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When Does a Sacramento Realtor Present Offers?
The answer to when does a listing agent present offers should be as soon as possible.
Real estate agents often ask me: when do you present offers? Oh, I dunno, the third Thursday of every month? I don’t really understand that question. I’m not a lady who does lunch. I’m a Sacramento Realtor who sells an absurd number of homes every year throughout Sacramento. In fact, I resent the term lady since it infers that I am to live up to somebody else’s expectations of how I should behave, and I don’t always feel like being a lady. The business doesn’t always call for it. Life doesn’t always call for it.
Speaking of ladies, my husband and I were discussing First Lady causes during our leisurely walkabout a while back through Midtown Sacramento. How many can you recall? Nancy Reagan ran around saying No a lot. Lady Bird planted flowers. Jackie Kennedy gave us style and china, dishes not the country. Michelle Obama, such a class act. When they go low, we go high. What the heck did Rosalynn Carter advocate?
You know what I would take up as a cause if I were First Lady? Kindness. We need more kindness in the world. And not in a killing them with kindness kinda way. We can be kind without resorting to lady-like behavior.
People have forgotten how to be kind to each other. Or maybe our political environment in this country has beaten people into a pulp to the point that they just don’t care. But we are so rude. We don’t hold doors open for anybody, we run through yellow lights and don’t let anybody pull in front of us, and we scream at our children at the grocery store. Please and thank you are words that rarely escape our lips.
The world doesn’t revolve around us. Nobody cares what we’re texting, heads stooped, as we walk into light poles or out in front of traffic without looking. I’ve got news for ya: Twitter doesn’t rule. People can be so self centered. What would happen if everybody took the time today to be nice to just one other person? That would be a worthwhile exercise. Maybe it will catch on.
But as to when I present offers, I do it when I receive them. As soon as an offer comes through my email, I zip it off to the seller. That’s because we’re looking for one buyer. Just one buyer. Not a whole bunch of buyers and a whole bunch of multiple offers. We’re not playing Bowling for Buyers. We want that one buyer who will pay the price at which the seller will sell. The buyer who loves the home more than anything and can prove it.
My advice for buyer’s agents is keep your eyeballs glued to MLS. Pendings happen within minutes in this real estate market. Don’t show your buyers a home on Saturday and hope by Sunday morning it is still available. And by MLS, I don’t mean Major League Soccer.
When Agents End Up Working With Crazy Buyers
Working with crazy buyers is part of Sacramento real estate.
I have to be careful when I am facetious. My humor leans toward dry. Because my general nature tends to present itself as a nice person, sometimes people don’t realize when I am insulting them. I suppose that could be interpreted as a good thing. I could say I feel sorry for an agent, and another would think I truly felt empathy — when what I meant was I’m sorry the agent is such an idiot. In that event, the other side of the street is a better place for that agent to walk upon than to chance an encounter with me.
Some agents are forced to work with crazy buyers; I get it. The market is tough on many agents. The limited inventory in the Sacramento real estate market makes some agents desperate for business. But if an agent chooses to work with a crazy client, that agent owes it to the rest of us to rein in that person. You don’t give a loopy dude 10 shots of bourbon and turn him loose with a six shooter unless you’re a sucker for punishment.
When an agent knows her client is a loose cannon, she doesn’t send her client unauthorized correspondence just to stir the water further. Because that end result is no transaction for her. Like the Soup Nazi. No soup for you. The seller doesn’t want to be in escrow with a nut job. Neither does the listing agent. There is also that problem of guilt by association.
Over the years of being a Sacramento Realtor and dealing with Sacramento real estate, I have come to be highly selective. I select the sellers I work with. I work only with people I like. If I can’t find something to like about a person, I don’t work with them. Further, I am especially critical of purchase offers. I scrutinize. My job is to make sure the seller closes escrow. That means going into escrow with a person who is likely to close.
One thing I do is ask buyers to do before looking at homes is to sign an agency disclosure. It’s required by California Civil Code prior to showing any real estate. Yet many agents never present an agency disclosure until weeks of showings have passed. If buyers struggle with signing that document, which is just a disclosure, that could be a red flag. It needs to be addressed.
