Email Elizabethsacramento buyer’s agents
Agents Writing Offers That Don’t Cut The Mustard.
Agents writing offers that don’t cut the mustard seems to be the norm lately. What the buying public doesn’t know, all agents do not know what they are doing. Often when a buyer’s agent writes a very poor quality offer, the buyer thinks it is a good offer. She doesn’t understand when the offer is rejected. Why? Because her agent told her it was a great offer. When they lose, it is sour grapes. the listing agent is the scape-goat to blame. Listing Agent must have double-ended it? Not so. They had an agent friend who they let win? Not so. The simple truth, the buyer’s agent failed to write the highest and best offer.
How to write offers to win, is a skill learned over time by writing hundreds of offers. When an agent closes 100 buyer side escrows in Sacramento this proven results performance will give you, the buyer, confidence that the agent possesses the expertise and skill required. Our full-time Buyer’s Agents talk with buyers every day from our lead generation platform.
Stay tuned to part two of this discussion with our next blog. If you are searching for an agent who can write offers that win, call Weintraub and Wallace Realtors. We are partner powered by RE/MAX Gold, the largest independent Real Estate brokerage in Northern California. Contact Weintraub & Wallace Realtors today we write offers that do cut the mustard and we throw in a bag of chips. Call us at 916-233-6759.
- — JaCi Wallace
Five Smart Homebuying Tips for Our Fall Sacramento Market
Are you looking for homebuying tips to buy a home in our fall Sacramento real estate market? As a potential home buyer, you are now in a wonderful position to buy a home. Some of you got too frustrated with the market and gave up. Maybe it’s time to give the market another look? Because our seller’s market is over. O.V.E.R. Except for a small handful of picture-perfect listings, you probably will not encounter multiple offers for a home you want to buy.
I could give you all the reasons why the market has changed, but not everyone is interested in how we got here or the stats. Most buyers just want to know what they need to do buy a home. They want to be aware of the types of benefits can get they out of today’s market.
Of course, if you are already working with the exclusive buyer’s agents on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team, then you’re covered. Your buyer’s agent is already informing you of the choices awaiting your decision. Here are my top 5 homebuying tips that you can confidently put to use when you’re ready to buy.
Homebuying Tips for Sacramento’s Fall Market
- Price. Most listings will contain a bit of room for negotiation. It might not be necessary to offer list price for the home, unless you are madly in love with it. You can probably offer less and still buy the home. Ask your agent to show you comparable sales. This means considering homes in the same condition, square footage, location and comparing the pricing. Look at apples versus apples and not apples versus oranges.
- Closing Costs. If you’re a first-time home buyer, you might be using every dime you have saved up to buy a home. With an FHA loan, your down payment can be 3.5% of the purchase price. We have conventional loans from 3% down. Does that leave you with enough money to pay closing costs? If not, don’t sweat it, as many sellers in this real estate market will agree to pay your closing costs for you, provided the sellers are content with the sales price offered.
- Repairs and Updates. Believe it or not, sellers want to work with you. If the home has no AC, for example, the seller might be willing to install new AC for you. Don’t be put off by carpeting because you can generally work out a way for it to make it vanish. Ask your buyer’s agent for ideas and help. We had a seller recently agree to install new granite counters at closing. Sellers generally will not fix or repair every single defect from a home inspection. But a major repair will most likely get fixed.
- Inspections. It is possible in our fall market that sellers might obtain inspections at their own expense. For example, it is more common now for the seller to pay for a pest report, and most buyers would ask for a completion certificate. This did not happen very often in a seller’s market but now that we are entering a more neutral market, sellers are more agreeable. They don’t want surprises that will blow up a transaction any more than you do.
- Time of Year. With our increased inventory in Sacramento, home buyers have more options now than ever. If you don’t like a particular house, don’t buy it. There will be another right around the corner. As we move toward the holidays, prices will become softer. This is a much better time to buy a home than spring, when you compete with a larger group of buyers. You have little competition now.
With all of these benefits, buyers are finally in a position to feel really good about buying a home. The only question left lingering is whether it’s better to buy now or wait until spring. Apart from the increased competition in spring, you will also see interest rates rise. The Feds have already raised the rates, and they are inching toward 5%. Buy now before you get roped into a higher interest rate mortgage because this much is pretty certain. Interest rates are not coming back down.
To get started, all you have to do is call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Sacramento Agents Should Never Ask if a Home Buyer Has an Agent
When agents ask if a home buyer has an agent, it is the worst thing, pretty much, an agent can say. Sacramento agents inquire constantly whether a home buyer has an agent. Although, from the day an agent receives her real estate license, it is drummed into her head by trainers, brokers and managers, to qualify all potential clients. The standard way agents are taught protocol is to ask if a home buyer has an agent.
