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What It’s Like to Be a Sacramento Home Buyer’s Realtor
To be a successful Sacramento home buyer’s Realtor is a very important job. Because many agents sell homes, it does not mean they are excellent at their job. Selling homes takes two agents: a listing agent and a buyer’s agent. Often the stronger agent will get the job done for both sides. How can a seller’s agent help a buyer’s agent? Great question.
As a listing agent, we make sure the time frames and contracts are completed, along with all the disclosures and reports. We can explain in detail how and why we are taking action. We make sure we have a 100% complete file and stellar record of all communications. Even if the buyer’s agent doesn’t know what she or he is doing, we will get the transaction completed, regardless. They can’t miss an important milestone, as we won’t let them.
Another great question along this same theme is a post written by my partner, Elizabeth Weintraub, in September 2012: What it’s like to be a Sacramento home buyer? An excerpt is in italics below.
It’s up to real estate agents to explain to potential home buyers what the market is like in Sacramento. Tell them what they can expect. I tell it to them straight. I figure it’s better that they be prepared than shocked. Don’t need anybody having a heart attack and dropping dead at my feet.
Because, maybe this is NOT the time for them to buy a home. I know I would NOT want to be a home buyer in Sacramento today. That’s the truth. Because there is tremendous competition for the same homes. It’s an extreme seller’s market. Many buyers, little inventory. Many all cash buyers who will outbid an FHA or VA buyer. Multiple offers are normal right now. This is a sizzling hot market! — Elizabeth Weintraub
To be a Sacramento home buyer’s Realtor is a lot more than writing contracts. It is about knowing the inventory and knowing the numbers. If your agent doesn’t know the amount of inventory, the pending sales and days on the market, how can the agent possibly guide you effectively through the process and write successful offers? Our buyer’s agents are seasoned pros and they study the market daily.
I received an offer yesterday and it was 10% low on a property that is priced for a quick sale. No letter of explanation nothing. I asked the agent his strategy about why he wrote such a below-market offer? The answer, oh that’s what the buyers wanted to offer. This means the buyer’s agent didn’t inform the client that the inventory is 35% low compared to last year. The listed properties are selling for 97% of list price throughout Sacramento. Had this agent educated her client they might be looking at acceptance in-lieu-of rejection.
You can count on our team, so call today. We at Weintraub & Wallace Realtors, with RE/MAX Gold, look forward to helping you obtain home-ownership. Call us today at 916-233-6759.
— JaCi Wallace
Happy Saturday Sacramento
Happy Saturday Sacramento. Real Estate has been extremely busy this October, with 2 new listings this week and many more offers. Even so, we encountered a price reduction for one listing and still held many open houses. We are seeing multiple offers and rural real estate take center stage. It has been a productive Saturday and all of our phones are ringing off the hook, although, not literally, because we have no hooks on which to drop our phones these days.
Our team wishes you a happy Saturday, Sacramento. We hope you will all be out touring open houses tomorrow. An upcoming blog will show the September statistics, so stay tuned.
If you want to sell or buy a property call, Weintraub & Wallace Realtors with RE/MAX Gold. We can be reached at 916-233-6759.
–JaCi Wallace
Show Sacramento Homes That Fit Buyer Requirements
Real estate agents who show Sacramento homes should try to match buyer needs.
How hard is it to show Sacramento homes that fit what a buyer is looking for? It can be somewhat challenging in our particular market at the moment because we don’t have enough homes for sale, especially in certain neighborhoods; yet, an agent should still use her noggin’ when showing homes, don’t you agree? Nobody wants to waste time looking at homes one would not in a million years buy, right? This is why not every agent in town can be an extraordinary homebuying agent. It takes a knack and experience.
This is not to say that a real estate agent might not explore / challenge and / counsel a home buyer about certain parameters, to make certain the agent fully understands the buyer’s needs. That kind of full service is what an agent is supposed to do. An agent might also try to expand the parameters in a tight market like Sacramento to determine whether a home in a nearby neighborhood might also work. The professional Realtors like those who are part of the Elizabeth Weintraub Team try to overturn every rock.
We consider every opportunity and will present those opportunities to the buyer with the caveat that it might not precisely fit 100% of the requirements. We want to show Sacramento homes that a buyer is likely to purchase. But we don’t just drag a buyer over to a random home to ask: what do you think? We discuss it first. We send listings and we call / text back and forth about the pros and cons. A fully informed buyer is a happy buyer.
