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Success Comes by Focusing on the Client, Not Commissions
Success comes by focusing on the client, 100% of the time for this Sacramento Realtor.
When agents ask this Sacramento Realtor for advice and I give it to them — like success comes by focusing on the client not on your bank account — they often come back with a bunch of reasons as to why they can’t follow my advice. It usually starts by pointing out they are not me, they are a different person. If they didn’t figure that out at the inception of our conversation, I can see where they are having difficulties because, like it or not, we are all different people. How much fun would it be if we were all alike, like Donald Trump, for example? Would you want to see a bunch of Donald Trumps running loose in the street, no, you would not. In fact, that would be called a nightmare of enormous proportions.
When agents start out in real estate, they know success comes by focusing on the client, but they can find it very difficult to conduct business that way. There are often financial pressures. It takes a while to learn the business, find a client and get into escrow. At that point, it can become an internal struggle, even among the most ethical and honest agents. They might feel torn between doing the right thing or making sure the escrow closes so they can get paid.
It might not even be a conscious thing. I’m not saying agents are evil and only thinking about themselves, far from it. It’s human nature. Agents need to make a living. Pay a mortgage, make a car payment, maybe support a family. They can’t do that if every transaction cancels, blows up or falls apart. It can be agony. Some agents decide they can’t be in sales due to these types of conflicts the business can present, so they go back to safety of the 9 to 5 grind.
I decided early in my career that I did not want to face conflicts like that. I did not want find myself in the position of being forced to choose between putting bread on the table or doing a good job for my clients. The only way I found to get around that dilemma was to make sure if a client expressed a desire to cancel a contract, for example, because it was best for the client, that I would acquiesce without trying to talk them out of it. Because I am not motivated by money and I never want to be. I purposely made that leap to believing that success comes by focusing on the client.
It was a leap because I harbored initial hesitation. Well, you just have to get over that. With great conviction, I soldiered forward, repeating that mantra over and over: success comes by focusing on the client. It became true for me. My reality. I shot my sales into the stratosphere. And the best part is I feel good about the service I provide and derive great joy by hearing how happy my clients are with my performance. There is never a doubt in their minds whose best interests I serve. And if that isn’t a good enough reason to turn around a real estate practice to really serve your clients, I don’t know what is.
Listing Homes in Sacramento is All About Appraised Value Right Now
Listing homes in Sacramento is about appraising at the sales price.
Many sellers are holding back listing homes in Sacramento right now for a huge variety of reasons, some valid and some not. For at least one seller, the sales price is an issue. That seller bought in 2005, so while she is not underwater, she won’t recoup her investment and can’t sell at the price she bought. This is a tough concept for some sellers to understand. They see sales prices going up and buyers lining up at open houses, and wonder why they can’t get their sales price.
The problem is we have not recovered, our economy has not bounced back to 2005 levels. We just aren’t there. We are barely covering the sales prices from 2008, and are not near the high price levels of 2005. We probably won’t be at that price point for a long time. You remember those times, right? It wasn’t that long ago that people could buy a house, move into it, decide the place doesn’t fit right anymore, sell it, make a bundle of money and go buy something else, all in the course of a summer.
I don’t think we even WANT to go back to those times. But try explaining to a seller that her house is not worth what she paid for it. Those are fighting’ words to some sellers. Because obviously we real estate agents are all in cahoots with the devil and don’t want our sellers to make any money . . . NOT.
Believe me, it’s a sad tale to tell but tell it we must. It’s reality. It’s what is happening. At least if a person is not underwater and has equity, that person should count her lucky stars.
On the other side of the situation, when listing homes in Sacramento, it makes sense to figure out how much a buyer will pay. The amount a buyer will pay might not be the appraised value and, in many instances lately, it is certainly not the appraised value. The appraised value is less than the sales price. Of course, if the offer is cash, we don’t have no stinkin’ appraisal to deal with.
I tell my sellers we need to position ourselves attractively in the market place, make sure we have the best spot, and we can’t be priced too low. Multiple offers will push up the price. I like to list a bit on the high side, just so buyers won’t go all that crazy, but they still do. We just need that one buyer who will pay top dollar and love the home.
I just wish more sellers were open to listing homes in Sacramento right now and not waiting for April or May. We have the buyers. We have the low interest rates. We have the ability to sell at top of market. Setting the sales price is the least of our worries. Getting the appraisal to come in at the sales price is the real challenge.
If you’re looking for a top Sacramento Realtor who is up to the challenge, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 40 years of experience to work for you. Listen to this, in all of Sacramento County, we have only 1,347 single family homes for sale, and 1,451 pending sales getting ready to close. In the hey day of 2005, we had more than 10,000.
Don’t Be So Certain a Sacramento House Near High Voltage Qualifies for an FHA Loan
A house near high voltage power lines might not pass an FHA appraisal.
An appraiser called me with a few questions about a listing we have in escrow, a house near high voltage, which is located in Sacramento near the light rail. To say it’s near light rail is putting it politely as you can see the tracks out the window, but not everybody minds a bit of transportation nearby. I have clients who live on busy streets, for example, and they say it connects them to the outside world. Makes them feel part of what’s going on, so I don’t judge locations that much. Everybody has their own ideas.
