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Sellers Who Don’t Need One of the Best Sacramento Realtors
If you’re looking for the one of the best Sacramento Realtors, odds are you can find a few by doing an online search. But just because the agent helps with staging or pricing and you list the home yourself or with a friend, does not mean you’ve got the services of one of the best Sacramento Realtors. You only got part of the story and not the entire package.
A former client relayed to me this morning that she did not realize some real estate agents will work for dirt cheap, and that the job to sell a home is so incredibly easy that she doesn’t really need to hire the best Sacramento Realtor. Although, she did add that when she’s ready to sell her more expensive home in East Sacramento, she will definitely hire me. Because she wants the best.
But for right now, to sell her rental property at the Parkway in Folsom, any old discount agent will do. She doesn’t need the best, she said, after promising last month to list with me. Especially after this more experienced and full-service Sacramento Realtor has already met with her at the rental in Folsom, completed an inspection and provided her with a list of fixes and repairs to undertake. In addition to giving her a list of vendors to purchase materials from, advising on color and choice of materials, providing contractors to complete the work and finding other ways to save her money.
This is on top of responding to every email from the seller within minutes, even while on vacation in Oregon. Advising on the perfect sales price and sales strategy.
So, yes, I guess I can see that after a seller has her home all fixed up, knows how much to price it at that she might feel it is a slam dunk. Especially since she didn’t pay the full-service Realtor a dime for all of this. However, all of that upfront work is part of the fee a full-service agent earns.
This is like jumping into my car at a stoplight, grabbing my bag and running off. I’m supposed to be OK with the theft, including the lack of respect. But I’m not and, when the time comes, I will not choose to represent her to sell a home in East Sacramento.
The other portions of my full-service fee, which I work hard to earn and the seller will most likely come to understand down the road are the following:
* Positioning the home to go on the market on a day that will make it the most attractive as possible
* Personal and immediate attention to my client
* Anticipating problems in advance and preventing difficulties
* Shooting high quality professional photography designed to drive up the price
* Hosting unique open houses through extravaganza blitz marketing
* Capitalizing on my 24 years of online internet experience — unparalleled by most other Realtors
* Utilizing my 40+ years of real estate experience to negotiate the purchase offer to ensure the highest price among possible multiple buyers, which I strategically manipulate to occur.
* Once in escrow, I negotiate the list of repairs the buyer often returns with after a home inspection to keep those costs to a minimum, if at all
* Meeting contingencies of the contract with precision
* Staying on top of the buyer’s financing to make sure there are no loopholes that will hold up closing or more likely cause the transaction to blow up
That’s a bare bones bullet-point list of things I do to make sellers more money above and beyond any difference in fee they might pay a discount agent. When escrows close, sellers always say I more than earned my fee, and they are very ecstatic with the extra money they received — which a discount agent could never provide. They understand this. All of my sellers pay for full service. Happily. Especially the million-dollar home sellers.
In other words, a seller tends to lose money with a discount agent, even if she wrongly believes her home is a slam dunk to sell. There are no slam dunks in Sacramento real estate. Saving a few pennies on the commission means eating it on the big picture. But then that kind of seller doesn’t really care if she has not hired one of the best Sacramento Realtors.
Is the Internet Stripping Away Human Contact?
Technology doesn’t always win when it separates us from human contact.
Because of the internet, some people believe they don’t need professionals anymore. Like, why go to the doctor when you can Google your symptoms to figure out why your $hit is F’d Up, including seemingly viable treatment options? It’s all right there in front of your eyes with pictures and everything. Because you are not a medical professional with a decade of education, and you could be wrong. You’re a fry cook at Arby’s, for crying out loud. Not only could you be wrong, but you could overlook something else potentially more life threatening.
People also think why call a travel agent when you can book airfare and hotels right there online. Because you probably won’t find the best deal, and Google doesn’t know everything. There is no substitute for a travel agent’s personal relationship with a vendor, and you don’t get that from a third-party website. Without a travel agent, without that human contact, who can you call when the (choose one or all): airline, car rental, hotel screw up?
It would not surprise me to learn that Siri hates everybody.