I know how disturbing a buyer can feel when her agent decides to show Sacramento homes that are not a good fit. In fact, it reminds me of that commercial from years ago, put out by a brokerage we, in the 1970s, used to call the yellow-jacket real estate company. The commercial was a twist on a buyer’s disappointment who wanted a single-level home when shown all 2-story homes. Its point was those agents listen to buyers and will show Sacramento homes that fit what the buyers want. Because many do not.
I can’t count how many times I receive buyer feedback from buyer agents who tell me the home was not at all what the buyers were looking for because it was a) too small or b) not enough bedrooms or c) too old. It makes me wonder how upset the buyers must be. Those are all parameters clearly laid out in MLS, which means the home should never have have been on the agent’s list to show in the first place. I also realize that some real estate agents do not fully read the MLS.
A few days ago, an agent called to say she could not figure out how to show a home listed in Carmichael. As the listing agent, I tried to show empathy. I said, “I understand, it is really confusing for you.” And the agent replied: “Yes, those showing instructions read ‘no showings 4/8-11’ and you should really fix that.”
When Will New Homes for Sale in Sacramento Be Listed?
Near the end of August every year, this Sacramento real estate agent begins gearing up for the fall real estate market by listing more homes for sale in Sacramento. Normal people, on the other hand, are winding up family vacations, buying school gear and getting ready for Labor Day celebrations. Not busy real estate agents because we are not necessarily normal. We are loaded with listing appointments on our calendars to meet with sellers getting ready to list their homes for sale in Sacramento.
This is the second swing and revived housing interest period in town. The Sacramento real estate market is different from other parts of the country in that even with four seasons, the weather is so mild that we don’t deal with snow or much of a down market as the year winds down. Our fall real estate market generally starts off with a bang and then fizzles around Thanksgiving. If there is any time of the year that is a good time for vacation, and that’s questionable, December is generally the best time to escape for a Sacramento listing agent.
That’s because we work our tails off from January through November. But the second biggest months past the spring market are typically September and October. If you haven’t been able to sell your home all year, maybe it’s time to take a fresh approach? Re-list as a new listing at an improved price? Make a few repairs? Some homes take longer to sell than others, especially if they are unique and appeal to a smaller pool of home buyers.
I have new homes for sale in Sacramento coming on the market around Labor Day. A duplex in Fair Oaks, an affordable ranch home in Parkway Estates, a single-level in Natomas, a gorgeous waterfront home in the Pocket, among others. If you’re looking for a home to buy in Sacramento, why not use that first week in September to find the perfect home? This is typically when new inventory opens, not to mention, we desperately need more homes for sale in Sacramento to meet demand.
Sacramento Homes Take Longer to Sell This Spring
Are Sacramento homes taking longer to sell this spring? You betcha. The trouble with making predictions in Sacramento real estate is sometimes those forecasts don’t materialize because the market shifts. Real estate agents who make predictions tend to look at the direction the market is moving and figure it will keep going in that direction. I tend to look for odd things that appear out of place. You know, I ask: what does not belong here? What one thing is not like the others? I look at the market somewhat differently, but then my approach is not an average approach, which is probably partly why I am successful at what I do.
Sellers always want to know how quickly a home might sell. I can identify the drop-dead gorgeous homes that should fly into escrow but I will still suggest at least a 2-week period for those sales, when last year it would have been 24 hours. This means I might need to remind a seller whose home has been on the market for 9 days that she has at least another 5 days to go, and maybe more. We can’t always accurately pinpoint that moment of sale. It depends on the buyer. These are just ballpark estimates.
It seems to this Sacramento real estate agent that homes are taking much longer to sell this spring, ever since January. So, I went on a hunt for facts to back up this assessment.
I can tell you that days on market — the average cumulative days on market — are 49 for February in Sacramento County. In April of 2013, that number was about cut in half at 26. This means the average cumulative days on market has pretty much doubled this year. Which goes to show when I tell a seller that what used to take 1 to 2 days is now taking 1 to 2 weeks, and what used to take 1 to 2 weeks might take 1 to 2 months, is absolutely accurate. Buyers are moving more slowly.
Home are definitely selling. They’re just selling at a more normal pace than over past decade of screwball-ness. You remember what normal is, right? No? Well, try to take it easy and slow down a little bit. At my age, the world moves much too quickly as it is. Savor a few precious moments. Pet your dog, hug your kids. Your home will sell.