Not every buyer is a serious buyer. Not every buyer today is committed to closing. We have crazy buyers in the market. For a million different reasons, buyers sign offers and never move forward. Agents should be able to pick out these types of clients and correct that behavior before they ever get to the offer stage.
The agents who can’t, well, they lose credibility. Not to mention, sales. Because they spend way too much time working with clients who are not really clients.
What Does Call First Lockbox Mean for a Sacramento Listing?
Call first lockbox does not mean call the listing agent.
Call First Lockbox. What does that mean? My sellers know know what it means. They also know that I track activity, all the comings and goings at their home. That’s one of the reasons to use a lockbox. The little infrared gizmo beams all agent access info directly to a website for me. As a Sacramento Realtor I follow up on my listings. I email agents who show and ask if they have questions. It gives me an excellent way to obtain buyer feedback for my sellers as well.
When a seller emailed to say he had an evening showing a while back, I looked up the agent information in MLS so I could contact her. She didn’t use the lockbox, and she didn’t have a business card. I warn sellers to not let people into their homes who do not produce a business card. All agents, when they are working, should carry business cards.
You’d be astonished at what people say when I throw out this scenario: Say, a For Sale sign goes into the yard and a nice looking couple knocks at your door. They say they spotted the For Sale sign and want to know if your home is for sale. What do you do? Nine out of 10 people say they would let these people in and show them around. No, no, no, you do NOT let strangers into your home. An agent would show you a business card. No card, no entry. Besides, most showings require an appointment or at the very least a phone call.
But this guy felt OK about it because the agent called him beforehand to let him know when she was coming over. The listing was put into MLS as: Call First Lockbox. Some agents think Call First Lockbox means call the listing agent. Other agents think it means call the seller and make an appointment. It really means call the seller, tell the seller when the agent will show the home and . . . GO. This way, a seller needs only to return the call if the time is inconvenient to show. This is standard showing practice in Sacramento.
If we wanted agents to make an appointment, we would have entered the listing into MLS as Appointment with Seller. If we wanted agents to call the listing agent, we would have entered the listing into MLS as Call Listing Agent. This is an important item for buyer’s agents to know, especially in this sizzling hot Sacramento market. Buyers are practically breaking down doors to get in. They are lined up for showings.
The home that my seller showed to the agent without a business card? It sold to somebody else. This happened when other agents were calling and leaving a message, asking the seller to call them back. They didn’t get a call back from the seller. They didn’t get a call back because it was listed: Call First Lockbox. The seller was too busy accommodating agents who showed up after leaving a message to bother calling back those who did not understand MLS directions.
Buyers, if you wanted to buy a home in Sacramento lately but couldn’t get in to see it, perhaps this is why.
Reason #49 Sellers in Sacramento Might Reject Buyers
Sacramento sellers can have odd reasons to reject buyers’ offers.
Believe it or not, but there are real estate agents in this business who unintentionally blow their buyers’ purchase offers out of the water. If you’re a buyer whose offer was not accepted by a seller, you might look more closely at your agent. You probably do anyway because it’s human nature to blame your agent when your offer doesn’t come back signed. It’s not always your agent’s fault, though. Sometimes, it’s your fault for not listening to your agent. And, honestly, sometimes it is your agent’s fault.
I hear agents tell me that their buyer won’t do this, and their buyer won’t do that, and I want to say: Did you ask? Did you ask your buyer? Because I know they probably did not. They might be a white knight agent. They might be a control freak. They might be clueless.
They might be all of those things, I dunno, but I do know that you get further with honey than with vinegar. You can’t push a listing agent, no matter how hard you try. And if you do try, you can alienate yourself and your buyer. Nobody cares about your interpretation of law or real estate practice or anything else you read on the back of a Bazooka gum wrapper. I swear, this is such a simple concept but so few seem to get it.
Once you get past the listing agent, you still need to deal with the home seller. All sellers are different. They bring backgrounds and experiences that may be foreign to you to the table. Get over it. Just when you think you can second guess, you will be wrong. You never know how they might look at something, which is why I like to ask for feedback and input from my sellers.
See, the thing is in a Sacramento seller’s market, sellers are in control. They’re in control from the beginning to the end. It’s their home, they own it, and they make the decisions.
