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How to Ensure Superior Customer Service After a Runaround
Make your point clear to turnaround customer service that is headed in the wrong direction.
We all have ideas of what customer service should be, especially when we don’t seem to receive it; however, the tale I’m about to reveal is an instance where customer service prevailed. It’s easy to yipe and rant when things don’t go our way, and it’s probably the entire reason for YELP to exist. The very title of that website invites criticism. Further, other third-party websites where real estate clients can post reviews aren’t that much better when anybody with a pulse and guiding a cat’s paw can tap a computer keyboard. The question becomes how to superior extreme customer service to increase the chances of a good review.
After closing escrow, I ask my sellers to post a Realtor performance review online for this Sacramento Realtor. Some will do it but some won’t because they don’t want to register for a website, or they forget, get busy elsewhere. I feel compelled this morning to post a review for a company I encountered yesterday when its employee actually listened to my concerns and provided real customer service.
Without going into detail about the service provider, let’s just say I obtained an estimate for work and let it go at that. Halfway through the job, the service provider called to disclose they had encountered a particular problem, and now the job would cost more. Not a lot more, just $50. I replied that I was a bit astonished to hear that the estimate was not firm when I believed it to be firm. What’s the point of an estimate if you don’t stand behind it? ¡Esto no me gusta!
I continued with a smile on my face, “Because in instances like this, I would expect a company to call and say, ‘hey, the job came in higher than we anticipated, and although your bill would ordinarily reflect an additional $50 — because you’re a long-term and repeat customer, and we want you to be happy, to encourage you to post nice reviews about us online — we will charge you the original estimate.'”
It’s called eating the mistake. Just in case the thought never occurred to him.
The company representative launched into a long explanation about why the job cost more, and I cut him off. I appreciated his sincere efforts, but noted I have my opinion, he had his; I acknowledged it was clear that I was not about to change his opinion and now I must return to my duties as a Sacramento Realtor, get my butt back to work, which meant off the danged phone and listening to him whine. His voice was becoming an affront to my ears.
Surprisingly, when the company presented me with the final invoice for payment, that extra $50 was not on it. Nope, it was my original estimate. The cashier told me the extra charge had been removed. It’s not always the money, it’s the principle, and the principle of customer service. I understand customer service. It’s another reason why my clients post glowing reviews. Try this approach the next time a company tries to give you the runaround and asks you to pay for the company’s mistake.
Should You Go Into Real Estate?
People often imagine great wealth for those who go into real estate, and it rarely happens.
If you’re wondering if you should go into real estate, especially because it seems so easy to do and the rewards are so high, stop it. Reconsider. Those are not reasons to go into real estate. I have been in the real estate business since the 1970s and, if I had known the odds against my success back then, I might not have done it. You might say to yourself, well, hey, she is a top producer Sacramento Realtor who made it big by being clueless . . . but it doesn’t mean that you will, so don’t even go there with that train of thought.
First realize that at least 80% of the people who go into real estate to become an agent don’t actually make it. By “make it,” I don’t mean turning yourself into a megastar real estate agent; I am referring to earning a good living, enough to pay your mortgage or rent, support a family, put food on the table, buy a car, take a vacation, and make ends meet every month. The carrot is there every month. It’s within reach and that’s what keeps some people moving forward.
On the other hand, you might think that positive thinking will get you there. It won’t. You can hang up all the positive affirmations you want on your bedroom mirror, and it will be just words staring you in the face. What the positive thinking seminar gurus don’t say as they pocket your money: you’ve either got it or you don’t. You can’t learn how to be positive. You can learn how to accept failure and defeat, though. If you go into real estate, failure and defeat will be your two best friends at some interval.
When I was lured in the 1970s to go into real estate, I received training by some of the best, mentors who are long dead now. I absorbed what they taught me, manipulated it to fit my personality, and somehow persevered. It takes self motivation. Real estate is completely consuming. It is my passion. It might eat you alive. I surround myself with smarter people, including my Weintraub Team members, who exhibit exceptional commitment and routinely perform. They paid the price. And don’t you let anybody tell you there is no price. There is a price.
The Price of Success If You Go Into Real Estate
Other drawbacks: Clients call at all hours and expect immediate replies. If anything goes south, it’s your fault, even if it’s not. You go to sleep thinking about real estate and you wake up thinking about real estate. Real estate school and passing the exam teaches you almost nothing that you need to go into real estate. You sometimes forget to eat lunch. You don’t have time for your friends. Your family rarely sees you anymore. Pretty soon, superficial wounds don’t require Band-Aids because they’ll heal on their own, eventually. You are glued to your computer and cellphone.
