Email Elizabethsacramento real estate market
How Sacramento Listing Agents Show Sellers They Care
Sacramento listing agents worth their salt know that they need to keep sellers informed during the entire listing and sales process, but some agents get sidetracked and forget. I don’t know if it’s agents who are easily overwhelmed or too busy or what the deal is but I hear common complaints from other agents’ sellers. I don’t call these sellers; they call me. The story is often the same. They say they are unhappy with their listing agent and want to know if I will help them. You betcha. I’m sorry they are upset with their present situation, but hey, I’ll help.
I imagine as we move into the colder months, I’ll get more of these calls. We are facing a tougher winter market for Sacramento real estate than in previous years. Some listing agents will undoubtedly run out without a jacket and freeze to death, leaving their dazed would-be sellers to scrap for themselves. The days on market are growing and listing agents can no longer suggest list prices ahead of the curve; it’s got to be the perfect, just right, Goldilocks sales price in order to sell. Further, sellers deserve constant information about the market and what’s happening or they might drop that agent like a hot potato.
Some Sacramento sellers look at me like I’m “a gift from heaven” because I report feedback from showings and I keep them in the loop. I’m not a gift from heaven, I’m just doing my job as a listing agent. I never lose sight of the fact that the listing is not my home. I’m a temporary guest, visiting for a small period of time, and in the picture to perform a function to the best of my ability.
A seller in Elk Grove called yesterday to tell me how blown away she is with my performance. She did not know how a professional listing agent operates, she said, until I took over her listing. In my short association with her, she says we’ve had more showings, more offers, and she’s been kept informed every step of the way. I call her, I text her, I email her, depending on which form of communication is appropriate for the message I need to deliver.
Another seller in Placer County I met with a few days ago is asking me to take over the listing of a home because the seller was not promptly informed that a break-in had occurred. Apparently, some thug broke into a vacant house and removed furniture. The seller alleges that the listing agent was informed by a buyer’s agent that items were missing earlier in the week, and that the listing agent delivered the news to the seller a few days later — not on the day the agent found out about the theft. There’s got to be more to this story, but I don’t know it. I couldn’t imagine forgetting to let a seller know that something awful had happened.
Communication is key. Not just when things are going well but also when they’re not. Good news, bad news, as Sacramento listing agents, we need to constantly keep our sellers informed. Even if it’s just to say, hello, we haven’t had any showings, but let me tell you how many people have looked at your home online. Or, here’s a market overview from your area.
I say if a Sacramento listing agent goes to the trouble to get the listing, she needs to work that listing. Why work on something else when all you need to do is sell what you’ve got?
Is it Bad for Sacramento Real Estate to Sell in One Day?
Do you believe that you bought that home in Sacramento too quickly or, as a seller, do you believe that you were too fast to accept an offer for your home? Is it bad for Sacramento real estate to sell in one day? Welcome to the club of anxiety. Lots of people harbor those kinds of thoughts, but that’s all they are, just thoughts, passing thoughts, bubbles of self doubt, short moments of questions that should be allowed to pop through your brain to briefly make an appearance, bow, and then slink away somewhere to quietly die.
This is how Sacramento real estate happens today. Sometimes you sell in one day. If you are lucky. We are ensconced in a real estate market of low inventory. Lots of buyers are scouring the new listings every day, looking for that special gem. If your new home listing fits those requirements, bam, it’s sold. There is no shame in selling a house in one day.
Last week I put a bunch of new listings on the market, and one property in particular, well, the first few days were a little slow. No phone calls, not much activity for 24 hours. Then, out of the blue, an offer arrived. It was the sole offer. Not really astonishing given the fact that there were no inspections nor opportunity to view the interior until after offer acceptance. While this did not sell in one day, it still sold fairly quickly.
