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Sacramento Realtor: I Found You on the Internet
People who say I found you on the Internet are interested in hiring a Sacramento Realtor
The first words I hear from many callers when I answer my phone is “I found you on the internet,” like they are almost embarrassed to admit they were not personally referred to me or they are taking a long shot. Since I’ve been online for the past 25 years and in the real estate business since 1974, I’ve got a lot of experience that shows up online.
You can’t turn around on Google without running into something I wrote or finding a home that is listed for sale in Sacramento popping up. It’s like you can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant. Not only do I write articles for About.com as their homebuying expert, but I write plenty of stuff on my own blogs and am interviewed a lot by the media. I suppose this is the stuff agent dreams are made of. I’m very fortunate that people can say I found you on the internet.
Right place at the right time sort of thing. It’s organic traffic that drives people to my website. No trickery, no SEO, no hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on PR companies to market and raise my internet presence like UC Davis. I write stuff people want to read, and they remember my name.
Just yesterday I received a call from a seller in Santa Cruz. We had a long talk. She seemed astonished that she found me online since the internet is not a place she visits. She doesn’t even do email, if you can believe that, but there are plenty of people who lead productive, happy lives without the internet. Just because you and I cannot fathom that reality doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
She was a bit upset that my cellphone number began with 916. She said that probably means I am a Realtor in Sacramento and she needs a person like me in Santa Cruz. Have you ever tried to find a duplicate you in a parallel universe? I did go on a hunt and found an agent I think might be a good fit her. It’s not really an agent that I can say I found you on the internet, but I did do a search for low level license numbers.
My license number is 00697006. That means I was licensed as the # 697,006 agent in California. We have more than 2 million real estate licenses now. I got my license in the late 1970s. If you want to call me and say I found you on the internet, that’s perfect OK. That’s music to my ears. If I can’t work with you, I’ll refer you to an agent in your neighborhood.
Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Home Closing in Sacramento and Out of State at Same Time
Home closing in Sacramento and out of state at the same time is easy for this Sacramento Realtor.You might think that home closing in Sacramento and out of state at the same time is pretty much impossible to do but it’s a cakewalk for this experienced Realtor. It doesn’t mean I am not aware of the stress and anxiety that selling a home in one state and buying in another state can bring on because I’ve done it myself, been there and done that personally. In addition, I help clients all the time move in and out of California.
Yes, it’s a little tricky, but I’m extremely organized, and I know where the pitfalls are. I know what little innocent mistake can make your transaction blow up or get delayed. When there is more than one sale happening at about the same time, each dependent on the other, it can be a little nerve-wracking for agents without a lot of experience at this. Imagine their poor clients!
I tell my clients the last thing they want to see happen is to be sitting on top of their packed boxes, waiting for the mover, and find out the transaction is not closing on one end or the other. Chewed fingernails. Empty bourbon bottles littered about. People who didn’t smoke could be driven to take up smoking because they listed with the wrong agent and not Elizabeth Weintraub. Not a pretty sight. Cigarette butts.
Don’t let it happen to you. Hire the right person upfront. Eliminate the horror stories from the get-go. I know how to get things done. If you’re doing a home closing in Sacramento and out of state at same time, I will make sure your transactions close. I look for little problems that could occur and prevent them.
For me it is easy. For another agent, maybe not. I probably do 20 things other agents do not upon receipt of a purchase offer, stuff nobody even thinks about. I do the worrying for you. I am always planning ahead and putting together strategic plans. If you are home closing in Sacramento and out of state at the same time, I’m your Sacramento Realtor. Call Elizabeth at 916.233.6759.
Summer Home Sale Activity in Sacramento
Trend over 15 months of average square foot prices of sold homes in Sacramento.
The summer home sale activity in Sacramento has fallen into a bit of a lull, but that doesn’t mean sales are not happening. It’s seasonal — homebuyers often do not start hunting for a home in the dead heat of August dog days. Buyers are still looking at homes but at a much more leisurely pace. Inventory is increasing, but not enough to make much of a dent in the demand. There are still crummy homes in bad condition that sellers expect to get top dollar for without lifting a finger and those still linger.
When I went to Parkway Estates yesterday, near 99 and Florin, to talk with a potential home seller, I was asked about the summer home sale activity. He thought it was the best time to list a home. I asked why he harbored that opinion. Well, he’s been talking to agent after agent and every single agent told him the same thing. NOW is the time to sell. Who woulda thunk? Actually, that’s what is drummed into every agent’s head, NOW is always always always the time to sell because guess what? Any time an agent makes money, that’s a good time.
