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Sacramento Sellers With Equity a New Trend!
You know how sometimes when your phone rings, and you either hear the phone number repeated in your ear, because you’re wearing a Bluetooth device, or you look at your phone and either way think to yourself: Oh, rats, nothing good can come from this, but you answer your phone anyway? OK, maybe you’re not in real estate then nor a Sacramento real estate agent like me. But I admit that I have, on occasion, fostered preconceived notions about who is calling me because so often I am correct about the fresh hell. There are times I do regret answering my phone and then there are other times that I am pleasantly surprised. It’s the trade-off for being proactive in this business.
Lately, what I’m finding is I am talking to more and more sellers with equity who want to sell their home in the Sacramento area. That’s a very good sign that our market is beginning to rebound and could be a new trend. I love working with sellers with equity. I would not say our Sacramento real estate market is recovering in leaps and bounds and you can get all crazy and ask whatever price you want for your home — because it’s not and you can’t — but the market is definitely turning the corner and the upward trend points to equity sellers. For the past 7 years, about 80% of my listings have been short sales. In 2012 alone I closed around 165 sides of which 129 sides were short sales. That still works out to about 1 out of every 5 is an equity sale, a seller who is not upside down.
I am predicting that if things continue on the same path I see now, my listing percentages for 2013 will be 1 out of every 3 sellers will be sellers with equity. I’d like to see at least half, you know, 50 / 50, but I suspect we have a ways to go on that. Who would have thought 7 years ago that a listing agent today would be so saturated with short sales that she’d almost forget what it was like to do a regular transaction? The pure joy?
I’ve learned so much about listing and selling homes in Sacramento from selling short sales that I can’t begin to tell you what an education it has been. I’ve learned a lot over the almost 40 years I’ve been in this business, no grass grows under my feet, but my extensive short sale experience has definitely made me a stronger and better real estate agent. If I can sell a short sale, I can sell anything. I can sell that empty cup from Starbucks you’re clutching. You need a home sold in Sacramento? You call this Sacramento real estate agent: Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. I answer my phone. Even if I regret it at times.
Does Your Sacramento Agent Charge Too Much?
How would you like to be in a business in which a potential client asks you to come over to her house, in the dark and cold after business hours, so she can pick your brain without making any kind of commitment and argue about how much you charge? Thousands of sales people do this every single day. It’s not that much different for a Sacramento real estate agent, either. I’m fortunate in that most people who call me have already decided to hire me, so when they make an appointment for me to view their home, it’s because they are ready to go on the market. I would not want to stay in this business if every single appointment was a 33% chance of being hired because the seller had to interview 3 real estate agents in Sacramento before making a decision.
Not because I couldn’t outshine and win the business because I perform well against the competition, but because the odds are against my favor, so I’d eventually want to stop doing it. 100% or long shot? Which is smarter? Given the choice of visiting a seller because she tells me she wants to hire me or visiting a seller who is not sure what she wants, which do you think a Sacramento real estate agent prefers to do? Which would you want to do?
One thing sellers like to discuss is how much it will cost them to hire a real estate agent. I don’t blame them, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I used to think the commission was a big deal. It’s not a big deal. Especially if you’re apart by only 1% of the sales price.
Oh, sure, you say, easy for you to roll off the tip of your tongue because it’s not your money, it’s the seller’s money, but I’m telling you it’s not a big deal. It’s a far bigger deal how much a seller gets for her home. The sales price and the agent’s ability to market and negotiate for the seller — to be that seller’s advocate and fiduciary and try to get the seller the highest price possible — that’s far more important.
I have never had a seller tell me I charge too much. I have never had a seller tell me she didn’t get enough for her home and that I should have worked harder for her, because I would be crushed. It’s never happened. Knock on wood, it never will happen. I focus on the seller’s needs and the seller’s rights — that’s the secret of my success.
