Email Elizabethsacramento listing agent
Photos of Sacramento Homes for Sale are Tricky in Rain
Shooting photographs in the rain of Sacramento homes for sale can be very tricky. Apart from my camera getting wet, which is never a good thing, I really don’t want raindrops in my photos or, heaven forbid, sheets of rain. There is hardly a week that goes by when I don’t need to take photos for a new listing. When we have rain every single day, I need to find those breaks in the clouds when I can run over and shoot more photographs with the sun out.
I tried to explain my professional standards regarding real estate photographs yesterday to a lawyer who kept insisting that my photographs of an old listing made the house look too appealing. The seller is suing his ex-wife for destroying his property. Although my agent visual inspection disclosed the defects, the photographs didn’t showcase it. No joke, why would any Sacramento REALTOR want to call attention to the drawbacks?
We want to get buyers into the house, not drive them away or give them an excuse to look at some other home. You ordinarily don’t buy a home in Sacramento if you don’t go inside. I’m not trying to sell the house online; I am trying to entice buyers to go see it. That’s the entire point of online photos of Sacramento homes for sale.
Of course, some buyers I hear print them out and hang those pictures on their ‘frig to daily admire the home during escrow. And sometimes sellers, for personal and sentimental reasons, want me to send them a CD of the photos at closing, which I do.
I care about how my photos appear, which is why I got into my car and raced over to Tahoe Park yesterday to shoot sunny photos of the exterior of a home coming on the market. They looked great on my viewing screen but when I uploaded and opened the photos to correct in Photoshop, I noticed the sun’s glare on my lens. I will go back. (Besides, it gives me an excuse to create more control mind fields along the way and blow up a few more Ingress portals. I got back Jamba Juice on Broadway yesterday after Blame Canada swiped it.) It was a good day for taking photos of Sacramento homes for sale, even though some of it was in the rain.
Why Sacramento Home Selling Odds Are In Your Favor This Winter
When a seller in Tahoe Park called a few days ago to ask me to list her home, she was feeling a bit despondent because a few other agents she called (before me . . . darn it, why can’t I be first?) didn’t seem like they wanted to work so close to Thanksgiving. Or at least that was her perception of them. They allegedly told her this time of year was bad for sales and weren’t that motivated to meet with her.
I can’t explain other agent’s behavior or attitudes, and I don’t try. It’s really none of my business what they do except to the extent I appear by comparison and, quite frankly, I’d rather stand on my own accord. I do know that about 10% of the agents do 90% of the business, and I’m in that top percentile.
This is a slower market than the spring market but it doesn’t make it a “bad” market for Sacramento home selling. It makes it a different market, and we use different strategies. For one thing, if your home is a little bit difficult to sell, perhaps it’s a white elephant or it has other challenges, selling your home in the winter is a much better time than selling that type of home in the spring. Why?
Because in the spring, your home might be 1 out of 50 homes. In the fall, when inventory dwindles and sales soften, your home might be 1 out of 5 homes. Wouldn’t you rather have that home that is one out of five, that home that will be shown and used as a comparison against each other? The likelihood is your home will sell. Especially if out of the 5 it’s the nicest home available. Buyers who purchase a home in winter typically need to buy, so they are much more motivated to choose a home.
If you wait until spring, and your home is not the nicest home on the market, well, it could sit and the days on market could pile up while buyers choose homes other than yours. When it comes to Sacramento home selling in the winter, a seller is probably much better off being that one home out of five than that one home out of 50 in spring. You can see the odds are in your favor this winter home selling season.
Call a Sacramento REALTOR who works the fall and winter market in Sacramento, Elizabeth Weintraub, 916.233.6759. Do you know when is the best time to sell a house?
How Sacramento Listing Agents Show Sellers They Care
Sacramento listing agents worth their salt know that they need to keep sellers informed during the entire listing and sales process, but some agents get sidetracked and forget. I don’t know if it’s agents who are easily overwhelmed or too busy or what the deal is but I hear common complaints from other agents’ sellers. I don’t call these sellers; they call me. The story is often the same. They say they are unhappy with their listing agent and want to know if I will help them. You betcha. I’m sorry they are upset with their present situation, but hey, I’ll help.
I imagine as we move into the colder months, I’ll get more of these calls. We are facing a tougher winter market for Sacramento real estate than in previous years. Some listing agents will undoubtedly run out without a jacket and freeze to death, leaving their dazed would-be sellers to scrap for themselves. The days on market are growing and listing agents can no longer suggest list prices ahead of the curve; it’s got to be the perfect, just right, Goldilocks sales price in order to sell. Further, sellers deserve constant information about the market and what’s happening or they might drop that agent like a hot potato.
Some Sacramento sellers look at me like I’m “a gift from heaven” because I report feedback from showings and I keep them in the loop. I’m not a gift from heaven, I’m just doing my job as a listing agent. I never lose sight of the fact that the listing is not my home. I’m a temporary guest, visiting for a small period of time, and in the picture to perform a function to the best of my ability.