The appraiser wasn’t that concerned, either, about the light rail. He was more interested in the house and how the location of a house near high voltage can affect FHA appraisals. I quickly looked up the date the seller bought the property and pointed it out, because she bought with an FHA loan and it wasn’t all that long ago. Didn’t matter, said the appraiser, lots of things have changed over the past few years. OK, how about the fact the seller refinanced into a new FHA loan last spring? That is surely a much shorter gap of time.
Maybe that particular appraiser was lazy, he offered. There are good appraisers, mediocre and bad, just like Sacramento Realtors, just like any profession. And think about THAT the next time you go to the doctor. However, he wasn’t a lazy appraiser and he would measure. He would calculate exactly the distance of the house near high voltage power lines.
Measure what? Apparently the height of the high power voltage lines are addressed as the fall distance, and they can’t fall on a house nearby. Plus, the house needs to sit outside of the high voltage power lines easement to qualify for FHA.
Further, just because the seller previously received FHA loans twice for this property was no guarantee that it met FHA guidelines. Oh, my goodness. My heart started to pound. The seller is already moving out, and the buyers have removed contingencies. Who knew a house near high voltage lines could cause such a dilemma? I quickly called the buyer’s agent. Oh, says she, I forgot to tell you, a couple weeks ago we switched the buyer to a conventional loan. YES!
Sacramento Spring Showcases White Flowering Callery Pear Trees
White flowering callery pear trees line Sageview in Natomas neighborhood of Regency Park in Sacramento.
Driving down Sageview Drive in the Natomas neighborhood of Regency Park a few days ago, I spotted the entire street in bloom with white flowering callery pear trees. It was so breathtakingly beautiful that I stopped in a no parking zone to shoot photos. These white flowering trees of Sacramento are not indigenous to our area and seem to be considered invasive. I wonder why builders planted them, if that’s the case.
Still, we see callery pear trees (Pyrus Calleryana) everywhere in Sacramento in early spring. Mostly near freeways or industrial lots in Sacramento. The problem is birds eat the fruit and then drop seeds all over town, and new growth crowds out other vegetation. They don’t live very long, can produce suckers and are susceptible, it seems, to splitting.
The callery pear trees are known to emit a strong odor similar to rotting eggs or semen, the latter which always makes ME think of rotting eggs, right, I don’t know about you. Also, they are not on the list of recommended shade trees for Sacramento, published by the Sacramento Tree Foundation; however, I did find callery pear trees on a Parking Lot Tree Shading Design and Maintenance Guidelines put out by the City of Sacramento. Go figure that these two entities would be in direct conflict with each other.
So while they may seem gorgeous and a welcome respite from the bare branches of deciduous trees waiting to bud out, and no matter how eager you might be to see spring arrive and to get rid of the rain and doldrums of winter, I’m not sure that callery pear trees are to be admired. In some cities, they are banned.
This is the problem with having the ability to extract information at your fingertips. Sometimes you might begin to believe that ignorance is bliss, even when you know it is not.
If you are looking for trees to plant in your yard, contact the Sacramento Tree Foundation. This non-profit will help you to choose the right trees for your yard and will deliver the trees to you at no charge. Yup, free trees, no fee to SMUD customers. Although, you may wish to make a donation.
Callery Pear Trees view down Sageview Drive from Elkhorn toward Bridgecross in Natomas.
Photos by your Sacramento Realtor, Elizabeth Weintraub, 916.233.6759.
Why There Are So Many Listing Agents Who Do Not Answer the Phone
Ignoring phone calls is a trait of listing agents who do not answer the phone.
First, let me say I am not one of those listing agents who do not answer the phone. I always try to answer my phone, regardless of whom is calling. And yes, I have Caller ID. I know if it’s a private caller, an anonymous caller, a local caller and if the phone is registered, I get the name, too. But I still answer the phone. I’ve had private callers hire me to list their property. I don’t judge anybody by their phone number.
But in Sacramento, there are many listing agents who do not answer the phone. One of the main reasons is they don’t want to talk to buyer’s agents. You would think they would because they want to sell the home, right? Yet these listing agents feel they don’t have to engage because they’ll get an offer one way or another so why pick up the phone? Especially if they are bothered by nonsense. And much of the time it is nonsense.
I feel the pain of talking to some buyer’s agents because there are a huge number of agents who either cannot read, don’t read, misread or are just too plain lazy to figure out what’s going on. I try to be very clear in my listings. If the showing instructions are call first lockbox, I might also repeat the showing instructions in the confidential remarks. I might write: Call the seller and go. But agents will still call me to ask if they can show the home. Oy, can’t win.
When I reply that they need to call the seller, then they will ask me to look up or text them the phone number. When the phone number is right there in MLS, staring them in the face. How lazy is that? Maybe I’m driving and I can’t look it up? I wish I could light up the phone number in blinking-call-to-action strobe lights for them, but I can’t. I’d gladly pay 10 bucks extra in MLS to have that feature. Some agents insist there is no phone number and no occupant’s name, either, when I know it is prominently displayed. This happens almost every single day.
I wish there was a way all buyer’s agents could be trained to study the MLS information and not view the plethora of data as simply a property address with pretty pictures. MLS is not Google Maps. But if wishes were horses beggars would ride, and I don’t even know what that means. What I do know is I will continue to answer my phone and go with the flow. I will never be one of those listing agents who do not answer the phone. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759 to represent you as a listing agent.
