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Zillow to Acquire Trulia and Who Cares About Realtor.com?
You can put all of those rumors to rest about Zillow acquiring Trulia because the official Zillow press release came out this morning that Zillow is indeed intending to take over Trulia in exchange for stock valued at $3.5 billion. As a consumer, you might not notice much difference as both websites will continue to operate as they always have, albeit, the merger should improve Trulia.
My own Sacramento listings on Trulia are tangled up and a mess. Still, I am excited about the news of Zillow to acquire Trulia. I’ve talked with customer service reps who seem to be following a revolving door and nobody has been able to fix the problem. In some instances, I can’t feature my listings as a special promotion. Some of the other problems are:
- Photos and marketing comments vanish after a listing moves into pending status
- No conformity among links to property sites
- Status modifiers are not active on all listings
- Photos uploads are slow and clunky
- Updates are not immediate and require 24+ hours
And that just breaks the surface. So, if you see that stuff on Trulia, don’t blame me. At times I may need to perform manual manipulation of my listings into Trulia if I want them to appear on my profile at all, but I’m not really complaining. Sometimes, I get clients who gripe and want to know why real estate agents don’t routinely try to update data on other companies’ websites but we don’t own those websites. They are owned by corporations. They may supplement our business a bit and provide a friendly service to the public but they are not our personal websites.
Some real estate agents around the country are freaking out over the intended purchase, they are not happy that to hear Zillow to acquire Trulia. They believe Zillow wants their jobs, their companies, their business and is out to slice their necks off like the top of a pineapple in one fell swoop. Zillow is not King Kong and we are not Jessica Langs. Paranoia has its place — why aren’t they more worried, for example, about Google world domination? BTW, you notice that nobody is talking about Realtor.com. Does anybody even use that website anymore?
I just go about my business, selling homes in Sacramento as a Sacramento real estate agent. If I had to pick a favorite website though, it would be Zillow, even though its computer-generated Z-estimates cause my clients so much frustration — because it makes my job even more important. It’s not a conflict. I bring extreme value to the table. Real estate still requires a human touch and expertise.
What the History From the Sacramento MLS Will Disclose
As a real estate agent in Sacramento, I am fortunate to have access to a vast network of private subscriber information that is unavailable to the public. Oh, the public is clamoring for listings, meaning homes for sale and, if they peck around on enough websites they can piece together a string of homes that may or may not be available. Not to mention, a real estate agent can give a buyer access to MLS information directly through MetroList Prospector, with a portal and all kinds of goodies. But an agent can’t give a buyer or a seller access to behind-the-scenes information, and that’s where the all of the crucial data lies. The “meat” is not in the square footage or sales price.
Maybe it’s my title and escrow background that makes me naturally inquisitive. I used to search title and liens for First American Title in the early 1970s. Uh, oh, I almost typed that date as 1907. Transposing the digits would probably no difference to most people; whereas to me the 1970s seems like it wasn’t all that long ago, but further down the path than, say, 1990s. Although the 1990s was yesterday, you know, and I still haven’t adjusted to the 2000s. What, what, new millennium?
My how time flies when we are researching the history of property through the Sacramento MLS. The MLS provides access to other links containing essential data ripe for exploring through other companies as well.
One can learn so much by looking at history. For example, when I take a new listing, I will study how many times it has been listed before and by whom and when. I pay particular attention to the Days on Market. Those days on market could become mine. I might not differentiate much between the 1970s and today but I do recall — without question and with superior clarity — what the real estate market was like in any given time period since then, let’s say, 2004. If I spot a home that sold in 2004, and it was on the market for longer than a few weeks, there was most likely something wrong with the listing.
Then I have to figure out the defect. Was it price? Location? Condition? Agent expertise? I blow the dust off the comps from back then, flip through the photos, pull up the agent’s license and background. If I see that the home has been withdrawn from the market repeatedly during all sorts of real estate markets — including hot and cold real estate markets — then it might be a seller problem. I have to ask myself if I want to take on that kind of problem. I love challenges. I thrive on challenges, actually, but I try to draw the line at working with assholes and crazy nut jobs.