It’s not necessarily so good for the seller. If sellers want to optimize a home selling experience, sometimes it is better to wait for the fall market and the busload of fall buyers who suddenly appear on our horizon. And I don’t say this simply because I have a two-week vacation in Spain approaching as I always take my laptop along on trips, and I stay in touch no matter what. No, I say this because every summer I see the same results of summer home sale activity in Sacramento, which means it slows down in August.
The Sacramento real estate market heats up again right after Labor Day. That’s when all the kids are back in school, vacations are over, and families probably enjoyed a little bit too much closeness with each other over the 3-day holiday weekend. That’s when they say, you know what we need? A bigger house!
In any case, I assured the seller this Sacramento Realtor will take care of him. He wanted to know how I juggle all of my listings and was a little bit embarrassed to ask if his price range was below the normal average sales price that I sell. He was asking if I discriminate against lower priced listings or work harder on higher priced listings. Silly, yes, but not for him. Broke my heart he had to ask. His sale is every bit as important to me as the sale of a $3 million home. Every single one of my sellers gets my undivided attention. In fact, they often say I make them feel like my only client.
This seller needs to fix up his home a little to get top dollar. Brush off the cobwebs, paint, spruce it up. That doesn’t happen overnight. NOW is not the right time to sell his home, and I would like to pound the heads of the agents who pushed him like that. But I won’t have to because he’s listing with me, and we’re going on the market in the fall. The summer home sale activity in Sacramento shows this is not the right time for him.
We had 2,000 homes close escrow in June in Sacramento County and only 1,668 in July. I predict that number will be even lower for August. The one thing that is constant, though, is the rising average per-square-foot price. Take a look at the Trendgraphix chart on this page. It speaks volumes.
If you need to sell a home in Sacramento, call Elizabeth Weintraub, 40-year veteran and top producer, at 916.233.6759.
Thoughts on Disclosure Regarding Real Estate Agency Relationship
Realtors should present the disclosure regarding real estate agency relationship as soon as practical.
Most California Realtors ask a buyer to sign the Disclosure Regarding Real Estate Agency Relationship when the buyer signs a purchase offer, but my philosophy lies more in accordance with the intent of the disclosure and we get it signed before showing property. On page two of the disclosure, in compliance with California Civil Code 2079.13 (k) and (i), in the fine print that nobody reads, it states: The selling agent shall provide the disclosure form to the seller as soon as practicable prior to presenting the seller with an offer to purchase . . .
If we are showing homes to a buyer, that’s a good time to get it signed, before we walk out the door. It establishes disclosure, although it does not confirm agency relationships. Agency relationships are confirmed in the purchase offer itself. Yet, we have a property manager with a real estate license in Sacramento who disagrees and has refused to enter sales in MLS under the selling agent’s name. This agent prefers instead to enter all the names of all the agents who have ever signed a Disclosure Regarding Real Estate Agency Relationship with this buyer.
MetroList has not yet enforced its own rules on one of my recent sales that say a listing broker needs to enter correct information from the selling broker. MLS Rules 10.1: Final sales shall be defined as recorded transfer of property. Final sales with the correct cooperating broker information and the correct sales information shall be entered into the MLS by the listing broker within three (3) business days of the final closing date.
The purpose of a Disclosure Regarding Real Estate Agency Relationship is to inform sellers and buyers that agents work in various capacities. An agent can represent the seller, the buyer, or both parties, under dual agency. It’s a disclosure, not an agreement. On the Realtor’s side, presenting the agency to buyers determines whether a) they trust, and b) they read. Further, it states: Throughout your real property transaction you may receive more than one disclosure form, depending upon the number of agents assisting in the transaction. The law requires each agent with whom you have more than a casual relationship to present you with this disclosure form.
Real estate law is such that ten agents could show a buyer property, yet only one agent is the selling agent noted on page 10 of the California Residential Purchase Agreement. Still, for no particular reason that I can see, we have a rogue Realtor who has refused to record the sole selling agent into MLS. That’s his story and he’s sticking to it. He says more than one agent signed an agency disclosure so he’s reporting all of those agents as the selling agents to MLS, regardless of the selling broker’s instructions. This strikes me as an odd situation that MetroList clerks appear reluctant to fix.
While I’m on a roll, I have a beef with the way the Agency Disclosure appears in ZIPForms. I have asked the California Association of Realtors (CAR) to consider changing the first field in its listing package in ZIPForms, but no representative from CAR has responded. I can’t be the only California Realtor to have noticed that when the template for the RLA loads into ZIPForms, the first document, the Disclosure Regarding Real Estate Agency Relationship, has such a teeny tiny field that it’s emphatically too small to read the seller’s name. It’s not my 20 / 20 vision.
