Email Elizabethsacramento real estate agent
Whose Listing Is It Anyway?
If a Sacramento real estate agent doesn’t spend much time online, the agent is kinda hosed in this business. Many agents and their sellers are unaware that a listing can show up on a popular website without the listing agent’s name or contact information. It happens every single day, as there are many homes for sale in Sacramento on the internet without the name of the listing agent or listing broker. This means not only does the listing agent remain unknown, but a potential buyer will probably call a buyer’s agent at a competing brokerage.
On the Elizabeth Weintraub website, through my MetroList-partner IDX feed, buyers can search every single listing among homes for sale in Sacramento. Every listing brokerage is identified in this listing feed because that’s the way our Sacramento MLS works. It complies with the law because it makes up its own rules. It’s pretty much the god of Sacramento real estate.
Try explaining this to an annoyed real estate agent who can’t figure out why my picture and contact information shows up on his listing. I regularly get those kind of calls. Agents need to monitor and work on their internet presence. I’ve been working online since 1991. It’s pretty much second nature to me. I go back to Bulletin Boards and squealing dial-up modems.
So, yeah, my listings enjoy great exposure. Put my name into Google and you’ll find almost 1,000,000 results. I challenge you to go to a website and not find one of my listings among the homes for sale in Sacramento. I plaster my listings everywhere and treat each as the individual piece of gold that it is.
At the same time, I provide every listing on all Sacramento homes for sale and beyond on my website. If you’re looking for Sacramento homes for sale, the website for Elizabeth Weintraub is the place to be.
You can call me at 916 233 6759. I answer my phone.
If Real Estate Clients Don’t Embrace Technology, It’s OK
Repetition is the key to learning, not only in the real estate business but for almost anything. I think back to my early guitar teacher: You must play this song at least 6 times in a row without a mistake to master it. Yes, grasshopper, but I wanted to play The Monster Mash not Red River Valley. To retain what you learn, you’ve got to use it, and that’s where consistency plays an important role. Doing the same thing over and over, yet improving on it.
I mean, I can fly by the seat of my pants as well as the next Sacramento real estate agent, but it makes more sense to have a rhythm and way of doing business. Not to mention, if one has a method, there is no question as to whether a task was completed or even how it was completed, because it’s always done the same way. It takes all of the guesswork out of it. But that doesn’t mean the method can’t be improved.
We really ought to strive to be continual life-long learners to fully participate in the world, while we’re still here. Not just in our personal life but particularly in our business life. Because things change. It’s not easy always keeping up with change. One day you’re told that, oh, for example, gluten is good, and you should read the fine print on every loaf of bread you buy to make sure it has gluten in it. Next day, gluten kills you and is evil. Or, how about the niacin and cholesterol thing? Do you know how it feels to take 3,000 mg of niacin? Ask the 8-year-old who insisted on taking it. I watched him. First his body turned red from waist up, then his head turned beet red, his ears quickly inflamed and his eyeballs exploded, just like in the cartoons.
I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking whaaa, niacin, you can’t take big ol’ gobs of niacin anymore? Yeah, 3 or 4 years ago, I don’t recall, new research showed that niacin wasn’t helping cholesterol and, in fact, could be bad for you when ingested in large dosages. You can’t take a fact, stick it in your head and rely on it forever. Which I find hugely distressing after going to all of the trouble to acquire it in the first place. If you don’t believe me, take a look at what happened since I was in school and learning about continents. Continental drift was a contested concept. Ditto Super Continent. Today, kids learn about Pangaea and watch videos of India slamming into Asia without batting an eye.
I’m constantly staying on top of things that change in Sacramento real estate and adapting, which means new technology and learning curves. A seller complained the other day I was too high-tech, what with my iPad shooting video of her home instead of taking notes. An iPad is just a convenience to doing more work better and faster. When it’s time for you to hire a Sacramento real estate agent, you should probably consider whether your agent works with the technology of 2013 because that’s how the industry interacts.
However, if you don’t like to use technology, that’s OK, too. I can still press my Bluetooth device to call you on your land line phone. I have a car, a driver’s license and I can drive over to see you.
Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759 for your real estate needs. I answer my phone.