I did have a former neighbor once tell me after he closed escrow that he picked a friend of his instead of hiring me because his friend charged him 1% less than I proposed. But you know what, he made 12% less on his sale than I would have directed him to do. He gave up many thousands in profit in exchange for that little tiny 1%. To put it into perspective, he lost almost $30,000 over that bad decision. Sellers should not look at the small percentage an agent receives for the work she does but instead should focus on the huge percentage they make selling the home. Experience doesn’t cost, it pays. Hire an experienced agent you trust and that’s all you need. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish.
Can you always find an agent somewhere who will charge a little bit less than a veteran with many years under her belt? Sure, you can. It’s in the nature of the beast. Is it in your best interest? Probably not. It’s just not enough to work yourself into an anguish over.
No Homes for Sale in Sacramento
The real estate market in Sacramento is a little bit like that website depicting reasons why You Will Not Go to Space Today. I could easily create a website about why homebuyers are not buying a home today, except I can’t draw very well. Great Sacramento real estate agent, but lousy artist. I know my limitations.
A guy called yesterday to ask about a Sacramento listing. Said he found it among his list of homes for sale. He was looking on Zillow, poor guy. I don’t know how to get the word out to buyers that looking on Zillow is the wrong place to look. So is Trulia and, if we’re really talking about homes for sale, Realtor.com is not that hot, either. All of those websites are missing listings, showcase expired and sold homes, and they take too danged long to update. If you’re gonna buy a home in Sacramento, you better be getting your listings from a Sacramento real estate agent, either from an agent’s MLS-connected website or, even better, directly from MLS yourself.
You can’t get new listings directly from MLS unless a) you are an agent or b) an agent sends them to you.
But it doesn’t really matter because there are very few to no homes for sale in Sacramento. The guy who called yesterday was stammering because he could not remember the street address and was frantically searching for it during our conversation. I don’t think he expected me to answer my phone or to answer it as quickly as I did. Hard to say. But as he was stuttering, repeating himself and trying to buy time to find the address, I felt like telling him the home was probably sold, except I didn’t want to offend him; he sounded so sad and depressed. My heart goes out to first-time homebuyers, but if they already have an agent, I can’t help them.
I have new listings coming up this week. First, I will tell my Elizabeth Weintraub team members about them. Then, I will let agents in my office know that we have new listings. Many real estate companies in Sacramento withhold listings from MLS for 72 hours because we can. Lyon Real Estate agents are market leaders in Sacramento. By the time these listings show up in Zillow or Trulia, they will most likely be sold. This is a tough market with so few homes for sale. Almost every day buyer’s agents call and email, asking if my pending sales are falling apart or whether I am taking a new listing.
If home buyers are relying on Trulia, Zillow or Realtor.com to help them find a home to buy, I hate to say it, they are not buying a home in Sacramento today.
The Parallels Between Communication and Service
My car turned 2 years old a few days ago, so I made an appointment to change the oil with a new service center in Midtown, Sacramento. Last year, I had the dealer pick it up to change the oil and bring it back, and they charged me about $250. The guy in Midtown charges $125, and he gives me a ride home to Land Park. The problem with changing service centers is the guy in Midtown can’t perform warranty work and get paid by the manufacturer. For that, I have to go to the dealer. Since the dealer is the only dealer around Sacramento, if something goes haywire, I’m stuck with the dealer.
My sister bought a car in Minneapolis, and the only service center for her car is in Madison, Wisconsin, 6 hours away, so I don’t know why I’m complaining about a 45-minute drive. Well, yes, I do, because I don’t have a choice. The guy in Midtown told me my transmission fluid was leaking, so that meant if I wanted it covered under warranty, it’s off to the dealership with it. Fortunately, I could call Roadside Assistance and make them tow it, so I did not have to interrupt my workday to drive to the dealer.
I had the car picked up on Friday. The dealer called me on Saturday to say, yup, it looks like my transmission fluid is leaking. The plan was to clean it up and try to figure out why it was leaking. On Monday, the dealer called and said they don’t know why it’s leaking but they suspect it’s a gasket.
Really? I thought maybe it was caused by a cosmic reaction to global warming.
