Email Elizabethpicking a sales price
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Sacramento Home Sales
An outdated kitchen can make it unlikely to sell at the top of the comps for Sacramento home sales.
In my real estate practice of Sacramento home sales, I draw upon my 40-some years in the business when I advise my clients. Experience pays off. My sellers know I will share all aspects of the home sales process with them, and not just say what they want to hear. Of course, every seller loves to listen to praise, they want to hear their home is beautiful, but they absolutely need to know the downside, too.
I’ve heard of some Realtors who spend a lot of time criticizing a home, and what that kind of approach accomplishes, even if the criticism is deserving and true, is cause the seller’s heart to slip into her stomach. Often, sellers are suspicious of agents anyway. They know there are agents they can’t trust — just like there are people in all walks of every profession who are untrustworthy. But they especially mistrust the motives of an agent who can find nothing but bad things to say about their home.
Don’t blame them, either. I wouldn’t appreciate that kind of interplay. Just like I look for the silver linings in the worst situations, I can find positives in anything. Doesn’t matter if the home is leaning to one side, about to cave over, I will find something good to say about it. Like, perhaps the color is bright and cheery. Or maybe the angle lets in more light or air. Plus, it’s likely to be priced within the comps of nearby Sacramento home sales to a place where the lean-to is immaterial.
In the photograph above, I can see many things that are wrong with this kitchen. The cabinets are older, worn and lack hardware (pulls); the appliances are a horrifying white (which buyers hate) and they are mismatched, plus the stove is electric and not gas. There is no effective backsplash. The overhead lighting is not contemporary, and the flooring appears to be vinyl. Colorless walls, too. And let’s not even talk about the fact the refrigerator, which usually does not convey as personal property, supports an upper freezer (not bottom), and that triangle thing — stove, sink and ‘frig — is not working in this space.
On the upside, the kitchen is immaculate. It is perfectly functional the way it is, and all of the appliances are operable. The colors are light, which makes the kitchen appear much larger. The granite-appearing counters are not tile nor laminate, thank goodness, for purposes of this illustration the counters are granite with detailed edging, and they are a darker color so they won’t show marks or dirt. On top of which, the darker color of the granite provides contrast to the rest of the kitchen.
Look at that oversized window, too. It’s dual pane (yay) and runs the entire length of the sink, plus it appears to offer enough room to grow potted plants, which lend a nice touch to the ambience. The view is semi-private and the tree can provide a nest for birds, which means when you rinse dishes in the sink, your eyes can rest upon the delightful sight of frolicking birds, transporting a person away from the mundane existence of her miserable life. JK about that last part.
I share the good, the bad and the ugly with my home sellers. My practice is to downplay the negatives and play up the attractive points. Plus, if I shot this photo, I would remove the edge of the refrigerator; it’s distracting. I would not shoot the opposing wall because it makes the space appear smaller than it is. And I would stage the counters with more appropriate items to draw the eye toward the granite and away from the cabinets.
If you’re interested in knowing more about Sacramento home sales and want to hire a top Sacramento Realtor, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Reasons to Validate Overpriced Listings in Sacramento
A luxury home on the water in Sacramento, by Elizabeth Weintraub.
A pile of newsletters travel through my email each week, many of which I do not open. I just look at the headlines. I send out my own newsletter every week to thousands and thousands of subscribers. About.com will not let me tell you how many subscribe to my homebuying newsletter, but it’s an astonishing number. I don’t know why people care what I have to say or why they even read it. Some send me emails that say they have no interest in real estate at all, they just want to see what I write. Which floors me.
Lately, the sentiment I see throughout the real estate industry appears centered on overpriced listings. Much of it is giving advice to sellers but mostly to their agents. This advice is do not overprice and do not take an overpriced listing. In some ways, this is very insulting, and I’m gonna tell you why.
The notion that we as real estate agents, for example, are the Know-all and Be-all in real estate is absurd. You heard me. Yes, we are real estate professionals but that doesn’t mean we know exactly how much a home should sell for. Because we don’t. We know the price that is likely to attract a potential buyer; we know how much previous buyers have paid for similar homes. We know what is in pending status and the inventory on the market now, but we do not have a crystal ball. We are also not appraisers, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.
As a listing agent, I can help a seller to choose a sales price, but I do not choose the price for them. I am a Sacramento listing agent who works at the discretion of the seller. The seller has a very high percentage stake in the sales price, more than 90%. My stake is a relatively small slice of the pie. My job is to sell the property. I market real estate to buyers. I am a salesperson. The day a listing agent forgets that is the day an agent should quit.
Agents: I say who died and made you ruler of the universe? I want to grab these people by their shoulders and shake sense into them. It is silly to proclaim to the world that you and only you know the magical list price number for a seller. You don’t. You don’t really know how much a buyer will pay until you try to get it. You don’t really know how much a home will appraise for until an appraiser appraises it.
I have sold homes in my life that never in a million years should have sold at some of the prices they sold at, according to regular comps. There are many ways to evaluate a sales price. I tend to get the price the seller expects. Because that is my job. My job is to sell real estate in Sacramento. I am very clear and focused on that job. If I believe I can sell it, I’ll take the listing.