I recall a home I sold several years ago. We had multiple offers from a bunch of buyers clamoring for the home. When we have an even-playing field, I lay out the offers and let the sellers choose with no input from me. Hey, it’s their home. Their right to choose. I do ask why they might prefer one offer over another, and it’s always a different reason.
The reason the seller’s rejected certain buyers for this particular home was the buyers had come over to the house too many times. In the buyers’ minds, they were excited and wanted to show their new home to all of their friends and family. Plus, they wanted to take measurements so they could layout their furniture on a diagram before moving in. But in their excitement, the buyers treated the sellers’ home like a Macy’s display floor. Their offer wasn’t even presented yet.
The sellers felt the buyers repeated visits meant the buyers were indecisive and the sellers rejected their offer. Yet, another example of when you see a home you want to buy, you need to stop what you are doing and buy it.
Reasons to Sell Real Estate in Sacramento
Sellers make it a joy to sell real estate in Sacramento.
One of the incredible things about my ability to sell real estate in Sacramento is the fact I get to meet such a huge variety of super cool people. People I would never meet otherwise because I never go anywhere and I have no friends. Not that I really like people, either. For the most part, I don’t like people. Not the “general public” people.
Now, before you start griping and saying there is no such thing as general public, there is only public, let me tell you that you would be correct. But you know what I mean, right? The people at the grocery store who ram their carts into the backs of your ankles and steal your parking space before you get to it. The people at sporting events who splash beer on you and won’t stand up when you try to squeeze by. The people at rock concerts who do stand up the whole time and block your view. Those clods.
But clients are generally special. Unique. Each has a different story. I learn something new from all of them. I’m honored to sell real estate in Sacramento. Below are a couple of examples.
I recall touring a special home in Elk Grove for a pre-listing appointment. These sellers had paid cash, more than $600,000 for this home. As I turned the corner from Bilby, I wondered to myself what would constitute a $600,000 home in that neighborhood because I’ve sold others in that Elk Grove neighborhood recently that were not that expensive.
I was blown away by this house. It was evident a lot of thought had gone into the upgrades, and each was carefully selected. It’s one of those homes that Realtors know beyond a shadow of a doubt once it hits the market buyers will be fighting over it. It’s that beautiful. But so are the sellers’ dollhouses. This seller creates dollhouses that are real life replicas, which I suppose is the definition of dollhouse. Miniature gold-plated dinnerware, crystal buckets, crystal chandeliers, custom hand-sewn drapery. It was a jaw-dropping experience, and I admire such talent.
I toured another pre-listing home in Fair Oaks. This time of year sellers think ahead of the market. The seller owns this home free and clear, and she is retiring out of state. The seller is in her 80s, and I have special place in my heart for elderly people. I don’t know very many older people. All of the older people in my family are dead. This seller’s smoke detector beeped when I walked in.
When I asked about it, she said her neighbor will come over “some day” and fix it for her. No, this is nuts. You can’t live with a constant beeping sound going on. Yeah, she said, she could and she got used to it. She was feisty. I wondered, is this what I have to look forward to in my older years of retirement, though? Beeping going on all around me and I can’t stop the sound? Will I be forced to rely on the kindness of strangers, like those clods at the grocery store?
OK, so agents aren’t supposed to do anything like this, too much liability, but I don’t care. I hauled the ladder out of the garage. It didn’t matter that I’m wearing a dress and 4-inch heels. Up the ladder I go, like a fool in those shoes. Remove the smoke detector, replace the battery and put it back.
I also got to see the seller’s Help-I’ve-Fallen-and-I Can’t-Get-Up device. She showed it to me. The butt of 3rd-grader jokes. Oh, you might think you will never need one of those but you’re probably wrong. This seller did indeed fall one day in her garage. She could not get up. She pressed the button and help arrived. She thought it was pretty funny when I suggested that it would be easier to have a chip implanted in your arm, except how would you activate it? You can wear one of those devices in the shower, too. You never take it off, the seller said.
I felt like I should have hugged her when I left, but I didn’t want to appear like one of those huggy-touchy-feelie people or overstep my boundaries. I’m just a Sacramento Realtor who gets to meet really interesting people. I’ll get the job done right for both of these sellers. And get them top dollar, too. Because that’s my job. I am so lucky to sell real estate in Sacramento. Those who are not in the business have no idea how much fun it is.
