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A Sacramento Lockbox Experience Shed Light on a Bad Agent
When I first moved to Sacramento in 2002, I did not yet belong to MLS. I had not yet reactivated my real estate license because it involved passing the California real estate exam again. The real estate laws in California changed over the past 12 years or so since I had left the state, so it took me a few months to choose an office, take the exam and become an official Sacramento real estate agent who has access to MLS as a member of MetroList.
As a member of MetroList, I also get to buy my own Sacramento lockboxes and secure them to homes that I list, so other agents can gain access if the sellers aren’t home. Lockboxes come in handy for appraisers and after the sellers move out, when the buyers conduct a final walkthrough. It’s very difficult to get into a Sacramento lockbox if you don’t have an display key. The good thing about the infrared communication device on the lockbox is it sends the agent’s information to a website. I check this website every night before I turn off my computer to join my husband for dinner.
The website tells me the name of the agent who used the lockbox, the time and the day, the agent’s telephone number, the agent’s email address and the name of the agent’s broker. It’s also a useful list in case somebody left the lights on by mistake, I can track down the last person to show and ask them to be more prudent in the future. I also email all buyer’s agents who showed my listings that day to ask for feedback and thank them for showing.
When I bought my home in Sacramento, the previous listing agent left the lockbox on the railing and I couldn’t get it off. He never came back to pick it up. I don’t know if it was because he did not want to run into me again or if he simply forgot. I would be mortified if I forgot to pick up a lockbox. Not only that, but lockboxes cost around $100, and I own about $8,000 worth of lockboxes. To get a lockbox off, I had to resort to a reciprocating saw. It took me a good 20 minutes of teeth rattling to saw through the shackle.
It’s much easier to use a display key to open the lockbox. I could have called my own agent to come over and use her display key, but she had done such a lousy job during my escrow. I did not want to ever speak to her again. I vowed I would never do what she did to my own clients. She felt that my husband was her client and forgot all about me. She did not return my phone calls or emails. She never answered her cellphone when I called. We almost did not close escrow because she messed up so badly. As I sawed through the shackle on that lockbox, I thought about her, and how grateful I am that I will never be like her.
In addition to my heros and heroines, whom I admire and aspire to mirror, the bad ones also teach me the paths to avoid, what not to do.
The Lengths Some Sacramento Investors Will Go
When I started in real estate in the 1970s, I represented mostly investors looking to buy a rental home. I also cultivated investors by showing regular homeowners how they could tap the equity in their homes to buy investment properties. It was a completely different world of real estate back then. You may find this difficult to believe, but I never asked my investors for their opinion or how they would like to write a purchase offer. I bought all of their properties in my name as assignee using promissory notes. The world of Sacramento investors has changed a bit.
The premise back then was as a real estate broker I could better negotiate and ferret out the good deals for them. After I bought the property, I assigned it to my investors, they put cash into escrow and we closed a week later. I received a commission and they got the property. It was a strange way to do business but it worked for many years.
One of the advantages to this system was I could act very quickly when a new home came on the market. Back then, we didn’t have computers. MLS books were printed once a month with weekly updates. Real estate agents found homes for sale through networking and the daily newspaper. It’s hard for me to even imagine doing business like that now. It seems so dark ages, like etchings on a cave wall, to think about having to stop at my office or a telephone booth if I needed to make a phone call.
Today in Sacramento the market is desperate. Sacramento investors are nearly hysterical. And first-time homebuyers are in tears. The problem is no inventory, and it’s getting worse as we head into the time of year that is generally the slowest — December. Five years ago there were almost 10,000 homes for sale in Sacramento County. I just ran a search in MLS, and we have 1,373 residential homes for sale in Sacramento County. We have 5,162 homes in escrow with accepted purchase offers. But most frightening is over the past 30 days during the month of November we have closed 1,370 homes. That’s only the number of homes that have been reported and many companies lag MLS input by a few days, so that number will increase by the time all is said and done.
We have less than 30 days of inventory. There is nothing to buy and the demand is extremely high. To say it’s a seller’s market is like saying we have a little rain here in Sacramento right now. We have a torrential storm.
Investors have figured out what they need to do is target the top producers. They are calling the biggest listing real estate agents in Sacramento and begging for first chance at writing an offer. I rank up near the top so they are calling this Sacramento real estate agent. One of them, and I won’t tell you who it is, called yesterday. They offered to kick back 66% of the commission to me if I would give them an edge in negotiations and make suggestions as to how they could beat out their competition.
I don’t think they were prepared for my response. That’s because this approach must work with other real estate agents or they wouldn’t be doing it. I said: “You know, it sort of sounds like you guys are asking me to compromise my fiduciary and give you a leg up in exchange for additional compensation. To grant favors. To ensure you win the purchase offer. I know you probably don’t mean it that way, but that’s exactly how it sounds.”
Their response:“I take it you’re not interested.”
Bingo.
If you’re looking for a Sacramento real estate agent to sell your home, give Elizabeth Weintraub a jingle at 916.233.6759. I answer my phone.
Short Contingent vs Pending Short Lender Approval
What’s the world coming to when you can’t make idle threats anymore? Like, you can’t tell a guy you’re gonna hit him in the head with a shovel and bury his body in the desert without some jury awarding him $20 million in punitive damages. Even if he is a porn guy, or soft porn or whatever. Criminy. And you can’t threaten to burn down somebody’s house at a City Council meeting, either. Whatever happened to freedom of expression? Huh? Why can’t you just talk off the top of your head? Vent a little? It’s like words have meaning or something, and people take you seriously.
We need to go back to the days of Joe and Curly and Moe. When you could just poke somebody in the eyes with two fingers and nobody cared. Maybe zing a pie of whipped cream in a face.
People get frustrated. That’s pretty much a given. It doesn’t take much sometimes. Take Sacramento short sales for example. Buyers are very frustrated when they read listings in MLS that are a short sale. MetroList has attempted to clear up the confusion by offering two status choices after an offer has been received. But the problem with MetroList is a buyer can’t see the change when it’s active short contingent. That status modifier is hidden in the bottom right corner of the listing the buyer receives.
Agents don’t much understand it either. I know because as a Sacramento short sale agent some of my listings are listed as “active short contingent” and some are listed as “pending short lender approval.” Short Contingent means we have an offer. It also means we are open to back-up offers, and we might already have a few. An inquiring mind should call and ask. Bear in mind that a true back-up offer incorporates a purchase agreement addendum. No PAA, no backup. And a seller is not required to sign a back-up offer. Pending Short Lender Approval means we don’t want any back-up offers, and there are no more showings.
If you’ve got a gripe with the way Active Short Contingent shows up in MLS for a buyer, take that gripe to MetroList. That’s who your beef is with. It’s not with this Sacramento short sale agent. And watch where you walk. There are banana peels on the ground.
