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Clients Win By Listening to Their Sacramento Agent
This Sacramento agent found a one-legged sandpiper in Hawaii.
I’ve been working with my sellers for a couple of months, before they even hired me to be their Sacramento agent. Every so often I get a seller who wants to take advantage of the fact I freely share my knowledge, but they don’t know what they didn’t get when they do that and choose a discounter but it’s rare, and they generally come back. The clients who truly win, though, are the sellers who listen to my advice and let me position their home to bring the highest offer.
After two months of work, we put a home into escrow yesterday, with multiple offers and with 4 days on market. That was a lot of preparation to get ready for the market. These particular sellers bought their home at the very best possible time. Mid 2011 was the bottom of the market in Sacramento, and that’s when they bought. Rock bottom. I’m so happy they chose me to be their Sacramento agent, and they seem thrilled with the outcome.
Unlike this poor bird with one leg. I think it’s a sandpiper. I went on an adventure yesterday to find my mailbox for our house in Hawaii and found this sandpiper standing in a driveway. Broke my heart, but then I realized, hey, that sandpiper doesn’t give up. He’s OK. It would have been easy to ask the tenants where the mailboxes are but I don’t want to bother them. And if I had, I wouldn’t have found the sandpiper.
My tenants were kind enough to invite me to the 29th Celebration of Christmas in Music in Kailua-Kona last night. I also met neighbors down the street who are from Minnesota, just like me. I found out where the cool beaches are from another woman; talked with a former Seattle resident, Jan, who moved to Captain Cook and now sings in the choir. And I know where to go for a hairdresser because I met my new stylist at King Kamehameha in town. Plus, I got to sing Christmas carols. My sister is right; I like to sing.
The contractors are still working on the house in Hawaii. My painter is running behind, but the Hawaiian gods are looking down upon us today because my flooring installer hired an extra guy. Instead of needing 3 days to put in the floors, he will need two, so he pushed it out to Thursday. Which gives my painter an extra day to finish.
When I walked in the door after the show featuring the Kona Festival Chorale on Sunday, every flat surface in our house, floors, furniture, was coated in a fine layer of drywall dust. I am fixing the cracks from the 2006 earthquake. I cleaned the important areas so I could prepare dinner, watch TV, use my computer and sleep. I managed to meet my phone appointment at 6 AM yesterday with my sellers to discuss options, and it all worked out. I’m sure the house will come together, too.
I’ve been at this only 12 days. Without any idea that I’d be remodeling the house when I got to our house in Hawaii. I can pretty much do anything. That’s empowering. I wish I had learned that lesson in my 20’s. Imagine what I could do if I thought about stuff at great lengths, like I do about Sacramento real estate.
Can Sacramento Agents Talk to Appraisers?
Whether Sacramento agents talk to appraisers depends on the agent.
If you are wondering if Sacramento Agents talk to appraisers or whether this type of communication between agent and appraiser is allowed, you are not alone. Even real estate agents are often confused. They hear that interaction between agents and appraisers is against the law, and they don’t understand at what point in the transaction this can apply. Agents, I hate to say, are often guilty of not thinking through complex situations. They sometimes tend to memorize bits and pieces that don’t always add up.
If you think I am being too hard on real estate agents in general, especially when I am a Sacramento agent myself, consider the guy who sends an offer to the listing agent and comments: “This is really an aggressive offer. It’s a very strong offer. You will love this serious purchase offer,” and then you discover the purchase offer is only $1,000 over list price. Especially when every other offer is much, much higher. And multiple offers are rolling in by the handfuls . . . Do these agents talk to appraisers? Probably not.
To answer the question: Can Sacramento agents talk to appraisers? Absolutely. Before the appraisal is completed, a Sacramento agent can send comparable sales to the appraiser, discuss the property, sell the features and benefits and explain why the sales price is solid. Contrary to popular belief, a Sacramento agent does not have to meet with the appraiser at the property to be aggressive as that is pretty much old school thinking. We have cell phones and email today, and the written word is powerful.
It helps if the Sacramento agent is an authoritative figure (with experience) and can speak with the appraiser from that position, utilizing appraisal guidelines. Appraisal speak. If the agent can’t talk appraisal speak, the agent could have a problem. Communication should be limited to similar configuration, age, condition and location. If there are no comparable sales — and in many neighborhoods comps are limited due to inventory shortages — it helps to understand the principle of substitution.
Most appraisers will contact the listing agent to determine access to the property. Is your Sacramento agent prepared to speak with the appraiser? Further, can Sacramento agents talk to appraisers? They can, especially if your agent is Elizabeth Weintraub at Lyon Real Estate. Call 916.233.6759.
Should You Buy a Home on Friday the 13th?
Tomorrow is Friday the 13th, today is a county holiday for Lincoln’s birthday and Monday is a federal holiday for President’s Day, whatever the heck that day is supposed to be now. The Powers That Be have not been successful, apparently, at renaming the date. It’s not named in celebration of all presidents. It’s not a combination of Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthday. It’s just a way the federal government turned 2 holidays we used to enjoy into one holiday, unless, of course, you work for the County of Sacramento, and then you get two days off, throw in a sick day and voila, you have 5-day weekend. Hooray for judges.
