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Sacramento Agents Can Cause Buyers to Lose the House
Sacramento agents should thoughtfully craft purchase offers to avoid counter offers in hot markets.
The one thing all Sacramento agents should try to avoid have happen with their buyer’s purchase offer is to give the seller’s agent and seller a reason to issue a counter offer. A few weeks ago, a seller had a counter offer out, and while we waited for the response, another buyer swooped in and submitted an offer that the seller accepted. After pulling the counter offer, of course. If one can avoid the counter-offer situation all together, a Sacramento agent can increase the odds her buyer won’t lose the house.
The Elizabeth Weintraub Team members realize this and we try to avoid counter offers at all costs. When my husband and I bought our house in Hawaii, for example, there was already a counter out. Our offer caused the seller to pull that counter, too. Buyers, don’t ever let the fact that there is an existing outstanding counter offer discourage you. Jump on that baby like hot fudge on a sundae.
Some Sacramento agents never call the listing agent before submitting an offer. Even in this market of low inventory and high demand, which makes this a seller’s market. They just shoot over an offer, thinking this is how they’ve always done it, but maybe that purchase offer contains things that need to be countered. Now they’ve set up their buyer for possible failure.
It’s not just the sales price a buyer needs to worry about. It’s not always the big things. Often, it’s the little things. Here are some of the small things that Sacramento agents can do to cause their buyers to lose the house by inadvertently forcing the seller to counter:
- Asking for personal property that is not included in the purchase price
- Bucking local custom on how fees are split
- Requesting government retrofits, i.e. water-saving devices
- Demanding to choose title and escrow
- Asking for longer than 30 days to close
- Not tightening contingency periods
Success is often buried in the details. In the fine print. And it is to a buyer’s advantage for her agent to find out if there are special things the seller might hope to see in the offer. Maybe the seller needs a few days to move or to rent back? Sacramento agents won’t know if they don’t call the listing agent. (Of course, that agent would have to answer her phone.)
If you’re looking for Sacramento agents who work to avoid counters for their buyers (and answer their phones), call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Reason #49 Sellers in Sacramento Might Reject Buyers
Sacramento sellers can have odd reasons to reject buyers’ offers.
Believe it or not, but there are real estate agents in this business who unintentionally blow their buyers’ purchase offers out of the water. If you’re a buyer whose offer was not accepted by a seller, you might look more closely at your agent. You probably do anyway because it’s human nature to blame your agent when your offer doesn’t come back signed. It’s not always your agent’s fault, though. Sometimes, it’s your fault for not listening to your agent. And, honestly, sometimes it is your agent’s fault.
I hear agents tell me that their buyer won’t do this, and their buyer won’t do that, and I want to say: Did you ask? Did you ask your buyer? Because I know they probably did not. They might be a white knight agent. They might be a control freak. They might be clueless.
They might be all of those things, I dunno, but I do know that you get further with honey than with vinegar. You can’t push a listing agent, no matter how hard you try. And if you do try, you can alienate yourself and your buyer. Nobody cares about your interpretation of law or real estate practice or anything else you read on the back of a Bazooka gum wrapper. I swear, this is such a simple concept but so few seem to get it.
Once you get past the listing agent, you still need to deal with the home seller. All sellers are different. They bring backgrounds and experiences that may be foreign to you to the table. Get over it. Just when you think you can second guess, you will be wrong. You never know how they might look at something, which is why I like to ask for feedback and input from my sellers.
See, the thing is in a Sacramento seller’s market, sellers are in control. They’re in control from the beginning to the end. It’s their home, they own it, and they make the decisions.
I recall a home I sold several years ago. We had multiple offers from a bunch of buyers clamoring for the home. When we have an even-playing field, I lay out the offers and let the sellers choose with no input from me. Hey, it’s their home. Their right to choose. I do ask why they might prefer one offer over another, and it’s always a different reason.
The reason the seller’s rejected certain buyers for this particular home was the buyers had come over to the house too many times. In the buyers’ minds, they were excited and wanted to show their new home to all of their friends and family. Plus, they wanted to take measurements so they could layout their furniture on a diagram before moving in. But in their excitement, the buyers treated the sellers’ home like a Macy’s display floor. Their offer wasn’t even presented yet.
The sellers felt the buyers repeated visits meant the buyers were indecisive and the sellers rejected their offer. Yet, another example of when you see a home you want to buy, you need to stop what you are doing and buy it.
Is Syndicated Real Estate Writer Jim Woodard a Dingaling?
Pricing a home too low is pretty much impossible.
Usually I enjoy reading syndicated real estate writer Jim Woodard in the Sacramento Bee. His real estate articles are distributed nationally by Creators Syndicate, and even Realtor.com has picked up his columns. Although I suspect you’re unlikely to find his recent Open House column titled Setting a Realistic Asking Price for a Home on any Realtor website because it’s so skewed. This is what happens when a non-Realtor gives real-estate related advice. Sometimes writers get it wrong. Sometimes they look like a dingaling.
Perhaps other real estate agents don’t read his columns? Otherwise, many busy Sacramento Realtors would be up in arms about it. Which is why I’m sharing it with you today because I have many professionals who subscribe to my blog. There are glaring errors in his advice about choosing an asking price for a home. I have bolded the incorrect statements below:
“If it’s too low, the property will probably sell fast but at a price lower than its market value. If it’s too high, it may sit on the market for a very long time. Then it might finally sell, after reducing the price several times.
“Many owners follow the advice of their broker in determining the price. That’s often good advice, but keep in mind that the broker makes no money until a sale is consummated. A low price will expedite his commission payment.”
