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Truth in Advertising for Sacramento Real Estate
Is there such a thing as truth in advertising — especially when it comes to Sacramento real estate? I have learned first-hand that there is a difference between saying my business as a Sacramento real estate agent has exploded 1000 percent and saying it has exploded like a 1000 percent, when my business suddenly grew by leaps and bounds a ways back. Not to mention, some agents get very jealous when an agent says things like that, especially if they aren’t doing very well themselves.
I want you to know it’s not a petty nature that brings up the new advertising that the franchisor of Century 21 is doing to try to attract agents/ franchise buyers. I don’t need any more agents on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team, I don’t care what Century 21 does, and there is absolutely zero conflict nor green eyes here. Just truth-in-advertising issues. The advertising efforts of Century 21 are targeting other real estate agents, so that might be the reason all in itself for no apparent complaints. The new Century 21 ads show a person who does not really look like a Century 21 agent, doing spectacular things such as SCUBA with sharks, scratching the chin of a lion, and the ads say: This is a Century 21 agent.
Except it probably is not. It could be Photoshopped, too.
You’d think if it was a real agent, it would identify the real estate agent, and the ad contains no identification. The ad also does not disclose in the small print that the person pictured in the ad is a paid model and not really a real estate agent. I’d say that kind of marketing violates truth-in-advertising and not only in spirit. A lawyer might argue: Do you really believe a Century 21 agent can tame a lion, come on? Still, Century 21 should probably not advertise in this manner. It sort of lacks truthiness.
It reminds me of what happened a couple of days ago when I was contacted by a “book agent” from Local Einsteins Books. She asked me to write a chapter called: What to Know About Buying or Selling a Home in Downtown Sacramento. Why not the whole city, I wondered, I sell real estate throughout Sacramento and beyond. On the other hand, it’s not out of the ordinary for me to receive a pitch from a publisher. I have written many magazine and newspaper articles as former freelancer, authored a book: The Short Sale Savior, and I am paid to write about Home Buying for About.com, which draws upon my experiences as a top-producing Sacramento real estate agent.
Something about this “book editor’s” approach set off alarm bells. I went to the Local Einsteins website. The website goes to great lengths to talk about how the publisher presents this opportunity to only 4% of the real estate population. A red flag. Simon and Schuster doesn’t do this. I suspected the company probably doesn’t pay, in fact, I wouldn’t be astonished if the publisher asks the agents to pay to be published — there are a lot of companies that make money this way, believe or not. If you want to take money out of somebody’s pocket with great ease and slip it into your own pocket, there is hardly a better market to target than real estate agents — real estate agents are so easily sold.
The “book editor” said agents who write for them get 30% royalties. But each agent writes a chapter, so I imagine the payment is pretty small. It’s probably based on net, so if there are, say, 10 chapters (10 agents), and if the book nets, oh, how about $2.00 after expenses, maybe that means 10 cents a book. If they sell 100 books, it could be ten bucks. Buttttt, she stuttered: the exposure ** the publicity ** your name in lights ** ! Yeah, right. Where? Have you ever heard of Local Einsteins before? Do they enjoy SEO — I couldn’t find it in Google. Yet, I’m sure there are no shortage of Sacramento real estate agents lining up to become a “published author” of a chapter in a book for Local Einsteins Books. It just won’t be this Sacramento real estate agent. I wish them well. Every company has to make a buck somewhere. It’s what capitalism is all about.
I run a small business. A successful business. No time for crap. If you’re looking to buy or sell a home in Sacramento, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759. You’ll be happy you did.
Mortgage Brokers Play Dialing for Dollars With Sacramento Agents
People often stutter all over the place when I answer my phone. They freely admit that I have freaked them because I, a Sacramento real estate agent, answer my phone. This is odd to them. Maybe they were hoping and praying that they’d reach voice mail when calling Sacramento agents, I dunno. Callers often begin the conversation by apologizing and stumbling over their words after they realize that my greeting, “Hi, this is Elizabeth,” means I am not a robot or a recording. Nope, hey, this is a real, live human they are talking to, and I’d like to know what I can do for them.
Can’t say there aren’t times when I wish I had not answered my phone. Lately, lots of mortgage brokers have been calling, asking if I would like to refer business to them. They call me because they know I am a top producer among other Sacramento agents. But that’s about as far as the thought process takes them. If they were to think just a few steps ahead, they would figure out that a top producer is a top producer because she has an established network base supporting her. That network includes a favorite mortgage broker or two.
Why would I need more services when I’m perfectly happy with what I’ve got? And if I wasn’t satisfied, would I choose some yo-yo I don’t know who called me out of the blue? Is that how a top producer in Sacramento real estate stays a top producer, grabbing a support system at random? The better place to find business is among brand new agents. But they don’t think about any of that.
