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Benefits of Selling a Home with a Full Service Realtor in Antelope
Full service Realtor sold this Antelope home in 3 days over list and closed in 25 days.
There are many benefits to selling a home with a full service Realtor, but rather than tell you, I’d rather show you a real life situation. It means more, I believe, when you’re looking at an actual transaction because you can put yourself in the seller’s shoes and better relate. This particular seller in Antelope called me in early January of this year to say she wanted to sell her home. I was at our vacation home on my Hawaii wor-cation on the day the seller called, and not coming back home to Sacramento anytime soon.
Still, it doesn’t mean I don’t work when I am in Hawaii because I do. My work and my personal life are very much intertwined. I answer my phone. I take listings. I sell homes. And I do much of it from Hawaii in the winter. Yes, I am a top producer in Sacramento who has refined the art of selling homes over decades that I don’t even have to be here in person to do the job and do it well.
I gave the seller a list of things to do to get ready for selling her home. I prepared a CMA, a comparative market analysis, and emailed it to her. This seller used home estimates on other websites and felt the home was not priced appropriately. So I invested time explaining why those websites were wrong, and why my numbers were correct and by the time I finished, I swear, the seller could almost become an appraiser.
It’s OK, I am used to educating people. Unless you’re in the real estate business for over 40 years and sell a couple homes a week, a traditional home seller can’t begin to know what I know, and I’m happy to share my knowledge. This is what a full-service Realtor does. Educates and performs.
When I returned to Sacramento toward the end of January, I met with the seller in person. Inspected her home. Helped her select a couple of contractors, made a few minor repairs. Discussed home staging techniques. Then 3 months went by. I checked in from time to time, but the seller wasn’t ready. She had finished the repairs, but she wasn’t emotionally ready. However, she really needed to be ready. She had a new home sale closing in June and our market in April was super hot.
I could sense she needed a bit of encouragement, so I made an appointment for a professional photographer and met with her again. I knew she was ready. She just didn’t know she was ready. I nudged a little, gently. If I didn’t, she would be chewing off fingernails about now. We signed the paperwork and went on the market the third week in April. Received 3 offers that weekend.
I felt she could get a bit more on price given the demand, so we a) pushed up the price of the offer we wanted, b) arranged for her to stay after closing for another 45 days at no cost, rent-free, and she c) sold the home AS IS without any repairs, even though the buyer’s home inspection and pest report reflected deficiencies. This is what working with a full-service Realtor gets a seller. Top dollar and peace of mind.
The seller closed escrow on her home in Antelope in 25 days. No fuss, no muss. Her entire transaction ran as smooth as silk. Plus, now she can focus on packing and getting ready to move into her brand new home at the end of June. All of my listings tend to produce a satisfying ending for me and my clients. If you’re interested in learning more about a full service Realtor, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Working With Sacramento Realtors Who Are Not Full-Time Agents
Communicating can be difficult when working with Sacramento Realtors who are part-time.
Before you end up working with Sacramento Realtors who are not full-time agents without your knowledge, you can fix that by asking your agent if she is part-time. We have more than 5,000 Realtors in the Sacramento Valley, and not all of them are full-time. I don’t think there are any agents who begrudge another person the opportunity to supplement her income, but some of the problems inherent with being a part-time agent can be very challenging for a full-time agent to deal with. If full-time agents struggle with this kind of relationship, what does that say about their clients?
This also brings up the question of whether a part-time agent should disclose that status to the full-time agent. I’m sure many will say as long as they can do the required job, it doesn’t make any difference. But doing the required job means answering your cellphone and responding to urgent matters on a daily basis. It means communicating with the other side in a timely manner. It means taking care of your client as if you were full-time.
I’m not picking on part-time agents because this is also true of many full-time agents. A little known fact is an agent can work full-time in Sacramento real estate and sell only 3 or 4 houses a year, like about 90% of the agents in our Sacramento MLS. I am not making this up. I ran the stats in MLS. What are they doing the rest of the time when they are not working? I don’t know, I guess family things, perhaps gardening, volunteering at other jobs, pursuing personal interests that are not real estate related. Many are retirement age.
The public has this image of working with Sacramento Realtors who are full-time. To the public, full-time means agents should be available when the client needs them. That agents should work regular hours. It doesn’t mean an agent needs to be available at 10 PM but one should at least answer her phone during the day and / or respond to communications.
When you are working with Sacramento Realtors like the Elizabeth Weintraub Team, our goal is to ensure your needs are met and we stay on top of the transaction because we are all full-time Realtors. We work at minimum 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. We will do the part-time agent’s job, if necessary, to the extent we are allowed under the Realtor Code of Ethics. We also help new agents, when the need arises. We don’t discriminate. But maybe, just maybe their clients should.