The seller asked if he should take the offer. It was over list price by a few thousand, which to this experienced Sacramento real estate agent is a sign of urgent and serious commitment by the buyer, followed by perhaps a hope harbored by the buyer that the few thousand extra will be recouped upon inspection — the answer to that game-playing strategy when I’m the listing agent is generally NO, because I bring that possibility to my seller’s attention at inception. Plus, I hail from Minnesota; I expect people to stay true to their word and don’t much care for those who lie. The seller could not believe that we received an offer so quickly. The implication was should he wait to see if a higher offer would arrive?
We had received no phone calls and no inquiries. I suggested he take it. When opportunity presents itself, you can be cautious, but you should proceed. I had that lesson engrained in me when I was a kid — only fools kick the door of opportunity closed. Sure enough, though, a few days later, we received another offer not as attractive. The first offer is usually the best.
Selling is just the beginning. Closing is another journey.
This Agent is Accepting New Home Listings in Sacramento
It’s been a stressful couple of months in Sacramento real estate lately as this listing agent has been focused on winning challenge after challenge. It can take a slight toll. In the middle of all of this action, it’s important to pause and assess the housing market to best advise my clients. This is when I often head for a massage. It’s nice to feel a human touch on my skin. To unwind and relax. I visited Images Salon on Riverside next to Vic’s Ice Cream in Land Park yesterday and was delighted. Ten times better than the place not to have a massage in Land Park.
I’ve got 12 escrows pending to close before my birthday this month, and once I realized how many were already sold, it’s made me more excited to work even harder to sell the remaining few I have and to gather more listings. I have a small number of homes in various stages of prep and, after a manicure, pedicure and haircut, these will be available for sale, but I am also accepting new home listings in Sacramento to sell over the summer. Moreover, believe it or not, I am working on the Sacramento fall real estate market.
It’s always a cycle in real estate, and it’s a balancing act to make sure my home listing inventory is not more than I can personally handle. For example, a few years ago, I had 70 listings and that was about the maximum this agent can comfortably handle, but today that number of home listings is small enough to count on two hands. That’s because inventory has been dramatically reduced in Sacramento. Plus, it’s rare to tackle a short sale anymore; those days are gone. Compared to a few years ago, I feel almost like I am on vacation, if it were not for the constant challenges of pending escrows. Any agent can flip a home into escrow but getting it closed is where the true professionals shine. To better explain cycles, let’s look at the housing market numbers in Sacramento:
Studying the Trendgraphix chart above and searching MLS, one can really notice the cyclic trends. For example, at the moment, the number of residential home listings for sale in Sacramento per the MLS are 3,253. The number of pending sales, which include a handful of pending short sales, are 2,908. That means we’re still running out of homes to sell. It’s a drought, although not as severe as our water drought.
The first thing I notice in the May Trendgraphix report above is the column for May looks very similar to the column for October of 2013. But what is different about it is two-fold. First, the pending sales in October were quickly moving down as fewer homes were selling. However, the pending sales in May are continuing to move up, a trend that began in January and shows no signs of slowing! Closed sales fell off slightly in May, probably due to the flakes and unqualified buyers, but I predict that June closed sales will correct. Second, our pending sales exceed those closed. It’s been that way all year.
You don’t see the smaller details, but as a busy Sacramento real estate agent, I can tell you that our inventory over the past year and half has doubled. We moved from 1 month of homes for sale to a little over 2 months, but that it still not enough home listings to sell. Our days on market has increased to 31, meaning buyers are taking longer to make the right choice. Home buyers are also hitting prices harder as homes are selling on average at 98% of list price. A buyer might say that sellers are 2% overly optimistic, but as a listing agent I know it’s the other way around.
If you’re looking to hire the best Sacramento real estate agent you can find, your best bet is to call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. I’m presently accepting new listings. Will your home be sold by Elizabeth Weintraub next month? There’s one way to find out.
