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The Fifteen Second Rule for Getting Ready to Sell a Home
Although I will explain the 15-second rule for getting ready to sell a home, it’s something that agents who have sold thousands of homes can also do for you. You don’t have to do it for yourself. But let’s say you have hired an agent who has not sold thousands or even hundreds of homes. Then, you might want to try this exercise yourself. Because the number one thing I see many sellers do when getting ready to sell a home is they take on way more work than they should.
Sellers tend to want to fix things that have bugged them for as long as they have lived in the house. Or, they don’t want to fix things that should have bugged them but now they are used to it. So, it’s not a big deal anymore but needs to be. Point is they do the wrong things and not enough of the right things. Sellers often do updates they think a buyer would like if they were the buyer. Problem is they are not the buyer, they are the seller. And they can only think like a seller.
The 15-second rule for getting ready to sell a home should help sellers whose agents are not in a position to assist. It is simply this. Walk into a room, stand in the doorway and give yourself 15 seconds to assess the room. Whatever jumps out at you as odd or weird, well, that’s something you need to fix. If you don’t see it within 15 seconds, you probably do not need to fix it because the buyer won’t spot it, either.
What a seller should not do is get up close and personal with every item in the home. The only thing that sort of behavior accomplishes is to push you toward an obsessive compulsive disorder. All of a sudden, you can’t stand the way your baseboards are painted. Or, you fret about a cracked tile in a corner. Or, you decide at midnight to install a new fence around the house. Those little things are niceties but unnecessary.
Some of my clients I work with for several weeks or even months to help them with getting ready to sell a home. Not every home needs a lot of work but do be ready to spend a little bit and make a few little updates to make your home sale-worthy. Especially if you have neglected a certain repair you know deep in your heart you should have tackled. It’s amazing what we can overlook when living in a home.
Even sellers on a budget can make small fixes that will greatly enhance the ability to attract top dollar. Just make sure they are the right updates and repairs. If you’d like to know how much your home is worth, call your favorite Sacramento Realtor with more than 40 years in the business. Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916.233.6759.
To the Sacramento Realtor Struggling Over a Buyer Broker Agreement
To the Sacramento real estate agent struggling over a buyer broker agreement with a guy I will call ZT, I’d like to assure you that Elizabeth Weintraub did not violate the Realtor Code of Ethics. Although, you also might want to think twice about working with buyers who call other agents to make disparaging comments about their own agent. Perhaps you would be interested in knowing that despite my repeated attempts to disengage with a random caller recently, he continued to berate your abilities and questioned your practices.
First, I am not working with that particular caller because he is obviously a home buyer. My team members work as exclusive buyer’s agents, and I solely represent sellers. Why did some stranger call me out of the blue? No idea how I got to be so lucky. It was a Wednesday night, busy day with meetings, lockbox retrievals, new listings. Getting ready for dinner and my cellphone rings. See, now I know why so many agents do not answer their phone . . . although the downside is not bad enough to change my practices.
To the agent working with ZT, you may have an interest in the phone conversation that followed. He didn’t give me your name or I would have contacted you privately. Hence, this public blog. The truth is always the best defense.
The odd caller began the conversation by announcing, in a self-important sort of way that has no bearing on anything: I have a random question. This is when I felt like pointing out that perhaps he had mixed me up with the reference desk librarian at the Sacramento Public Library. So, I said, Hey, you have obviously reached random answer place. He did not get this.
Nervous laughter from the other side of the phone. This is when the ZT admitted he was working with an agent. I said: I cannot talk to you about your agent. He continued talking over me; apparently, he doesn’t trust his agent. Which is puzzling, but not my business. More than once ZT said he had bad thoughts about his agent. Why was he calling me? I’m not about to work with him. My caller ID reported his phone number, which ends in **78, came from Redding.
Bear in mind, I was about to sit down to dinner. I was not working with ZT, regardless. He will never become a client. Even if he wanted to fire his agent, which he did not, I would not work with him because I do not work with buyers. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to buy a house in Redding or in Sacramento. But none of that really matters except to the extent this conversation was returning zero financial reward to me. I am a top Sacramento Realtor who consistently seems to rank in the top 10 agents in Sacramento. Probably because I focus on business that pays.
The contention in ZT’s life seemed to be the agent working with him expects him to sign some sort of buyer broker agreement. He could understand a listing agreement but he does not know why he should commit to a buyer’s agent. That is a question for his agent, not a random stranger. After repeating myself over and over that I cannot interfere with another agent’s client, because the behavior is against the Realtor Code of Ethics, I could tell my words fell on deaf ears.
