Email Elizabethsacramento real estate agent
Representing Two Buyers for Land Park Homes
Representing two buyers for the same Land Park home doesn’t happen very often. But in our crazy Sacramento real estate market, it’s possible. Yup, an agent can represent more than one buyer to buy the same home. Especially with limited inventory. Our California Association of REALTORs team of lawyers have even designed a form for this called a DA — Disclosure and Consent for Representation of More than One Buyer or Seller. It lets an agent engage in dual agency, too, as well as disclose the terms and conditions of an offer (without a confidentiality agreement). When I read that document, I no longer wonder why the public has problems with trust issues concerning real estate agents.
Can you imagine a lawyer representing two different clients who were competing with each other? I work with a lot of lawyers. I’m not sure why lawyers tend to gravitate toward me but I like to imagine we speak a similar language; we probably approach the same subject matters in an analytical way. They know I will be direct. I suspect they appreciate that directness as not every person does.
There are some Sacramento real estate agents who won’t work with lawyers. They flat out refuse. They call lawyers “deal killers,” and maybe they’re worried a lawyer will sue them; I don’t know. The way I see it, I’m least likely to get sued by a lawyer, knock on wood. And I really love the fact I get to tell them that I can’t give legal advice. Especially when they ask me for legal advice. But I also realize that lawyers specialize in certain types of law and not every lawyer knows much about real estate, much less short sales. But they do understand strategy. I respect lawyers, and I like them. I wish all my clients were lawyers. That would be a happy day for me.
I recall a few years ago I was working with several lawyers to buy homes in Land Park. This was back when law firms were flourishing and hiring new lawyers, bringing new talent to Sacramento. As luck would have it, both of these lawyers decided they might be interested in buying the same home. Let’s just say I was not about to whip out the DA form. Instead, I explained the problem to both of them individually.
I suggested one of them could choose to work with me and the other could choose to work with a different buyer’s agent. However, as I reminded them, the lawyer who drew the short end of the stick would be competing against me in negotiations. Which Land Park agent did they want to represent them? This Land Park agent or my associate? Put that way, one of the lawyers decided to look at a different home and keep me as their agent. The other lawyer bought the home through me.
Not every agent employs this approach. In fact, not every agent who represents more than one buyer for the same property even uses the DA form. I received this week two different offers on the same listing from an agent, and no DA form with either offer. The second offer was much better than the first offer. Coincidinky? We just don’t know.
The Problems With Carbon Monoxide Detectors
This Sacramento real estate agent is not out to solve the world-wide problems of death, destruction and mayhem, but it would be nice to figure out how to ensure a carbon monoxide detector is installed in a home at the time of sale. The small things. I like to focus on the smaller picture because those things I should be able to do something about. Making sure carbon monoxide detectors are installed is not really a newsworthy or noble cause. Not like the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, electing to personally kill, clean and consume his own food for a year.
I can barely cut off a fish head and clean out its guts. If I had to shoot my own cow or strangle a chicken, I’d give up meat. Then I’d starve to death because I don’t much care for hard, raw vegetables like eggplant or zucchini, for example, veggies that multiply and are easy to grow. I’m no Sarah Palin. Nope, nobody would ever confuse us, thank goodness.
Neither was my mother. My mother as a teenager took a job in a chicken plant. It involved plucking the feathers off of a chicken — after wringing its neck. This was in the 1940s. I would never eat chicken again if I had that kind of hands-on experience. I like my food not to resemble the animal from which it came. Let’s face it, some foods are better off being disguised, like bacon. It would be so much easier for me if I were a committed vegetarian but the truth is I like being carnivorous. I just don’t want to get all up-close and personal about it.
I have to get up-close and personal about carbon monoxide detectors, however. My job requires it. Whenever I list a home in Sacramento, I have that “talk” with my sellers. I explain what happens when the buyer’s appraiser comes out. The first thing the appraiser looks for is a reason not to be in the home, and that reason to leave is no carbon monoxide detector. If the carbon monoxide detector is missing, the appraiser can’t finish the appraisal. This means he gets to charge another $125 to come back.
