Email Elizabethsacramento real estate
Sacramento Realtors Who Feel No Urgency to Present Purchase Offers
Sacramento Realtors should present purchase offers immediately, unless otherwise instructed in writing.
The sad sorry tale in Sacramento real estate can be found in those Realtors who feel no urgency to present purchase offers. In some ways, it’s like a buyer’s agent is interrupting the listing agent’s life by asking that agent to perform the job at hand. We all get it that “it’s summer” but it doesn’t mean the living is easy and a listing agent gets to take off days without a replacement. All too often we call a listing agent to ask if our offer has been presented, and we hear something like this:
Oh, sorry, I’m at my kid’s school event.
We check back an hour later:
I’m out to lunch with my family.
We try again early evening:
I’m putting the children to bed.
We call back the following morning:
It’s only been 12 hours, and 8 of those I spent sleeping.
Now, you would think I am making up this sort of scenario, but I am not. An agent actually said that. If that agent’s seller knew how poorly the agent responded to a bonafide offer, why, that seller might even fire the agent, except when you fire your cousin it tends to cause family disharmony. What kind of Sacramento Realtor doesn’t realize that having to present purchase offers is an urgent matter? The kind who doesn’t view real estate as a full-time occupation, I’m guessing.
As a top listing agent in Sacramento, I constantly get calls from buyer’s agents asking when I plan to present purchase offers. My answer is always the same. Immediately. I send offers as soon as I humanly can. Now, whether the seller will respond immediately is another matter. Probably not. But the seller has that option. And I keep buyer’s agents informed. Further, if offers are not immediately presented, it is required to be noted in MLS confidential remarks. But some listing agents don’t realize there are rules. To them, fiduciary is just a weird word.
One of the big problems inherent in Sacramento real estate is how consumers wrongly believe that merely possessing a real estate license makes a holder of that license a Sacramento Realtor. It really makes that person an individual who has managed to pass the California real estate exam. Only experience and many transactions later makes a person a true agent. We may joke about Darwin and natural selection, but some survive despite the odds. Especially hard when the buyer is waiting for the listing agent to present purchase offers.
Best Tip for Winning the Offer in Today’s Sacramento Housing Market
Winning the offer to buy a home in Sacramento does not need to be overly complicated.
When I see buyers winning the offer in today’s housing market in Sacramento, it’s generally because they have done one simple thing. And I often share this one simple thing with their buyer’s agent when they call to ask if I have any offers. It’s as though they don’t want to write an offer until I do have an offer. Every buyer’s agent pretty much is trying to get “a deal” for their buyers when they should be worried about getting their buyer into escrow, period. It’s hard right now to buy a home in Sacramento. Don’t make it any harder than it needs to be.
I’ve noticed an attitude with my sellers that seems to repeat itself. So I share this discovery with my sellers, and even when I tell them what’s going to happen and why, they are still surprised when it happens. I can accurately predict it because lately I see the same thing happen over and over. This is when a home goes on the market on Friday. The buyer notices we have an open house scheduled for Sunday and quite rightly begins to worry about the winning the offer. The buyer’s focus, though, tends to be on how can we buy the home right now, this very minute, rather than what can we do to ensure we are winning the offer.
Because a buyer probably cannot buy the home right now, this very minute. There is no guarantee the seller won’t take the offer, but when the seller has hired an experienced listing agent like me, for example, I will suggest the seller wait until the open house. The seller is free to disregard my advice, but that doesn’t happen very often. Agents who take fiduciary seriously will want to expose the home to the largest pool of buyers possible, which tends to ensure the highest price for the seller.
However, the one thing home buyers can do to maximize chances of winning the offer is to write the offer the minute they know they want to buy the house. It could be while they are walking up the steps to open the door. It could happen when they enter the back yard or when they get back home. But the second they know they want to buy the house, write the offer. Be the first offer. You don’t have to be the strongest offer if you are the first offer. Because the first offer is the offer the seller will think about all day on Friday, all day on Saturday and all day on Sunday.
Why? Because all of the other buyers will wait until after the open house to submit an offer. They wait because they are concerned the listing agent will “shop the offer.” Well, a good listing agent is shopping the offer when all of the offers are compared to each other after the open house. Doesn’t matter if it happens before or after. Further, there will be last-minute buyers who called their agent brother-in-law in another city to write an offer after the open house, and those offers will be sloppy, impersonal. Yes, the first offer price might be countered to be more in line with the other offers. But the first offer has the edge. Think about it, is all I’m saying. Don’t be afraid to be the first offer.