Last week I mentioned my theory to other agents in my office that only misfits and oddballs go into real estate and make it. People who can’t really fit into any other kind of work. Successful Sacramento Realtors are not what you would call normal nor ordinary people. My personal recipe for success is extreme focus and sincere dedication to the client. I derive great satisfaction in knowing I have performed above and beyond a client’s expectations. If you can overcome the negatives, you just might make it if you go in real estate.
I’ve been working in real estate for more than 40 years and cannot envision myself in any other line of work. I absolutely love this crazy life. If you need a Sacramento Realtor, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
How to Find Listings in Sacramento
The days of posting paper listings in Sacramento are pretty much over.
It’s a good thing that I enjoy talking with people because I have a lot of buyers calling asking where they can find listings in Sacramento. They’ve been looking online at various websites, many which contain conflicting data on homes for sale, and they often think I am the listing agent. Sometimes I am the listing agent. I list a lot of homes in Sacramento. I’m a top producer. But more often than not they are finding the listing elsewhere, spot a name on that website they recognize, like Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Realtor, and they call me. Which is muy bien.
There are homes in East Sacramento that I seem to know more about than I probably should by now. Lots of calls on those listings. And another recently that has been on the market near Natomas for something like 672 days. It was first listed by an agent who has it listed now, but there was another agent in the middle who had it listed for a while. When the listing was withdrawn by the first (now present) agent, there must have been some sort of spiff because the listing agent left a photo of the chicken coup in MLS as the main photo and stripped out the others. Not only that, but the marketing remarks, an MLS violation, noted the seller had canceled the listing and did not wish to be resolisted [sic] to relist.
If I have enough time to talk with callers about their home buying needs, I will try to assist but some buyers don’t really want any help. They just want to call listing agents about listings, thinking the listing agent will force the seller to sell the home for less, which really doesn’t happen. That’s basically a myth. They also think they can find every listing in Sacramento and don’t realize they can’t. They will snort, “We’ve bought and sold homes before,” as though that means they thoroughly understand real estate in their small corner of the world, this complicated industry that I’ve been part of for more than 40 years.
The Best Place to Find Listings in Sacramento
Without a direct paid subscription to MLS or access through an agent who will set up a portal for them, buyers are stuck scratching the dirt for listings. Like a hungry chicken. Pollo hambre. It’s a lot of work to call agent after agent and ask about listings when the listings are not the agent’s listings, and the buyers don’t want to work with a buyer’s agent. They could simplify their lives, and make it so much easier on themselves to work with a buyer’s agent, but they seem hellbent on finding their own listings in Sacramento, which means they will miss some of the best homes available.
By the time they discover an outdated listing on a third-party website, that home might be sold. That’s how fast homes are selling in Sacramento this spring. Buyers should do themselves a favor and call a buyer’s agent to get listings matching specific criteria directly from MLS through a Sacramento Realtor. Or, they can continue to beat heads into the ground. Which is fine with us because it’s less competition for our own home buyers, whom we treat like solid gold.
Hawks in Granite Bay and John Hiatt at Harris Center
Creamy cauliflower soup with spicy oil and fried black pepper at Hawks in Granite Bay
So much alliteration going on with Hawks in Granite Bay and Hiatt at Harris, still a great way to enjoy a rainy March Sunday evening, if you’re not outside in the rain. Granted, I was not the one barreling down Business 80, windshield wipers furiously whipping against the glass to little avail. I was the one sitting in the passenger seat trying to have my weekly chat with my sister in Minneapolis, as the cellphone towers handed off signals, which reduced much of our conversation to snips and pieces. My mind did not need to focus on trying to stay out of the way of bozos nor did I need to grip the steering wheel so hard my fingers turned purple.
I should have known better than to attempt to engage in a cellphone call in that corridor because I routinely traverse this route when I take listings in Citrus Heights, Antelope, Roseville or Lincoln. Mostly I listen to buyer’s agents talk and pretend to understand what they are saying. Hey, sometimes you can figure out tiny parts of conversation and put together the bigger picture without hearing every single word.
When they seated us at Hawks in Granite Bay, we were sandwiched between two groups of lively and engaged diners whose conversation I did not want to listen to. People sometimes think they are the only ones in the room and it doesn’t matter if everybody is forced to hear their words. If I wanted to listen to some obnoxious voice, I’d turn on Talk Radio . . .. OK, I really would NOT do that because I never want to hear anything that irritating. My ears are precious. My time on earth limited. If I can enhance my evening, upgrade the experience, I will, so we moved to a quiet booth, even though I suspect my husband was perfectly comfortable where he was. He is grittier than I.
Sunday evening is Sunday Supper at Hawks in Granite Bay. Prix fixe menu. The only thing left to choose was the wine, and much to my excitement I could order a 2013 Kistler Chardonnay. I’ve dined at only two other restaurants where I could get this wine, Le Mer in Honolulu and Sante in Sonoma. Kistler tells me that I can’t buy this particular vintage directly from Kistler Vineyard because they sell it exclusively to restaurants; however, I did finally get my January release order confirmed a few days ago, a month later than last year, and let’s just say 2013 Kistler Chardonnay is finally on its way to my front porch.
