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The Guy Behind This Sacramento Real Estate Agent
People often ask me in amazement how I happen to have a life while being a successful Sacramento real estate agent. They want to know how I balance things because in this nutty world of real estate, sometimes, something’s gotta give. We real estate agents work wild hours trying to close business. Yet, those who know me, know I don’t want to give up anything that is important.
The first way I deal with the amount of business I create and close is to be organized. I’m pretty good at creating systems, methods and processes, plus I rarely vary or make exceptions. My priority is to keep my clients happy. I was thinking about this yesterday as I was getting ready to leap into my day and keep appointments, plus list two new homes. I listed a home in Antelope and another in Bridgeway Lakes in West Sacramento.
Yup, I concluded that a Sacramento real estate agent, no matter who she is or how much business she has, still puts on her deodorant one armpit at a time. I was standing in front of the mirror wrapped in a towel, looking at my deodorant when the thought crossed my mind that it’s getting low. I could begin to see the applicator below the white powder. It was then that it hit me:
I never have to worry about deodorant.
I don’t have to be concerned that I might run out because there will be a new applicator under the sink. I don’t have to look for it. It will simply appear. I do not have to go to the grocery store and stand there in front of the bazillion different types of deodorant to try to find my brand. I don’t even know if I have a brand, to tell you the truth, or what color packaging I would search for. I do have specific requirements in deodorant. You know, I want the antiperspirant qualities so I don’t drip all over my clients when signing documents. I want the deodorant but I don’t want a scent that annoys people, so I prefer unscented. I also don’t want to leave white powdery residue all over my clothes when I pull on a shirt over my head.
I am spared having to stand in the aisle and stare at these products. None of those thoughts ever enter my head. My husband knows what I want, and he gets it for me. I don’t know what a carton of eggs cost. Is a half gallon of milk $2.00 or $5.00? I don’t know. I would be a lousy contestant on the Price is Right. I don’t plan my meals or shop for my groceries or cook any meals apart from popping something into the microwave.
I don’t mow the lawn anymore or clean my house. I don’t do laundry or hand-wash any garments. When one of our cats gets sick, my husband takes the furball to the vet. Behind every successful real estate agent is a support system. Nobody climbs that mountain by herself.
My husband, Adam, has been doing freelance writing over the past few years, but that may all change soon. He has more than 25 years experience as a newspaper journalist and editor and, like many others in Sacramento, he’s looking for employment. He might get hired at U.C. Davis or at the State Capitol. Or, he might continue to do freelance writing for various publications, hard to say. But whatever path he choses, I know that he will continue to be my rock. I am so lucky and grateful that he is in my life. You want to know how a Sacramento real estate agent can be so successful? You should look at the man behind the agent.
Trust and Your Sacramento Real Estate Agent
If a client doesn’t trust and believe in his Sacramento real estate agent, the two have no business working together. And vice versa. Wha-what you say? What does trust or belief have to do with anything? Plenty, I say. Whether it’s a seller and listing agent or a buyer and buyer’s agent, there is a legal document signed that creates what is called a fiduciary relationship between the parties. If the fiduciary relationship is broken, so is the business.
This point was so beautifully illustrated in Mad Men, Season 6, Episode 6. OK, maybe a bit of it was a trifle narcissistic, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Don is sitting in a restaurant with Herb, the slimy Jaguar account guy. Don is about to ask Herb about the reason for the meeting. Herb says, hey, there’s this guy at the company who is new and doesn’t know much, but he’s got some good ideas, I think. I’d like you to pitch your campaign to him and get his input.
Don reaches into coat pocket, retrieves a business card and hands it to Herb. What is this? asks an astonished Herb.
This is the guy who will be handling your account from now, Don replies.
When Don gets back to the office, his co-workers and partners are royally ticked at him for dumping the Jaguar account. Don defends himself by saying it was already over. And it was over. He was absolutely correct. There was no trust and no belief in Don’s abilities anymore.
Furthermore, when the office learns that they’re about to land the GM account, which I presume was the new Corvette — because let’s not forget I was growing up during the time period in which Mad Men is set and was actually there — everybody is ecstatic. Suddenly, losing the Jaguar account is not all that important anymore. You close one door and another door opens.
