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Buyer’s Agents Who Say We Are Sending an Offer
So much of the time the agent who claims we are sending an offer never sends it.
Buyer’s agents in Sacramento often email or call to say: we are sending an offer on your listing. Does the offer ever show up? Sometimes. Sometimes not. Most of the time, I don’t even tell the seller that an agent is promising to send an offer because so many times the offer simply never materializes, and then I’ve got a distraught seller on my hands. It doesn’t matter that the seller is not upset with me, the fact is the seller would be upset, and I’m not going there.
Part of my job as a listing agent in Sacramento is to manage expectations. Buyer’s agents, for example, can be more excited about a listing than their buyers because they view the home with professional eyes. They can also misread a buyer’s hot buttons, believe a home is perfect for the buyer when it is not. However, I will say, in this Sacramento market at the moment, the home could be held up by toothpicks, painted bright purple with the roof in flames and it would sell in a heart beat.
The point is agents tend to get upset when the seller takes another offer and does not accept their offer. They also get miffed if they call an agent to say an offer is going to arrive, and that listing agent and her seller do not wait for them. They don’t understand that we are not obligated to wait for every Tom, Dick and Harry who says: we are sending an offer. If you have an offer, hand it over. An offer in my email or in my hand is worth something. A promise to send an offer?
Well, what do you think?
What do sellers think? Sellers tend to think words are words and actions are actions. There is a new form that Lyon created for listing agents to upload to MLS with instructions for buyer’s agents on how offers will be handled. To stop the whining. Do listing agents need to explain to buyer’s agents how our spring Sacramento real estate market works? That buyers might want to submit “highest and best” because a counter offer might not be forthcoming? It’s called Real Estate 101. Except for the rare short sale here and there, I don’t typically attach seller instructions to MLS because I don’t happen to believe it’s in good form to pre-decide how an offer will be handled when every.single.situation is unique.
There are also buyers who won’t make an offer on a home if they realize the seller is angling for multiple offers. Why would a seller want to eliminate any buyers from making an offer? Sure, leaving offer submissions flexible means it’s more work for the listing agent, but so is getting out of bed at my age. Every home and every seller deserve an individual plan. We go with the flow. My approach is always customized for the situation at hand, with my seller’s best interest as the focus. I can tell a seller a buyer’s agent says we are sending an offer, but sellers won’t care until it shows up.
If you prefer a strong listing agent in Sacramento who will focus on you, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Why Trulia Listings Are Missing Homes for Sale in Sacramento
The delays in delivering Trulia listings to the public means that home is probably not available.
It doesn’t matter if you are looking for Trulia listings on Trulia or Zillow listings on Zillow, the information offered is not exactly the same data a home buyer could receive if the buyer obtained her listings from a Sacramento Realtor. That’s a major disadvantage to a buyer who does not have an agent. Relying on Trulia listings or Zillow listings is a very difficult way to hope to buy a home in Sacramento; almost impossible. Yet you wouldn’t know that because the photographs are pretty and the homes appear to be for sale, even when many are not.
Let’s say, just for the fun of it, that you find a home through Trulia listings that you would like to buy. Here’s what you don’t know. You don’t know if any of the four agents presented to you as authorities for a particular neighborhood have ever sold a home in that neighborhood. Fact. Many are new agents who pay to advertise their mugs on Trulia in hopes you will call them. If you do call one of those agents, realize the phone number is not the agent’s phone number. The individual phone numbers listed for agents belongs to Trulia or Zillow and . . . Big Brother is tracking and recording your call. Betcha didn’t know that.
If you do manage by some miracle to contact an agent who answers her phone, the agent will want to show you other homes if that home is pending, and that particular home is most likely pending or sold. Just realize the odds of that home being for sale are not very high. The market for Sacramento real estate is moving FAST. Often homes sell before the For Sale sign is pounded into the ground.
I can assure you there are homes you want to buy RIGHT NOW that are not among Trulia listings. I hear Trulia is working on this issue, but it’s been an issue for us agents forever. When will it get fixed? I don’t know. Like you, I want it now, and I can’t get it from Trulia. If a 40-year veteran agent can’t get it, what does it say about you?
The lead time for MLS data from brokers to download into Trulia is 48 to 72 hours. There is a delay. Two to three days for brand new listings to appear! Fact. Plus, Trulia does not pick up every listing that shows up on Zillow, either. Although Zillow tends to immediately reflects new listings for sale, providing they were not entered into its site in some earlier format, but loses points because it also lists homes that are not for sale at all such as so-called preforeclosures.
