. Moreover, it’s important to understand that a private group showing is not an open house.
