Email Elizabethreal estate commissions
Sellers Who Don’t Need One of the Best Sacramento Realtors
If you’re looking for the one of the best Sacramento Realtors, odds are you can find a few by doing an online search. But just because the agent helps with staging or pricing and you list the home yourself or with a friend, does not mean you’ve got the services of one of the best Sacramento Realtors. You only got part of the story and not the entire package.
A former client relayed to me this morning that she did not realize some real estate agents will work for dirt cheap, and that the job to sell a home is so incredibly easy that she doesn’t really need to hire the best Sacramento Realtor. Although, she did add that when she’s ready to sell her more expensive home in East Sacramento, she will definitely hire me. Because she wants the best.
But for right now, to sell her rental property at the Parkway in Folsom, any old discount agent will do. She doesn’t need the best, she said, after promising last month to list with me. Especially after this more experienced and full-service Sacramento Realtor has already met with her at the rental in Folsom, completed an inspection and provided her with a list of fixes and repairs to undertake. In addition to giving her a list of vendors to purchase materials from, advising on color and choice of materials, providing contractors to complete the work and finding other ways to save her money.
This is on top of responding to every email from the seller within minutes, even while on vacation in Oregon. Advising on the perfect sales price and sales strategy.
So, yes, I guess I can see that after a seller has her home all fixed up, knows how much to price it at that she might feel it is a slam dunk. Especially since she didn’t pay the full-service Realtor a dime for all of this. However, all of that upfront work is part of the fee a full-service agent earns.
This is like jumping into my car at a stoplight, grabbing my bag and running off. I’m supposed to be OK with the theft, including the lack of respect. But I’m not and, when the time comes, I will not choose to represent her to sell a home in East Sacramento.
The other portions of my full-service fee, which I work hard to earn and the seller will most likely come to understand down the road are the following:
* Positioning the home to go on the market on a day that will make it the most attractive as possible
* Personal and immediate attention to my client
* Anticipating problems in advance and preventing difficulties
* Shooting high quality professional photography designed to drive up the price
* Hosting unique open houses through extravaganza blitz marketing
* Capitalizing on my 24 years of online internet experience — unparalleled by most other Realtors
* Utilizing my 40+ years of real estate experience to negotiate the purchase offer to ensure the highest price among possible multiple buyers, which I strategically manipulate to occur.
* Once in escrow, I negotiate the list of repairs the buyer often returns with after a home inspection to keep those costs to a minimum, if at all
* Meeting contingencies of the contract with precision
* Staying on top of the buyer’s financing to make sure there are no loopholes that will hold up closing or more likely cause the transaction to blow up
That’s a bare bones bullet-point list of things I do to make sellers more money above and beyond any difference in fee they might pay a discount agent. When escrows close, sellers always say I more than earned my fee, and they are very ecstatic with the extra money they received — which a discount agent could never provide. They understand this. All of my sellers pay for full service. Happily. Especially the million-dollar home sellers.
In other words, a seller tends to lose money with a discount agent, even if she wrongly believes her home is a slam dunk to sell. There are no slam dunks in Sacramento real estate. Saving a few pennies on the commission means eating it on the big picture. But then that kind of seller doesn’t really care if she has not hired one of the best Sacramento Realtors.
When To Ask an Agent About the Real Estate Commission
When the first question out a potential seller’s mouth is how much is your commission, that sends an agent a subtle message that either the caller has never sold a home or thinks the only thing that matters, i.e. differentiates agents from one another, is commission. I deal with both of these issues in my own way. Which means I address it head on and early and first, because any misconceptions about how a Sacramento real estate agent operates needs to be cleaned up immediately if I am to proceed with the conversation. If the caller is searching solely for a discount agent, they have misdialed.
This is not to say there are not people who shop for a real estate agent the same way they shop for a new pair of shoes. They want to find those Tori Burch boots on sale, but that’s not gonna happen. If you want the hottest new boots from Tori Burch, you pay the price. If you want a knock-off, you go to Wal-Mart. When callers initiate a discussion about commission, they sometimes are very astonished at my take. I make them laugh, like this guy yesterday who chuckled: Well, you are persuasive.
Because I believe it. I believe my words because my experience backs them up. I do tend to get my clients more money, and they do tell me I don’t get paid enough when they pay full commissions. I keep them out of trouble. I don’t let buyer push them around and rob them of their hard-earned equity.