Realtor Diary: Photos From a Sunday Afternoon in Sacramento
Fishing village, Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada, like the landscape in movie Maudie.
It’s hard to be at a loss for things to do on a Sunday afternoon in Sacramento. Having missed out on a trip to Nova Scotia I had planned several years ago when my husband instead opted for the coast of Oregon, I have been wanting to see the film Maudie, filmed in Newfoundland and Ireland; but it was no longer playing at the Tower Theatre by our home in Land Park. We could still catch the movie in Roseville, though, so I bought tickets at Fandango and off we went. The film stars Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, about a real life folk artist, Maud Lewis from Canada.
This is a woman who battled juvenile arthritis, was picked on by kids as a child so grew up pretty much a loner, and married a rather crusty old fish peddler who rated her just below his dogs and chickens, in that order. But she found joy in her life, and expressed this joy through a childlike view of the world by painting nature, such as birds, flowers, lakes, trees and wildlife, including cats. The story is emotional. The film pulls you in, and those winter scenes when you can see blowing snow, hear whistling wind, makes you shiver. It’s also a love story, albeit not a traditional one. I liked it enough to give it 5 stars and intend to buy a few prints. I sense similarities between the work of Maud Lewis and a Picasso print of pigeons I picked up in Barcelona, although they are nothing alike.
Car towing a train up 8th Street in Sacramento.
We stopped by the Sacramento library to drop off and pick up books. While I waited in the car for my husband to come out, a police car circled the intersection of I Street and 8th and blocked off access. Next thing we knew, a car appeared out of nowhere towing a light rail train car. Not every day you see a car towing a train. But this was part of our Sunday afternoon in Sacramento.
The Plant Foundry in Oak Park is located at 3500 Broadway.
After they cleared the intersection, we drove over to the Plant Foundry in Oak Park. This store is located at 3500 Broadway, closer to 35th than 36th. No need to drive to East Sacramento when you live in Land Park to visit a garden store. It’s got everything you expect to find in a nursery and plant store, and then some. Seeds, plants, pottery, soil amendments, bad-ass buddhas and giant metal roosters and cacti. We picked up a couple of plants for the house, and a new planter to replace the broken clay pot our cats smashed last week. If it wasn’t so hot, we would have spent more of our Sunday afternoon in Sacramento at this nursery.
The Oak Park Brewing Company is located at 3514 Broadway.
Since it was so enormously hot outside (the car registered 107 driving back from Roseville, and that was not a radio station, it was degrees) and because I had consumed an entire bag of popcorn loaded with 5 packages of salt at the movies, we were forced to stop at the Oak Park Brewing Company. Fortunately, this establishment is located right next to the Plant Foundry. The beer choices were varied and many. I had originally asked for the Sac Town Union Something Wicked IPA, but they were out of it. Instead I settled for a Broadway Pale Ale, which was very hoppy with a bit of a bite, and a good enough substitute.
Interior of Oak Park Brewing Company features a mixture of tables and low-rise seating.
My husband ordered a pan fried shrimp sandwich with fries, and he said, “Oh, I know what you’re getting. The brussel sprouts.” He was correct. They were served braised in beer, I believe, sprinkled with arugula and tossed in parmesan cheese. Not too sweet and not too sour. Just perfect. A really good deal at $7.00. Another 5 stars for this dish.
Brussel sprouts braised in beer, sprinkled with parmesan and tossed in arugula.
My team members were just finishing up the open houses held by the time I got home, and it was time for me to jump back into work. There is no resting for this Sacramento Realtor at 4:00 on a Sunday afternoon in Sacramento, no sirree. It was time to write counter offers and work on selling a few more homes in Sacramento. Two of our four open houses produced buyers and multiple purchase offers.
How This Sacramento Realtor Wins Listings Without Listing Presentations
My listing presentations are conversations about Sacramento real estate.
Over the past week, I’ve been on 6 listing presentations all over Sacramento. I call them listing presentations but that’s not really a true sense of the term, not in the way most Sacramento Realtors perform that sort of function. I prefer to think of these visits as a conversation with a seller, including my agent visual inspection. It’s really all about two things: the sellers, what they hope to accomplish; and the sellers’ home, its desirability, condition, presentation and price point. Well, it’s also a little bit about me, but I don’t launch into my life story or anything.
I possess no script. I bring no presentation materials. No software program or video to bore anybody to tears with. I don’t haul in vanity signs and say lookit here, my picture on the sign, how cool is that? I do not advertise on billboards nor bus benches. My approach is always relationship based and educational. It’s very different than how I hear how other agents conduct listing presentations. Sometimes I even forget to leave a card until I’m walking out the door.
