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How to Work With Emotional Real Estate Agents
Do you ever have days when you feel compelled to tell some whiny person to just put a sock in it? I’m not talking about my husband, in case he’s reading this and wondering. It’s the buyer’s agents who can get all excited and turn into white knight agents, turning up the volume and drama over some piddly little thing, when the agent hasn’t even spoken to the buyer. A Sacramento real estate agent can’t take this kind of stuff personally because it’s not personal. It’s some other agent’s misaligned ego that’s doing the talking.
This is not to say that to be successful in real estate that an agent needs a skin as thick as an Everglades alligator. To the contrary, good real estate agents need a really big heart and hearts can be broken. More important is the ability to put situations into perspective, to be calm, rational and think things through before reacting.
I suspect that the aforementioned is called adulthood, although I’m not really sure. Because not having any kids to use as a measuring stick, I’m not certain I have fully developed into an adult. The days all sort of look the same to me, and then one day I look in the mirror and I’m over 60. Unsupervised because my parents are dead and gone. Nobody to account to but myself.
People tell me I have an even temperament. Probably because I am not the type of person to explode as my immediate reaction to something seemingly stupid — even if inside my brain I’m thinking WTF, I don’t say it until I’ve thought through the situation. Like, take a buyer’s agent who asks me if the seller will accept, oh, say, $50,000 less on a brand new extremely well priced listing. An agent will ask that question because buyers asked.
Instead, I wonder why that agent has not studied the comparable sales in the neighborhood. I wonder why the agent hasn’t taken the time to educate her client. I wonder why the agent is in real estate, and how long it will take before she ends up behind the counter at Starbucks. But I don’t say any of those things. I just ask why. Asking questions is the best way to diffuse potentially explosive situations. It’s also a good way to find out what another person is really thinking before jumping to conclusions.
Looking at Sacramento Homes for Sale From a Buyer’s Perspective
New Home Listing in Sacramento
It’s very difficult to color correct photographs when a kitten is attacking my television monitor. Typing doesn’t seem to excite little Tessa as much as when I move the mouse around and magic happens in front of her eyes. She appreciates when I use the tool that lightens shadows, and she is madly in love with the adjustments I make using Levels in Photoshop. As a Sacramento real estate agent, I often agonize over my photographs because I want to make sure that each and every photo does its job properly online.
Now, I try not to say anything about other agent’s listings when I see photographs that let’s just say don’t do the home justice. The major thing about presenting a home online is the photos should offer a clear picture of each room that is suitable for viewing and tell a story to the buyer. Contrary to some popular views, we Sacramento real estate agents are not trying to sell a home online, on the internet, we are trying to whet a buyer’s appetite enough to get the buyer motivated to view the home in person.
Sacramento home buyers have choices. Their first introduction to Sacramento homes for sale is online, typically. They might have automatic emails set up by their buyer’s agents, which deliver listings to their inbox as soon as those new listings hit the market. That’s the easiest and the smartest way to search for a home to buy in Sacramento. If a buyer is not receiving emails, that buyer may not realize how much she is at a disadvantage.
When buyers get an email, it may contain a bunch of homes for sale because new listings come out every day. To access the information, it involves clicking on the property address. That’s one click. Up comes the listing with one photograph, the property description and specifics. The listing offers the ability to look at more photographs by clicking a second time. If a buyer does not like the first photograph, a buyer might not click a second time. Moreover, if the buyer does not like the second photograph, the buyer might not click through all of the photographs and will simply discard the listing by moving on to the next home for sale.
Each photograph must encourage the buyer to click again. The marketing verbiage should make the home sound unique. Even if the home is identical to almost every other home in Elk Grove, for example, there is something unique that makes it different that made the existing sellers want to buy it, and that is what will make a new buyer want it as well.
Jackson in box with Tessa
If you’d like to talk more about what this Sacramento real estate agent can do for you, please feel free to call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759. I love selling homes in the Sacramento Valley, and I’m not afraid to say I’m good at it.
