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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.
Pleasing All of the People as a Sacramento Real Estate Agent
To paraphrase John Lydgate, a 14th-century English monk and poet, a real estate agent can’t please all of the people all of the time. In today’s Sacramento real estate market, an agent might wonder if she pleases all of the people some of the time but there’s no need to focus energy on that question since she pleases some of the people practically all of the time — those people being her clients.
It’s nice if everything balances in a real estate transaction, but it’s not always possible. Sometimes, an agent has to pick which side she wants to please, and most agents will always choose her client. Well, the ones with any brains.
The REALTOR Code of Ethics says an agent must treat all parties honestly and fairly, but it doesn’t stipulate making the other side — the side we do not represent — happy. Sure, we hope they’re happy and speaking strictly for myself I’d never want to purposely upset somebody else, but we can’t control what other people think, say or do. We can only control our own behavior.
This is why I get to be the rational and calm person. The agent who sticks to the purchase contract by managing performance and ensuring the transaction closes. I get to deal with all kinds of personalities in this business. I get the screaming hysteria, the weeping and sobbing poor me’s, the F-150s in a China shop, the indignant hyenas, the bipolar-sans-meds, the threatening gorillas, the barking dogs, the guys with explosives strapped to their backs, and that’s just the agents.
It’s a balancing act, sometimes, to try to keep that noise away from my clients but still deliver important information to my sellers.
I went to lunch last week with a Sacramento agent I met years ago on an agent website. She lives in Rancho Cordova and still sells real estate into her senior years, a ways past retirement, and I love her to pieces. She lamented that agents have become more mean lately. I wonder if it’s the transition into a normal real estate market that sets so many of them afire?
It’s tempting at times to return fire, that’s only normal, but it’s better for all concerned to keep my eyes on the horizon. That’s why so many sellers hire Elizabeth as their Sacramento real estate agent. Pleasing all of the people all of the time is unreasonable.
Flashback to 1970s Real Estate and Sincerity
In retrospect, it seems like selling real estate in the 1970s was a lot more carefree than it is today, but that’s probably just twisted perception. Part of that feeling could stem from I was in my 20’s then and just didn’t know any better, even though I thought I knew everything. It takes a while for people to mature to the point where one realizes she will never know everything and there is a ton of stuff she will never in a million years know, even if she turned into a vampire and was granted eternal life.
In my younger days when I worked in 1970s real estate, I recall making training videos for other real estate agents in Orange County with Tucker T. Watkins and Scott C. Strohbehn. They were such a blast. It was odd to make a video of anything back then because nobody had video cameras. We had to hire a production company. It was my idea to incorporate a glass-framed poster of the Monopoly Game to use as an illustration for our topic about investment real estate, or at least that’s how I recall the episode. Somehow the glass broke when we started to film.
My motto has always been to make do with what’s presented. I say if it rains on your parade, then parade in the rain — because the alternatives don’t always solve the issue at hand. It’s easier to change perception than to move a roadblock or change nature. Everybody was crushed because we couldn’t use the poster in the broken glass frame. So I suggested to Scott that he use a pointer and poke it at the poster, saying something like, “The Monopoly Game is not exactly what it’s cracked up to be.”
That simply set us into fits of uncontrollable laughter and we could not film the sequence. We rolled off the sofa with tears streaming down our faces, clutching our guts. And it wasn’t just the drugs from the 1970s real estate lifestyle. When out touring homes for sale, it was common for an agent to do a U-turn in the middle of Pacific Coast Highway and explain it away by saying, “It’s OK, officer, I am a real estate agent.” Because being a real estate agent somehow gave us permission to do things that other people could not do. That’s how screwed up we were, because we believed that. At least we were sincere.
I’m still sincere today, mostly because it’s easier than being insincere. I’ll share an example. I went to Nordstrom in Arden Fair this weekend to exchange a top that didn’t quite fit right. Imagine my delight when I zipped into the parking lot to discover a parking place right along Arden. I didn’t mind walking that distance to the store. When I came back to my car, I heard some dude screaming. I was certain it wasn’t directed at me.
I began to back up my car and almost ran over this screaming guy. He approached my driver’s side window and knocked on it with his knuckles. Yes, what can I do for you? He was very angry and still yelling about a fat yellow line, and didn’t I notice all the other cars parked in backwards, and if I do it again it will be a $5 fine. I said I was very sorry that I did not notice this was valet parking. Yeah, I was on my cellphone talking about real estate when I pulled into the parking spot, so I was a bit oblivious to my surroundings.