I recently skirted one such situation. A seller called, seemingly desperate to sell a couple of homes in South Sacramento. The prices she wanted were out of the realm of reality but I sometimes agree to take overpriced listings if other factors are compelling. Let’s just say during my discovery phase, not one of the other elements was compelling. Nada. So, those potential listings were not listings. It was an exercise in futility and, while the 1970s might not seem like that long ago, one would hope that I have learned a thing or two along the way. Experience is invaluable.
Everything is Awesome in Sacramento Real Estate!
Everything is Awesome from the Lego Movie is worse than It’s a Small World at Disneyland — because at least with the latter it gave you hope for the world, some redemption for humanity — but both of those songs once they get stuck in your head end up on robo-tape, playing over and over. It’s a catchy tune, too. On the surface the lyrics are simple yet the song is super snarky, which is what makes it hilarious.
I would not be surprised if in Corporate America somewhere, some meeting planner decides that the song Everything is Awesome would make a great theme song for an annual convention. After all, everybody wants to be cool when they’re part of the team, right? If you step in shit, you just wear brown shoes, right? Ridiculous optimism rules the planet, doesn’t it? Who doesn’t love a glass is half full?
Perhaps the California Association of REALTORS will choose Everything is Awesome for its One Cool Thing campaign?
Actually, the best part of the Lego Movie was when Unikitty loses it and explodes in violent anger. Oh, sorry, that was a spoiler alert. My bad.
My husband said the Lego Movie was too smart for its own good, and I suppose there is an element of truth in that statement. I guess little kids really liked the movie but I suspect they came away with a much different story. Like Everything is Awesome and people are Special, which is not that much different than believing in the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus, so what’s the harm?
Well, I don’t know about you but I was pretty crushed when I discovered there was no Santa Claus, and no Tooth Fairy, either. I resisted the notion, gravitating toward the belief that my parents harbored some nefarious reason for deliberately shattering my illusions that Everything is Awesome!
On the other hand, I have learned throughout my 40 years in real estate how to do Everything is Awesome pretty well. That attitude, goofy as it may seem, helps me to sell Sacramento real estate. I do try to find the silver linings in situations because given the alternative who wants to slosh through mud every day? I try to perk up my listings to make them more attractive to buyers, which often includes parking an expensive foreign sports car right down the street and taking a photo for the “street view” in the listing.
An out-of-area client emailed this morning after I sent him the link to his new listing online. He mentioned that the last photograph in my series of photos seemed to be of a different property. I explained that was the view across the street, where everybody parks their Porsches. He wrote back to say maybe the area has gotten better since he last visited. See, it works!
Sacramento Real Estate Agents Who Get Results Develop Confidence
You know what kind of listings the top-ranking Sacramento real estate agents prefers to take? You might think it’s the luxury homes in Granite Bay or El Dorado Hills at a million or more or maybe it’s the homes in Land Park right by my house or the homes by my office in East Sacramento and, while all of those are good choices, I don’t focus entirely on those neighborhoods and the price tag isn’t the deciding factor.
Most successful Sacramento real estate agents gravitate toward listings for sale by sellers who are reasonable and who will listen to advice. It doesn’t mean they have to follow to the T every single suggestion I come up with, but they shouldn’t ignore my advice. I’ve spent decades picking up experience to share in the real estate business, and I’ve been successfully honing my craft ever since the 1970s.
I’m not one of those part-time Sacramento real estate agents. I am a full-time Sacramento Realtor. I’m not a mom or a grandma who raised a bunch of kids and is now looking for something to keep myself occupied. I started in the real estate business when I was barely 22-years-old, and it’s been more of a calling than a job.
For that reason, I see the big picture when I talk to a client. I spoke to a guy a few days ago about listing an investment property in a somewhat scary part of Sacramento. It’s not Land Park by any stretch, but if a seller needs to sell, I go to where they need me to go. I don’t discriminate or think I’m too hoity toity to take a listing in an economically distressed or crime-ridden neighborhood. I drove over to this not-so-nice part of town in 106-degree heat and shot professional photographs, standing in the middle of the street, walking the property line, sweating to death, perspiration dripping down the middle of my shirt.