Just goes to show that the end user might not have been considered when the fields were designed. They ought to test these things in the field with real people who use it, real Realtors. The fields change from blue to green with black lettering, which is also not easy on the eyes. Even if they just switched the order of the documents and made the Seller Representation of More Than One Buyer or Seller the first to load, it would help; that name field font is much larger.
One typo in the seller’s name on the Disclosure Regarding Real Estate Agency Relationship carries throughout the listing paperwork. It’s a PITA, but that’s the life of a Sacramento Realtor. Don’t get me started on agents who argue about how many agency disclosures a seller is required to sign . . .
The Reasons Realtors Get Paid So Much
There are many valid reasons Realtors get paid so much.
For those who wonder about the reasons Realtors get paid so much, I’ve got news for you. For starters, they don’t. According to NAR most Realtors earn around $45,000 a year. Is that a lot of money to you? Further, you’ve got good Realtors and bad Realtors, just like any other profession. I hate to break it to you, but that dentist who is sticking a drill bit in your mouth? He’s that snotty-nose kid who used to sit behind you in third grade, kicking your chair. Although his grade point average throughout grade school was a lousy D-minus, he grew up and got a license to practice dentistry. And now he’s your dentist. Or your Realtor.
The really good Realtors make a shitload of money. Because they have knowledge. You’re paying for their knowledge and expertise on every single transaction. The more transactions a Sacramento Realtor closes, for example, the more she is worth. Any mistakes along the way she never repeats. She has answers to questions you don’t even know to ask. Because she has paid the price to earn a reputation for excellence.
She has held open houses in 115-degree heat sans air conditioning while you were relaxing at home in the pool. She has hauled buyers from hell and back to show homes while you napped. She has trudged in 6-inch heels through filthy foreclosures unsafe for human occupancy while you shopped for back-to-school clothes at Macy’s. She has endured crazy rants from lunatics who had no business listing a home while you licked the bottom of your ice cream bowl. She has chased cats in her bare feet who bolted from a home showing in pouring rain while you taught your dog to shake. She has saved transactions from canceling, pulled rabbits out of a hat and pounded lenders into funding while you gazed at the evening stars from your front porch.
Excessive soap suds can make a dishwasher overflow.
She gets paid for what she knows. No matter what you think you know about real estate, you do not know what a Sacramento Realtor who has been in the business for more than 40 years knows. This really hit home to me the other day when our dishwasher overflowed. I could not find the source of the problem. I called an appliance repair guy who checked it out, charged me $80 and said somebody (not me) had inadvertently put a dish or glass into the dishwasher with dish soap on it. Probably the cats. The dishwashing cycle churned so many suds it overflowed and seeped through the door.
Do you know how to eliminate excessive amounts of soap suds? I didn’t know. You pour cooking oil into the dishwasher, 1/4 cup or so, and voila. The suds vanish. It cost me $80 to learn that. Money well spent. Same reasons Realtors get paid so much.
There is a secret to loosen an aerator when it refuses to turn.
Another expensive lesson. I could not remove the screen from a faucet in our master bath. I tried turning it counterclockwise with my hands. I tried a pliers. I asked my husband to give it a go. The aerator seemed clogged. Our water pressure was low. I called a plumber. He charged $75 for a home visit. Would you like to know the secret to cleaning a faucet screen when the aerator refuses to turn? When a pliers doesn’t work, there is an answer. You squeeze the aerator while simultaneously turning the faucet. I did not know that. Cost $75. Money well spent. Same reasons Realtors get paid so much.
I met with a potential sellers a few days ago. His wife has self-diagnosed a neurological disorder. I suggested she go to the doctor, but these guys don’t trust doctors, they think doctors make too much money and that doctors don’t know everything because, hey, we have the internet. You’ve got good doctors and bad doctors. I hate to say this, but doctors do know stuff that we don’t know. I’ve researched symptoms, been completely convinced I had some weird disease, and it was nothing remotely similar to my research and, yet, a doctor fixed my ailment. Money well spent. Same reasons Realtors get paid so much.
I would not hesitate one second to visit a doctor if something was wrong. I am paying that doctor for her years of medical school, training and knowledge acquired on the job, for her expertise. There is a place where people go who think they know everything and don’t need qualified professionals. I think it’s called Fox News.
Of course, the trick is to hire a good Realtor with top-notch reviews and decades of experience. Realtors like me get paid for our insight and offer negotiation skills. You can call a full-service Realtor like Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Or, you can call a discount agent and also get what you pay for.
