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Choosing a Sacramento Real Estate Agent in the Top 10%
My relationship with Google is that of love and hate. It’s a necessary evil. When Google says Do No Evil, I wonder why they don’t talk to themselves about it. Isn’t world domination in itself sort of an evil goal? Don’t they ever watch 007 movies? On the other hand, Google delivers my products and services to the world.
It’s difficult to put a real estate term into Google and not find one of my articles about real estate. Ditto for a real estate phrase. I continue to write because there is always something to write about, and Google loves me for it, even if the feeling isn’t exactly reciprocal.
Many of my clients find me through Google. They land on my homepage, and when they get here, I want them to feel like I am person to them. Because I am a person. I’m not your cookie-cutter Sacramento real estate agent, either. I believe I’m different. I strive for quality and customer service. My title and escrow background is of an enormous benefit to my clients because I can provide an added benefit that almost no other agent can. Moreover, I offer strategy and analysis. You’ll be amazed at what I can tell you about a property just by looking at the public records.
When clients see all real estate agents as cut from the same mold and being identical, I think they should ask themselves what makes the Top 10% the Top 10%? And then choose an agent in the Top 10%. Because the Top 10% are the agents doing business hand-over-fist. The more experience your agent has acquired over the years, the better for you.
The Waiting Period for Multiple Offers in Sacramento
How many purchase offers does it take to sell a home in Sacramento these days? Maybe a better way to put it is how many days should a seller wait to accept an offer after receiving the first purchase offer?
An agent in San Jose called Thursday afternoon about a listing in Elk Grove that went on the market on Monday. I informed her the home was pending. Wha? She was shocked. She stuttered, “Bu bu bu but, it was ONLY three days — THREE days!!” What can I say? Indeed, some agents have been sleeping under a rock. Another agent called to say her clients had finally looked at the home Wednesday night and went home to sleep on it. When they woke up Thursday morning, they decided they would like to make an offer. Except now the home is pending. How is this my fault, I want to know?
If a person is seriously searching for a home to buy, that person receives listings directly from MLS through their Sacramento real estate agent, and they study those listings every single day. Buyers can opt to receive listings more often than once a day as well. Then, when they find a home, they need to be Johnny-on-the-Spot, run over, inspect and write.
The problem with most purchase offers is the offer itself is good for only 72 hours. So, if a seller receives an offer on Monday, to keep the offer alive, a seller needs to respond by Thursday, typically by 5 PM. Although, few homebuyers want to wait 3 whole days for an answer. It makes them antsy and agitated. I mean, what if it was you? Would you want to wait 3 days for an answer?
Usually the first day or two, offers come in from buyers who have not viewed the home. Many of these types of buyers are investors, with the bulk hailing from the Bay area. These people are hopeful that if they are the first offer, they will get the home, and that’s not really how it works. If the buyers haven’t seen the home, their offer does not hold as much validity as the offers that arrive on Day #3 and Day #4. After a while, all of the offers are about the same. There will most likely be a lot of cash offers.
Is it worth your time to write an offer on Day 4 when the seller has multiple offers? Depends. What do you have to offer that hasn’t already been offered? It should probably be cash or at least over 20% down conventional, in this market. Because the seller doesn’t really need 50 offers. The seller needs the offer that is the best and the offer that will work for the seller.
Are You Wasting Your Time to Write a Purchase Offer?
Even with the temperature in Sacramento hitting 108 yesterday, people were still outside, running around and looking at homes to buy. What’s a little dry heat to us in Sacramento? Doesn’t slow a Sacramento resident down one little bit. The heat also matches the temperature of the real estate market; it’s so hot your fingers sizzle when wet.
I received phone calls, emails and text messages all day from other real estate agents and from buyers. When I explained that in case they had been living under a rock, or maybe in Stockton, our real estate market is producing multiple offers for highly desirable homes, some of them were displeased. Not every home on the market is popular. Those owners of unpopular homes are unlikely to receive multiple offers. If your home is special, though, or you have a home in Natomas or Elk Grove, look out, because you will get multiple offers.
The displeasure seemed to manifest from the possibility of multiple offers. I don’t believe that buyers should feel threatened by the fact that other buyers want what they want. It means they’ve chosen a desirable home to buy, and that home will be desirable when it comes time to sell. They shouldn’t really worry about what other buyers are doing; if they want the home, just put their best offer out there. Just write a purchase offer. Don’t try to be cute or to negotiate, if you want the home, go get it. If you play around and take chances, a buyer could lose the home.
One sentence, though, continued to pop up during my conversations with these people. It didn’t seem to matter if they were a real estate agent or a home buyer, they both said the same thing:
“I don’t want to waste my time writing an offer.”
First, as a real estate agent, we are never wasting our time writing an offer. That’s our business; it’s what we do for a living. Writing offers and getting them accepted is how we get paid. Sometimes, offers are rejected. It’s a fact of life. Why, a Sacramento real estate agent can end up with a rejected offer even if it’s the only offer the seller received. Moreover, since about 90% of the agents in Sacramento sell only 4 to 6 houses a year, just how precious is that agent’s time in the first place?
Second, as a buyer, you’ll never buy the house if you don’t write a purchase offer. Saying you don’t want to waste your time writing an offer is like asking for a guarantee. Since when do you get a guarantee in real estate? OK, I know some listing agents who will give you that guarantee, but I refuse to throw my seller under the bus. And that’s what you’re asking me to do when you come to me because I am the listing agent and say you don’t want to waste your time writing an offer through one of my team members. Who do you think I am? Tony Soprano?