If you are not working a local Sacramento Realtor, the truth is you probably will not buy a home. Or, certainly not the home you really want. You need that connection to the inventory and our specific market knowledge, not to mention our networking within the industry.
If you want to find out if the listing agent presented to you is actually the listing agent, then you need to click on that agent’s website and look for the address. Or, you can decide to hire the best Sacramento buyer’s agent you can find. The agents who work on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team are top-notch, and we are crazy busy in this spring market, but never too busy for you. Call us. We can help you to navigate the maze of independent websites offering homes for sale. Your best bet is not Trulia listings nor Zillow listings. Your best bet is an experienced Sacramento Realtor. This is not a do-it-yourself situation.
Call your internet specialist, Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Top producer Sacramento Realtor at Lyon Real Estate, the #1 Sacramento brokerage for sales.
Do You Struggle When Making Decisions?
Do not be hard on yourself if you struggle with making decisions.
Decisions, decisions. You know how some people really struggle with making decisions? Like, should I buy a home? Should I move into this neighborhood or should I take the offer we just received on our Sacramento home? Those are major decisions that require processing, and everybody works on a different timeframe. Sometimes even minor decisions are a struggle such as what color should I paint my walls? Should I cut my hair? Should I stretch my earlobes to flaunt quarter-sized gauges? Should I shoot up heroin?
I am reaching back into my brain trying to find a time in my life when I seriously had trouble making a decision. I am one of those people who can quickly come to a conclusion and decide. Not a predicament for me. Even though I fully realize that with every decision I make, it means abandoning a ton of other decisions that are no longer an option.
I suspect that’s the part that bothers many other people. It’s not the decision itself, it’s the roads not taken. The regrets that people fear.
A long time ago in another land a wise person once said to me, “Make your decision and then make your decision right.” Most people do that anyway, in a natural way. If you give them enough time.
The reason I can be so patient with my clients in Sacramento real estate is because I understand the reluctance to make a decision, and am emphatic to the anguish that decisions can cause for so many people.
My interaction is to inform, educate and guide. Clients can make their own decisions in their own time. I don’t push anybody. I listen instead. Part of the reason sellers hire this Sacramento Realtor to list a home, for example, is because they don’t want a bumpy escrow. No drama here. They rely on my 40-some years in the business to ensure they don’t make mistakes, to maintain a smooth process, and guard against unsavory tactics that can fluster a less experienced agent.
Sometimes I’m just a sounding board. Should I or shouldn’t I, people ask. I can provide direction but only the decision maker who asked the question can choose.
Elizabeth Weintraub Team Welcomes Spring at Hawks in Midtown
Dan Tharp, Josh Amolsch and Amy McMullan pause from eating at Hawks in Midtown.
Preparing for the next 3 months in Sacramento real estate required a visit last night by the Elizabeth Weintraub Team to Hawks in Midtown for dinner and drinks. Hawks Public House is the restaurant, and Hawks Provisions is the delectable to-go-side (take-outs and sandwiches). You’ve probably driven past it on Stockton / P Streets on Alhambra plenty of times, saw the place was jam-packed and wondered about it. Or, maybe you read a review in the Sacramento Bee by Carla Meyer. Or, perhaps you’ve been to Hawks in Granite Bay and are curious about the spin-off in Midtown.
Whatever your reason for thinking about stopping at Hawks in Midtown, you should go. Be prepared for plenty of noise, though. It’s very loud, and your throat might feel a little sore by the end of the evening from screaming across the table, but it’s all part of the ambiance and a seriously small sacrifice in exchange for such luxurious food.
I had a super busy day, this last day in March. First, I replaced a crown yesterday morning. My dentist in Midtown thought it was a 20-year crown until I corrected him. That crown was done 40 years ago. It was the first crown I ever received, and it was a shock at that tender age, my early 20s, to acknowledge that an original part of my body was defective. I had cracked my molar. There was no turning back. I had to accept a foreign element as a fix for it. I was no longer unadulterated. Getting my first crown was worse than the aftermath of lost virginity or a first, second, third or fourth divorce, those other milestones in life.
Adam wishes his wife would stop poking his radiatore at Hawks in Midtown.
Of course now, now that I’m turning 64 in a few months, my attitude has shifted. I’m almost willing to change out all of my body parts for better ones. Although my jaw was still sore from the novocaine injection, it didn’t stop me from celebrating with my Weintraub Team at Hawks in Midtown. We indulged in a feast of appetizers and snacks before our entrees. You can see the photo with my patient husband, wondering when he might get to eat as I’m stabbing his radiatore with my fork.