A mortgage broker called yesterday as I was driving down Business 80 and trying to stay out of the way of freeway lunatics who go a million miles an hour where the freeway splits to get on Highway 99. They are in such a rush to get out to Elk Grove that they pose potential risks to the rest of us, who are trying to cut over to Highway 50 to go to Land Park or Midtown. Don’t even get me started on trying to merge to get off on 16th Street or 10th Street, which is like taking your life literally in your hands as those very hands are placed on the steering wheel, without enough time, as any good Catholic can attest, to temporarily lift even one hand to perform the Sign of the Cross before merging from Highway 50.
This mortgage broker was driving by my listing sign in Antelope, and that was her excuse or reason for calling. I informed her it was pending. We have an accepted offer. Then, she decided to argue and tell me there was no pending sign on it; therefore, it must be for sale. Many, many Sacramento agents do not use pending signs. We have the Internet. That’s where people go for information and, real estate professionals, especially, don’t get their information from property signs. I assured her the home was definitely pending.
Then I asked if she was new to the business, because she sounded like she could be a new mortgage broker. Nope, she’s been in the business, she claimed, for 14 years. She carried on with her questions, asking when I would be holding an open house, because: “like I said, I was driving by the listing in Antelope,” and this is when it suddenly became evident that what was clearly irritating her now was this asshole agent — whose silent car ride she had interrupted by her urgent need to talk about this Antelope listing — was not listening to her. How dare I? After all, she called me.
But interrupt her, I did. There will be no open house because the listing is PENDING. I did not add: like I said.
We never got to the part where she asked me to refer clients to her. Thank, goodness. Because this Sacramento agent suddenly had to say goodbye.
Meet Your Sacramento Real Estate Agent on FaceTime
Remember the old days, like in the 1980s, when you could buy a gadget and use it for years and years? Manufacturers are smarter and make more money now. Like, they stop making your crystal goblet pattern the day after you buy your wine glasses. An electronic gizmo has a shelf life these days of about 18 to 24 months, maximum. I am constantly replacing stuff — like my iPad. You can’t be an active Sacramento real estate agent without an iPad in your bag of tools. I had a first generation iPad from 3 years ago but was forced to buy a brand new one last weekend because some Apps don’t work on the old iPad. Plus, the new iPad has a camera and video and FaceTime.
I decided to take a webinar yesterday that covered new features of the iPad. It’s an exciting topic that let’s just say wasn’t very exciting for me to watch. But to be fair, I can exhibit the attention span of a squirrel. It’s one of the reasons I don’t watch Reality TV. For one thing, the real world is not often one thrilling adventure after the other; hence, women like me with 5 husbands. For another, Reality TV is scripted, regardless of what they tell you.
You might think that producers just follow people around and film them. Instead, they create concepts and ideas for the show. They change what happened, write impromptu dialogue and film the same scene over and over. That’s not really reality; I know this as I’ve appeared on TV shows, including HouseHunters.
I introduced a great idea that would have been a fairly interesting show for Reality TV some 15 years ago, back when online dating was all the rage for a woman in her 40s. If a guy from the Internet wanted to meet for a date, he had to fit into my lifestyle. Time is precious. I did not want to set aside 2 to 3 hours for a date when I might not have much in common with that person. Besides, who wants to pick spinach from her teeth while muttering awkward goodbyes?
So, I met my Internet dates wherever I went. The home improvement store, drugstore, grocery shopping, getting my oil changed, taking the cat to the vet. It wasn’t exciting or glamorous, that was the REAL reality of life. It was also a very good use of my time: to multi-task. I described what I would be wearing so my date could pick me out among the herd of shoppers searching for weed-wackers at The Home Depot. If we decided, by the time we got to the checkout counter, to see each other again, we could exchange phone numbers. No pressure.
This is kind of the result of blogging for me nowadays. People who are searching for a Sacramento real estate agent tend to do so online. They want to look for an agent who fits their agenda. It’s easy to read a Sacramento real estate agent’s blog and online postings. Potential real estate clients can figure out how much experience an agent has by looking at the agent’s website. If it doesn’t state how long the agent has been in the business, it’s probably not very long. Real estate veterans will readily disclose that fact. Newbies, not so much.
I offer no pressure to my clients. If they decide they no longer want to sell, I will cancel the listing immediately for them. I don’t fight and plead and whine. That’s not my nature. But you’d know that if you went shopping for weed-wackers with me or read my blogs.
If you’re looking for a Sacramento real estate agent, I invite you to explore my Elizabeth Weintraub website and then call me at 916 233 6759. Hey, I have FaceTime on my iPad. We can talk person-to-person without even meeting up! This works great for clients from the Bay area or southern California. How cool is that? Why, if I had FaceTime back in the day . . .
More to a Sunday in Sacramento Than Open Houses
Weird stuff went on in Sacramento this Sunday, but not weird enough to make this city like Portland or anything. To kick off a pre-open-house Sunday morning, we are heading off to brunch at The Red Rabbit in Midtown on J Street, over by my Lyon office, when we drive by this car pile up (left). At first, I’m wondering: why is this car in front of us at a deadstop on 26th Street? Then, I realize its driver is staring at a car on top of another car. So, I did what any good citizen would do in this day and age, and I hopped out of the car to shoot a photo with my cellphone.
