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Psst: Your Sacramento Agent Does Not Want You to Call Listing Agents
With such an abundance of wrong / incomplete information online, it’s no wonder that buyers feel compelled to call listing agents. They spot a home for sale, think their agent must have missed it, and then try to call listing agents to try to extract more information. Or, get an appointment to view the home. The problem with this approach is multi-fold. For starters, most of the time they are not contacting the listing agent. They are calling an agent who would try to represent them if they did not have an agent already. No money in that call.
Second problem is most listing agents do not show properties to buyers represented by other agents. That’s because the listing agents expect the buyer’s agent to show their own buyers the property. Part of what a buyer’s agent does to earn a commission. It’s that buyer’s agent’s job. However, I will show if the buyer’s agent calls and directly asks. Extenuating circumstances could prevent the buyer’s agent from performing that function. I want to sell my listings, so I do what it takes. But not every listing agent does.
When I get these sorts of calls, it generally starts with a property address I’ve never heard of. With more than 2,400 active listings in Sacramento right now, I don’t have every house address memorized. The first thing I wonder, especially when the caller seems to have trouble speaking on the phone, is whether the property is a rental. Tenants interact differently than buyers. Their tone is different. For some reason, tenants also seem to hope agents work on rentals when we do not. I get those rental calls because they see my photo and cell on a lot of websites. I become familiar.
Once I eliminate that they are not calling about a rental, I have to figure out if it’s really a home for sale or just a picture of a house. A house that is not for sale. Or, a house that sold years ago. Or, a preforeclosure which will never be for sale. Next up, after it is clear that it is a home that is for sale, I let the caller know that I am not the listing agent, but we would be happy to show them the home. Providing it’s not pending. However, they need to realize that we will be their agent. Is that that what they want? Do they want to work with an agent?
Often this is when they admit that they already have an agent. You don’t say the obvious: like what are you doing calling random agents? I do say: you know, if your agent knew you were calling listing agents, your agent would not like it one little bit. Your agent expects to do the legwork for you and will call listing agents herself. You should not try to do your agent’s job. It could really hurt your agent’s feelings if she knew what you were doing. Your agent can get more information than you can anyway. That’s why you have an agent.
Oh, no, the caller says, my agent knows what I’m doing and is OK with it.
Right.
Best of luck to you in your search.
As I’m hanging up I hear a meekly-worded question fading, but who do we call then . . . and they’re gone. Makes me wonder where the disconnect is between them and their agent. Do buyer’s agents address house hunting protocol upfront with their buyers or do they truly leave these people to their own devices?
Sacramento Agents Can Cause Buyers to Lose the House
Sacramento agents should thoughtfully craft purchase offers to avoid counter offers in hot markets.
The one thing all Sacramento agents should try to avoid have happen with their buyer’s purchase offer is to give the seller’s agent and seller a reason to issue a counter offer. A few weeks ago, a seller had a counter offer out, and while we waited for the response, another buyer swooped in and submitted an offer that the seller accepted. After pulling the counter offer, of course. If one can avoid the counter-offer situation all together, a Sacramento agent can increase the odds her buyer won’t lose the house.
The Elizabeth Weintraub Team members realize this and we try to avoid counter offers at all costs. When my husband and I bought our house in Hawaii, for example, there was already a counter out. Our offer caused the seller to pull that counter, too. Buyers, don’t ever let the fact that there is an existing outstanding counter offer discourage you. Jump on that baby like hot fudge on a sundae.
Some Sacramento agents never call the listing agent before submitting an offer. Even in this market of low inventory and high demand, which makes this a seller’s market. They just shoot over an offer, thinking this is how they’ve always done it, but maybe that purchase offer contains things that need to be countered. Now they’ve set up their buyer for possible failure.
It’s not just the sales price a buyer needs to worry about. It’s not always the big things. Often, it’s the little things. Here are some of the small things that Sacramento agents can do to cause their buyers to lose the house by inadvertently forcing the seller to counter:
- Asking for personal property that is not included in the purchase price
- Bucking local custom on how fees are split
- Requesting government retrofits, i.e. water-saving devices
- Demanding to choose title and escrow
- Asking for longer than 30 days to close
- Not tightening contingency periods
Success is often buried in the details. In the fine print. And it is to a buyer’s advantage for her agent to find out if there are special things the seller might hope to see in the offer. Maybe the seller needs a few days to move or to rent back? Sacramento agents won’t know if they don’t call the listing agent. (Of course, that agent would have to answer her phone.)
If you’re looking for Sacramento agents who work to avoid counters for their buyers (and answer their phones), call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Reasons to Ignore Price Points When Choosing Real Estate Clients
Criteria for choosing real estate clients should be based on the agent’s ability to perform.
An agent friend called to ask about a recent blog that she thought might apply to choosing real estate clients. I had discussed prioritizing and spending time on functions that lead to closing. She somehow misread or maybe I wasn’t clear enough. My point was to talk to people whose conversation could lead to acquiring or closing a transaction, and not to spend time talking with sales people, telemarketers, schmoozing mortgage brokers, pretty much ignoring anything that is not directly real estate related.
The question put to me was when is it OK to not work with a client whose price point is very low and requires a lot of work, without signs of immediate reward. Is it all right to tell buyers, for example, that an agent who spends time working with them is giving up valuable time that could be spent working with buyers whose offers won’t get rejected due to competing cash offers and whose price points are more plausible? That the agent prefers instead to target a more financially rewarding buyer?