I recently had another home in Sacramento appraise at a value that astounds the neighbors. It astounded me that a buyer was willing to purchase the home under the terms and conditions it required, including price. Not only was the buyer willing to pay that price, but the home appraised at that price. I listen to my gut instincts, but I also listen to the seller. Then I formulate a marketing plan, and I sell that home. Real estate is not a black-and-white business. It’s a moving business. Constantly in motion. Like the Everglades.
While Elizabeth is in Cuba, please enjoy this previously published elsewhere blog.
How to Pick a Sales Price Without Comparable Sales
Trying to pick a sales price when there are few to none comparable sales is a little bit tricky in our Sacramento real estate market, but this is when an experienced real estate agent can be very helpful. Sometimes it comes down to relying on gut instinct, mixed with a bit of pixie dust sprinkled on top of those dusty old comparable sales, to come up with an accurate and reasonable number.
Further, I might do goofy things that are right on target such as grab a random sales price from 2005, divide it in half, multiple that result by 50%, and then slap another 25% on top to arrive at an estimate of value, which is often much closer than Zillow’s screwy Zestimate and computed about in the same fashion. But that’s just to double-check the ballpark. It’s not to pick a sales price.
When talking with a seller who just closed escrow yesterday on a fixer home I had listed, we had discussed the sales price and reviewed how we arrived at the final number. I confessed that it wasn’t based entirely on the comparable sales. My input was based a lot on how much I thought we could get for the property, resulting in the intrinsic market value of that home. The seller laughed and said he realized I had grabbed it from thin air when I made the recommendation.
Well, I wouldn’t say thin air. But it was an educated guess. It was an educated guess because although I had examined the comp prices for turnkey homes, I had not arrived at a value for the unknown condition of the property, which was basically trashed. I had been expecting to see a home in move-in condition. These types of homes are a bit difficult to price when the home has so much wrong with it that you can’t even figure out which part of the house you’re standing in. Oh, this must be the living room, I muttered to nobody, when it dawned on me where I was as the floor suddenly sloped down under my feet.
After hitting the market, lots of agents called to give me push back and to complain about the price. They thought it was too high. Many offered substantially less. They moaned and groaned. Hey, give the sellers what they want, I suggested; it’s simple, just do it. Don’t yak at me about the comps and your honorable intentions. Put up or shut up. Then, two buyers submitted offers that were very close to our asking price, and those were the two buyers we worked with, closing with the best offer and zero renegotiations during escrow.
Sometimes, you just get lucky trying to pick a sales price, but it helps to have experience on your side when you’re the seller.
Why Other Curtis Park Agents Gave This Seller a Higher Price
A seller in Curtis Park wants to put her home on the market next year and is looking for a Sacramento real estate agent now. She is calling agents to find out how how much her home is worth today. Listing now or waiting for spring is a hot discussion for many sellers at the moment, but the fact remains the price an agent names today is not the price the home will be worth next spring. That home in Curtis Park could be worth more or it could be worth less.
Plus, if it’s a Curtis Park home that few people want to buy due to location, condition or the seller insists on an over-the-top-of-market price, it could not sell at all. That’s always a very real possibility that few want to face.
I am always happy to talk with sellers who have future plans and are not ready to act right now. For one thing, if they are calling a bunch of other real estate agents, it’s probable many of those agents won’t still be in the real estate business by the time the seller is ready, which certainly decreases my competition — day after day I receive notifications via LinkedIn of agents who used to work in real estate and have since taken jobs in other industries. But I also want to remain in sellers’ minds when they are ready to list a home.
If they forget my last name, they can do something simple like go to Goggle and put in Elizabeth and Sacramento Real Estate, and out of the top 5 hits, four will be me. Or, they can just search on the keywords “Elizabeth Sacramento,” and in the middle of links for the incredibly delectable Ginger Elizabeth chocolate store in Midtown, they’ll find my website. It’s easy to find Elizabeth Weintraub on Google.
This particular seller remembered my name, though, because she contacted me a second time. By now, she has talked to other real estate agents, and she says two of them gave her a higher price than I did, and they both outbid each other. It’s so frustrating when this happens because I don’t want to say anything bad about another real estate agent, and I understand why they feel the need to falsify information to the seller, but to intentionally lie is considered unethical.
They don’t see it as lying. Because that would make them bad people. They see it as being overly optimistic. They hope if it doesn’t sell at the price they name, well, the seller will be willing to lower the price.
The seller doesn’t see it as lying because she just wants the top price and doesn’t really understand, I suspect, that she sets the price, not the agent. The price has to be based on something, though, such as comparable sales, what similar homes have sold at and not plucked from thin air simply to try to win a listing.
I suggested the seller call a couple more Curtis Park agents to see if she can’t push the price up. Get a couple more bidding against each other to try to win the listing. I was kidding with her, of course, because the price is really whatever the buyer will pay. I don’t choose the sales price. I give sellers enough information as to why I believe a certain home sales price will work, and I substantiate it by identifying homes within a 1/2 mile radius that are the same condition, location, type and age, and similar square footage.
The seller chooses the price and the market takes it from there. Buyers for a home in Curtis Park have the final word.
Remember, the seller has the first word, the agent second. The seller always picks the price. Sellers should choose an agent they like and trust and not the agent who pops up waving her bidding fan sporting the highest number, like at an auction.