This is terrible, what we do, taking photos of other people’s tragedies. You can’t witness any horrible event without watching people stand there with their stupid cellphones taking pictures. It could be a bloody police shootout on Riverside Boulevard, and people would be on top of the roof shooting cellphone photos. What do they do with those photos? Send them to their uncle in Pocatello? Why would he care? Oh, right, because he’s living in Pocatello and not in this exciting metropolitan city known as Sacramento.
Which takes us to the carnivorous plant show at Shepard Garden and Arts Center in McKinley Park in East Sacramento. This is an annual show by the Sacramento Bromeliad and Carnivorous Plant Society, which we’ve never attended in the past, but after the car pileup, it called to us as a likely destination. Table upon table of strikingly beautiful and silent plants. There was nobody screaming FEED ME. Even the kids in tow with their parents were quiet.
As I was shooting a picture of this baby Venus Fly Trap (above), my cellphone rang. It was a woman who might be interested in adopting the rescue Chihuahuas (left). Well, she did hold an interest until she came home from a weekend vacation to discover her cat was not happy that she had left. I once had a cat destroy an entire bathroom — twice. Hers just ruined the sofa. However, she needed to pass on the adoption but has a friend who might be interested. Yes, we still have those rescue Chihuahuas in our back yard.
Look at how stupendously adorable they are! The little brown one is crying because she has no home. Nobody wants her. She is incredibly sweet. She does not understand. Her sister, the sad little girl on the right, is so stoic but you can see the struggle in her brave little eyes, because she’s clinging to a shred of hope that a loving home for them is just around the corner. You can call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
I came back to my home in Land Park hoping that DocuSign had sent me a signed offer for one of my recent listings. This is for a client who told me she no longer wants to deal with the Internet. She was canceling her email service and all Internet services. It’s difficult for me, as a Sacramento real estate agent, to digest this attitude, but I go with the flow. I figured I’d slip in the purchase contract by sending it to DocuSign before this momentous event happened. When I called my client to find out why she had not signed the purchase contract I had uploaded to DocuSign, she informed me that DocuSign asked if she was willing to do business on the Internet. Of course, the answer to that question for her was a resounding NO. Followed by a scream.
Maybe somebody today will come over and adopt the Chihuahuas? A girl can hope.
Would You Like to Adopt Two Rescue Chihuahuas from Land Park?
You know what’s really great about working as a veteran Sacramento real estate agent who has extensive short sale experience? There is a certain amount of respect for my short sale knowledge bestowed upon me by my clients. Everything else real-estate related? Forget about it. Forget about all of decades I have worked in real estate. Forget about the fact I sold $32 million last year. Forget about the fact media recognizes this Sacramento real estate agent as an expert to regularly interview. Forget about the fact that I write about Homebuying for About.com and have for years. None of that matters to some people. But talk about a Sacramento short sale and my name lights up the sky.
There are some days that I feel just like Rodney Dangerfield because let’s face it, the public, on the whole, are often led to believe that being a Sacramento real estate agent is easy-peasy work and anybody with a cellphone could do it because hey, look at their aunt, their cousin, their next-door neighbor! If a person is hoping to be respected and valued, a person should not search for those kinds of accolades in real estate.
If you want to be unconditionally loved, get a dog. In fact, get two of them. Twice the love. Have you ever thought about adopting a couple of Chihuahuas? I happen to have a pair living in my back yard, and we’re going on Day 4 of the rescued Chihuahuas now. You will see those dogs are no longer considered “lost Chihuahuas in Land Park” or even “found Chihuahuas in Land Park,” they are rescue Chihuahuas. And they are available for adoption to a good home.
We took the rescued Chihuahuas to the Sacramento Animal Shelter yesterday, filed a Found Dogs report and brought them back to our home in Land Park. Also, had them scanned for microchips, but like no collars, no microchips. Come to think of it, two of my cats are microchipped and one is not, so next visit to the vet, guess what? None of the cats venture outdoors. But there could be an busted-open screen, a door left ajar or they could encourage a passerby to break-in and trade our big screen TV in exchange for freedom, you just don’t know.
As we were going through the July Lost Dogs book, which is a big book filled with pages for every day of the month (4th of July was a really busy day) I noticed my clients’ name in the book. These are wonderfully genuine people, the kind you don’t forget. I represented them as buyers when they purchased a home in Land Park 7 years ago. It was a case of not overlooking the overpriced home. They were also my sellers, and I represented them as their listing agent on the sale of their existing home. I managed to sell their home in Elk Grove in the nick of time to fund the purchase of an overpriced home in Land Park. It was a complex escrow for both selling and buying, but they listened to me, trusted me, and I got the job done. Which is what they said when I called them to ask if they ever found the lost Chihuahua they filed the report about.
The husband said he did not want to talk about two rescued Chihuahuas, so I asked him to put his wife on the phone instead. Not going for it. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916 233 6759, if you would like to adopt a couple of super cute and lovable Chihuahuas. If you want to buy or sell your home in the four-county area of Sacramento, well, you can call me for that, too.
