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Selling Homes in Sacramento Now or Wait for Spring?
Seems like a lot of sellers are asking this Sacramento real estate agent is now a good time to be selling homes in Sacramento? They are wondering if they should put their home on the market now or wait until spring. The only thing spring brings, besides spring flowers, is more buyers. But spring also brings more homes, so there is more competition. How many buyers do you need and how many competitors do you need? I say you need one buyer and fewer competing homes for buyers to choose from.
That’s why I’m telling you that right now is an excellent time to be on the market. Great market for selling homes in Sacramento. But only if your home is priced properly. Only one of out every 2 homes is selling because half are priced too high.
The other questions I’ve been receiving are from people who ask if the price increases in Sacramento mean they can ask a phenomenal price for their home. The thing is your home is worth only what it is worth. It’s not worth more than that and, in fact, might be worth less.
To sum it up simply, your home is worth more than last year. Might be worth more than next year. Prices are stabilizing a bit.
I’ve heard of sellers begging their agents to leave their homes on the market or hold an open house after they’ve received an acceptable offer. They are under the misguided impression that they are missing out on some unforeseen cash strewn at the side of the road. Makes me want to grab these people by their shoulders and shake them because their brains have gone haywire. If you’ve got a good offer, take it, because you might not get another offer.
Take a look at the chart above. At first glance, the uninitiated might say, whoa, look at the number of homes and pending sales that are declining in November and December. But what they are not realizing is those home sales were originally sold in September and October. It takes 30 to 60 days to close an escrow. Take a look at January and February sales. Those pending sale numbers exceed the number of homes for sale. That’s huge, huge, huge and extremely important to know that January and February sales are a result of homes going on the market in November and December.
Now is an excellent time to sell your home. Don’t wait for spring when interest rates might rise. Do it now. If you’re looking for a Sacramento real estate agent with her finger on the pulse of the market, call Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759.
Chart: Trendgraphix
Bazooka Joe Bubble Gum vs Dubble Bubble Gum
If my mother knew that Bazooka Bubble Gum had fired Bazooka Joe and removed the comic wrapper from the gum package last year, she’d rise up from her ashes scattered at Hillside Cemetery in Minneapolis and lead a flag-waving march all the way to Topps headquarters in New York. I was never a fan of Bazooka Bubble Gum but my mother bought that gum by the busloads, way before Sam’s Club was around. It wasn’t really acceptable behavior for a University Advisor to chew gum, which is probably one of the reasons she did it.
Bazooka Bubble Gum had kind of a nasty flavor. It was also way too much gum in my mouth. I found I had to break it off into little pieces and, when one finished chewing it, after the flavor had vanished, it was fairly uncomfortable to swallow it. Sort of felt like a big ol’ wad of rubber sitting at the bottom of your stomach with no place to go. Unlike, say, swallowing a piece of Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun, Doublemint. Is it spearmint or peppermint flavor? Nobody knows for certain. Wikipedia says probably peppermint.
Can’t say I ever spotted Doublemint stuck under a desk like the ubiquitous wads of Bazooka Bubble Gum. Kids stuck gum in their hair or maybe that memory involved my sister whose gum rolled out of her mouth at night and stuck to her pillow case, eventually winding up in her hair. Can’t scrape the stuff off the bottom of your shoes. Lighter fluid worked well for gum removal. For a short period in my life, it seemed that pink bubble gum was everywhere I traveled. Can you imagine putting lighter fluid in your hair today?
If Bazooka Bubble Gum wasn’t available where my mom sent us kids to buy her bubble gum down at the corner store, then we were instructed to bring home Dubble Bubble. But that just didn’t hold a candle to Bazooka Bubble Gum. Dubble Bubble just wasn’t the same.
If you’re looking for an authentic Sacramento real estate agent with her finger on the pulse of real estate in Sacramento, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759. Although I no longer chew gum, if I had to, I can walk and chew gum at the same time.
Three Top Reasons Your Sacramento Home is Not Selling
If you’re wondering why your home in Sacramento is not selling, you’ve come to the right place. The likelihood is you are not one of my sellers but I imagine you could be. Just as you might imagine you could be. In fact, I had a seller yesterday who imagined just that, as he was NOT my seller but said he wanted to be. Well, he doesn’t really want to be a seller, you know, he wants to be a former owner. All sellers want to be a former owner.
Or, at least that’s what a Sacramento real estate agent would imagine. But some of us are capable of imagining all sorts of stuff because we’ve learned early in life that what one can imagine, one can probably create. It’s why we excel at marketing.
Yeah, out of the blue this guy calls as I’m driving back to my home office. Thank goodness my top wasn’t down (on my car). The guy was happy I answered my phone and said he was mad that his agent did not. Said he’s had his home listed for 3 months, the listing was expiring today, and his agent doesn’t return calls or emails and simply ignores him. I tell him I’m sorry; I don’t know his agent. Then he admits his agent is the brother of his sister-in-law, or some such, what we call a DNA agent. Would I puhhhhhlease help him?
