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The Parallels Between Communication and Service
My car turned 2 years old a few days ago, so I made an appointment to change the oil with a new service center in Midtown, Sacramento. Last year, I had the dealer pick it up to change the oil and bring it back, and they charged me about $250. The guy in Midtown charges $125, and he gives me a ride home to Land Park. The problem with changing service centers is the guy in Midtown can’t perform warranty work and get paid by the manufacturer. For that, I have to go to the dealer. Since the dealer is the only dealer around Sacramento, if something goes haywire, I’m stuck with the dealer.
My sister bought a car in Minneapolis, and the only service center for her car is in Madison, Wisconsin, 6 hours away, so I don’t know why I’m complaining about a 45-minute drive. Well, yes, I do, because I don’t have a choice. The guy in Midtown told me my transmission fluid was leaking, so that meant if I wanted it covered under warranty, it’s off to the dealership with it. Fortunately, I could call Roadside Assistance and make them tow it, so I did not have to interrupt my workday to drive to the dealer.
I had the car picked up on Friday. The dealer called me on Saturday to say, yup, it looks like my transmission fluid is leaking. The plan was to clean it up and try to figure out why it was leaking. On Monday, the dealer called and said they don’t know why it’s leaking but they suspect it’s a gasket.
Really? I thought maybe it was caused by a cosmic reaction to global warming.
In any case, since it’s a gasket, they will have to order that part, and yes, they know I expected to pick up my car on Tuesday but it will be least Thursday before it will be ready. No apologies. And my guy is going on vacation, so I can talk to his buddy if I have questions.
See, this is a perfect example of excellent communication yet poor service skills. It should take not a week to determine a gasket is needed, and to obtain and install a gasket. You don’t have to be in the automobile industry to feel this way about it. Just like a real estate client doesn’t have to completely understand how real estate works to feel like she is not a priority to her Sacramento real estate agent. I would die if a client felt that way about me. Curl up and die. Because service is everything.
I know that sellers and buyers have choices when it comes to picking a real estate agent. We are not all the same. They are not stuck with the first agent they run into, and there is not only agent working in Sacramento. Competition should breed excellence. But I don’t simply strive to provide excellent service because I’m concerned that a client might ring up an agent on the other block. I do it because I care about my performance. I take pride in my work. My goal is for my clients to be happy.
Just because I work at the largest independently owned real estate company in Sacramento doesn’t mean we sit back, kick up our feet and enjoy our monopoly like this automobile dealer. I work with a great group of people at Lyon Real Estate, and I love my team members to pieces. If you’re looking for a Sacramento real estate agent, please know that I will strive to meet your expectations.
I closed more than 150 transactions last year. Each was important. You want something done right — you ask a busy person to do it. I am never too busy to pick up my phone and talk to you.
Goodbye to 2012 Sacramento Real Estate Market
This past year of 2012 could have been the best of times and also the worst of times but I’m not saying which. No sense making a proclamation. I will say for many sellers of short sales in Sacramento, the year was bitter sweet. It’s a relief to eliminate a financial burden, an albatross around the neck. For many, the road to a short sale was anything but comfortable. Nobody wants to come to the realization that it’s time to get rid of the house. The house they so desperately wanted to buy when it was purchased.
I’ve worked with sellers this past year who did not do a short sale. Believe it or not. Some of my clients were traditional sellers, that is sellers who had equity. Even the clients who were moving out of state, looking forward to a new life elsewhere, were not exactly ecstatic to be forced to release their home by selling it to a complete stranger.
It’s a little odd working with sellers who are not thrilled to be selling. It’s not like the old days, the days of the 1970s . . . and thank god I don’t have to listen to Barry Manilow anymore . . . the days when sellers were making money hand over fist. Sellers were selling even if they didn’t have to sell because there was too much money in their home, equity that was burning a hole in their pockets. They wanted to see it up close and personal. Cash in fist. Selling was a good way to capitalize on their equity.
So was creating paper. I worked with sellers who became buyers by creating a promissory note and recording a trust deed against their residences. These prom notes were often straight notes, without payments and accruing, often annually compounding, interest. Sellers used these prom notes as down payments on other homes, which also carried straight notes secured to them as part of the financing. This was like putting a roulette gun to their heads and not pulling the financial trigger for a few years. Maybe there was a bullet in that gun, maybe not. Riskier today than it sounded back then.
It’s much more straight forward these days. Although, in Sacramento’s frantic real estate market, I have been able to squeeze out a few sales this last quarter for sellers that were not short sales and probably would have or should have been if they had been listed with somebody else. Fortunately, we were able to stretch that sales price far enough to make the home sale an equity sale. That’s the advantage of hiring a Sacramento real estate agent with her finger on the pulse of the Sacramento real estate market. The market shows no signs of letting up. The tide is still rolling in.
Yup. Twice a day in French Polynesia, where I will watch fireworks tonight. Happy New Year to you!
How to Submit a Back Up Offer
The real estate market in Sacramento is so crazy that a really smart move for any aspiring buyer might be to try a back up offer. The problem is no inventory. Now, you would think that little inventory would have solved the problem of flakey and indecisive buyers, especially for those buying Sacramento short sales, but it hasn’t. Buyers still abruptly cancel transactions even though their chances of being able to buy another home are dwindling as surely as the minute hand on that clock continues to move.
An agent called me several days ago to explain why his buyer was canceling. Like I give a crap. Canceling is canceling. He said the buyer’s lender did not explain Mello Roos to the buyer and therefore had incorrectly quoted the buyer’s pending mortgage payment. The buyer had not counted on having to pay an additional $100 a month or so. Except when I looked at the original offer tracking sheet, I discovered the buyer’s first offer had been $10,000 over market value. I was the person who had explained to the buyer’s agent that the home had to appraise. The buyer had originally agreed to pay a higher mortgage payment, but now that the price was less, that same payment was freaky. Wha?