During the brief conversation, I explained my real estate practice to ZT. When I sign a listing agreement, it is a guarantee that regardless of who ultimately brings a buyer, I get paid for listing that home. A buyer broker agreement is no different. Buyer’s agents are not public servants. They do not work for free. Buyer’s agents deserve a commitment from a buyer and a promise they will get paid for services rendered.
Evidently, ZT mistakenly believes “all buyer’s agents are competing for his business”, like he was a LendingTree commercial. He said he used to work in sales for Skyslope. So, obviously he would know. Right? I don’t think so.
As the call neared its conclusion, I tried to disengage. ZT said he had one more question to ask. Bully for him. His tax dollars do not support me. This guy was some stranger who plucked my phone number from thin air to interrogate at dinnertime. Eight minutes on this wasted call already. No, I told him no, I addressed a question; this call is not an all-night marathon. I shouldn’t have even been on the phone that long, but sometimes I am too nice to people. As I reached over to push the hang-up button, he whimpered, “Please, pretty please.”
Click.
That might work on his girlfriend when he can’t get it up, but it doesn’t work on me.
Who would look up a question on WebMD and then track down the author of that article to demand answers? Without a working relationship, a normal consumer would not call a doctor or any other professional, much less a tattoo artist, and demand service. Because that kind of behavior would be disrespectful and pointless. Some people, though, believe the world revolves around themselves.
Case in point. Caught an Uber through Midtown yesterday after dropping my car at Midtown Autoworks for service. I watched a bicyclist on 15th Street suddenly decide to cut across moving traffic on this one-way street. He stuck out his arm in the middle of the block as though to warn traffic to stay away and not hit him as he peddled zigzagging across the street.
I mentioned that self-centered situation to Niko at Midtown Autoworks. This is what some people are like online. The conversation turned to why strangers enjoy spreading hate on the internet. Niko shared that some disgruntled Toyota stranger left a one-star review online because Midtown Autoworks does not work on Toyotas. They work on Porsches and Mercedes.
Don’t you agree that the integrity of online reviews is severely diminished when websites allow bogus reviews from strangers? Those are not reviews. That’s exactly what ZT did, though. Ran over to a website to rant and post a one-star “review.” Attempted to purposely disrupt and hurt my business. Such hateful behavior. Who does that? Because he did not appreciate the free information he received after I allowed him to eat up my time and resented the fact I decided to go. This is what we get trying to help some types of people.
So, if you’re the agent working with ZT, and you’d like to hear more about the conversation, you can call me. However, I also suspect the agent working with ZT would not have requested a buyer broker agreement if she didn’t think she needed it.
And this reminds me, I need to leave a 5-star review for Midtown Autoworks.
MLS Says Refrigerator Stays But Agent Missed Offer Inclusion
Nobody knows exactly how every agent deals with the mishap when MLS says the refrigerator stays but the agent missed including the refrigerator in the offer. I imagine some agents change their phone number and never get out of bed again. Reiterating that MLS says refrigerator stays is no basis to defend the selling agent’s actions. The selling agent is supposed to know that a refrigerator is personal property. It does not convey with the real property. Personal property and real property? Two different things.
A very expensive lesson for some buyer’s agents to learn. What do they do when the buyer says: hey, where is my refrigerator? The seller moved and swiped my refrigerator. You told me the refrigerator stays because MLS says refrigerator stays. And now the refrigerator is gone.
This always ends with, “and I want you to get it back.” Trust me, they do not care how the agent gets that refrigerator, either. The agent can steal it from her neighbor, go get it from the seller, or buy a brand new refrigerator from Lowes as a house-warming present.
I can tell you that I’ve had buyers sign an addendum with the seller agreeing, for example, that the washer and dryer will stay at no consideration and no warranty. Then sure enough, the seller takes it. Well, buyers have a legitimate gripe and should pursue the seller. Most likely the seller’s movers did not pay attention to what stays and what goes and just took everything. They can bring it back.
However, when a buyer is under the impression that because MLS says refrigerator stays yet the buyer’s agent forgot to include it in the offer, somebody is responsible for this. Who do you think it is? Your choices are as follows:
- listing agent
- selling agent
- buyer
- seller
- MLS
Well, I would say it is the selling agent. (If you agreed with me, you are a smart cookie.) Followed by the buyer because, let’s face it, buyers should read their purchase contracts and take control of the buying situation. It’s their danged house. But we all know they rarely do. They hear what they want to hear.