I hear agents ask this all of the time. Very common question. But what a freakin’ stupid question.
Let’s look at why an agent asks this question. Especially when working with internet buyers. Because I know some of you might be thinking, hey, whose business is it anyway? Why should I disclose anything about my personal situation? What right does this agent have to know whether I’ve been talking to anybody else? OK, valid points. However, the reason agents ask if a home buyer has an agent is due to the Realtor Code of Ethics. The Code says we as agents cannot interfere with another agent’s client.
If a buyer is already working with an agent, we are not allowed to try to swipe that buyer. By merely expressing our opinion about how we might handle a delicate situation differently, we could be accused of trying to sway a buyer who is already spoken for. Agents are instructed over and over to drop the conversation, wish the buyer well and to NOT interfere when buyers tell us they have an agent.
But most home buyers do not realize why we ask that question.
Further, how do you think a person feels when agents ask if a home buyer has an agent. At first blush, they might not even know what you’re talking about. Which can make them feel inadequate. Upon pondering, though, undoubtedly it occurs to them they are being asked if they have an agent. Well, who doesn’t have an agent in this day and age? Everybody has an agent. If they don’t have an agent, what does that reduce them to? I’ll tell ya. A loser. With a capital L engraved on their forehead. Who wants to be a loser? Nobody, that’s who!
So stop being those guys who ask if a home buyer has an agent and start asking a different question. Change the dialogue instead to a discussion. Maybe they have an agent who isn’t working out for some reason. Maybe they are very unhappy with the way their search has been moving along, and offers have been rejected over and over. An agent doesn’t know until an agent digs deeper.
Enough already, then, what is the question to ask? I’ll tell you. I know you thought I’d never get to it. The question to ask is: Wouldn’t you like to work with an experienced agent? Don’t make the buyer feel awful that she has no agent. Don’t put her on the defensive. Put a positive spin on the question and turn it into a conversation. If the buyer already has an agent, this is when she will say, “Oh, thanks, but I already have an agent.” Or, not. Maybe she will say, “Yes, I would love to work with YOU!”
Wouldn’t you like to work with an experienced agent? That’s your new question to ask. Try it. You’ll like it. And so will your clients.
Working with Internet Buyers in Sacramento Real Estate
Sacramento internet buyers find listings and their agents online today.
It wasn’t that long ago, maybe 10 years back, an agent in my office asked why I would work with internet buyers in Sacramento real estate. This was an astounding concept in 2008. That a Sacramento Realtor could be found online by an internet buyer. Most of that search was organic because other agents were not online. They didn’t have websites nor blogs. Today, everybody has a Facebook, Instagram and Twitter account.
Fast forward 10 years later, and I still maintain a higher internet presence. The difference is many buyers today come from the long tail I’ve created online or from websites where buyers go. I stand out in the sea of ordinariness. That’s why internet buyers gravitate toward me. They see value. According to NAR, 66% of first-time home buyers are Millennials. Followed by Generation X at 26%. Buyers value experience.
But some home buyers break protocol and try to work with many different buyer’s agents, which is a bit defeatist for them. They don’t often recognize this strategy as a problem immediately. Internet buyers might think everything is for free because they can find it online. But they can’t find everything online themselves, like they hope. Buying a home is not like picking out a loaf of bread. They really need the services of a top-notch buyer’s agent. Creating value for internet buyers is what working with buyers today is all about.
Buyer’s agents should ask themselves when working with internet buyers whether that individual is a loyal client. I laugh when buyer’s agents refer to some loser, gonna cancel the minute I get into escrow person, as “my client” when that buyer is not a client. If a buyer walks into a real estate brokerage and asks to see a property taped on a window, is that person a client? What do you think? I believe that’s just a customer who asked to see a property.
When a buyer calls a buyer’s agent, it’s the same thing. For whatever reason, the buyer found the agent online. Maybe the agent was featured in a media outlet news story. Perhaps the buyer discovered the agent through a company website? Through Facebook or a digital ad? It’s more common than not to hear a buyer’s agent refer to a potential buyer as “my client” when they’ve known the individual for all of 22 seconds. That kind of behavior among agents should just stop.
Internet buyers turn into clients when they continually engage with a buyer’s agent. When they ask questions and listen to responses. When they respond to emails. When both parties establish mutual respect. If an internet buyer fails to respond, it means she is not a client. For whatever reason, she doesn’t feel the love, the connection. Or she has formed a bad opinion of real state estate agents in general due to some horrible past experience.