After I got this guy howling in fits of laughter yesterday, then he drops the bombshell to say he needs to do a short sale on both of his properties in Davis. Holy toledo. I exclaimed, You hit the jackpot with me. Because he did. There is not another real estate agent in a 7-county area in Sacramento who has sold more short sales than I have over the past 8 years. I am still the top Sacramento short sale agent, even though short sales are no longer in vogue. For the past few years, I have continued as a top producer who mostly sells regular listings. I’m about as well rounded as you will find for an agent who started in the business in 1974.
And the place for the discussion about real estate commission in a short sale is no place. There is no reason to highlight commission and argue ad nauseum. The bank will authorize the amount it will authorize and, in almost every instance, it is full commissions. Because our American banking institutions realize that a good real estate agent is worth a full commission. It’s not like the commission comes directly from the seller. It is paid from the proceeds of sale, and it is money the bank doesn’t receive. Banks care more than anybody about bottom-line profits, yet they authorize a full fee. Imagine that!
If our banks believe real estate agents are worth a full commission, why doesn’t everybody get with the program? Why are there still people out there who who are shopping for a discount agent when they really need a full-service agent to sell their home? It’s because they don’t know any better and nobody has ever shown them otherwise.
Do Sacramento Agents Discount Real Estate Commissions?
Just because a real estate commission is negotiable doesn’t mean I am willing to cut a deal for a stranger. Heck, I don’t even make deals for friends because I don’t have any friends selling real estate in Sacramento. But even if I did, they would still pay me for my services. Real estate commissions must be negotiable in order to comply with the Sherman Act, but it doesn’t mean a real estate agent needs to offer a discounted commission. Yes, you can negotiate with this Sacramento real estate agent, and I’ll cut right to the chase here, my answer is no.
Not only do I charge the same percentage that I have charged since I started in this business way back in the days of bellbottoms and Beatles, but I am doing a bazillion times the work since then. I have two rules that I work by that are completely inflexible:
No discounts and
No assholes.
See, I can’t always choose the agents on the other side with whom I work nor their clients, and some of those people might be assholes, but I can choose my own clients, which is why I don’t work with the assholes. If you’re an asshole, you can go work with some other agent.
I have to save my asshole interrogating energy to work with the other side.
Would you want an agent who eagerly said Sure, I’ll give you a big fat discount? Because that kind of agent might do the same thing when you get an offer. Put pressure on you to accept a lowball offer. When I receive a purchase offer, the first thing I often think is: how is the other side putting the screws to the seller? Is the offer on the level and clean? I’m not eager to jump into escrow unless the seller is excited and the offer warrants it. Because I don’t really care about me. I care solely about what the seller wants.
Sometimes clients ask me if I will reduce my commission when they are faced with a price reduction. Although I can vaguely see how they might come up with that idea — for example, they are reducing the price so I should come down — they are not looking at the fact that by the mere percentage calculation, I am already hit by a reduced compensation. Lower sales price X percentage rate = lower fee. I share the loss with them already. I know they don’t mean to say that they want to penalize me nor do they want me to work less. They want me to work even harder. And I do. That’s my job. To sell their home.
But don’t ask an agent to give you top-notch performance and then work for less because it doesn’t work that way. Most of us earn our commission, one closing at at time. If 1% separates you from the best in the business, you’ll probably lose a lot more than THAT down the road because it means you think we are all the same. We are not all the same. All agents are not created equal.
Success is Focusing on the Joy
Sometimes, people tell me that my blog is just what they need to read for that particular day, and I hope today’s blog is that inspiration for some of you. Today I want to talk about focusing on the joy.
One of my Elk Grove sellers called yesterday after putting her home into escrow to personally say thank you for the wonderful job of negotiation — which was appreciated by this Sacramento real estate agent. Everybody likes to be appreciated. I am especially thrilled when my clients are thrilled. It makes what I do meaningful and worthwhile. It also validates that all real estate agents are not the same, something often overlooked in this industry.