In any case, since it’s a gasket, they will have to order that part, and yes, they know I expected to pick up my car on Tuesday but it will be least Thursday before it will be ready. No apologies. And my guy is going on vacation, so I can talk to his buddy if I have questions.
See, this is a perfect example of excellent communication yet poor service skills. It should take not a week to determine a gasket is needed, and to obtain and install a gasket. You don’t have to be in the automobile industry to feel this way about it. Just like a real estate client doesn’t have to completely understand how real estate works to feel like she is not a priority to her Sacramento real estate agent. I would die if a client felt that way about me. Curl up and die. Because service is everything.
I know that sellers and buyers have choices when it comes to picking a real estate agent. We are not all the same. They are not stuck with the first agent they run into, and there is not only agent working in Sacramento. Competition should breed excellence. But I don’t simply strive to provide excellent service because I’m concerned that a client might ring up an agent on the other block. I do it because I care about my performance. I take pride in my work. My goal is for my clients to be happy.
Just because I work at the largest independently owned real estate company in Sacramento doesn’t mean we sit back, kick up our feet and enjoy our monopoly like this automobile dealer. I work with a great group of people at Lyon Real Estate, and I love my team members to pieces. If you’re looking for a Sacramento real estate agent, please know that I will strive to meet your expectations.
I closed more than 150 transactions last year. Each was important. You want something done right — you ask a busy person to do it. I am never too busy to pick up my phone and talk to you.
Do You Want to Live Near the Russians?
By that title, I am not talking about the 49th state admitted to the Union, no, no, no. I’m speaking directly about Sacramento. I’m a Sacramento real estate agent, and I could say that I know where the Russians live, but that would only send the CIA after me, and having the FBI hot on my trail is bad enough. I don’t need one more government agency chasing Elizabeth Weintraub all over Sacramento. No, Sirree. Oh, wait, I didn’t mean to say the FBI, it’s just a California district attorney’s office who wants more information on the bad guys that I sometimes write about.
But the other thing is I do know where the Russians live, but I can’t tell you. If I tell you, I could be accused of breaking the Fair Housing Law. The Russians are a protected class. Put that into your Eisenhower pipe and smoke it. I’m not going to say anything bad about the Russians, either. Some of my favorite people hail from Russia. I’m trying to think of some Russians other than my housekeeper and a REALTOR from Daytona Beach, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.
I got to thinking about this because a) many people demand that real estate agents perform acts that would get a real estate agent investigated if the authorities knew or watched the agent do it, and b) people don’t know much about real estate agents, and that which they do know for certain, absolutely certain, is often absurd. Like John Oliver said at the Crest Theatre last night, and I paraphrase, about 50% of Americans are positively devastated and at odds with each other 100% of the time. This is just regular people. This is not real estate agents he’s talking about.
When we got on the elevator after Oliver’s performance to rise to the fourth floor and find our car, I looked around at the people on the elevator. Usually, I don’t like standing in close knit quarters with a bunch of strangers. But these people at least had something in common with me; I mean, they had been to see John Oliver, which means if the elevator suddenly got stuck between the floors, I probably would not mind having to participate in a sudden crisis with this particular group of strangers. It would be better than, say, being in a bus load of Republicans that flew off a cliff while on vacation in Utah.
Call it the LOST syndrome. You know, there you are on a plane flying to some exotic place like, oh, maybe French Polynesia, and the plane suddenly nose dives. Next thing you know, you’re waking up a beach splattered in palm fronds with a bunch of people you wanted to kick while standing in line to board. Do you like these people? Would you rely on these people to strangle a pig with their bare hands so you could eat something other than coconuts? That’s something to think about the next time you are standing in a crowd of people whom you do not know. Why, a meteor could hit the earth and spare this circle of people and you.
Do me a favor and think about that the next time you ask this Sacramento real estate agent where the Russians live. You want a real estate agent who has more than 30 years of experience and is a top producer representing you? Sure you do. Then, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
