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Farm to Fork in Sacramento Real Estate
Flexibility is the name of the game in today’s Sacramento real estate, the farm to fork capital in California. If you’ve absolutely got to net a bazillion dollars for your home in order to sell it, this might not be the time for a home seller in Sacramento to be on the market. Unless you don’t care how long your home sits on the market and, in that case, the buyers will — they tend to avoid looking at homes with long days on market. Those homes hold appeal like stale bread.
Sellers don’t write the rules anymore because it’s a more balanced real estate market in Sacramento. The faster a seller catches on to market swings, the faster her home will sell. The low hanging fruit easily falls first but the rest must be yanked off the stems. Here’s a tip: don’t study stats on Sacramento real estate market movement from last spring or this summer or even early fall. Look at what the market is doing right now, this very minute, and you’ll find your answers to market movement. Then, put a fork in it.
Every so often, we run across a seller who says he needs to sell his home at list price. We might receive an offer from a buyer who wants to pay a little bit less, which is not unusual in the market today. This same buyer might also demand a big closing cost credit on top of a price reduction from market.
This situation is a bit like oil and water. You can shake it up, but let it rest a few days in escrow and it separates again.
Throw into the mix a seller who declares that the net profit must be X, and that’s a salad going nowhere. Some sellers think a solution is to reduce the agents’ commissions, but that is not a reasonable expectation, either. You don’t ask an agent to provide superior service, to bring a buyer to dinner, and then kick him in the gut when he performs.
Real estate agents are just the waiters. We bring you the food, we pour your wine, we pick up your fork when you drop it on the floor. You should not refuse to tip us because your steak was too well done.
Tips for Home Sellers in a Changing Sacramento Market
Lots of home sellers in the Sacramento market have been calling lately for me to list their homes in the Sacramento area, and it seems to go in waves, just like purchase offers. For example, last night I received 3 purchase offers after 10 PM, which is kinda crazy. And I have a big uptick in listings this week, while it’s been relatively normal for the past couple of weeks.
I am hoping this translates into a lot more offers, but I suspect that if I’m seeing an increase in listings, so are other Sacramento real estate agents. When inventory increases in the Sacramento market but buyer demand stays constant or cools off, that means not every listing will sell. It’s a fact we need to face and prepare for.
See, this is why I am a top producer, because I think ahead.
What does it mean for a home seller? It means your first offer might be the best offer and the only offer you might get. We all hope for multiple offers because multiple offers can push up the price, and the seller can pick and choose which is the best. But that’s not true in most cases. Most sellers will not receive multiple offers. Work that offer you receive, even if it’s not an offer you want. Try to find a way to want it and to increase its desirability to you to make it work.
Don’t lose sight of the fact that what you have on your doorstep is a ready, willing and able buyer who wants to buy YOUR home.
It also means it might take longer to find a home buyer. It could take several months. If it does, it doesn’t mean your agent is slacking off, it just means homes are taking longer to sell in this market. If you are lucky enough to get an offer within a few days, don’t discount it thinking other offers are coming along. They might not appear. Not only that, but try to ensure the buyer you do find is serious about your buying your home because some buyers freak out and get cold feet the minute an offer is accepted. If you go into escrow and suddenly the buyer cancels, well, I hate to say it, but it’s happening.
The bottom line is keep up strong communications with your listing agent. Ask questions. Don’t make assumptions. Be reasonable. And your home should sell.