I thought about the question and how I felt about it. It’s a foreign concept to me. Here’s what I believe. This is about ethics and integrity. If a real estate agent when choosing real estate clients uses ease of transaction and sales price as determining factors, where does one draw the line? And won’t that line change as time goes on? If you start with the assumption that, for example, you won’t work with buyers who are looking for a home under $100,000, how long does it take before you decide you won’t work with buyers looking for a home under $200,000? Under $300,000?
What kind of person does that make the real estate agent? Not a very nice person, I concluded. In fact, it makes the agent kind of an asshole, forgive my descriptive French, but it’s an accurate description. I think an attitude like that would fester and mushroom into a monster. One would be like Donald Trump. You can’t say some people are worth your services and some are not because they don’t have enough money to interest you. Well, you can, but you’d be an asshole.
That has never been my practice when choosing real estate clients. I never look at the sales price or the amount of work involved. I’m a Sacramento Realtor. I don’t discriminate. Selling Sacramento real estate is my job. Some transactions are more lucrative than others, and some are easier, but it doesn’t mean money or a slam dunk is my focus. My focus is to work with anybody who needs help. I never look at the bottom line sales price. Ever.
I put transactions into escrow. As long as I have transactions in escrow, I know I won’t starve to death, and my cats will enjoy heat over the winter. Some years I make more money than others, some years less, but I am always ranked in some form in the top 10 agents in Sacramento. Part of that way I accomplish that is by not choosing real estate clients based on how much money I will make. I’ve learned a long time ago to ignore that part of the business, odd as that might sound to some of you.
Sacramento Agents Should Support Other Agents
Sacramento agents should support other agents because we’re all in the business together.
It’s no secret I believe that Sacramento agents should support other agents. Agents often tell me how appreciative they are that I share real estate tips and my experiences. If I received these types of comments only once or twice, I’d think nothing more of it, but it’s repetitive. This blows me away because sharing comes naturally to me. Its implication makes me suspect that maybe other agents aren’t willing to come forward or share with other agents, and I don’t really know why.
What comes around, goes around. There aren’t really any secrets in this business. And there’s no reason to resist. Sacramento agents should support other agents. What do you think it is that makes some agents reluctant to open up? Are they afraid that the competition will stomp on them if they do?
We’re all in Sacramento real estate together.
Oddly enough, occasionally I run into a situation where I’ve offered information and an agent might inform that my help was not required because the recipient already knows everything there is to know. Nobody knows everything. I’ve been in real estate for more than 40 years, and I don’t know everything. We all have the ability to learn something new from each other. I suspect some people don’t want to reciprocate and fear feeling obligated to do so.
Sometimes when I ask other agents about their business or inquire about new things they may have learned, they appear hesitant to divulge anything about themselves or their success strategies. Sacramento agents should support other agents. I’ll never do it the way you do it, and you won’t do it the way I do it because we’re two different people.
I don’t understand it. We need more teamwork, not more isolation or selfishness. In any case, it’s not going to affect whether I am willing to help, because it’s in my nature to offer assistance. I’m not going to clam up around other people, regardless of the norm.
Fortunately there are websites where agents come together and share. Together I do believe we can help to change the fear of competition that exists within the real estate industry. Agents need to loosen up and stop believing that sharing means somebody else is going to steal your business. Be confident in your own self worth, and you’ll reap the rewards tenfold. I’ll continue to believe that Sacramento agents should support other agents. Just don’t ask me to buy you a car.
Examining Car Sales vs. Real Estate Agents
Good real estate agents are nothing like car salespeople.
I am going to say right upfront here, do NOT send me hate mail. I want to talk about car sales vs real estate. Because I am about to say that there are parallels between certain types of sales people, say, for example, a car salesperson and a real estate salesperson. I’ve heard it said that the easiest person to sell to in the universe is another salesperson, but I think that’s only the dumb ones. The thing is nobody wants to be sold. It’s irritating. And the only people who don’t find it irritating are those who can’t figure out that they are being sold.
The parallel between a car sales vs. real estate agent is they both involve individuals in sales, and that’s about where it stops. The difference between the two is generally a real estate person wants to help a buyer achieve his or her goal. Car sales sell product. A real estate agent forms a fiduciary relationship together; car sales people do not. But there are people who don’t like dealing with a real estate agent because they think the agent has one goal in mind — to sell and close on a house. And they don’t trust agents for that reason. There is a conflict when it comes to money.
Yet, there are ethical agents in the business. Agents who focus solely on their clients and try to do what is best and right and legal for their clients. With car salespeople, it’s all about the money. I don’t know why dealerships even employ salespeople except they probably need some kind of on-the-lot body to ride along in the car to make sure the test driver brings it back. It’s not as though they know their product inside and out.
Can you tell that I am shopping for a new car? When I know the interior options that are available and the salesperson does not, it’s irritating. When a salesperson tells me he will run the numbers and call me right back but doesn’t, it’s irritating. When I ask for meteor gray and the salesperson tries to sell me pearl black, it’s irritating. And these are a couple of dealerships that have employed individuals to interact online who are supposed to be focused on customer service. They are irritating.
And it must be just as irritating for them to have to deal with us in the public who care about only one thing: the dealer’s bottom line. Man, today I am very thankful that I am a Sacramento agent and not working in the auto industry. That’s an awful job. Car sales vs real estate hands down real estate wins.
While Elizabeth is in Cuba, we visit older blogs published elsewhere