Only a dingaling would say something like this because it’s not true. For starters, it paints a broker with a tainted brush. It basically says you cannot trust your real estate agent to tell you the truth. In fact, it implies your real estate agent might be lying to you and pushing you to price a home way below market value, just so the agent can get quickly paid. This is an insane statement, it’s crazy nuts. It’s misleading; it gives readers the wrong impression about real estate agents; and it perpetrates a myth that agents are dishonest and / or only looking out for themselves, their own paycheck, which makes me want to throw a cream pie in the face of Jim Woodard.
Where would real estate writer Jim Woodard pull such a completely false idea from? Don’t answer that. We know where. It makes no difference to an agent if she is paid one week from now or next year. We do not price listings based on how quickly we receive our commissions.
Further, we are in the midst of a super hot seller’s market in Sacramento, like many parts of the country. Because of this type of real estate market — which is limited inventory and high buyer demand — smart agents might suggest a lower than market value in order to drive multiple offers. One simply cannot price a home too low and sell it below market value because vast exposure increases demand, and receiving multiple offers for an under-market price tends to push the final sales price into the stratosphere.
It’s impossible to price a home too low, especially in a seller’s market.
Perhaps real estate writer Jim Woodard is superimposing his own thoughts into his writing? Perhaps if he actually sold real estate, was out in the trenches — and I don’t think he is — he would do that sort of thing. Perhaps he would be dishonest? Maybe he would try to push sellers to price low to screw over clients. How else could he pull such a false premise out of thin air? Such a dingaling thing to write. So insulting. I suppose the logical answer is it’s possible that conviction is lurking deep within Woodard’s personal make-up but it’s certainly not in the heads of Sacramento Realtors nor the standard practice of any other Realtors in the nation.
Woodard, you owe us an apology.
Realtors put their client’s interests first and foremost.
Tips for Buying a New Listing in Sacramento
Listen to your agent about making an offer on a new listing in Sacramento
Home buyers tend to pay a lot of attention to the days on market, which doesn’t always mean anything except when the home is a new listing in Sacramento. When the home is a new listing in Sacramento, the days on market, regardless of market conditions, beg for a different offer strategy. That strategy says if the price is fair, showings are high, and the buyer needs to buy that home, the best move is not to try to negotiate.
Buyer’s agents sometimes take a cavalier attitude. They say the buyer will learn a lesson when the buyer loses the house, and that’s why sometimes it takes more than one offer to buy a home. If the buyer refuses to take his or her agent’s advice, the agent will just look for the next house. It doesn’t always matter to the agent which house the buyer ends up buying — not like it does to the buyer — because the agent will get paid either way.
I am often amazed when a new listing in Sacramento is on the market for a few days, and the buyer tries to negotiate on the price, especially when the price is fair. It’s not always a multiple-offer situation that will kill the buyer’s offer. It’s not like the seller is sitting on an offer and shopping it, hoping to get a higher offer, like some buyers erroneously believe. The problem that arises is when the offer is less than satisfactory to the seller, and the seller prepares a counter offer. Whole different scenario.
Agents will sometimes suggest to the listing agent that the buyer is open to a counter offer, which they really should not do as it undermines fiduciary. But even so, the problem with a counter offer is that counter offers eat up precious time. They are not instant. It can take a seller 24 hours to sign a counter offer. Then, there could be a time delay with sending the counter to the buyer’s agent, and the buyer’s agent can take more time to deliver the counter to the buyer. It is not considered final until the listing agent receives the counter offer back fully executed.
During this time period, another offer could come arrive. By necessitating a counter offer, the buyer just opened a window of opportunity for another buyer to submit an offer. A better offer. Perhaps with more suitable financing, a bigger down payment and best, no hesitation to show the seller that the buyer really wants that home. The seller is free, prior to delivery, to withdraw the counter offer and, sometimes, that’s exactly what sellers do. And buyers have done it to themselves. Just food for thought the next time you spot a new listing in Sacramento that you might want to buy.
How Many Sacramento Purchase Offers Does it Take Before an Offer Sticks?
Buyers who write purchase offers on homes they intend to buy generally close.
Even though I have been in the real estate business for 40 years, it still amazes me how buyers can be so sure one minute and so completely nuts the next. I’m wondering if there isn’t some sort of sign that buyer’s agents are overlooking, or if the agents are so completely focused on getting the paperwork signed that they forget to have a chat with the buyer. You know, something along the lines of: When you sign this contract, you have committed to buy a home, just in case they thought they were signing up for membership in Sam’s Club instead.
We have all become distracted by technology and the whirling world around us. Hey, anybody could have a temporary lapse, I suppose.
I just don’t understand how a buyer can be jumping up and down with such enthusiasm over buying a home, and not quite 2 minutes later falling into cold feet syndrome with severe regrets. Just a few days ago, an agent called to say his buyer was dedicated to purchasing a home in Sacramento. The guy was absolutely in love with this home, and his entire family was behind him. They were so obsessed with buying this home that they pulled out a wad of cash, $3,000 in all, and gave it to the buyer’s agent, begging him to obtain a cashier’s check with it on their behalf and draw a purchase offer.
Two other buyers wanted the same home in Sacramento. This was really good for my seller. She was excited and relieved to hear the news. We received two offers and waited for the purchase offer from the buyer with the $3,000 cashier’s check, too. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Then the agent called to say the buyer had a change of heart and was no longer interested in buying the home.
Doesn’t matter because we have 2 other purchase offers. It was tough initially choosing between them. They were very close to each other in terms of price, down payment and terms. The seller did an eeny, meeny, miny, moe and picked one. Signed the purchase offer. We sent it to the agent and 30 minutes later escrow shot over title information to the buyer’s agent. That’s when the agent emailed to say that after he explained the process, oh, so sorry, his buyer has flipped his gourd and will no longer be buying the home.
All this in one day. Sure hope the third time’s a charm.