I have a client who started out a little bit wary with this Sacramento real estate agent. I could sense he didn’t quite trust agents, probably because he had had such a bad experience the first time around. Rather than walk away, though, I gave him my time. His friend had referred him to me. I explained to him how I work, how the business works, what he needs to do to sell his home and buy a new home, how I would help him to accomplish that, and I insisted on his trust — not blindly, I would earn it. He gave me that precious commodity. Trust.
We put his home on the market last week, sold it over market and closed it yesterday, while he is in a contingent contract to buy a new home. Sold and closed in fewer than 7 days. The buyers gave him up to a year to rent back at a greatly reduced market rent, with the ability to move out as soon as he closes on his new home. His new home happens to be a short sale. This seller did not want to move until he could move into his new home. Agents who work in this business will know a situation like this is almost impossible to do.
In case you’re thinking I knew the buyers for his home, I did not. I found them. They were investors from the Bay area and they had their own representation from San Francisco. I solely represented the seller as his Sacramento real estate agent. Trust and belief — it’s everything in real estate. If you don’t have it in your business relationships, fix it or cut the ties.
Have Sacramento Short Sales Dragged Down the Market?
People think that short sales are dragging down the economy in Sacramento and messing up neighborhoods, yet little is further from actuality. Sacramento short sales are turning around neighborhoods and revitalizing entire pockets of homes that have been drowning underwater for years and years. In some areas, especially among neglected, board-up homes, a short sale is a chance for that home to live again, to bring life to itself and make a welcoming home that will begin to build memories for some lucky first-time home buyer.
I am on the tougher end of the rope, the more difficult side of the transaction, because I work on hundreds of Sacramento short sales. I’ve heard it rumored that some real estate agents have pointed to me and scoffed to their clients, saying I can’t sell traditional homes, although it’s not true because I do. I sell a lot of traditional homes with equity in the four-county area. They seem to believe, whether it’s through spite, green-eyes or ignorance, that an agent who is very successful at selling Sacramento short sales should never sell a regular home, and that’s pretty insane. Just because they can’t do two things doesn’t mean they should point fingers at those of us who can do more than one thing. Besides, before short sales, I sold traditional homes for decades, and I still do.
A Sacramento Business Journal article quoted me last week as saying that selling a short sale is like selling 5 homes in one. And that is true. If I can sell a short sale, by George, I can certainly sell any seller’s home with equity. A short sale is 5 times the work, and much more complicated. Selling a home with equity is an activity I can almost do blindfolded. Trained monkeys can sell a home with equity in Sacramento in a seller’s market, with buyers camping out in your yard. But an experienced Sacramento real estate agent is the person who bring you the most money and the smoothest transaction, and that’s what every seller wants.
I spotted a new home listing this morning come on the market in Carmichael. It’s a home I sold for $100,000 a year ago as a short sale. It’s also a home that took me 12 months to sell. I listed it in May of 2011 and it did not actually sell and close until May 2012. Well, it sold a bunch of times, and buyers flaked out. That helped me to get the bottom line from the bank, though, and I told every buyer who called the home could be theirs for $100,000. I had buyers who walked away completely and then came back crying, others who walked when we wouldn’t take their offer of $98,000. You ask yourself: What is wrong with people? Why do they let their egos get in the way?
I can’t count the number of offers we received that were between $90,000 and $99,000 but these guys just refused to inch over and join us at the winning $100K offer price. It wasn’t a secret. They knew they had to pay $100K, they just wouldn’t do it. They walked away due to a $2,000 or a $5,000 difference. Doh, doh, double-doh. But persistence prevailed, I don’t give up, no matter what, and it did sell at $100,000.
This particular home just came back on the market at $229,900. And you know what? That’s a good price. Those sellers will get it. I just wish I had this end of the listing, too, where the living is easy.
