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Why a Six-Month Listing is Normal for Sacramento Listing Agents
Every listing I write starts its life as a six-month listing, and there is a darned good reason for that length of contract. Like I explain to my clients, it’s not always possible to close an escrow within 90 days. For one thing, it doesn’t take into account the first buyer who is likely to cancel for some flakey reason and then I have to sell that home again. Or lender delays or any of the other million things that can happen. At least, I figure, our six-month listing will not expire, and it’s one less thing to monitor.
Yet is rare for me to have a listing for as long as I’ve had my south Sacramento listing by Elder Creek. I sold a halfplex in that area a while back, and I recall that was a bit of a problem as well. Not really sure why. Buyers have not been overly enthusiastic to buy in this neighborhood, it seems.
Countless open houses, almost every weekend. Full-blown marketing efforts but no bites. I pulled out all the stops, including taking the home off the market and putting it back a number of times to reset the days on market.
I wrote this six-month listing at the end of September of last year. We just closed escrow yesterday. This home lingered on the market over the cold months of October, November and December, and then we finally snagged a full-price offer. That excitement lasted all of 24 hours when the 1031 exchange buyer canceled as quickly as he signed the offer.
In early January, we received a lower-priced offer from a buyer who could not afford the home. It’s hard to be a buyer who can’t afford the home he wants to buy, I imagine. But it doesn’t mean the seller cares. In fact, the sellers wonder what’s wrong with the buyer that he is writing a lowball offer on their house. In the sellers’ minds, the buyer should focus on homes the buyer can afford.
Finally, in March we received a full-price offer from buyers who had no skin in the game. No money at all. Not even closing costs. NACA was paying for everything, down payment and closing costs. Then, in exchange, NACA demanded a shitload of repairs, and the buyers threatened to walk.
Walk, go away, the sellers said. The repairs noted by NACA were the worst I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been around the block. They wanted the sellers to test the ceiling for asbestos and pay for those tests. So of course, regardless of testing, the buyers wanted the ceilings all scraped and the popcorn removed. It just got uglier and more horrible. Nope. Go away.
Under these circumstances, it can sometimes be difficult to keep up my client’s spirits. I mean, I knew the home would sell, but sellers don’t always feel so overly enthusiastic when buyer after buyer flakes out on them. My clients were darlings, though. Always a great attitude, upbeat, optimistic. They were no spring chickens, either. We’re talking 80s and 90s. The kind of people who make an agent want to be a better person for them.
We were near the date of having to extend the six-month listing. In fact, from inception to closing, it was 7 1/2 months. This wasn’t a short sale. Just a late 1970’s ranch home with updates in south Sacramento. It’s also the time of sale that messes up my stats. If I sell 50 listings on average in 10 to 15 days, this one sale will blow to pieces those averages. It’s also 7 1/2 long months for the sellers.
Finally, around the middle of April, we received a good offer. The sellers accepted the offer. No sooner did they sign that purchase contract than we received a second offer for even more money, which we put into backup. When it rains, it pours. This is why April is the best month to sell a home.
6745 Villa Juares Circle, Sacramento, CA 95828 closed escrow May 17, 2018 at $320,000. I’m kissing the ground.
The Story of Selling an Overbuilt Rancho Cordova Home
One of my listing specialties is selling white elephants like this overbuilt Rancho Cordova home. We call them white elephants when they don’t conform to the neighborhood, not that there is anything specifically wrong with the home. Most of the homes in this subdivision are 1,200 to 1,600 square feet. This particular home is over 2,100 square feet. Pricing is different when a home is larger than others around it. Usually the per square foot price is less than the surrounding homes.
A recurring complaint from buyers was they didn’t like the fact this home mirrored the home next door. The exterior appeared identical, except for a reversed floor plan, which meant the garages, which were side facing, also faced each other. One potential buyer from Chico called to say he was submitting an offer. A few minutes later he said he looked at the home on Google, spotted the garages facing each other and said, nope. No offer.
Other buyers complained that the baths were vintage with canary yellow fixtures in one bath, pink in another. It’s odd how people can pull apart and shred the appeal of a mid-Century home by expecting it to look like a brand new home in 2018, but that’s buyers for ya.