Logical or not, buyers do suddenly cancel purchase contracts. That part hasn’t changed. I don’t think they understand the market, and why should they? Home buyers are bit players. One person buying one house. Investors and real estate agents who are active in the Sacramento market realize how difficult it is to buy a home right now. The median sales price has gone up from $155,000 a year ago in October to $180,000 last month. Yet, another reason why it’s smart to lock down a potential purchase through a back-up offer. Lock in that lower price.
When a seller signs a back-up offer, it means if the existing buyer cancels, the new buyer moves into first position and becomes the buyer. There is no going back on the market as an active short sale or active listing. The home is never exposed to the market a second time.
But you can’t just send the listing agent an offer and say:“Keep this in backup.” Well, you can, but it won’t be in backup. You need to submit a formal Purchase Agreement Addendum (PAA) with your purchase contract. Moreover, you can’t just sign a PAA and send it. It must be completed. Don’t cry Ma. If an agent doesn’t fill in the two spots in Section 1, the PAA is incomplete. One spot signifies the position for the buyer. Does the buyer want to be in #1, #2 or #3 position? The second spot indicates how long the buyer is willing to wait for the existing buyer to cancel. Is it 10 days? 120 days? A year?
You can also use a much simpler form, the C.A.R. Backup Offer Addendum.
Of course, if a buyer offers less than list price or something else is incompatible in the offer for the seller, the seller is not obligated to accept a back-up offer. Sellers are never forced to accept a back-up offer — even if the home is offered for sale as an Active Short Contingent. But most sellers are happy to receive a back-up offer and will accept. Like with anything in real estate, your offer needs to be signed, dated and in writing.
Sacramento Real Estate is a Service Business
A Sacramento real estate agent often multitasks.
I had a terrible experience buying my home in Land Park. I didn’t realize how horrible it was at the time because I had been juggling too many balls in the air, moving clear across the country from Minnesota, and it’s only in retrospect all these years later that I realize it was too awful to wish on even my worst nemesis. Without going into gory details, I can say the thing I hated the most was the non-existant communication. My agent rarely called me back. She did not respond to emails. This was way before the age of text messages, but I imagine she would not have responded to text messages, either. It was like a vast empty pit into which I dumped questions and never got anything back in return.
Because my husband was already living in Sacramento, my real estate agent might have thought her duty was to him. She might not have realized there were two of us she needed to address. But the fact remains, she ignored me. Let’s just say it cost her. And I vowed from that experience that no client would ever utter those words about me.
I try not to assume anything. I know that my clients do not buy nor sell real estate for a living. They can’t possibly know what I know — I’ve pretty much run out of fingers and toes to count my years of experience in real estate. I try to be very sensitive to the needs of my clients. If they ask me a question, I respond. In fact, I try to answer their questions before they have a question. No question is too simple to ask. For example, when people call to say it is time to do a short sale, I make sure they understand that to do a short sale means they are selling their home. Not everybody understands this premise.
Last week I listed a home and had to point out the commission to the sellers so they understood how much they were paying me. They didn’t ask about it. But they did ask who was paying the buyer’s agent. I explain agency relationships, and not just because the California Civil Code requires it but because it’s important to know.
When clients send me a thank you after an escrow closes, they say how happy they were that I kept them informed throughout the transaction. That I responded immediately to their needs. They are thrilled. It’s the WOW factor. Others read those thank-you letters and my reviews and ask how can I be so responsive to my clients when I am so busy with work? I am a very busy Sacramento real estate agent. I sell from Lincoln to Galt. It’s because my clients are my work. When I am working, they come first. What’s so difficult about that?
The No Pressure Sacramento Real Estate Agent
Wanna know a secret? I am really terrible when it comes to follow up for developing my Sacramento real estate business. By that I mean I wait for people to call me back. I don’t hound them or ask over and over if they are ready to buy or sell a home in Sacramento. My strategy is to be patient. I figure if they want to buy or sell, they will let me know, and that’s probably not a very good strategy for a Sacramento real estate agent to follow. That’s not what they teach in real estate school, you know. They teach you to be a lot more aggressive. To call, prod, email, push, inquire, check up on and keep one’s fingers on the pulse of business.
If some Sacramento real estate agent followed me around and picked up the business I let fall by the wayside, she or he could make a good living in real estate. Much of being a success in real estate is being in the right place at the right time. It helps to have experience, skill and knowledge, but those things aren’t necessarily essential in the real estate business, it pains me to say. Everybody sells real estate differently. No two agents are the same.
Since I move a lot of inventory, my approach is somewhat different. I prefer to be analytical and study each situation to determine the best strategy. Go for the highest price. I figure that’s part of what I’m getting paid for — to do the best job possible for my clients. That involves waiting until my sellers are ready to sell, for example. Once I’m given that green light, I’m working with lightning speed.
Still, I can’t help but wonder how many sellers lose my business card, forget my name or decide to list with their Uncle Joe or neighbor down the street simply because I didn’t continue to bug them to list with me. Well, it doesn’t really matter in the long run. It’s not in my nature to bug people. If they want to list with some other real estate agent, that’s OK.
I just sold my 95th house for the year yesterday. That’s only counting the sellers, the listing side. It doesn’t take buyers into consideration at all. It’s a good life, selling homes in Sacramento. That’s what I focus on. The business at hand. You want no pressure and a job well done? Give this Sacramento real estate agent a jingle. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. I answer my phone, too.