Turn a Sacramento Short Sale Into an Equity Sale
The Sacramento real estate agents who are only in the real estate business to make money will never know how truly wonderful it feels to help our sellers and buyers accomplish their goals. Those kinds of agents are missing the motivational aspect of this business, the driving force that makes agents stay in Sacramento real estate for the long haul. On top of which, I believe they have their priorities turned around. It really is true that if you do what you love, the money will follow. That’s not just a hokey thing people say to sell books, it’s real. An agent should focus on the client and not on the end result. That belief is how I became a top producer.
This Sacramento REALTOR doesn’t have to look any further than her own back yard for evidence. For example, I was watching people stroll by a restaurant in Midtown the other day during lunch at the Bento Box over on 16th Street. A young woman got out of her car wearing a T-shirt that said Can’t Buy Me on the front. I thought hooray for her! No trendy designer logos for her. No Ralph Lauren or Tommy Hilfiger or Hollister. She would never sell out. As I was silently rooting for her nobleness, she walked into closer view and I could read the rest of it: Love was printed at the bottom. Not being a guy, I suppose she doesn’t understand. Not being an older woman, she truly doesn’t understand. Many of us would like that diamond ring.
My clients from Orangevale probably felt like I handed them a diamond ring last week. I called them after escrow closed to confirm that it had recorded and their transaction was over. We talked about how they had initially thought they were going to do a short sale for their home in Orangevale. You probably won’t find an agent who knows more about short sales in Sacramento than this agent. But I’ve also been selling traditional real estate for almost 39 years. After I looked at the comparable sales, part of me had agreed with them. But another part of me could see that if I was able to just push that sales price about $10,000, they could probably sell as an equity sale. What? Turn a short sale into an equity sale? You betcha.
I offered that option, and we opted to go that route. An equity sale. A regular real estate transaction. Yes, let’s turn a short sale into an equity sale.
The real estate market in Sacramento has calmed a bit since July. It’s slower and more reasonable. I say it’s just the lull before the storm that will hit after Labor Day. What you read in the paper happened months ago and is not today’s market; it never is. But even during this slower period over the summer, I was able to sell that home in Orangevale for all cash at the list price. After running the numbers for an estimated net sheet, I suspected that some of the bank payments might add up to more than the sales price. It’s better to make sure the buyer could cover those costs before going into escrow, so we drew a counter offer. It basically said the buyers would pay all of the closing costs and back payments in an amount not to exceed a certain price. That “certain price” was padded enough to allow for any hiccups.
Sure enough, it closed. The additional funds needed were about 1/3 of the estimated amount, which made the buyers ecstatic and the sellers relieved. The sellers were able to pay back all of their delinquent payments and pay off the loan. They stopped the foreclosure proceedings and avoided a short sale. They turned a short sale into an equity sale. The time period between when we put the home on the market and when it closed was about 2 weeks. The sellers couldn’t believe how fast it happened. This is what happens when an agent focuses on a resolution.
If you’re looking to buy or sell a home in Sacramento, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759. Your home might be worth more than you think. You might be able to turn a potential short sale into an equity sale.
Why Agent Feedback is Crucial to a Sacramento Agent
One of the services I provide for my sellers are listing updates with agent feedback. Nobody wants to list her home for sale in Sacramento and then hear nothing back whatsoever from her Sacramento real estate agent. A seller who never receives any communication from her agent might think her agent isn’t working on selling that listing, when little could be further from the truth. The agent could be working her tail off but just not pulling up any buyers. Some agents think if they have no news or no good news, then a seller doesn’t want to hear about it, but a seller wants to know everything.
Every night, before I leave my home office — way before my husband starts hollering at me to turn off the computer because dinner is ready — I check my home showings for the day. Each lockbox has a serial number engraved on it, which I register for each listing. As a result, I can lookup an online report to see who has accessed my Weintraub listings. The report tells me:
- The time the agent opened the lockbox to get the key
- The name of the agent’s broker
- The agent’s email address
- The agent’s office number
- The agent’s cellphone number
It’s also a helpful report if an agent has accessed a pending listing that should never, ever, be entered without express permission from the listing agent. Yet, some buyer’s agents will not bother to read MLS showing instructions or they figure the listing is vacant so it doesn’t matter. It does matter, and this Sacramento real estate agent will follow up to get agent feedback. My sellers deserve it. This is why in some areas of Sacramento where this kind of unauthorized activity is notorious, I might suggest a seller not allow a lockbox or I might remove it when the homes moves into pending status.