Once we found our sweet spot on pricing for this overbuilt Rancho Cordova home, we got an offer within 3 days. This particular property’s location fell within the no-income restrictions for Guild Mortgage’s free down payment assistance program. I explained the program to the buyer’s agent. What about their own lender, she asked? He’s done a lot of work.
My response conveyed forget about that lender in not so tender terms. That lender can’t give the buyers $7,000 in free money that they don’t have to pay back. No brainer. Of course, that lender was upset when he heard about it and called to “introduce himself.” That’s code for: I’d like you to like me so you’ll send me more business. Then he began to tear apart Guild’s program, telling me the buyer made too much money, blah, blah. Au contraire, sugar bear, there are no income restrictions in this neighborhood.
I wished him greater success elsewhere. Goodbye.
Now, the buyers were thrilled with Guild Mortgage’s program. They could not believe their good luck. Apparently, according to their agent, they were planning to receive gift funds from family members, and now they didn’t have to. Not only that, but we were able to bump up the price to cover their closing costs. They truly came in with only 1% and the seller got a little bit over list price.
Since their other lender could close within 15 days, we asked Guild to match that timeframe. Guild met that schedule and issued loan docs within 12 days. From start to finish.
At one point, the buyers asked for a larger sum of money and repairs. The seller suggested splitting it with them. Well, he could, if he wanted to give away money, but I suggested he not. I have my seller’s best interests at heart. Further, facts don’t lie. The buyers wrote other offers without success. They can’t get this particular loan anywhere else since it’s sunsetting mid-June. Their family is a source of funding. They aren’t walking away. Finally, the seller said he hired me for a reason and followed my advice.
No repairs. No additional cash. All righty, then, and the buyers removed their contingencies.
By closing on this overbuilt Rancho Cordova home, though, everybody seemed happy. Of course, I haven’t yet gone over there to remove the lockbox. I could still get sprayed with a garden hose.
10829 Glenhaven Way, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670, closed escrow on May 11th, 2018 at $358K.
Benefits of Working With Bay Area Agents to See Sacramento Listings
Not all Sacramento listing agents are happy to take on working with Bay Area agents, but it’s never bothered me. Probably because I do not care to double-end transactions. I would much rather let somebody else represent the buyer. My business is such I don’t need to squeeze every dime out of every corner of a transaction to make a good living for myself and my family. So, I do not have that problem that some other agents have when it comes to elbowing out, er, working with Bay Area agents. I will assist Bay Area agents anyway I can.
Now, it used to be that Bay Area agents did not have a Supra lockbox key so they could not access our lockboxes. But now there is some system where they can register to use it. I don’t know the exact specifics because I do not show property outside of my MLS nor go to San Francisco to show homes. But in the old days, listing agents in Sacramento could try to force Bay Area agents to turn over their clients to the listing agent in exchange for a referral fee. Because if they couldn’t show listings, that was a setback for them. Something is better than nothing mentality.
It hardly seemed fair. Besides, Bay Area agents have a right to sell outside of their area if they want to. Maybe some of them have even lived in Sacramento at one point? They do things a little bit differently in the Bay Area, however. For example, agents expect to get all of the disclosures upfront, which we don’t do in Sacramento. They might divide fees a little bit differently between sellers and buyers. But those are small issues.
The important thing that I see about working with Bay Area agents is . . . they have a buyer. That’s a huge benefit. It benefits my sellers and it benefits me. Further, those buyers are typically very well qualified. Many are paying cash. Will I ever tell an agent we won’t work with her to show a home to her Bay Area buyer? Hell, no. I’d have to be half insane to turn down that kind of situation.
It’s even better when after an open house on Sunday a Bay Area agent calls me. They typically say their buyer came through the open house and they want to know what they can do to help their buyers purchase the home. These are buyers who generally conduct little to no inspections, they understand buying AS IS, and they are sophisticated.
Further, in comparison to the price of a home in San Francisco, where the median sales price is $1.61 million, the median price of a Sacramento home is peanuts.
Read it and weep. Yup, the median price in Sacramento County for April of 2018 is $370,000.
But let’s look at the pros and cons. Now, we know that agent in the Bay Area did not show the property their buyer wants to purchase. Their buyer came through an open house alone, hosted by my team member or another Lyon agent. Downside. But the upside is tremendous. So, how motivated is that Bay Area agent to close a transaction in Sacramento? An agent who is doing little work apart from writing a contract? Well, I’d say very motivated. Which is yet another reason to love working with Bay Area agents.