I get that way when I’m focused on a conversation. Hey, I’m a Sacramento real estate agent. I honestly did not notice that I parked in valet parking, Sir, I’m sorry. I was about to reach into my bag and hand him a $20, relieved that he didn’t want to fine me five bucks — $5? Seriously? But then he said he didn’t believe me. How could I have NOT noticed? Well, obviously, he’s not in Sacramento real estate. Attacking my integrity and sincerity? He’s also not getting any money, and I drove away. I’ll gladly give him five bucks the next time I park in valet parking, though, at least I know where it is.
If You Don’t Write a Purchase Offer You’ll Never Know
While some Sacramento real estate agents view other agent inquiries about their listings as annoying, perhaps irritating, I actually welcome a chat with a buyer’s agent who is working with a qualified and eager home buyer — because it could lead to a purchase offer. My focus is selling my listings, so the next best thing to talking to an actual buyer is talking to the buyer’s agent. See, I don’t mind talking on the phone, as I have a lot of practice talking on the phone.
I’ve been yakking on the phone since I was old enough to drag around a Northwestern Bell dial telephone by its cord in one hand while sucking my thumb on the other. We didn’t have any pacifiers when I was growing up in the 1950s, and we had to substitute our own body parts.
Which brings me to a phone conversation I had several days ago when I made an emergency stop at a gas station somewhere in Citrus Heights. Apart from making a beeline to Nordstrom in Rocklin from my home in Land Park, about the only other place I drive is to seller’s homes to put them on the market. This means I fill up my car maybe once or twice a month. But I’ve been doing a lot more driving this week and noticed my gas gauge was dangerously low. My car tells me when I’m about to run out of fuel with a cute in-dash message about being mindful of how far I have left to drive. It’s so polite. Those Italians.
As I was climbing out of my car and grabbing my VISA card, my bluetooth began to jangle slightly with the sound of faraway chimes, like I’m standing on a hillside in Ireland listening to the wind blow across the burren. No ringy-dingy for me. I answer and it’s an agent calling about one of my listings. She wanted to know if my seller would entertain a lowball offer. Now, see, that’s being polite. That’s encouraging cooperation between agents. That’s not just emailing an insulting purchase offer out of the blue, it’s calling to discuss first. Professional.
I’m staring at the gas pump while I’m listening to the agent talk. This is why I don’t fill up my car at foreign gas stations away from Land Park. I prefer the familiar, like I imagine most people do. I saw three paragraphs of white text printed on the pump, explaining how to pump gas. WTH? My eyes frantically scanned the pump for something simple such as:
- insert card
- select grade
- pump gas
But it wasn’t there. I realized I could not comprehend the text nor attempt to read it while I was in the midst of an engrossing conversation about my listing. How can a Shell gas station make pumping gas so danged difficult? Well, perhaps it’s the same as any other gas station, and it wants my ZIP code. I inserted the card, pressed my 5-digit code into the keypad and selected the button for gas. Everything seemed OK, stuck the hose pump into my car and nothing happened when I pressed the lever. What?
Around the other side of the pump I spotted a younger guy sporting a 10-gallon hat filling up his pickup. I asked if there was some kind of trick, no, not the agent, I assured her. Now I was having 2 conversations and neither were productive. I grabbed my bag, locked the car and marched into the tiny Shell station office stuffed to the gills with bags of potato chips, beef jerky and Pepsi. What am I doing wrong at the pump? I asked the clerk, waving my VISA card at her.
Then I glanced at the card in my hand. It was my Health Saving Account VISA, which is a debit card. The buyer’s agent is still talking to me about her clients. We’re discussing the comparable sales. You know, I don’t really know what my sellers will do with that kind of purchase offer, I explain, but there is certainly one way to find out, and that’s to write the purchase offer. I don’t make decisions for my clients, and we need a place to start negotiations, and this spot might very well be it. It’s a sure rejection if you never write the purchase offer, what do you have to lose?
This story ends with the sellers and the agent’s buyers coming to an agreement a few days later and going into escrow. This is what happens when agents get out of the way and don’t let their own personal opinions shade a transaction but instead facilitate and represent their clients’ best interests.
And I’m sticking my Health Savings Account card into a different slot in my wallet, not to be confused with my regular VISA. Because you can’t buy gas with a Health Savings Account VISA. I also suspect that clerks who have to deal with the public really dislike customers yakking on their cell, but when you’re a Sacramento real estate agent, you never know when a buyer will call.
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.