The next 3 months in Sacramento real estate will be crazy nuts this year. We might not get another chance to hang out for at least 90 days. This is the time to be on the market in Sacramento, not July or August. Now. Today. And the listings are trickling in . . . in fact, I just listed a new home in Carmichael and had to rush to Hawks in Midtown to make our 6:30 reservation.
Barbara Dow and Dan Tharp at Hawks in Midtown chose the burger and fries.
But we didn’t really talk much about Sacramento real estate. Not to mention, we were busy eating. The steak tartare was fabulous, but the asparagus salad was pretty skimpy to share. The Ciccioli was a delightful surprise as I was not expecting to like a pressed terrine of pig fat (served with sour cherry mustard and toast made it even better than I had imagined). I also devoured in like 30 seconds the trout with black-eyed peas, and the skin was crisp, seasoned and perfect.
Dan Tharp (from Guild Mortgage), and REALTORS® Amy McMullan, Barbara Dow and Josh Amolsch, all ordered the Wagyu beef burger, served with gruyére and caramelized onions on a brioche bun. The french fries alone were superb. I don’t know how we managed to survive dessert because we had entered the state of mind where it just doesn’t get any better than this.
If you go to Hawks in Midtown, enter from the Stockton Street side, directly into the Sutter parking lot and head off to your left. They take reservations for parties of 6 minimum, and there is basically one huge round table that will support a party of 6 to 8 people comfortably. Although, Hawks should consider installing screens to block some of that late afternoon sun from shining directly into the eyes of their diners.
A Second Chance for Cold Feet Home Buyers in Sacramento
The Sacramento Regional Transit Light Rail passes between Ella Dining and Brasserie Capitale.
When one door closes, another opens and gives home buyers in Sacramento a second chance. I admit that I was a bit bummed yesterday when a previous client bailed on listing his home to sell to some stranger he met in the street, on top of They Might Be Giants canceling the show in Berkeley, but I solved that disappointment by focusing on other things. Things you can’t change you need to let go of, immediately. Especially in Sacramento real estate. But that thinking does not apply to canceling a transaction because home buyers in Sacramento have cold feet.
It makes me wonder if buyers who have canceled transactions for my sellers over petty issues later regret those actions. We are closing an escrow next month that I had to sell twice because the first set of home buyers in Sacramento elected to cancel escrow. They expected the seller to replace the entire fence, which was not only unnecessary but an odd request to receive.
Other buyers who canceled a transaction a few weeks back decided yesterday that they should now buy that home. This could be a dilemma for the agent. I mean, what do you do when the buyers have canceled once? Do you give them a second chance and hope they don’t do it again? Probably not. Not without some sort of assurance or guarantee that the same situation won’t repeat itself. However, due to limited inventory in Sacramento, once buyers are in escrow, most buyers would do just about anything to stay there. If these home buyers in Sacramento understand our market.
I thought about that last night as I poked my lobster carbonara at Ella Dining Room and Bar downtown. Mustered all of my strength to twirl the hand-cut chitarra pasta around the butter-poached Maine lobster on my fork, dribbling with spring peas, which included a tasty bit of pancetta accentuated by spicy black pepper and stuffed it into my mouth. My team member and I advised the home buyers in Sacramento to sign a contingency release and include a Request for Repair for the already agreed-upon work to get back into escrow. We apologized profusely. These home buyers in Sacramento were ready to move forward and deeply regretted previous actions.
You don’t see that happen very often. Buyers who come to their senses. Or, sellers willing to take them back. But the sellers granted these home buyers in Sacramento a second chance yesterday.
I also tasted my husband’s artichoke and mascarpone tortellini. His dish featured a bluefoot mushroom so meaty and thick I forgot for a moment that I was eating a fungus. Between our appetizer and first courses, we were almost too satiated to finish our main courses. I’ve included a few photos below, just in case you’re getting hungry reading. I paired the lobster carbonara with a Patricia Green pinot noir from Willamette Valley in Oregon. I’m seriously enthralled with wines from Oregon lately, including the Hood River.
This was a nice ending to a day that started out pretty crummy. And our second chance home buyers in Sacramento are back in escrow.
Lobster Carbonara served at Ella Dining Room and Bar for Whole Hog Month at Ella in March 2016.
Artichoke and Mascarpone Tortellini served at Ella for Whole Hog month of March 2016.
Photos © Elizabeth Weintraub