When that happens, the buyer yells at her buyer’s agent. You know the direction crap rolls. This means the buyer’s agent calls me to yell. Although, I will not yell at my own client. Sometimes, I suggest that sellers put a sign on the wall with an arrow pointing down to the receptacle where the carbon monoxide is plugged in, especially if it’s a spot that is not easy to see.
When the California law requiring carbon monoxide detectors in a home went into effect a year ago in July, this forward-thinking Sacramento real estate agent bought 50 carbon monoxide detectors and stuffed them in my front trunk. If I ever rammed into the rear end of some SUV, the road would be littered with dozens of carbon monoxide detectors, but at least I’d never be without a carbon monoxide detector when I needed one. So, I used to just give them to my sellers when I listed their home. But that didn’t necessarily solve the problem.
I have almost poked out my eye on more than one occasion trying to open that theft-proof packaging. Once, I stabbed myself in the chin and drew blood, and then ran around the vacant house trying to find toilet paper. Why do people take partially empty rolls of toilet paper with them when they move? How expensive is toilet paper? The other problem with that solution is when the sellers moved out, they take the carbon monoxide detectors with them as well. By accident.
This is a huge problem for home buyers because they are the people who get stuck paying for a second trip by the appraiser. Short of handing a buyer $125 when they write a purchase offer, I think instead I’ll try to be more diligent. That seems the easier path.
Sacramento Real Estate Agents: Ramp Up
I love waking up in the wee hours of the morning to find a bunch of purchase offers in my email. Well, it beats stepping into cat puke. I don’t know why cats seem to wait until 4 AM to chew on houseplants as a new fun-filled activity and run around the bedroom horking when they should be sound asleep. Anybody who shares a home with cats knows exactly what I mean. As I sit here wiping my toes and scrolling through my email, I can overlook a bad start to my Sunday because little is as exciting as receiving purchase offers. If I’m thrilled, imagine how my sellers feel!
This is the best market ever for Sacramento area listing agents and sellers. After years and years of begging on my knees for a buyer to write an offer, the tide has changed. Flipped overnight. It used to be I would not dream of putting a home on the market if it wasn’t staged to perfection, shining from top to bottom and ready for foot traffic. I would be on hands and knees licking the floor looking for dirt. Now, when tenants whine at me me that they don’t have time to pick up the empty beer bottles, toss the half-eaten pizza in the trash, much less make the beds, they think I won’t show the house. Ha, I can shrug my shoulders because the home will still sell. It will sell fast. It will sell for top dollar.
The truth is this Sacramento real estate market is so burning hot at the moment a listing agent can sell even the worst property in a heartbeat. Buyers are making offers on homes sight unseen. I have to check my SUPRA stats to find out if agents have shown the property before sending me an offer because I need something to help us determine the strongest buyer. Believe me, if I have 5 identical offers from 5 buyers but only one of those buyers has looked at the home, guess which offer this Sacramento real estate agent is advising her seller to accept?
Agents complain that they can’t submit offers fast enough so they have to submit without showing. No, they don’t. They just need to get their act together. An agent lamented that he could not show a home yesterday during the time period it was convenient for the tenants to show it. He asked if he could send his buyers over to the home without an agent escort. No, he can’t. But I heard that some buyers were wandering around the home by themselves. Just because we’re in the middle of a home buying frenzy in Sacramento does not mean it’s OK to set aside standards of practice. If anything, we, as Sacramento real estate agents, need to ramp up our professionalism to ensure quality service to our clients.
And stay out of the cat puke. You know what they say. When the market gets tough, the tough Sacramento real estate agents get going.
Selling a Short Sale Rental in Sacramento
A rental short sale is becoming more ubiquitous. I have several new Sacramento short sales going on the market tomorrow that are occupied by tenants. I suspect part of what is fueling the increase is the new HAFA supplemental issued a few months ago that pays tenants the relocation incentive. This was a brilliant move by the government.