Understanding Internet Buyers
However, the cold fact is all internet buyers search online. They think they can find a house for sale before their agent will find it. They send countless emails containing requests to see homes that are not for sale because they found those listings on Zillow, for example. To deal with this, buyer’s agents need to show compassion for internet buyers. One of the worst things a buyer’s agent can do is make the internet buyer feel stupid or inadequate.
It’s one thing to say, “thank you for trying to help me,” and it’s another to say what the hell are you doing looking at houses for sale on Zillow when all of that stuff is garbage and half of it is sold? It’s better to explain that Zillow does not allow agents to input their own listings anymore, so nothing that shows up in MLS will be on Zillow before it is in MLS. Yes, MLS rules. But garbage in, garbage out.
Personally, I love it that so much is available online for internet buyers. I often go to The Balance Homebuying website and pull articles from experienced agents, including myself, to send to clients. But some of the advice found elsewhere online is completely wrong. Whenever you get a bunch of agents in one place, you will get a large variety of opinions. Some useful, some not. My advice is always consider the source. This is wise advice for any online searches.
Why Internet Buyers Choose a Buyer’s Agent
But at the end of the day, internet buyers still can benefit from the services rendered by an experienced buyer’s agent in Sacramento. The Elizabeth Weintraub Team provides internet buyers with a complete list of our services, from A to Z, start to finish. Because internet buyers do not know why they should be loyal to one agent unless the agent gives them a reason. If an agent can’t produce 50 reasons to show why that buyer should work with that agent and adequately explain the value the agent brings, maybe agents should reconsider their approach.
Remember, internet buyers don’t know what agents really do. They view the job of a buyer’s agent as easy. Doing it right, the job is messy, statistical, analytical, time consuming, painful, exhilarating; relying solely on experience to learn and education to grow.
Buyer’s agents might ask themselves, are we simply a door opener? It’s easy for internet buyers to click that button to request a showing. Or, are we knowledgable buyer’s agents dedicated to the passion of finding that perfect home for an internet buyer? Winning the offer. Successfully closing escrow. The commitment and guarantee of performance will turn an Internet buyer into a satisfied client.
Besides, we all want that 5-star review nowadays. The difference is an extraordinary buyer’s agent earns it in blood.
Does Quantum Entanglement Apply to Sacramento Buyer’s Agents?
It is interesting to note Einstein rejected the theory of quantum entanglement, and he was wrong.
Some of the conversations I’ve been having lately with buyer’s agents in Sacramento seem as bizarre as the actual weirdness of quantum entanglement. For those of you who haven’t spent much time pondering quantum entanglement, this is an instant thing that happens in the universe. No, I’m not talking about the life-on-a-blade-of-grass theory, derived from dropping acid in the ’60s; this is not that foo-foo stuff. This is science. It’s a real phenomenon.
It’s what happens when two particles mirror each other after an interaction. You’ve got this one particle, which could be a Sacramento buyer’s agent, and another particle, which could be, say, a San Diego buyer’s agent. These two agents meet and become entangled to the extent that if the Sacramento buyer’s agent skins her knee, the agent in San Diego feels the burn. You think this sounds like craziness, a movie plot, but it’s real.
Even Einstein pooh-poohed this as a paradox and said it was impossible, which was the version I heard when in school. But along the way, scientists in the physics community managed to prove that entangled particles truly exists. Regardless of the distance between the two, when change happens to one particle, it happens to both. I read about quantum entanglement in the news a few days ago and it blew me away. I bring this up now because my husband picked up a book at the library for me about quantum entanglement, which I’m very excited to begin reading.
Further, I should point out that although quantum entanglement might be old news to some of you, it’s not to me. Even though I’m an old person now, my inquisitiveness remains in full force.
While I am really not saying that agents share any sort of quantum entanglement, sometimes the similarities between agents amaze me. Over the weekend I received several offers that contained the requirement for a security deposit to be paid on a free rent back by the seller. That’s a new one on me, too. It’s fairly insulting, don’t you agree? To tell a seller she needs to pay a security deposit to the buyer on her own home, a place where she’s been living for years without destroying the property.
I know what the real problem is. The real problem is the buyer’s agent is not spending enough time educating the buyer. This is probably a situation that requires face-to-face dialogue and in-depth discussions to get buyers over that fact that many sellers expect a little break in today’s HOT HOT HOT Sacramento real estate market. That little break is to give them a week or more to move out without demanding rent or deposits. It speaks volumes to the seller. It tells the seller the buyer is completely serious about buying the home and isn’t planning to nickel and dime us to death.
It can be what entices a seller pluck that one offer out of multiples. If you’re thinking about selling a home in Sacramento, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759, and put 40 years of experience to work for you.