I imagine the day when we no longer talk to people to transact business. I already see it at airports when I travel, kiosks to tag baggage and retrieve boarding passes. Kiosks to buy that last-minute big-ticket item you’ve been putting off like whoa, look, a 75-inch television and suddenly you need to buy it, RIGHT NOW, before you get on the plane. “Reward” or “Loyalty” cards process and distribute your personal data without your awareness and market like crazy to you. In fact, it’s a little scary to see the Minority Report turned into a TV show coming this fall to FOX.
Some people also honestly believe they don’t need a Sacramento Realtor because they once ran a lemonade stand as a kid or sold flower seeds door-to-door and therefore know everything there is to know about real estate because there is really nothing to know as all the photos of homes are online, duh. These people are idiots. You can’t tell them they’re an idiot because they’re too busy trying to cut into their gut to perform liposuction on themselves, and by golly, they’ve got the vacuum cleaner handy.
The internet is a great place to do research and compile questions to ask a professional. Just pay attention to the authority of the URL. Make sure you are obtaining your information from a trusted source. The need to connect with professionals via human contact is more important now than ever. Because garbage in is garbage out.
A Weekend Trip to Minneapolis from Sacramento
Elizabeth Weintraub and Amy Kamenick at Cafe Lurcat in Minneapolis
In another life my husband and I used to live in Minneapolis, where I am originally from. You can pick up the Minnesota accent in my speech still, even though I have lived in other states, including that place south of us known as Orange County, which is a state onto itself. My sister and niece live in south Minneapolis, and since we haven’t seen them for a while, we decided to combine the opportunity to see several bands we love playing in town on Saturday with a visit to see my family for the weekend.
It’s only a 3-hour direct flight on Delta from Sacramento to Minneapolis. Even if you don’t have family in town, it’s a cosmopolitan city with plenty to do and see. You barely have time to settle into your seat, enjoy lunch and you’re touching down at Minneapolis / St. Paul International Airport. Although, I have to add that I was astonished that Delta does not serve champagne, so no Mimosa for me. It dawned on me that I probably fly Hawaiian Airlines more than I do Delta.
The Crosstown traffic was bearable but I-35 was backed up, and adorned on both sides of the freeway with newer “sound” walls. I recall when I-35 wasn’t there and people used to live along First Avenue without the freeway, and now those houses are razed. It’s always strange going home because home is never as you left it, even when you live there all the time. Things change, you get used to it, and memories fade.
Baked Petrale Sole at Vincent A Restaurant
I had tried to find a nice restaurant for dinner with my sister and a friend from Adam’s days at the Minneapolis Business Journal, Amy. We settled on Vincent A Restaurant, on 11th and Nicollet. The waiter served me a Manhattan with a plain maraschino cherry which, surprisingly, was not an Amarena. You expect more from a top-rated restaurant. My doubts were erased when the baked petrale sole arrived, accompanied by Morel mushrooms, pickled ramps and green beans. The sole was absolutely delightful, especially when pared with the IGP-Var Domaine de Triennes, 2013, a crisp Provencal Rose.
The dessert, a butterscotch caramel, was like unwrapping a salted caramel and savoring it as the candy melts in your mouth. Splashed down with a 20-year Tawny.
Because we were still on California time, the night was young in Minneapolis. We walked over to what used to be the Loring Cafe: a quirky, eclectic restaurant near Loring Park with softwood floors and an interior that used to look like a rummage sale. It is now Cafe Lurcat, still expensive, but featuring a better wine list and outdoor seating. There we met a couple of 6-degrees-from-Kevin-Bacon friends, including a guy in town from Napa. The photo at the top of this page is of Amy and me at Cafe Lurcat in Loring Park.
In case you’re wondering, we have house sitters caring for our home in Land Park and the 3 cats that occupy it. That arrangement, plus in-flight WiFi, is what lets this Sacramento Realtor sneak out of town every so often.
Reasons to Review Sacramento MLS Before Showing
Always review MLS for status before showing
The good news is this morning the elk head that was sitting in my family room has gone to its new home at the Elk’s Lodge in Sacramento. Sometimes I feel like my life is a TV sitcom. As though I am but a mere viewer, sitting on a stool at a bar, glass of bourbon in hand, neat, and watching the goofy antics of some other Sacramento Realtor and not myself.