There are those in the public who believe all agents are identical to each other, and therefore, we should all be paid as little as possible, because they sadly believe that what agents do is something a trained monkey can do. It’s an insulting attitude toward agents, but I can’t help what other people believe. It’s also craziness. Get this, I have had a former client once ask me to cut my already approved commission and yet spend more money to sell his challenging and overpriced property. They don’t get it. No matter what we do, we can’t force them to get it. But we can spend our time instead focusing on the joy.
Downer and negative attitudes, well, that’s OK because there are plenty of sellers who work from a different framework. It’s human nature to gravitate toward people who like and trust you. How do companies attract loyal and dedicated employees? They treat them well, show respect and value their contributions to the company. How many companies do you know of nowadays that do that? They don’t denigrate and expect an employee to perform well. ‘Cuz employees will quit and walk off the job.
Except real estate agents. Real estate agents take more abuse than most because there seems to be more of it going around. Tempers flare. Unreasonable demands made. Particularly near the holidays. Fortunately, I don’t encounter rude or demanding people very often and, if I do, I manage to stay clear. My sellers are delightful; I’m happy to say. It gives me great pleasure to call them with good news. I spend my time focusing on the joy.
Like this morning, I was able to call a single mom and let her know that not only is her short sale approved by both lenders, but she’ll receive $3,000 at closing, and we are closing the day after Christmas. I have one more Happy Thanksgiving call to make this morning as well, to say the nervous buyer has finally emerged from underwriting and his loan will close. This is a special business for those of us who harbor the right attitude and surround ourselves with fabulous people.
Successful people tend to concentrate on focusing on the joy, what brings them joy. Happy Thanksgiving.
Should a Sacramento Short Sale Agent Get Paid?
I received an obscure email yesterday from a person who was very upset because the writer realized a Sacramento short sale agent gets paid to do a short sale and, in his words, the seller gets nothing. At first, I could not believe my eyes, but as the words on the page popped out at me, I understood it was simply the frustration and anger of the person writing, and logic didn’t enter into it.
Because if pure logic entered into it, the writer would be upset with himself. He’s the one who, for better or worse, is saddled with an underwater home that he could no longer afford. Maybe it was bad timing, which is nobody’s fault, or maybe the person lost their job and can’t find another, which is also nobody’s fault. Or, maybe the person knew from the beginning the dangerous waters, hard to say, and it doesn’t really matter. What matters is where one is with the property now and what one intends to do about it. If a person doesn’t want to keep an underwater home, this homeowner faces two basic choices: short sale or foreclosure.
A Sacramento short sale agent really wants to help. It’s far easier to sell a home that is not a short sale, believe me.
For many homeowners, the short sale is the better solution:
- A short sale removes personal liability.
- Gives the sellers a clean break.
- Transfers ownership in a dignified manner.
- Relieves a seller of any further responsibility for the property.
- Provides a closure.
And yes, an agent who sells the home and negotiates a successful short sale earns a commission. All of the fees — to the listing and selling brokers, the listing agents, the selling agents, and the costs of sale — are paid from the proceeds of sale; there is no upfront or out-of-pocket expense to the seller.
Try hiring a lawyer to give legal advice for free. They won’t do it. Well, they might if you offer to buy a martini — dry, with a splash of vermouth and a couple of jalapeno-stuffed olives. However, agents don’t sell homes for free, either. A Sacramento short sale agent sells a home on a contingent basis. When finally the home is sold and the seller receives short sale approval, the agent gets paid for services upon closing. Sellers are not paying that agent in advance or writing a check.
Moreover, simply because the short sale agent is receiving a commission doesn’t mean a seller is getting the short end of the stick. If a seller wants to see the short end of the stick, stand back and let the home go to foreclosure. Don’t bother trying to buy another home in 2 years after a foreclosure, because it won’t happen. Every time a seller applies for credit for the next 7 years after a foreclosure, the seller will need to disclose the foreclosure and the credit will most likely be denied.
If a homeowner wants to stick it to the man, do a short sale. If a seller wants to do the bank a favor, then by all means, let the bank seize the home in a foreclosure. Sellers are very angry with the way some employees at short sale banks talk down to them and treat them. You wouldn’t believe some of the stories I hear from sellers. I bet most short sale agents and support staff who are involved with distressed sellers feel their pain; it’s hard not to.
However, to get angry with an agent because the agent is getting paid to perform a service is like getting mad that you get a paycheck when you go to work.