Out of the 6 visits with sellers, I expect to list 6 properties. Not all at the same time, of course, but it would be OK if I did. Well, one is a divorce, so it could take up to a year for that Midtown 5-plex. I tend to put a lot of work into my listings upfront. Making sure there are no title discrepancies, the property is clean and presentable, the timing works with the present market conditions. I often agonize over marketing comments. I carefully choose among high definition photos. And each listing is unique. No two are alike, and I don’t treat them in that manner. Each is my personal project.
When I came home from the last of my listing presentations on Saturday, my husband asked what price did we settle on. Price? We didn’t really talk much about a price. The home in Glenbrook was much nicer than I had been expecting, so to be completely accurate, I needed to do a bit more homework. To my amazement, the sellers hired me anyway. On the spot. They had another interview with some other Realtor scheduled for Saturday afternoon but they decided after our chat that I was the agent for them. I was ready to let them have that other interview, but hey, they gave me the keys. I’m their agent.
Perhaps it’s because I explained the present market, talked about what I will do for them, but primarily, I think it’s because I “get” their home. I know what makes it special. I appreciate its qualities. I will do a good job for them, and they have confidence in me. It’s sellers like this who make me want to be the best Sacramento Realtor I can be.
And it just goes to prove Realtors are not required to do formal listing presentations to win a listing. You just have to be yourself. Forget the graphs, the charts, the mounds of paperwork, the gimmicks, the crutches. Talk about what you know.
Perfecting Communication Skills in Sacramento Real Estate Involves the Truth
Sometimes agent communication skills are akin to crickets.
Everybody in the world has their own way of perfecting communication skills. For some, it involves sticking their head in the sand and hoping someday it will all go away. Avoidance isn’t the best solution in most situations. Certainly not in Sacramento real estate, which is whipping by at a fast pace today. For myself, I try to include a bit of humor when I’m working on my communication skills. The trouble with that, though, is not everybody shares the same sense of humor.
A buyer called yesterday to say he was obtaining a preapproval letter to get a $100,000 loan. I asked how much was he putting down? $300,000? Well, that got a big laugh, but unfortunately, it’s also pretty close to reality.
Trying to interpret how a response will be received is the first key to good communication skills. I’ve counseled agents who were really upset, mad, to the boiling point, furious, and I suggest they type an email, detailing all the reasons why they are angry. Then, delete everything but the smallest of words and the shortest of sentences. Be as clear as possible by stating the facts and then ask for a resolution. Don’t deter from the truth. Not only will this diffuse the emotions, but it will bring the real problem into focus.
The second key is don’t try to change other people. Because you can’t, nor should you. When a buyer’s agent, for example, does not return paperwork or otherwise ignores communications, it’s a tricky situation when I find myself as the listing agent having to explain to the seller that the other side has not responded to our requests. Sellers seem to think we listing agents can club those guys over the head, but it doesn’t really work that way. Further, not every agent responds in a professional manner in this industry.
Agents also tend to turn to a bazillion excuses as to why they let their business slip through the cracks: emotional issues, health issues, deaths in the family, vacations . . . all those things the rest of us call getting through life. Or, they use the California motto: Dude, I flaked.
They want to be cut some slack. I can understand that. But I also have a responsibility to my sellers to keep the parties in contract, and you have no idea how many contracts expire because buyer’s agents do not return documents. My third suggestion is to always stick to the facts. I look at this way, it’s the email I will produce in court.
I feel in some ways I should share my expectations of other agents at the beginning of transactions to please respond to emails, voicemails and text messages. That would go over like a lead balloon. They would find it insulting because they don’t believe they are lacking communication skills. Still, it’s a struggle when agents vanish in the middle of a transaction. But this is the way real estate works with about half of the population. When you close as many transactions as I do, you see all sides of Sacramento real estate. I take responsibility for my own communication skills, and I keep the interests of my sellers forefront. But the truth is while we can’t always choose the agents we to into escrow with, we can choose our own responses.
I would not want anybody to say Elizabeth Weintraub wasn’t direct and truthful or failed to respond. Well, one agent objected to an email last week. I pointed out the number of times I tried to contact her. Making a joke, I called her response: crickets. She did not “appreciate” the word “crickets” and while it is true there was no singing or chirping involved, there was also no response. Besides, to be completely correct, the sound you hear from crickets is called stridulation, created by rubbing their top and bottom wings together (not their legs, like some people believe).