Make Your Sacramento Home Appealing to Home Buyers
Most first-time home buyers in Sacramento want a home that is ready for immediate occupancy. They don’t want to buy new carpet or paint much beyond maybe one wall. First-time home buyers generally don’t have a lot of extra money to spend on such things as new appliances, either. Often, I hear sellers say they don’t want to fix anything because the buyer might not like it, so they’d prefer to leave it up to the buyer to do. What they’re really saying is they just don’t want to do it. The thing is they might have given that buyer a good excuse to buy somebody else’s house instead of theirs.
Now, it’s true that in this seller’s market we’re experiencing in Sacramento, buyers will overlook a lot of things. However, if you want top dollar, then you need to present your home in top condition. It doesn’t necessarily mean staging it, but if you want to get more than anybody else in your neighborhood, for example, then you need to give buyers what they want.
What do buyers want? Depends where the home is located. In the suburbs, like Natomas or Elk Grove or Lincoln, for example, buyers want immaculate, sparkling kitchens with newer appliances, modern cabinetry and slab granite. Indoor laundry. Separate family rooms and fireplaces. Soaring ceilings. An open floor plan. At least 3 bedrooms, and some kind of office space. A garage. Nice fenced yard with grassy lawn.
They don’t want to buy a single-story home that is surrounded by looming two- and three-story homes, which can block sunlight and offer little privacy. Little known fact: many buyers, if given a choice, would prefer one level over multiple levels.
If you are confused about what to do to sell your home, ask a Sacramento real estate agent to help you. An experienced agent can tell you what you need to do to sell your home and what you don’t need to do. Just don’t do it halfway. Don’t paint all the rooms in your house but leave one room a bright purple because you ran out of steam. Buyers might wonder what else you didn’t have the energy to do. Or, they will call it the purple house and probably not buy it.
Two New Home Listings in Sacramento
Before I tell you about new home listings, let me share that I am sitting here in the waiting room in the basement of Mercy Hospital in East Sacramento. The hospital has WiFi. I am thrilled. My husband is here for a routine procedure, and I am not allowed to tell you anything about it. In fact, I’m not even sure he would want me to say that we are at the hospital. He says under no uncertain terms am I to say anything about his medical health, his checkups, his medical history or any kind of procedures that he may or may not be having.
Unlike woman, you know. We share everything with people. We go into excruciating detail. You wanna see photos? We’ll show you photos. Nothing is all that sacred. When the nurse poked her head through the door to inform me that my husband was comfortable and I could visit with him at bedside, I had my yogurt on my right, my cellphone at my left, my diet Pepsi on the chair rail and my laptop in my lap. Nope, I’m good. She picked up the Sacramento Bee from the floor and said he preferred to read the newspaper anyway and, besides, she looked at me sideways with that kind of smirking grin like she knows something I don’t, and added: “You’re addicted to that thing anyway,” and she marched away.
It would seem that my husband can talk about me and my quirky habits, but I am not allowed to discuss anything about him. Therefore, I am not going to talk about why I have to sit in the hospital waiting room as I type my morning blog, I’ll just get right to recent events.
I have two new listings that came on the market this morning. There is also an article that I believe will be published in the Sacramento Business Journal tomorrow that should feature some kind of insight from me and a photo of me with my Fair Oaks seller in his kitchen. It’s something about the market and the direction it is heading. I don’t really recall the interview because I talk to so many people every day. I just hope I said something intelligent that was selected for print and not one of my more doofus types of statements. I hope one eye doesn’t look bigger than the other in print, which sometimes happens to my eyes in photographs. Makes me look like an orangutan.
My Fair Oaks seller’s kitchen is beautiful, though. He just installed new granite counters, to complement the rest of the remodeling. The home is beautiful, but it’s the magnificent view of the forest in the back that will cement the deal for you. It will be open on Sunday from 2 to 4 PM. The address is 4552 Wawona Circle in Fair Oaks, and it’s offered for $359,000.
My second new listing is at 2636 Dobbins Way, just north of El Camino near Business 80. It’s located in a pocket of newer homes on a quiet cup-de-sac. The home features 4 bedrooms, 3 baths and was built in 2006. Best of all is the fabulous price of $159,000, and there is no HOA! It will also be held open on Sunday from 2:00 to 4:00 PM. If you would like information on new home listings, just give us a ring at 916.233.6759.