If you seriously believe you’re wasting your time by writing an offer to buy a home in Sacramento, then you’re probably wasting your time talking to this Sacramento real estate agent. And if your time is wasted, what does it say about how you feel about mine?
Must a Sacramento Seller Accept a Full-Price Offer?
A Sacramento real estate agent can bring her seller a full-price offer, but she can’t make the seller sign it. Not if the seller flat-out refuses. You might wonder what kind of seller would turn down a full-price offer, and the answer would probably astonish you. All kinds of sellers would do this. Smart sellers, ignorant sellers, wealthy sellers, dirt-poor sellers, sellers who live in the country and sellers who live in the city — it doesn’t seem to matter.
What I suspect is bringing on this baffling phenomenon is the rising market in Sacramento. Sellers hear all about multiple offers and they mistakenly believe that it is permissible to demand a higher price when the seller receives an offer. I now make it a practice to have this discussion with my sellers before we go on the market. I explain that if we receive a full-price offer and no other offers, then the seller needs to accept the full-price offer. You would think that an agent would not need to explain how real estate works, but she does:
- Johnny offers a product for sale at X dollars.
- Susie offers to pay X dollars for the product.
- Johnny gives Susie the product in exchange for X dollars.
Johnny can’t say, no wait, now that you have decided to buy my product, I want to charge you more for it.
Sellers don’t live and breathe real estate the way a Sacramento real estate agent does. Because it’s not their job. They are doctors and lawyers and business executives.
Probably the worst example that has happened to me lately was a seller who owned a home under the freeway. Not only was the home located under a freeway, but it was next to a commercial franchise business. Not only was the home under the freeway, next to a commercial franchise business, but it was on a busy street, and not one busy street but pretty much the intersection of 3 extremely busy streets with a lot of traffic. I wondered to myself, what would be a worst location? Graveyard? Next to a school? Across from a church? Nope, probably a worst location would be next to a garbage dump or maybe a toxic waste site.
Location, location, location. The number one rule so many forget.
But I don’t judge the properties I sell. Some sell quickly and some will require that one special buyer, and I do a pretty good job at finding that one special buyer. Some homes don’t appeal to the masses but only to a select few. The reason a person would buy a home in the above type of location is if the home was the least expensive home in the neighborhood. Finding that sweet spot in the pricing can be challenging as well, but not impossible.
When I brought a Sacramento seller a full-price offer and the seller uttered the dumbfounding words: “I’m not signing that,” I was blown away. It was the third time in a few weeks that has happened. This was an offer that would release the seller from a bad investment that he should have never made in the first place. The offer paid off his back taxes, delinquent utilities, many years of unpaid interest, all of his loans, the commission, all costs of sale, plus it put a nice chunk of change into his pocket. Moreover, it was an offer for a little bit more than his list price. The buyer was willing to purchase the stripped and vandalized property in its present condition. Where are the smelling salts when you feel faint?
Sellers don’t understand that they cannot issue a counter offer for more money. A seller cannot put a home on the market, get an offer at the price advertised, and then decide they want more money because that could be called false advertising. It could be considered against the law to advertise a property under false pretenses.
Say, I am a grocer. I stick a big sign in my window that advertises 5 pounds of apples for $1.00. You walk into the store, spot a 5-pound bag of apples, bring it to the cash register and hand the clerk $1.00. The grocer can’t pop out of the back room and demand that you pay $2.00 for that bag of apples. You might feel like you were a victim of bait and switch, wouldn’t you? Same thing.
The Highest Per-Square-Foot Home Sold in North Highlands
Holy toledo, I just closed the highest per-square-foot cost home in North Highlands over the past 6 months! This is a typical 1957 tract home, about 1,100 square feet, located in a quiet neighborhood of similar homes, in which the highest priced home sold at $140 per square foot. This home closed at $177. You think we didn’t struggle with the appraisal? You betcha we struggled.
When the appraiser called to make an appointment, I mentioned that if she needed additional comps, she could feel free to call me. That’s polite code for if the home won’t appraise, let me know and I will help. See, I think it’s very insulting for a Sacramento real estate agent to throw comparable sales at an appraiser. It’s telling the appraiser that the appraiser doesn’t know how to do her job. It sends an demeaning message, but agents don’t stop to think about how an appraiser interprets their “assistance.”
Some agents will meet appraisers at the property and hand the appraiser a list of comps. I imagine the appraiser throws them away in disgust. It’s like saying, “Hello, welcome to my neighborhood, you dumb cluck.” I didn’t tell the appraiser that I knew more than she did. I didn’t suggest that she couldn’t perform her job. I didn’t even say if she had a problem that I would help. Because I knew when she ran the comparable sales, she would not be able to justify the sales price.
Sure enough, she sent an email asking if I would send her additional comparable sales. I know the parameters for an appraisal. I know what’s acceptable, which is not exactly the parameters a Sacramento real estate agent might use. I found 3 comparable sales that supported the per-square-foot house with similar sized homes and condition, formatted those comps into a 3-up comparison and sent them.
The home appraised at value. We closed escrow on Wednesday. Sellers who initially thought their home might be underwater are now dancing for joy in their new home in Arizona!
