Email Elizabethsacramento real estate agent
A Real Estate License Won’t Help You to Buy a Home in Sacramento
Some people in California think it’s a good idea to get a real estate license just in case they ever want to buy a home in Sacramento. Because if you have a real estate license, then you can collect a commission, which is reflected as a percentage amount of the sales price. All commissions are negotiable and generally paid by the listing broker to the selling broker, so while you might think this could amount to a lot of money, it’s generally not by the time it reaches the buyer’s agent pocket. Not in the overall scheme of things.
Yet, almost one in every 35 people in California has a real estate license. It’s hard to turn around at a party in Sacramento and not spill the drink of a Sacramento real estate agent. Snort as you may, not every person who holds a real estate license should be holding a cocktail much less trying to earn a living from said license, but that doesn’t stop them from getting drunk and / or practicing real estate.
On top of this, we’ve also got the agents who want to represent themselves to buy a home in Sacramento. Especially agents from the Bay Area. You know what they say about that, right? A fool for a client. I look at my own situation. I’ve been in the real estate business for more than 35 years, so I’m not exactly a rookie. I like to think I know what I’m doing. But if I were buying a home out of my area, I would hire a local expert. The few thousand I would earn (and I use the word “earn” loosely) to represent myself is not worth the tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, I could lose.
Besides, my expectations are very high. I’m a high maintenance client. I would not want to work for myself. Some people might call me a pain in the ass. I expect exceptional service. Nope, I’d much rather hire a buyer’s agent and make unreasonable demands of her. That’s part of the service an exceptional real estate agent provides — client management.
Something else you might not know. If you’re trying to buy a short sale in Sacramento as a licensed real estate agent representing yourself, it’s highly likely that the bank will not allow you to collect a commission. That’s because you generally can’t have your cake and eat it, too. Even if it is a red velvet cake with a cream cheese filling and butter cream icing.
How a Home Buyer Can Kiss Her Earnest Money Deposit Goodbye
We had a banner day in Sacramento short sales on Monday. While last week was one of those rare oddities in which it seemed that every time I turned around I was stepping into a big ol’ pile of stinky dog poop, this week is definitely back on track. I am back to a relatively smooth running real estate business with little bumps in the road along the way but no major potholes. I received 4 short sale approval letters yesterday and 2 extensions.
One approval was for a pool home in Carmichael. Another was for a Bank of America Cooperative short sale in Sacramento; there was an approval for a short sale in Galt, and an all new approval for a popular Carmichael short sale. I received a much needed short sale extension for a short sale that could not close in Rosemont and another in Sacramento, both of which were caused by excessive (buyer) lender delays.
Receiving short sale approval letters is a good thing. Finding out a buyer is canceling a short sale is not a good thing. It’s doubly NOT a good thing when the buyer cancels after short sale approval. I hate it when that happens. Especially if my sellers have moved out and now have to move back.
As a Sacramento real estate agent, I take precautions on behalf of sellers. It’s my job. For example, I routinely ask the buyer to sign a contingency release by the termination date for contingencies. Many listing agents don’t demand a contingency release from buyers because they don’t want to rock the boat or they don’t think of it. What a contingency release does, providing all of the contingencies are released, is put the buyer’s earnest money deposit at risk. It basically says if the buyer later elects to cancel, the earnest money deposit belongs to the seller.
Of course, if the buyer wants to contest the release, the money is not automatically released. Escrow requires mutual consent. In that case, the seller can take the buyer to small claims court and fight for the deposit there. Either way, once contingencies are released, the seller is generally entitled to the earnest money deposit.
Now, a $1,000 deposit makes a very small dent in the expenses a seller might incur when a buyer selectively cancels. If I was a seller who had to go to small claims court to demand a deposit that I believed to be rightfully mine, I might also ask for other damages that either meet the limit for liquidated damages in the purchase contract (3% of the purchase price) or small claims court monetary limits. The California small claims court dollar-limit maximum was raised this year to $10,000.
Guess I’ll polish the back of my high heels and trudge on stepping over dog poop. I’ve got another short sale in Lincoln to sell for a second time.