What these holidays and dates mean for real estate and those buying a home in Sacramento is that there are no recordings (closings) at the County Courthouse from Thursday until next Tuesday unless you choose to close on Friday the 13th.
There are some people who are superstitious. You never really know how many people fall victim to that, but I suddenly want to make up voodoo dolls in their likeness and poke the object repeatedly, not in a harmful way, just enough to amuse myself in front of them. An agent mentioned the other day that he was not really superstitious but he would prefer to push a closing scheduled for February 13th out to the 17th, you know, just to be safe. Safe from what? Is that not superstition?
Did you know there is a word for Friday the 13th? It is Paraskevidekatriaphobics, and it means an irrational fear of Friday the 13th. Notice the emphasis on “irrational.” Now, I realize I am only one person, but I have never had a bad or unlucky Friday the 13th. Ever. No accidents, no illnesses, no lost money, no family deaths, no divorces, no marriages, nada. Not even a cross word. No stubbed toes or hangnails. No bad hair days. And if I had, I certainly wouldn’t blame it on Friday the 13th.
People didn’t always harbor a morbid fear of Friday the 13th. At some point in history, before the Crusades, it was actually considered a lucky day.
Not to mention, I have 4 closings scheduled for tomorrow, all four of which have been extended from the original closing date due to loan difficulties, some more than once. It’s a really tough real estate market in Sacramento right now. So challenging that some inexperienced agents are watching in horror as their escrows blow up in front of their face. It’s us veteran agents — people like me who can glue them back together, roll them onto a stretcher and cart them back into the operating room — who succeed. My real estate success is not by accident, and it’s not affected by Friday the 13th.
If you’re looking for a top Sacramento REALTOR to ensure your escrow closes, then call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
How Much Will Your Sacramento Home Seller Take?
A common question asked by Sacramento real estate agents and directed toward the listing agent is how much will the seller take for that home? Now, you see, I could swear that there is a listing price attached to that home, but maybe the print is too small to read. I know, we could outfit buyer’s agents with those big honkin’ magnifying glasses like you see in photos of Sherlock Holmes. Or, maybe we should attach spectacles to a chain they can keep in their pockets or wear around their necks to whip out for such an occasion?
When an agent asked me that question yesterday, I immediately suggested he look in Zillow. I was being facetious, of course, but he didn’t realize it because I made that suggestion by projecting a lot of excitement and enthusiasm in my voice. I can’t help it. I have fun at work; and I like to make people laugh. Except the agent didn’t laugh because he didn’t know I was joking. I mean, let’s face it, Zillow is the last place for any reasonable much less professional real estate person to look for a market value, but that doesn’t mean the public doesn’t go there because they do. The professionals, on the other hand, use MLS for comparable sales to determine market value.
But it’s such an innocent question, an outsider might presume. How much will the seller take? It is . . . for a person who is not a real estate agent. And I suppose that question is OK for an agent to ask as well if they can get an answer. As my husband is fond of saying: a guy can ask 10 women to go home with him at the bar and the first 9 might slap his face. But that 10th . . .
I asked the buyer’s agent why he would ask me, the listing agent, because I am not the seller. I don’t make decisions for the seller and all that I really know for certain is the seller will accept list price. Not to mention, it’s a breach of fiduciary to utter any kind of different answer.
Well, he didn’t want to “waste time” writing an offer the seller would reject. What? Isn’t that the name of the real estate game? An agent writes an offer on behalf of a buyer and a seller either accepts, counters or rejects? And there is one way to find out what a seller will do, too. If you want to know how much the seller will take for that home, there is one sure-fired, tried-and-true-method to get that answer. You write a purchase offer and send it to the listing agent.
Smart Women Sometimes Ask for Tech Support
My husband says Betty Friedan would rollover in her grave if she knew. That my behavior would cause Gloria Steinem to wag her finger at me and cancel my membership in NOW. Asking your husband for tech support is akin, he says, to expecting Dudley Do-Right to come galloping in to untie Nell from the railroad tracks and rescue her. But I suspect he doesn’t want to make my life easier because dealing with my crises interrupts his Angry Birds game on his cellphone, although his score ranking is off the charts.
Of course, you’ve gotta define crisis. My definition of crisis is what causes my work to come to a crashing halt. My husband’s definition of crisis probably has more to do with life-or-death situations.
See, I’m one of those people who don’t like to read manuals unless I absolutely must and there’s no other alternative available. When I buy a new digital gizmo, I prefer that I figure out how to use it myself. It should be intuitive. When I’m out at a client’s home in the field, I don’t have the luxury of time to study a manual. This is one of those rare times that having a kid around the house would be useful.
My second approach to solving a problem when I can’t figure it out myself is to ask a person who either knows the answer or knows how to look up the answer. That person, in many instances, is my husband. Manuals, as a general rule, are rarely very helpful to me, especially manuals that are missing a step or translated from another language.The first thing I read is the troubleshooting chapters. The first thing my husband reads is the directions. We make a good team. I wish he would jump into real estate instead of pursuing his career in freelance journalism, but that’s gonna happen when cows fly.
I am always looking at which technology tools can improve my marketing. If I need to ask my Lyon IT department oreven my husband for tech support, that doesn’t make me a damsel in distress, right? Hey, Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat. Again? Presto.
While Elizabeth is on vacation, we are visiting her favorite blogs from previous years.
