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Why Sacramento Home Selling Odds Are In Your Favor This Winter
When a seller in Tahoe Park called a few days ago to ask me to list her home, she was feeling a bit despondent because a few other agents she called (before me . . . darn it, why can’t I be first?) didn’t seem like they wanted to work so close to Thanksgiving. Or at least that was her perception of them. They allegedly told her this time of year was bad for sales and weren’t that motivated to meet with her.
I can’t explain other agent’s behavior or attitudes, and I don’t try. It’s really none of my business what they do except to the extent I appear by comparison and, quite frankly, I’d rather stand on my own accord. I do know that about 10% of the agents do 90% of the business, and I’m in that top percentile.
This is a slower market than the spring market but it doesn’t make it a “bad” market for Sacramento home selling. It makes it a different market, and we use different strategies. For one thing, if your home is a little bit difficult to sell, perhaps it’s a white elephant or it has other challenges, selling your home in the winter is a much better time than selling that type of home in the spring. Why?
Because in the spring, your home might be 1 out of 50 homes. In the fall, when inventory dwindles and sales soften, your home might be 1 out of 5 homes. Wouldn’t you rather have that home that is one out of five, that home that will be shown and used as a comparison against each other? The likelihood is your home will sell. Especially if out of the 5 it’s the nicest home available. Buyers who purchase a home in winter typically need to buy, so they are much more motivated to choose a home.
If you wait until spring, and your home is not the nicest home on the market, well, it could sit and the days on market could pile up while buyers choose homes other than yours. When it comes to Sacramento home selling in the winter, a seller is probably much better off being that one home out of five than that one home out of 50 in spring. You can see the odds are in your favor this winter home selling season.
Call a Sacramento REALTOR who works the fall and winter market in Sacramento, Elizabeth Weintraub, 916.233.6759. Do you know when is the best time to sell a house?
Upside and Downside to the MetroList iBox Exchange at Cal Expo
When my team member Josh Amolsch and I walked into Cal Expo for the MetroList iBox Exchange, a vision of a Tiffany sterling silver flask flashed quickly through my brain. I had been joking around earlier about needing to find a bar that serves bourbon to get through the iBox exchange, but those jokes proved to be unnecessary. I did not need a sterling silver flask in my bag, not that I have ever owned such an item anyway but it is now on my extravagant holiday wish list. As an emergency backup for those Sacramento short sales that haven’t yet gone away.
A sea of tables were laid out before our eyes. If I had organized the event, I would have placed table stands with alphabet letters to direct traffic, but the event was very well set up. The people at each table understand their task and only their task and were able to easily direct us to the next table. We met Q at the first table, who was not named after the Star Trek character (because I asked). His eyes grew wide when he perused my lockbox inventory on his monitor and exclaimed: You have a lot of lockboxes!
I did not exchange them all. I kept roughly 40 of them because MetroList made a last-minute decision that we could keep our lockboxes if we didn’t want to exchange them 2 for 1 (thank you, MetroList). The reasoning from MetroList for the measly 2 for 1 exchange (when the rest of the country seemed to get 1 for 1) is because if it exchanged our lockboxes 1 for 1, our monthly dues would go up by $10. That would result in $120 extra a year, more than the cost of a new lockbox. Is that really true? MetroList says it is.
Also, my 40 other lockboxes have a lot of juice left in them. More than 50%. They will last at least another 7 years, I imagine, which is when the warranty runs out on the new lockboxes. Except we don’t own the lockboxes we picked up in the 2 for 1 exchange. They are leased to us, and if we lose a lockbox or some thief, heaven forbid, saws it off the gas meter or removes the door knob with a lockbox attached and runs off, a Sacramento REALTOR will have to pay MetroList $100 each.
That’s the downside. Because of that, I probably won’t use my new lockboxes unless I absolutely have to. But the exchange went very smoothly. We were in and out in 30 minutes, and I was able to blow up and capture 3 portals for my Ingress team. I own that California Bear on Exposition. The good thing is if I lose it, I don’t have to pay a hundred bucks like I would have to do if I lost my new lockbox.
How Former Jobs Helped Shape a Top Sacramento REALTOR
What kind of former jobs have helped to boost the career of a Sacramento REALTOR in the year 2014? I thought about that yesterday as I drove around Elk Grove in the rain after listing another home for sale. The jobs that I held as a kid certainly helped to prepare me for the career I enjoy today. I got my first job at 16, followed by two more jobs at age 17 that helped put me through my senior year at high school — because I had my own apartment at that age. My life is so different now than it was in the year 1970.
My first real job was as a counter waitress at the Tick Tock Diner, which was located on 6th and Hennepin in downtown Minneapolis. All of my friends thought I was a nurse because I wore a uniform and a hat. I recall hauling a dishrack of glasses, and stopping to slip a nickel into the jukebox on the counter to play I’m Free, by The Who. And freedom tastes of reality. It made me stop dead in my tracks. I wasn’t free. I was chained to the counter 8 hours a day; it made me realize the price of freedom. We all pay a price.
By the time I became a senior in high school, I needed two jobs to pay for my apartment. Both were part-time, each four hours a day. The first was selling magazines over the phone as a telemarketer. We received bonuses for our sales. This job helped me to learn how to effectively engage with people on the phone. I often veered off the script we had memorized and talked to people, like they were real people and not a target for sale. I sold a ton of magazines. It was called: “smile and dial.” I dialed a lot, got hung up on a lot, received wrong numbers, busy dial tones and no answers. But I did not give up; I met my quotas and exceeded them. I hated this job because except for closing sales, the rest of it was boring.