Tenants often worry when an investor decides to sell their rental as a short sale, and with good reason. They might be uprooted. Nobody wants to move against his or her will. That rental is a home to a tenant. A tenant doesn’t want strangers traipsing through. They feel inconvenienced and rightly so because they are inconvenienced. I try to be very respectful of tenants and tenants rights when I list a rental property. Because selling a rental property is an intrusion for the tenants.
Sometimes, tenants refuse to cooperate. I’ve met the guy in the rolled up t-shirt with a pack of cigarettes stuck in his sleeve — the guy who is holding back the barking pitbull by the choke collar and won’t open the screen door. But I still have to take photographs of every listing and complete my agent visual inspection. I can sense from the body language of some tenants that they are not happy with my presence. I try to be understanding as I step over the garbage strewn about on the floor, wondering if they dumped it there for my benefit or if that’s how they live.
Tenants also worry the home will go to foreclosure and they’ll get evicted. Yet, tenants in foreclosure have rights, too. Even so, sometimes they stop paying rent, although they’re not supposed to. See, even if the landlord doesn’t pay the mortgage, the tenant still owes the landlord the rent, whether or not they like it. However, not every Sacramento short sale is in foreclosure. Some landlords keep their payments current during the short sale. Some pay just enough to keep the home out of the pre-foreclosure process.
A tenant in Hollywood Park last night was not eager to show the home. He wished the seller would have waited a few weeks, but the fall season is here and the time to sell is now. Once October is over, our home selling season in Sacramento slows down. It’s a seasonal thing. He wouldn’t let me put on a lockbox. He refused to give me a time to show. I kept talking. Then, finally, as I was preparing to leave the home, he paused in the doorway and said, “Look, I know you’re just doing your job. You’ve been very professional. Why don’t we show the home on Saturday, from noon to 2 PM?”
Bingo. That’s what I came to get. A showing time without buyers having to make an appointment. Buyer’s agents don’t like to make appointments with tenants. That’s because they’ve had the experience of showing up at the appointment time with buyers in tow and nobody is home. But in today’s entry-level real estate market in Sacramento, a few hours of showing is all the time a seller probably needs to get that home sold. Well, that, and a competent Sacramento real estate agent.
Who Will Buy My Home in Sacramento?
It doesn’t matter where you live in Sacramento, there is a buyer for your home. Every Sacramento real estate agent knows this fact but sellers aren’t always certain. Home sellers often worry that their home will not sell. It’s their biggest fear. It’s even a bigger fear when that home needs to be sold as a short sale over a traditional sale, but every home in Sacramento has a buyer waiting somewhere to buy it. I guarantee it.
How can I be so overly confident? Because I’ve been in the real estate business for more years than I care to admit, and I’ve never yet found a home that somebody, somewhere would not buy. Never said to myself that I can’t sell this. It’s just not a possibility. That attitude does not exist.
Now, that’s not to say a home seller can’t help the process along because he or she absolutely can. There are small improvements that can be made to help sell. Often tiny things. Ask your agent. It helps to start by sitting or standing in each room and looking at it. Clear out the noise and the distractions. Focus on the room and the view to the room. Think about how it makes you feel. Is there anything irritating about it? Are there things you love about it? The secret? Get rid of the irritation and accentuate the love.
When I talk to sellers about listing a Sacramento home for sale, I ask why they bought it. I also want to know why they are selling. I might come across as a nosey real estate agent but that information helps me to do my job. For example, I had couple of sellers in Elk Grove tell me that they bought their home because they were standing in front of the door to the pool area in the family room doing a 360. As they spun, they grabbed each other in excitement because they could not believe that they could afford to buy this home. I asked them to show me the exact spot where they were spinning when this happened.
During the open house, I found myself talking to a young couple. This would be their first home. They definitely wanted to buy a pool home. I took their hands and said: Come with me. I positioned them in the spot where the present owners had stood on the day they decided to buy. I said to them, turning in a circle and holding out my arms: Can you believe that you can afford to buy this home? And I reaffirmed it. Yes, you can buy this home. It is true. Believe it.
And you know what? They bought it.
They bought it because the buyer for your home is a person just like you.