A seller in Elk Grove called yesterday to tell me how blown away she is with my performance. She did not know how a professional listing agent operates, she said, until I took over her listing. In my short association with her, she says we’ve had more showings, more offers, and she’s been kept informed every step of the way. I call her, I text her, I email her, depending on which form of communication is appropriate for the message I need to deliver.
Another seller in Placer County I met with a few days ago is asking me to take over the listing of a home because the seller was not promptly informed that a break-in had occurred. Apparently, some thug broke into a vacant house and removed furniture. The seller alleges that the listing agent was informed by a buyer’s agent that items were missing earlier in the week, and that the listing agent delivered the news to the seller a few days later — not on the day the agent found out about the theft. There’s got to be more to this story, but I don’t know it. I couldn’t imagine forgetting to let a seller know that something awful had happened.
Communication is key. Not just when things are going well but also when they’re not. Good news, bad news, as Sacramento listing agents, we need to constantly keep our sellers informed. Even if it’s just to say, hello, we haven’t had any showings, but let me tell you how many people have looked at your home online. Or, here’s a market overview from your area.
I say if a Sacramento listing agent goes to the trouble to get the listing, she needs to work that listing. Why work on something else when all you need to do is sell what you’ve got?
Selling a Home to Reluctant Buyers in Sacramento’s Fall Market
Selling a home in Sacramento is more challenging today over our spring market. Many a Sacramento real estate agent is frustrated with the way our real estate market has changed this fall and having a hard time dealing with home buyers. It doesn’t matter if one is a listing agent or a buyer’s agent, you’ve still got to deal with that home buyer if one wants to get into escrow. Selling homes in Sacramento is what I do for a living. Don’t look at me sideways, somebody’s got to.
Gone are the days when upon receipt of a goofball offer a listing agent could say: Hey, buddy, pony up or don’t let the door hit you in the butt. Neither can a listing agent adopt the attitude of say, have you suddenly morphed into a moron or were you simply born stupid? Because one would not under any circumstances poke fun at those who came into this world unprepared, unsupervised and without the ability to reason and deliver rational thought — that would be unacceptable behavior, especially after test results proved the individual was incapable of functioning in a social environment in a normal manner. That would just be mean.
Now, the tables have turned, the winds have shifted and we’re wearing our underwear inside out. We Sacramento listing agents are grateful for an offer. Any offer. It’s like, hey, sweetie, yes, you, you with the head-to-toe tattoos, shaved head and metal gauges in the lobes, come over here and sit down next to me. Here’s a satin pillow. Let me rub your feet and bring you a cup of tea. Would you like lemon? A cool towel for your neck? A copy of People Magazine?
To survive in any real estate market, a good Sacramento listing agent must be a chameleon. Go with the flow, change with the market. Adapt.
Last week a first-time home buyer made an offer on a home in Elk Grove. After much discussion, weighing the pros and cons, my seller negotiated and then elected to accept the offer. Everybody was happy. We changed the status of the home in MLS to pending. The following day, the buyer’s agent called to say the buyer had changed his mind because the buyer’s wife didn’t like the home.
What? Let me talk to the guy. I would say: hey, just divorce her. Get rid of that witch. There are plenty of women in this world who would LOVE that home in Elk Grove. She doesn’t deserve you, man, if she can’t see the beauty in your world. You do something nice for that woman and you get crap. You don’t need that.
And this is why sellers love me.
Security Gaps While Selling Your Sacramento Home
The occupant of one of my listings leaves her front door unlocked when agents come over to show. She vacates and doesn’t lock the door because she doesn’t want a lockbox on the house. This procedure is not only unsafe, but it completely baffles the agents who show. The buyer’s agents can’t believe a person would not lock the door.
Because she won’t allow a SUPRA, I have installed a contractor’s box and suggested she put the key inside when she leaves, and then she could lock the house and retrieve the key when she gets home. She refuses. Her thoughts are it is perfectly OK to leave her door unlocked, and she lives in a safe neighborhood. All neighborhoods are safe until security gaps pop up.
Criminy, when it comes to security gaps, there are no safe neighborhoods in Sacramento. Every person is vulnerable no matter where you live. She won’t listen to me, and her actions make me uneasy, like they would cause any Sacramento listing agent to fret.
Then, this weekend, an agent called to say she dropped the key to the home she was showing somewhere in the kitchen and she could not find it. It might have rolled under the ‘frig. If I wasn’t avoiding any strains on my back, I would have dashed over to help her move the refrigerator. This sort of thing could have happened to any buyer’s agent. Although usually they break the key in the door or slip it into their pocket and take it home; they don’t generally lose it somewhere in the house.
I tried to call the seller but my message went to voice mail. The buyer’s agent couldn’t reach the seller, either, which is why she called me. I sent the seller an email and attempted to contact the co-owner as well. Nobody should leave a door unlocked anywhere.
Fortunately, the seller came home and was able to put a new key into the bottom of the lockbox. Then, later yesterday afternoon, another twist happened at her home. A group of strangers showed up on her doorstep holding a business card from a real estate agent. The real estate agent was not with them, they were unaccompanied and alone. The seller let them into her home! Give me a heart attack, why doncha? Never let a stranger into your home without an agent present. Talk about security gaps. Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor. I swear, my sellers are gonna kill me yet.