My other job was as a teletype operator at Northwestern Bell. This involved typing codes on cards for phone installation orders on a huge machine the size of a small refrigerator. I quickly memorized the codes. I also learned to type more than 100 WPM. I had to sit in a chair and type for four hours straight. I hated this job with a passion, but everybody around me said it was my ticket for a full-time job in management at Ma Bell. My coworker went on to achieve that status. On the path to college, I chose instead to work full-time as a telemarketer. It was the lesser of two evils and, for years, I thought I had made the wrong choice.
Both of these jobs, the telemarketing and the teletyping, definitely prepared me for a profitable career today in Sacramento real estate as a Sacramento REALTOR. Today I type faster than anybody I know, which means the words from my brain hit the screen with rapid speed. The sales aspect, the thrill of closing, well, that has helped to propel, and I still love talking with people today. Real estate is a people business. Homes are just the commodity we move. I hope if you’re looking for a Sacramento REALTOR, you call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Sacramento Realtor is Buying a New Computer
After this Sacramento REALTOR bought her new iPhone 6 Plus, my husband pointed out the age of my desktop computer. It was almost 4 years, which made it ancient, and it took forever to load. It was time to consider buying a new computer. The lousy speed was very noticeable when I would upgrade software on my laptop and desktop simultaneously. My laptop, being 2 years newer, was very fast while my desktop chugged along. I know many Sacramento REALTORs prefer to work solely on a laptop and don’t even own desktop computers, but I need as much efficiency in my life that I can possibly snag, and desktop is better.
Yet, it is still agonizing to face buying a new computer. It’s an evil necessity. My poor husband was up until almost 3 AM working on it, and I had to postpone all of my listing work to today. My new computer is about the size of a Belgian waffle. My old computer — which had cost initially twice as much, btw — is roughly the size of a built-in kitchen trash compactor. My new Mac is minuscule by comparison. It’s a mini Mac or, as the guy who helped configure it called it, a Monster Mac.
I decided it was time for buying a new computer during a car trip to Roseville to inspect a new listing and shoot photographs. Since time is precious to this Sacramento REALTOR, I asked Siri to call the Apple store from my Bluetooth device, and I talked to an Apple guy about what I needed for memory, hard drive space, the types of applications and software I use, speed requirements, and we configured this thing while I was on the road.
Well, first I reached some doofus who did not speak “tech-speak,” and she told me all of her callers are generally iPhone customers. She didn’t seem to know much about the computer end of the business, so I ended the call with her and asked Siri to call again. This time I got a guy who knew exactly what I needed. You’re either a Mac fanatic or you’re not. It’s like finding a Sacramento REALTOR on a Bell curve.
Selling real estate means I have an aptitude for numbers. You might find this hard to believe, but my credit card number is memorized, as is the expiration date and 3-digit code. Please don’t kidnap me and try to force me to recite it because I can guarantee you I will be unable to recall it under those conditions. However, I could rattle off the numbers as I rolled along I-80, and we finalized the transaction just prior to me pulling up to the curb at the seller’s home.
You couldn’t buy a new computer like that when I bought my first Mac in 1991. But back then we used modems and Bulletin Boards for connectivity, too. Much as I gripe about it, I love new technology. Every Sacramento REALTOR needs to stay up-to-date with the best technology to best serve her clients.
Taking Along Sacramento Real Estate Clients on a Winter Vacation
Lots of people do their spring cleaning at springtime but this Sacramento REALTOR does hers in the fall, primarily because I need to be ready to hit the street running when I return from my winter vacation. I need a fresh slate in January, and to be ready to handle new listings and new sales. Every spring market is explosive. You might ask what happens to my existing business, the clients I am working with in November and will acquire in December? I’ll tell you what has worked for me over the years, and how I handle it.
First, not everybody knows (nor agrees with this practice), but I take my clients on vacation with me. Wherever I go, whether it’s French Polynesia, the Florida Keys or Viet Nam, I stay on top of my business. Nobody gets neglected nor forgotten. I still respond to email and take care of purchase offers and closings. In fact, one year on Christmas Day via spotty satellite from a remote Atoll in the Tuamotus at Rangiroa, I listed a home in Sacramento. By the time I flew to Bora Bora, I had sold the home and opened escrow.
I can always find an hour or two in every day no matter what to take care of my Sacramento clients. It doesn’t matter where in the world I am. Further, I enjoy the luxury of leading a dedicated team who support me. They are my rock and right hand.
Maybe it’s the way I was raised, but I feel a personal responsibility when I make a promise to clients that I will be their fiduciary and sell their home. It helps that I truly enjoy my job as well or I couldn’t do it while I’m on vacation. I know people think that is nuts, but it works for me. There is a stretch of solitude during the week of Christmas and a few days after that things are very quiet, and I unwind completely.
A winter vacation is the reason I work so hard like a well oiled machine in Sacramento real estate. To go away for a month. Yup, I work 11 months and go on vacation for another month. I am very selective of my clients but even more so come the fall months. Because the people I choose to work with are the individuals I will communicate with during my vacation. They have to be special. I have learned to take along only the people I like. That’s my secret for a happy and fun career.
The only thing I regret about this year’s vacation is the fact my husband has to stay home in Sacramento. He has a new job now and can’t yet take off 30 days for a winter vacation.