Chart: Trendgraphix
How to Profit from a 50% Pending Home Sales Fallout in Sacramento
It pays today to be a home buyer on a backup offer in Sacramento since we seem to be experiencing such a high cancellation rate on escrows; in some cases up to 50% of the pending sales are falling out. I say this not to be an alarmist but to point out what other real estate experts are too frightened to bring up because they are worried this kind of data would harm our fragile sales market. Every real estate professional, just about, knows this is happening in the Sacramento real estate market, if they’re doing any kind of business. They’re just not talking about it.
That’s because we have to be positive and spread only good news about Sacramento real estate. Oh, spittooey. You’ll read in other news media that sales are UP. What media is not telling you is real estate sales naturally increase in the spring. Inventory is low, which is true, inventory is low as compared to previous years, but it doesn’t matter because there aren’t enough buyers for it. Home buyers today typically lust over only the best home on the block and the rest are ignored.
On top of this, buyer’s agents think they are working with buyers because buyers tell the agents they are buyers. They might even pop up with a pre-approval letter in possession. But it doesn’t mean they are a buyer, because a buyer closes escrow and eventually ends up with a home.
It’s not the end of the world if an escrow cancels, because it will generally turnaround and go back into escrow again under a second purchase contract within a relatively short period of time, but that’s why you want to be a backup buyer, if you can. Don’t think you can’t write a contingent offer, either, if you have a home to sell, because sellers are accepting contingent to sell offers from buyers.
For other listing agents, my advice is don’t put that listing into pending status until the buyer has deposited funds into escrow, which should occur within the 3 days MLS gives us to change the listing status. Because nobody wants to deal with the unfair stigmatization of a back-on-market listing because some doofus buyer on a whim canceled the escrow.
For buyer’s agents, don’t write multiple offers when your buyer can’t afford to buy each of those homes. Not only is your reputation as a Sacramento real estate agent at stake, but those types of “buyers” can easily morph into a vanishing act after both offers are accepted. If your buyers really want a pending home, consider writing a backup offer.
For buyers, get over the fact that homes might cost $100,000 more today than they did 3 years ago. Those days are gone. But prices are still low as compared to the prices pre-market crash. Don’t wait for interest rates to go up and slowly rising prices to price you out of the Sacramento real estate market all together. Get in while the getting is good, and for heaven’s sakes, stay there.
Sacramento Homes Take Longer to Sell This Spring
Are Sacramento homes taking longer to sell this spring? You betcha. The trouble with making predictions in Sacramento real estate is sometimes those forecasts don’t materialize because the market shifts. Real estate agents who make predictions tend to look at the direction the market is moving and figure it will keep going in that direction. I tend to look for odd things that appear out of place. You know, I ask: what does not belong here? What one thing is not like the others? I look at the market somewhat differently, but then my approach is not an average approach, which is probably partly why I am successful at what I do.
Sellers always want to know how quickly a home might sell. I can identify the drop-dead gorgeous homes that should fly into escrow but I will still suggest at least a 2-week period for those sales, when last year it would have been 24 hours. This means I might need to remind a seller whose home has been on the market for 9 days that she has at least another 5 days to go, and maybe more. We can’t always accurately pinpoint that moment of sale. It depends on the buyer. These are just ballpark estimates.
It seems to this Sacramento real estate agent that homes are taking much longer to sell this spring, ever since January. So, I went on a hunt for facts to back up this assessment.
I can tell you that days on market — the average cumulative days on market — are 49 for February in Sacramento County. In April of 2013, that number was about cut in half at 26. This means the average cumulative days on market has pretty much doubled this year. Which goes to show when I tell a seller that what used to take 1 to 2 days is now taking 1 to 2 weeks, and what used to take 1 to 2 weeks might take 1 to 2 months, is absolutely accurate. Buyers are moving more slowly.
Home are definitely selling. They’re just selling at a more normal pace than over past decade of screwball-ness. You remember what normal is, right? No? Well, try to take it easy and slow down a little bit. At my age, the world moves much too quickly as it is. Savor a few precious moments. Pet your dog, hug your kids. Your home will sell.