If Bay Area agents can’t find a listing agent to work with in Sacramento, they are welcome to come over and sit down next to me.
Solutions for Sacramento Listing Agents Who Will Not Call You Back
The only excuse for listing agents who will not call you back.
Little is more irritating than Sacramento listing agents who will not call you back. Well, it’s most likely irritating enough that so many do not even answer their phone in the first place. I am not in a position where I talk to a lot of listing agent because I mostly chat with buyer’s agents. Being a listing agent myself. And I always try to answer my phone. Not only do I answer my phone, but I do in a cheerful manner.
Even if I’m feeling, “what the hell do you want from me?” like busy days can do to a person, I make myself be happy to talk. Because whatever might be going on with me is not my caller’s fault. My caller needs some kind of help. Either to sell a house or more information on a listing. It’s generally all good. For spammers, there is the End Call button and block caller function. No need to get upset.
However, not every listing agent answers the phone. Is it on purpose, like some people believe? Sometimes, I’m sure it is. The listing agent doesn’t want to answer calls from other agents about offers because the listing agent might not be interested in presenting offers that are not the agent’s own buyer. Yes, it’s unethical behavior, but it happens. Or, maybe the agent feels he has enough offers (although the seller would beg to disagree). Or he’s sleeping under a bridge because, hey, rough night, where is the car? You never know.
So, what can you do when dealing with listing agents who will not call you back? I’ll tell you what I do. First, I call that agent every hour on the hour and I leave a cheery message until the agent’s voice mail box is full. Sometimes the box is already full because the agent never answers the phone at all. In those cases, you can call the agent’s broker and ask if the broker will get a message to the agent.
You can also go to the agent’s Facebook page and leave a message, detailing your efforts to reach the agent. Try Twitter and send a direct message there. Look up the agent via Google and call his parents. How about uploading the agent’s photo to Instagram as a Missing Person notice: Has anybody seen this agent? Send an urgent fax to the office fax number.
I have also been known to go to the company website and call every single agent in that agent’s office until somebody tells me how to find the agent. I am absolutely relentless. This is in addition to borrowing a stranger’s phone at the grocery store and calling from a number the agent does not recognize.
On the other hand, maybe for you, well, maybe you should call an agent who answers her darned phone? Because listing agents who will not call you back are not professionals.
How to Tell if Your Home Does Not Need Home Staging to Sell
Your home might not need home staging to sell. Do you know how you can tell? Well, for starters, you probably can’t on your own. But if you ask a top Sacramento Realtor whose specialty is solely working with sellers, I bet she can tell you. When your entire focus in Sacramento real estate is listing homes and selling them — and you don’t work with buyers — you view the world through a dedicated lens. You see things differently than other agents. At least that is the case with me.
I can tell you in a heartbeat if your home does not need home staging to sell. Some homes do not require home staging, and since part of my goal is to increase net profit for a seller, I’m not sending them down that path in every situation. Because some situations simply don’t call for home staging.
Oh, you’ll hear agents say every home shows better with home staging, and that’s not entirely true. For example, tiny, small homes don’t always show better with staging. Too much furniture can crowd a small house. It can make a small house appear even smaller. A buyer will never know she can’t fit a bed in a small bedroom if there isn’t a bed there.
Two homes that I’m presently working on listing don’t need staging and for different reasons. One home is unique, with vintage designer wallpaper. Wood windows. Wood ceiling, beams and fancy millwork. Random planked floors. Handmade braided rag floor covering, wall-to-wall. It’s a special storybook house. Staging might detract from the period and make the home seem smaller. It’s not that large to start with.
Another home features a long room at the entrance, with a delightful bonus view through French doors at the other end. That’s the selling feature. The million dollar shot. I explained to that seller that she should stage the living room / dining area, separating the two spaces. While she does not need home staging to sell, she should stage that very important first impression space. Bring into focus the original fireplace and send the view out into the back yard.
This seller was excited when she called yesterday to say she met with my preferred home stager. The stager not only promised to stage the living area, but she threw in for free the staging of a yoga studio out back. As a bonus for the seller, she said, because I refer so much business to the stager. She makes me look good, and my seller is very happy!
If you really want to know if you need home staging to sell, ask an experienced Realtor for her opinion. In our present seller’s market, it is possible your home does not need home staging to sell.