And, my kitten Tessa? She says she’ll buy them all. This one, and that one, and the next one, too. You can see that she sticks her nose into everything. Even when I’m trying to take a photo of Jackson, our ragdoll.
The State of Sacramento Real Estate Right Now
If you listen very carefully to the wind in Sacramento this morning, you can hear Ollie’s voice over the freeway hum: “This is another fine kettle of fish you’ve gotten us into, Stanley.” Because that’s precisely the sentiment I feel when I look at the condition of the 4th quarter of our Sacramento real estate market.
It’s not that any one person makes the real estate market in Sacramento what it is, but we do need to work within it when you’re a Sacramento real estate agent. I just don’t know whom exactly to blame for it, so I’ll pick the Feds because that’s an easy target and I didn’t get enough sleep last night. I’m still on Florida time, haven’t quite recovered from the Dry Tortugas.
Now, in case you’re thinking that I’m going to tell you some terrible news or say it is not a good time to buy or sell, that is not about to happen. I just report what I see and then figure out how to work within that framework to best position my clients.
First, let me say the market is typically seasonal in Sacramento. Just because we have more days with sunshine than without doesn’t mean real estate sells like gangbusters all year long. We experience ebbs and flows. In the graph above, though, inventory has been steadily falling, along with the pending and closed sales. But it doesn’t mean prices are following suit.
Second, the market has been relatively flat with regard to home prices. You can see in this next graph that our square-foot home prices have remained very stable since last summer. This could very well indicate that our big push for rising prices has leveled. As my 2014 real estate forecast predicted last year, I suspect we won’t see a lot of appreciation this year. But prices won’t fall.
I could show you the same graph for average home sales prices and median sales prices, and that graph would reflect the same behavior. Our median sales price in Sacramento County has jumped from $186,000 in October 2012 to $250,000 in December 2013. However, that $250,000 median price has remained stable since July.
Buyers don’t seem to know which end is up. I have seen offers range from ridiculous to borderline nuts. On top of this, many home buyers appear marginal, and then we’ve got the new federal regulations kicking in this month that say a buyer must be able to prove she can afford to buy a home. Who woulda thought this was a necessity? But they had to make a law, so you know it wasn’t.
In the last graph, you can see our absorption rate for Sacramento County. This is the number of homes that closed escrow as compared to the number of homes for sale. We had a slight uptick in December, but when compared to high points from last year, we are pretty low at the moment at 52.7%. This means about half of the homes that are for sale right now closed escrow last month. Compare this to December 2012 / January 2013 when that absorption rate was almost 125%.
Our inventory (number of homes for sale) is less than two months. This means it would take two months to sell every home we have for sale. It’s still a very strong seller’s market in Sacramento. The problem is we have fewer buyers and the buyers we do have are often marginal, with little in reserves. If home buyers have no reserves, it means sellers might need to start kicking in closing costs to help a buyer in Sacramento to purchase a home. If the buyer can find a home to buy because we have so little for sale.
Images: Trendgraphix
Leaving Key West and Returning to Reality
The prettiest dreads in Key West
When you’re doing lunch at a Thai restaurant in the pouring rain in Key West and today is your last day of vacation, there is only one logical thing left to do. It’s not like we could hop on the Conch Train either because it wasn’t running. The shops on Duval Street are not calling my name; in fact, I bought very few trinkets in Key West because I couldn’t find anything substantially nice to buy. It was either Emeralds or a Hemingway House t-shirt, so I picked the shirt. I love Emeralds, I simply have no place to wear them.
Unlike pearls. Because pearls look great with just about any kind of outfit, except maybe beach-going apparel. It’s not like I need any more pearls. After our French Polynesia Vacation last year, I am totally pearled-out.