Every night I email agents for agent feedback to ask what their buyers thought of the home they toured that day. I offer my assistance. I try to find out if the agents have any questions or if their buyers have questions. I’m looking for positive and negative feedback, because my seller wants to hear all of it. And then I send the feedback to the my seller, even if it’s feedback I am afraid my seller might not want to hear.
Based on the agent feedback, we can make adjustments, if necessary, to the listing. It’s not always the sales price, either. You can bet that I will take a positive feature and run with the benefit when buyers gush over it. If there is a negative aspect, I’ll offer a solution.
If you want to buy or sell a home in Sacramento, call your Sacramento real estate agent, Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759, Lyon RE. Put 39 years of experience to work for you.
The Land Park Chihuahuas Go Home
Even the most optimistic people in the world like this Sacramento real estate agent can have a day when her belief in a positive outcome begins to wane. Take those darn Chihuahuas from Land Park, for example. I’d say please, take those Chihuahuas from Land Park except that my husband and I were successful. Yay! I had almost given up hope. We began calling rescue groups as we passed Day 7 of the lost Chihuahuas, when we found the owners of those lost dogs! Just minutes before a representative from a Chihuahua rescue group from Elk Grove was due to show up on our doorstep and take them off our back porch.
Just for the record, as some Chihuahua rescue groups were unaware, dogs taken to the SSPCA or the Animal Shelter stand about a 50% chance of being killed. These are NOT no-kill shelters.
Tracking down the owners was due in part to a client of mine. I’ve been running into my real estate clients lately in the oddest places. You know how sometimes you don’t expect to see anybody you know, and therefore you don’t recognize them when you spot them in a place where you don’t expect them to be, right? I’m not talking about a brothel or the police station, either. I mean, like, oh, say, a waiting room at Ellison Ambulatory on the hospital campus at U. C. Davis.
I was waiting for my physical therapist yesterday when a hospital employee strolled in front of me and began a long conversation with two patients. She was saying, NO! You don’t take off your leg. Never. Do I take off MY leg? Does your wife take off HER leg? You can’t help but look up when this kind of conversation takes place right in front of you. It was a huge argument. I found out that an artificial limb costs $80,000. As the discussion continued, I realized I knew the people standing in front of me. They were former clients to whom I had a sold a home near Land Park a few years ago.
Finally, I couldn’t stand it any longer and I spoke up. I said, “Would you like to hear my opinion?” But they did not recognize me. Which was too bad because I had a pretty good opinion about the matter. The hospital employee realized she should probably not be standing in public having this very vocal conversation with these two patients, but that didn’t stop her.
In this very same lobby hangs a photograph of a hospital employee who died a long time ago. It is a memorial to this employee with a plaque under the photo. I asked the receptionist behind the counter if it bothered her to have a photo of a dead person looming over her desk or if it was OK because the death wasn’t recent. I was curious. That’s when I found out this particular memorial for this individual is hung in many departments in U. C. Davis. That seems a little creepy to me, but maybe I’m just overly sensitive. But then I don’t work at U. C. Davis and I don’t have a little sign in front of me that says if I’m talking my lights will be illuminated. Although, as a Sacramento real estate agent, I guess I’m free to wear a reversible sign around my neck that says “out of service” when I’m talking on my Bluetooth.
After the patients finished their conversation and began to leave, I yelled: “Goodbye, John” (not his real name). They kept walking. I followed it up with: “Goodbye, Susan.” Wait a minute. They paused. Turned around. “Do we know you?”
See, this is what happens when you change the color of your hair.
Even my former client who came by the house yesterday with the two Chihuahuas in her car almost didn’t recognize me when I opened the door. She lives a few blocks away in Land Park. Those darn Chihuahuas had escaped from my yard while I was filling their bowls with dog food. But my neighbor had recognized the dogs from a flyer we had taped to a lamp post and brought them back. She suggested we call a person who might know who owned the dogs, and gave us a phone number.
Sure enough, just before dinnertime, the owners of the lost Chihuahuas showed up. They even brought a photo to prove the dogs belonged to them. See above. Aren’t they cute? I did not tell the woman and her daughter that at this point just about anybody who said they would love those dogs could have them. I also put the mother’s cell phone number in my address book, just in case those Chihuahuas make a second appearance.
If you’re looking to buy or sell a home in Sacramento, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759. You never know where we might meet up later.