The bad news is I had 2 cancellations to deal with before the sun rose, but like my blog of yesterday, good news is often on the tail end of bad, and one of those cancellations is back in escrow with a new buyer. That home never saw the light of day back in MLS because I keep meticulous records of interested parties. When one collapses, another can slide right in.
My client who shot the elk will get a nice donation letter from the Elk’s Lodge, which she can most likely use as a tax deduction on her income taxes because she technically made a contribution to a charitable organization. Even if the elk did park itself temporarily to live on my family room floor. And thousands of US Service women and men can now appreciate Elkie daily. It is a fitting home for him.
I wish I could solve all of the problems we face in Sacramento real estate like this. The most pressing issue lately has been real estate agents and Sacramento REALTORS who do not read the MLS property information sheets they print. It seems like such a simple thing to do, just read the property data and the confidential remarks. If there are attachments to MLS, download them by clicking on the paperclip. Yet, I’d venture to guess that at least 1 out of every 3 agents do not.
The worst violation is showing instructions. They don’t seem to know that Call First Lockbox means call the seller (and not the agent) when the seller’s name and number are listed. If we meant Call Listing Agent, then that box would be checked instead, and the instructions would be Call Listing Agent. But that can be ambiguous if the listing agent doesn’t complete the listing correctly as well. The worst showing instruction violation, though, is when the buyer’s agent just sails into the house without calling, and it’s occupied. Hello?
I want to get down on my hands and knees and plead, please please read MLS showing instructions. Don’t use the Supra lockbox and unlock the door if you haven’t read the instructions for showing. Because you know who the seller blames when this happens? I lost a listing last week because a seller completely freaked out when an agent did not call and tried to enter his home unannounced. It almost makes me want to go back to the days of no lockboxes, when you had to pick up a key at the listing office.
If in doubt, review the MLS before entering a home. It’s that simple. Just double check yourself. While you’re standing near the lockbox, read the instructions one more time. I realize the MLS app for the iPhone 6 Plus seems messed up but it can work in a browser window like Safari. Believe it, many buyer’s agents are using worthless apps to access information from their mobile devices (like Trulia and Zillow), but only MLS shows the correct information. Please use it.
Good News is Often on the Tail End of Bad News
White blonde hair is not the same thing as silver hair
There is really no such thing as horribly bad news in the life of a Sacramento Realtor. Although, I could point to the 7 hours I spent at a Land Park hair salon yesterday, trying to process my hair into silver, and it’s still only a white blonde. At one point my hairdresser was ready to boot me out the door with golden blonde locks but instead I canceled my manicure and pedicure next door on Riverside to try one more go around. I made an appointment for silver hair, not golden blonde.
The worst thing is I’ll show up to claim our VIP tickets at the Basilica of Saint Mary’s Block Party this Saturday in Minneapolis with white blonde hair. Probably go visit my brother who is dying from lung cancer and not talking to anybody until now. Eventually, I’ll return to my hairdresser and give it another go for silver. Or, Mother Nature will do it for me in enough time.
Then I received an offer for a troublesome property that the agent did not show and could not verify if the buyer can even qualify. Plus, another sale blew up because the buyers freaked out and, since I am not their buyer’s agent, I can’t try to calm those irrational fears. It’s their ultimate loss.
When a sale blows up, I try to break the news to the sellers as gently as possible, especially if we are not able to talk by phone about it. The last thing a seller needs to see in her email is the subject line that the buyer canceled. The cancellation of a purchase contract can be jarring and disturbing news, delivered unexpectedly. I approach it along the lines of the cat is the roof and can’t come down. Like yesterday I emailed the seller that the Buyer Has Problems. Because they do. Their problem is they aren’t closing because it never occurred to them that buying a 100-year home could present a few a minor issues.
Bad news for them. Good news on the tail end of bad news for some other lucky buyers, though.
The other good news is I am relisting another home that the seller canceled last year and now wants to sell again. She was very apologetic for doubting certain aspects of this transaction; I understand confusion like that and tend to forgive. It’s a nice home in a good community, and should not present any unusual difficulties to sell. All of this just goes to show that when a door closes, a couple more open up. There is no good reason to let any bad news in Sacramento real estate create a negative or adverse situation.