Since we weren’t about to go shopping yesterday, we did the next best thing. A visit to the spa for a couple’s massage. Nothing like working out all of the kinks and pains that crept up during our walkabouts. Of course, I already had booked a Swedish massage the day we arrived in Key West, but that was 6 days ago and it was time for another. My husband gave no preference to which masseuse worked on him or the product. He’s more along the lines of do whatever. Although he did threaten to change his shirt when he saw I pulled on my matching Dry Tortugas shirt.
Why don’t husbands like to be seen in public wearing matchy-matchy outfits with their spouse? I do not know the answer to that.
I do know that once I hit the turf back in Sacramento, it’s going to be a real estate whirlwind. There will be no time to miss Key West and South Florida. It will probably stay that way through May. It’s as though homeowners suddenly woke up from the holiday activities and instantly said to themselves, “Oh, my gosh, I have sell my house, and I have to do it NOW.” It doesn’t astonish me. I understand the sentiment. It’s been this way every year for decades. The second week in January, sellers are ready to list.
This Sacramento real estate agent will be ready to go. Dreamy, exotic vacations are my way to unwind and refresh, because I can work as hard as a dog all year long if I know that my winter vacation is on the horizon.
Preparing for a Trip to the Dry Tortugas from Key West
Elizabeth Weintraub goofing off at Key West Harbor
Scratching no-see-um bites is pretty much fruitless because they take much longer to go away when you do that, yet I continue to scratch. We bought plenty of bug spray and “after bite” if the bug spray didn’t work. Doesn’t stop insects from munching on my yummy skin. I’ve tried pulverizing the bites in my jetted tub. (Note to self, don’t use body wash in a jetted tub because the bubbles will crawl out to the balcony.) But bugs aren’t the big problem in Key West, really, it’s more like scorpions, so that’s why they let the chickens and roosters run loose. The chickens help to control the scorpion population. I wish I didn’t know that fact.
Conch house, Caroline Street, Key West
We wandered down Caroline Street yesterday morning to admire the Conch homes. These stunning structures are a mixture of Plantation Colonial, Victorian and New Orleans style homes, all rolled into one delightful piece of architecture. It’s pleasing to the eye. I adore the ornamental detail and railed-in porches, both on the first floor as well as the second. Many were originally built in the 1800s. Some listings say the homes are CSB, and I’m not sure what it means. Cement structure basement? Chicken side of bacon?
Later I checked prices on a few, because being a Sacramento real estate agent I can’t help myself, and the renovated larger homes start at about $1.5 million. You can add another million or two or four to that sales price if you want to buy a conch home on the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean.
Key West Harbor Walk
The reason we ended up on Caroline Street is because #1) we meant to tour that street and #2) it runs parallel to the Old Town Harborwalk of Key West. Since we’ve got reservations for the boat to Dry Tortugas National Park this morning, we thought it might be a good idea to track down exactly where we boarded. Good thing we did so because it’s hard to find, and nobody seems to know exactly where it is or, if they do know, they were not telling us. The boarding spot is from the Ferry Terminal, second floor check-in, way at the end of the marina. We need to be onboard at 7:15 A.M. for the two-hour journey, 70 miles off the coast of Key West and maybe 110 miles from Cuba. We will tour Fort Jefferson, built during the Civil War, and probably go snorkeling, searching for turtles, and colorful saltwater fish, maybe a bit of birding.
Sailing vessel anchored in Harbor Walk, Key West
I will write more tomorrow about our trip to Dry Tortugas, providing we don’t drown. The winds are kicking up something awful, and the waves are probably cresting at 2- to 3-feet. I won’t think about that as we make our way in the early morning hours to the harbor.
Perhaps, instead, I shall ponder how yesterday had been a fairly inactive day, as far as crawling down Duval Street goes. I plan to start my exercise program and diet next week. Calories burned walking to the Harbor Marina: 225. Calories consumed (not counting the Margarita nor the Hemingway Daiquiri): 3,750. Number of tattoos received: zero. Number of cigars smoked: zero.