The best thing about our dinner at Hawks in Granite Bay, apart from the wine, was a toss-up between the Lychee Panna Cotta moat surrounded by rhubarb sauce, which I have no idea where they sourced rhubarb, and the creamy cauliflower soup dotted with fried black peppers and spicy oil (pictured on this page). The Frank Late chardonnay with the dessert added an additional layer of delight.
We don’t often drive further than Midtown from Land Park when dining out, but since my husband surprised me with front row center tix to John Hiatt at Harris Center in Folsom, this was our chance to try Hawks. It’s a long ways to drive from Land Park. They also have a more casual restaurant in Midtown, which we will now need to visit. Except for the annoying television screen projected from the bar area onto the wine room glass doors, making it visible from our booth, it was an extremely wonderful experience at Hawks in Granite Bay.
John Hiatt performed for more than 90 minutes at Harris Center in Folsom.
Due to the torrential rain, we were late by two minutes at Harris Center. The usher made us stand in the hallway after yelling at me to turn off my phone. He carried on about the spotlight, the spotlight, for a good 30 seconds after I had put it away. He’s lucky I didn’t stick out my foot and trip him. He also kept talking to me, and I couldn’t hear half of what he said, yet there was no cellphone tower and I was not on my phone. This was person-to-person, and I just wished he would shut up. I couldn’t hang up on him.
When the warm-up guy stopped for a moment between songs, the usher scampered down the aisle and motioned for us to follow. We settled into our seats. Finally, it was just John Hiatt on stage. Him, guitar, harmonica and microphone. He stood for the entire show. At one point he tried to do a song suggested by an audience member, one of my favorites, Blue Telescope, and forgot the words. The guy ran up to the stage with the CD sleeve, which Hiatt stuck it into his microphone stand and finished the song. It doesn’t matter how you get there at his age, although, gotta say, he is younger than this Sacramento Realtor by two months.
I just wish older guys didn’t feel the need to have to wear a hat. You might have to wear glasses to see where you’re going, but you don’t really need a hat. Even a cool funky hat, like somebody in Hiatt’s life probably told him he had to wear. Seriously, guys, you earned every lost hair follicle. Be proud of it.
How to Count the Days in a Purchase Contract
You count the days in a purchase contract starting with zero for date of acceptance.
Do you know how to count the days in a a purchase contract? Well, you’ve come to the right place to find out. A performance issue came up this morning regarding the escrow timeline we use in California and how to count the days in a purchase contract for performance and contingency release due dates. The questioning agent was a 15-year broker in Sacramento who did not know how to count the days. She had taken a webinar online regarding the revised Residential Purchase Agreement — which is consistently being revised — and did not recall the “change.” I assured her that many real estate agents in Sacramento do not know how to count the days in a purchase contract. She is not alone, even though she works alone.
I tell you, if I ran a one-person brokerage company, which I do not, I would probably be networking like no tomorrow, attending every single S.A.R. meeting, hanging out with real estate lawyers, buying Starbucks gift cards to give away at closings; it’s tough to stay on top of what’s going on when you don’t have a designated broker doing that on your behalf. There are only so many hours in the day . . . but the secrets to my success are my alignment with the largest independently owned brokerage in Sacramento, Lyon Real Estate, and to hire a transaction coordinator who takes care of that stuff for me.
You don’t have to be an expert in everything if you surround yourself with experts.
Sure, I pay so much in TC fees every year that a person could probably live quite well on just the TC fees that my business alone generates. Some agents try to save those fees by doing all the paperwork themselves, and it takes so much time out of your day that you don’t have time to work on new business or monitor your own escrows. Penny wise and pound foolish in my book but to each their own . . ..
However, dull as it may seem to some, I do read the Residential Purchase Agreement. It’s like Yoda! It holds all of the answers to life’s secrets in Sacramento real estate. And, if you’re hung in here thus far, below is the answer about how to count the days.
How to Count the Days for Purchase Contract Performance Issues in California
The way you count the days in a purchase contract for contingency due dates is to first review paragraph 30, Item F, of the Residential Purchase Agreement. “Days” means calendar days. However, after acceptance, the last Day for performance of any act required by this Agreement (including close of escrow) shall not include any Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday and shall instead be the next Day.
This means if you’re looking for the date to release the home inspections contingency, which by default is 17 days after offer acceptance, you would first count the first day, which is the day after contract acceptance, not the date of acceptance itself. If the final date falls on Saturday, that final date rolls to Monday. If Monday is a holiday, that final date rolls to Tuesday. I hope you have learned something new today about how to count the days for purchase contract performances.
If you’re looking for a top producer Sacramento Realtor, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