I studied the comparable sales. It was clear to me that the amount I could probably sell this property for would be an astronomical sum that my competitors who looked at the same comparable sales probably would not see. It would be a challenge but I could do it. That’s where my years of experience come in handy. Plus, I know how to extract top dollar for a property; I network and I have connections as well. I could have given the seller a lower price and been done with it, but it wouldn’t have been the ethical thing to do.
After I prepared the paperwork and sent it to the seller, I got a bit of push back on the listing. It wasn’t about the price or overall compensation. The seller wanted to change my strategy and insisted I conform to the seller’s idea of how to sell this particular piece of challenging real estate. The seller is not in the business of selling real estate. In fact, I’d go so far as to say the seller should not have ever done what the seller had done with regards to this particular property but that doesn’t alter the present.
My thoughts about this are it’s not gonna work for me. We’re not a team on this, not of one mind. It ultimately won’t really work for the seller either the way he wants to do it but the seller won’t figure that out until it’s been on the market for 6 months without any offers. I just tell people what I see and how I work. If they don’t want to go along with it, that’s OK. My feelings aren’t hurt. I am not a foie gras agent, prone to force feeding my clients. I don’t shove anything down anybody’s throat.
I just look at the client who is closing next week and pocketing an extra 10% profit because she listened to me. When I met with her, she was undecided between hiring me or another Sacramento agent. The other agent would charge less and wanted to list at a lower price, too. The seller had a hard time believing that she could sell for the price I quoted and did not want to pay a full commission. But in the end, she gave the listing to me at the higher price, paid my fee without griping, and now she’s laughing all the way to the bank.
Getting Business as a Sacramento Listing Agent
Anybody who thinks Sacramento real estate is dull and uninteresting is probably not a top listing agent in Sacramento. They probably don’t read this blog, either. There is always something horrific going on, some transaction trying to slip sideways down the hill that I’ve got to attach to a crane and hoist back up, but it’s never boring. I stay on top of my files.
Right now, ever since the vague thought of I really need to take a few more listings crossed my mind over the weekend, suddenly bunches of sellers have been contacting me to get their homes into MLS and sold. Now, I am not a spiritual person much less a religious person but it reminds me of Tom Robbin’s new book (memoir?) I’m reading, Tibetan Peach Pie. Robbins talks about picking tomatoes in the hot sun as a kid growing up in the South. His kid buddy he called Gumboot cried out in desperation one day as he was sweating to death in the tomato fields, “Good Lord, if it’s in Thy power, send me that knocking-off shower.” And lo and behold the heavens opened up and it poured down rain.
Those thoughts didn’t pass through my brain with much conviction. It was a passing minor panic attack of sorts, probably lasted all of 2 seconds, but it did cross my mind that I’ve been closing so many escrows lately that I need to pop a few more into the hopper on the front end. Where was that business gonna come from? Selling real estate is a balancing act, if you’re gonna run it like a business, which it is. A good Sacramento listing agent can’t run out of inventory.
The way I see it: I’ve got new listings to take, existing listings to sell and listings to close. Those are my 3 main focuses throughout the day. Everything else is external noise. I am almost impaired that way, my intense concentration is on those 3 areas. Some agents have to go out looking for business but business finds me, so that’s one aspect of being a Sacramento listing agent that I am fortunate I don’t have to spend a lot of time on.
Somewhere I read that agents spend 1/3 of their time canvassing for business. I suppose when I started in the business, I spent more time looking for clients but that was so long ago I don’t recall. Or, maybe it’s ingrained in me to such an extent that I don’t even notice it any longer. Perhaps I solicit in my sleep? I meet a person, doesn’t matter who or where, and that person knows I sell real estate in Sacramento. You can count on it. It’s a lifestyle.
My team held quite a few open houses yesterday. Oh, people like to pooh-pooh open houses and say they don’t sell real estate and some do not. Although buyers might not decide to buy a house through an open house; however, it’s how they often see the house they are planning to buy. Agents swarmed one such open house Sunday in Elk Grove. We ran out of flyers, which is highly unusual. One agent went into the back yard and started handing out business cards to visitors before she was slapped by my team member.
There’s a time and place for that kind of thing, and at another agent’s open house is not the time nor the place.