I noticed when reviewing the paperwork for one of my listing sales recently, a buyer’s agent had asked for the home warranty to cover the refrigerator, washer and dryer. That looked odd and out of place. Sure enough, the buyer’s agent did not ask for the appliances to stay with the property. I let the agent know that perhaps his buyer did not want to start paying for extra home warranty coverage on appliances she does not own.
The agent, realizing the snafu, then said it would be appreciated if the seller left the refrigerator because it looks so cool in the kitchen. Right.
Pros and Cons About Sleeping on Buying a Home in Sacramento
My amazing team member Amy McMullan, exclusive buyer’s agent extraordinaire, shared yesterday that her buyers had talked about sleeping on buying a home in Sacramento. She showed them a bunch of homes but they were not quite ready to commit. Sleeping on buying a home sounded like a good idea until they Googled it. Naturally, they found an article I wrote: 10 Ways to Know You’ve Found the Right House. They texted Amy to say yes, let’s write a purchase offer. How cool is that? Really made my day that I was able to reach out and touch these guys; help them make a decision.
It’s hard NOT to find an article I wrote about real estate and homebuying through Google because I produced a ton of material online over the years, early on and in great volume. Further, without tooting my own horn too much, readers find my voice connects with them. They also appreciate my sense of humor. I try to make my information easy to read. So it gets clicked on a lot, and that propels my articles to the top of Google searches.
In some ways, it is my legacy. That sort of content will always be managed by some corporation for profit so it won’t ever vanish.
But home buyers will continue, no matter what, to consider sleeping on buying a home. They come up with this idea because they don’t really know what else to do. Somebody once told them if they feel the same way after sleeping on it, it’s a good idea. Hogwash. You generally feel the same when you go to sleep as you do when you wake up. (Well, unless you’re tripping.) The only difference is you waited too long and now some other lucky home buyer snagged the house. There are zero pros to sleeping on buying a house except 12 hours passed.
I received an email from a buyer’s agent a few days ago about a home she had counseled her buyer to purchase. Her buyer loved the home. It was close to her work. Within her budget. It had everything she wanted except no garage. Since this is her first home and she wants to buy in downtown or Midtown, she’s not gonna get a garage, most likely. She needs to get over that. But she probably hasn’t realized that yet.
Her agent said, “She missed a good one. Could not make up her mind.” And that’s what tends to happen when buyers choose sleeping on buying a home in Sacramento. There is no upside to doing it. There is a lot of downside. So, I suggest you print out my article linked in the first paragraph of 10 Ways to Know You’ve Found the Right House and tick off each item after you think you’ve found “the one.” In this market of low inventory, there probably won’t be another for a while.
Trust your instincts.
How Long Did It Take to Sell a Southside Park Bungalow at 411 U Street?
Before I tell you how long it took to sell a Southside Park bungalow over on 5th and U Streets, I can share a few other details leading up to this. I know people see the days on market and wonder if they should go into Sacramento real estate. It all looks so easy. Although it is not that easy, and I suspect some people find it difficult to believe. They do not understand why the professional agents, those like me with four decades in real estate, can turn over inventory so fast. Couldn’t possibly be because we know what we’re doing, now could it? Must be because the market is so danged hot.
Well, I’ve got news for you. The market is not all that danged hot anymore. I keep saying it, but we are on the tail end of the seller’s market. Because I’ve weathered four decades of real estate and been through a dozen up-and-down markets, I know how to adjust to market conditions. My marketing is chameleon-like. It changes with the market movement. You know how chameleons change colors depending on their environment? If they land on green grass, they turn green. They become brown when crawling up a tree trunk. Well, that’s what I do.
I first started to work on this property last April when I was in Hawaii. In fact, continued to work on it when I made my next trip to Hawaii in June. We got the pest report, which was minimal, not even $500. Which is unusual for a Southside Park bungalow home built in 1927. The seller took meticulous care of this home. We made a number of trips to the house to advise the seller on preparation.
While looking over the comparable sales, I decided to advise the seller to increase the price he initially had agreed upon. We could get more money, given the competition at the time we went on the market. Sure enough, first day on the market, an interested buyer popped up. She has $100,000 to put down. But she spent too much time thinking about making a purchase. Enter a second buyer. Then a third buyer.
The third buyer, well, I thought we’d get an offer from that agent but in the meanwhile, the agent with the second buyer called. Of course, I let her know about buyers #1 and buyers #3. We could get an offer from either one of those buyers any minute. So she swooped in with an offer for her buyers and the seller accepted. Just as a courtesy, I let the other agents know the Southside Park bungalow is now pending.
This is how buyers lose a home. Not acting fast enough.
411 U Street, Sacramento, CA 95818 is pending after 5 days on market. Darn, I’m all out of listings again.
