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Reason #57 to Hire a Sacramento Real Estate Agent
Possessing the foresight to avoid problems down the road in a real estate transaction is a crucial trait my clients come to expect from an experienced Sacramento real estate agent. My real estate practice is built on trying to anticipate crap that can go sideways and fixing it before that happens. Sometimes I astonish even myself when I look at an issue in hindsight. It’s not enough to just make sure all of the initial spots on a contract are initialed and the signatures lines signed in full, an agent really needs to study the purchase contract and figure out what can possibly go wrong.
When other agents are excited to go into escrow, I look for reasons we won’t close or situations that can upset the seller. I’m sort of the opposite of an excited Sacramento real estate agent. Selling a home is stressful enough. Sellers and buyers don’t need to face additional frustrations if we can help it, and my experience has shown me that we often can. It’s my duty to my client.
Of course there are things that can pop up that we could never anticipate but after you’re in the business for a while, you make mental notes to yourself. For example, when your clients live out of town, and you’re moving closer to receipt of loan docs in title — which is what sets the closing process in motion — sometimes it makes sense to get most of the documents signed prior. Especially the grant deed. Because that needs to be notarized and title needs the original document to record.
This is the typical process: First, the title company emails documents to the mobile signer, but generally, depending on the time of day of receipt and the time of the appointment, the fastest the mobile signer can return the documents is to ship overnight the following day. Then, it takes another day to land back at the title company, so 3 days at a minimum. When you’re hoping to close on a Friday so the buyers can move in that weekend, timing is crucial. You can’t have loan docs hit escrow on a Thursday and expect to close on Friday when the principals to the transaction live out of area. Unless the sellers sign the essential documents early. The title company can pre-draw upon request.
Who is gonna think of this solution beforehand? Not the mortgage lender, most likely. It’s up to the Sacramento real estate agents in the transaction to make sure it happens and closes smoothly. If every moment is precious to you, call Elizabeth Weintraub Broker and ask her to be your agent: 916.233.6759.
Sacramento Home Buyers Need Agents to Represent Them
Without a doubt there are buyers who don’t realize that Sacramento home buyers need agents to represent them. I am not talking about going to a listing agent and requesting dual agency because, believe it or not, some listing agents will refuse to grant that request. It is also not in the buyer’s best interests. Sacramento home buyers need agents, meaning an exclusive buyer’s agent to guide and advise.
Oh, I know there are buyers who will immediately offer the extraordinary expertise they gained 5 years ago when they bought a home in another area. They learned so much in that one sole transaction, they don’t need any help whatsoever. Except they do.
Especially in today’s market place in Sacramento. We are transitioning to a buyer’s market. Months of inventory is only one factor to determine a buyer’s or seller’s market. I examine trends, which is easy for me to establish since I sell so many more homes than your average agent.
You may be astonished to learn that in this market, most of my listings initially receive lowball offers from home buyers. I’m not sure if the buyers simply refuse to listen to the agents they hired to represent them, or if they are disconnected from what is happening. Of course, sellers typically do not accept lowball offers, at least not on my watch. My listings tend to sell at list price or better, regardless.
I do not know what possesses buyers to think they should offer such embarrassingly low prices the first week on market. Some agents I hear just don’t have the energy to argue with their buyers or make them understand why that strategy backfires.
Even though Sacramento home buyers need agents to represent them, some act as though their agent works for somebody else. They don’t trust their agent to do a good job for them so they discount important information that could help them get into escrow. What I don’t understand is if they think their agent doesn’t know anything, why don’t they hire an agent with experience instead? Why do they stick with an agent with little knowledge who also annoys them?
Well, I suppose they could share a surname. That would be a reason.
Or, maybe they think their agent doesn’t realize what bad treatment they sometimes receive when they try to deliver facts. They know how badly they are treated by some buyers. Still, buyer’s agents tend to possess a strong desire to help.
Sadly, I imagine some buyers will simply never know how wonderful it can be to work with an advocate who tirelessly champions their best interests.
Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You
Anything you say can and will be used against you, I warn home sellers in Sacramento. Sacramento home sellers have rights and don’t have to say anything to a third party. On top of that, no matter what a buyer’s agent may believe, it is not the seller’s responsibility to convey transaction status or to discuss anything about the terms of selling the home with another agent. That’s one of the reasons sellers hire a Sacramento real estate agent, to represent the seller. Yet, agents seem to continue all the time to ask sellers this stuff.
When a listing notes in the showing instructions to make an appointment with the owner, it means an agent can call a seller to make an appointment. It doesn’t mean an agent is free to engage in a conversation about how many offers the seller has received, whether any of the offers were cash, or if the seller will accept less than list price — yet, you’d be amazed at how many agents do exactly that. No wonder some agents don’t let anybody talk to their sellers. Because anything you say can and will be used against you.
Regardless of how a listing agent might try to micromanage a transaction, though, one can’t always separate a buyer’s agent from a seller. It’s simply impossible. The buyer’s agent might run across the seller pulling out of the driveway as the agent is pulling up to the front of the home, and it is fairly easy for the buyer’s agent to slam her vehicle into park, leap out, run up to the seller’s car and knock on the window.
I practice sometimes with my clients to repeat after me: “you’ll have to ask my agent,” as a response to questions thrown by outsiders in their direction. I don’t care if it’s something simple as how long have you lived here, the preferred response is: you’ll have to ask my agent. You might think a transaction is all about win-win but it’s really about a listing agent trying to do what is best for her seller and a buyer’s agent trying to do what is best for the buyer.
Any information a home seller provides can and will be used against the seller. You’re not just two people standing next to each other in a grocery store line having a chat about some reality TV show on the cover of People. You’re probably a seller who doesn’t want to drop bags of cash out of the window. Trust your agent and go be BFF?after the transaction closes.