OK, sure, I’ll take a look at his listing when I get to my office. In the meanwhile, I tell him there are 3 reasons typically why a home is not selling:
- Price
- Condition
- Marketing
I pull up the listing in MLS and spot one photo — a bad quality photo — and no interior photos. The confidential agent remarks say the seller will credit the buyer X amount of dollars for painting. Wow, that really makes this Sacramento real estate agent want to show the house. What great motivation.
Next, I examine the comparable sales. I can see how the agent determined the price. He priced it in line with the homes presently on the market, which all have long days on market, and all of which are significantly larger and appear to be in better condition. This home is not priced according to the comparable sales. It’s priced at least 10% too high.
Not to mention, it’s a small part-time broker who has the listing, who might not have much of a network at his disposal. At Lyon Real Estate, we have almost 1,000 agents with whom we network. I explain this to the seller when I call back and offer professional photography with my Nikon and wide-angle lens. In fact, I could take the key from the lockbox with his written permission.
Thanks, but no thanks, the guy says. He’s now talked with his agent and supplied him with all of my wonderful ideas, and he’s thinking about staying with him for a while. He doesn’t want me to do any more work for which I won’t get paid.
It’s nice that somebody is looking out for this Sacramento real estate agent. I didn’t get a chance to tell him there is a reason I am closing in on selling another 100 homes this year.
How Responsible is a Sacramento Agent Whose Client Cancels?
There are Sacramento real estate agents who believe it is the other agent’s fault when a party to a real estate transaction cancels. I noticed this a few weeks ago when one of my sellers accepted an offer, and the Sacramento agent who wrote it seemed familiar to me. Like we had worked together in the past, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. So, I asked her if there was a reason her name rang a familiar bell with me.
Immediately, the agent apologized for her former client’s behavior. As though what had happened carried a stigma of some sort. I didn’t even recall the transaction. I searched for her name on my computer and found a sale in which she had submitted an offer, but I could not recall any details. It was a few years ago, and hundreds of real estate closings later. Whatever happened was water under the bridge.
I don’t believe it’s the other agent’s fault when a client cancels. Maybe that’s because I have sold hundreds of homes in Sacramento and, as a result, I realize that stuff happens — stuff that we can’t always control. Once, I had a seller start to cry when I brought him an offer. It was full price, everything he wanted. But that’s when the reality hit. He was too emotionally attached to his home and had relied on other reasons, things he had used as an excuse to sell, and he had talked himself into putting his home on the market. However, when it came right down to it, he didn’t really want to sell.
Was I going to beat him over the head and say: See ya in court, buddy? To a man who is in love with his house and made a mistake? That’s incredibly stupid on so many levels. I released him from the listing.
Agents we remember who “did us wrong” are agents who are unprofessional. Those who don’t return phone calls or, worse, scream into the phone, or refuse to submit required documentation, intentionally thwart transactions. Not agents whose sellers or buyers cancel an escrow. Sacramento real estate agents tend to hold other agents accountable for honesty, ethics, and doing the best job that they can. Not for how their clients react.
Agents this Sacramento agent remembers are those with whom I close escrow, not the others. Some agents who work with me end up in multiple transactions with me. They know I will be professional. That’s a good thing.
When a Sacramento Real Estate Agent Fails Communication 101
A good ol’ Midwestern work ethic never goes out of style, says this Sacramento real estate agent, who was raised in Minnesota. See, I do not see it as a drawback not to hail from the city where I work and live. In fact, in the overall scheme of things, I have lived longer in my second place of residence, Newport Beach (Orange County), than in Sacramento, as I’m celebrating only my 11th year in Sacramento this month, and worked in real estate in Orange County for 15 years.
But I survived the goofy pretentiousness of Orange County, and I made it through another bunch of 50-degrees-below-zero winters in Minnesota after that, so I can easily deal with Sacramento’s beautiful weather, friendly people and the occasional quirky agent. When I tell somebody I’ll be somewhere at a certain time, I hold up to that promise. When I say I’m presenting offers at a certain time in MLS, that’s what I do. If an agent or a client emails, sends me a text message or calls me, I’ll return the communication. But not every agent operates this way.
Some real estate agents don’t respond at all for days. All of us might wonder how do they get away with that kind of attitude, at the same time coupled with, hey, why can’t I behave that way? Yeah, a little bit of jealously, I suppose, that they get to screw off and the rest of us responsible agents don’t. Why can’t we all be rude?
It’s embarrassing to have to explain to clients that they can’t have an answer on an offer they wrote three days ago under an MLS deadline stipulation because the other agent doesn’t respond. Yet, it happens. So, how does one deal with the frustration of hearing the agent’s voicemail is full and there is no communication via text or email?
Realize we can’t change the other party. We can’t force an agent to conform or communicate. That person will dig his or her own grave. Being upset or irritated with an agent doesn’t make the process move any smoother or faster, either. After all, as agents we want our clients to win — we, as agents, don’t have to win in the process.
The way I personally deal with it is vow that I will never be that kind of real estate agent. We can only control our own behavior. Further, Sacramento has plenty of really good real estate agents who raise the bar just by walking on the other side of the street. Don’t let a bad agent here and there ruin your day.
