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10 Things That Don’t Sell a Home in Sacramento
When sellers in Sacramento call to ask questions about how to prepare a home for sale, if they haven’t already read a few of my articles online, I send links to those informational pieces. Other agents in Sacramento do the same thing because I often get emails asking if it’s OK to republish my stuff on their websites (it’s not, because About.com shares the copyright), but they can publish a few sentences, hopefully the words without profanity, and then link to my content. Apart from knowing what does sell a home, it’s imperative to know the things that don’t sell a home in Sacramento.
Discussing these things in advance with sellers saves me a lot of time on the phone and in person when I show up to list a home in Sacramento or in Placer County. I can assure you without hesitation what sells today, and what kind of improvements a seller should make to prepare a home for sale without even seeing the home because I know precisely what does not sell.
Today’s first-time home buyers don’t think in terms of fixing up stuff or replacing outdated fixtures. If you ask them what it costs to paint a house, they’ll tell you $50,000. Home buyers will simply cross your home off the list if it doesn’t measure up to expectations and consider buying a different home that does.
If you have the following features in your home, you should get rid of them, if you can:
Things to Get Rid That Don’t Sell a Home in Sacramento
- laminate flooring that looks exactly like laminate flooring
- glossy tiled kitchen counters
- white kitchen appliances
- goldish / brassy light fixtures and faucets
- worn oak cabinets
- white walls
- wallpaper
- jangly old-fashioned ceiling fans
- stained and worn carpeting
- weather beaten front door
You don’t have to spend a lot of money to prepare your home for sale in our present real estate market. I find that many sellers go overboard and make repairs that won’t ever return their investment. Doing the wrong things is just like pitching money out the window. Everybody has their own idea about what looks good and what doesn’t, so stop arguing with your spouse about it — take advice from a Sacramento REALTOR who talks to buyers all day long and sells a ton of homes in Sacramento Valley.
Elizabeth Weintraub on Agent Panel at Zillow Event
Zillow has graciously invited this Sacramento REALTOR to appear on its agent Zillow panel this Thursday, September 11th, at the Courtyard by Marriott near Cal Expo. They are calling it The Sacramento Zillow Select Summit, and the program itself runs roughly from 10 AM to noon. I don’t have all of the details, but I imagine guest speakers will present a market overview, vendors will pump wares, and the agent panel will answer questions from a moderator about working with Zillow leads.
I suspect they asked me to appear on the agent panel because I am a top Sacramento real estate agent in real life as well as on Zillow. Today my Zillow profile shows I have sold 105 homes over the past 12 months. I support Zillow because I like its online format. It’s now about the biggest real estate site on the internet. To concentrate my online presence, I had to pick years ago between Trulia and Zillow, and I chose Zillow. Just lucked out with that selection. Because I’m the kind of person who when faced with the choice between picking heads or tails in a coin toss will almost always make the wrong guess. I’m rarely lucky with even odds.
The moderator is Brad Andersohn, who is in charge of Zillow Academy. Brad also used to work at Active Rain, which is where I got to know him a little bit before he left for Zillow. He once asked me to participate in an agent webinar for Zillow, and I gladly accepted his request. He’s such a friendly, nice guy who is passionate about his career. Who doesn’t love Brad?
I have been an early adopter of Zillow, ever since it first popped into being. I eventually signed up in 2006 and created a profile because the one thing I truly crave is information about real estate. I’ve watched it evolve over the years and today it has more listings and data than ever, including predictions about how much your home in Sacramento might be worth years from now. Not that I put a lot of stock in those predictions but it’s fun in much the same manner as to watch that coin-operated fortune teller at the Cliff House in Ocean Beach spit out a fortune on a tiny piece of paper. Sadly, they’ve since moved that antique to Pier 45, in case you’re wondering, but it still works. I’ve been to visit it. Just like I’ve been to visit the stuffed giraffe Zarafa at a museum in La Rochelle, France — some things are worth the journey to see, but I digress.
Afterward, there is a free lunch and an interactive session for an hour. But you need to first get a free ticket at the link above.
I’m gonna try to get all of my new listings put together before Thursday so I can focus on this event. Every so often, busy agents should probably stop work and give back to the real estate community. I work too much to ever be a mentor to individuals who are not on my team, but I can share in a group setting. The Zillow Summit will be fun and educational, and all of my team members are attending. Hope to see my other Sacramento agent friends there, too.
Then it’s back to selling Sacramento real estate. If any day is good for a real estate agent to break away for a couple of hours, though, it’s a Thursday.
You Can Choose a Sacramento Realtor Before You Are Ready
People often call to ask: is it OK to choose a Sacramento Realtor even if I’m not yet ready to sell a home? The short answer is yes and, in fact, it is strongly advised and encouraged. Choosing a Realtor early on is to a seller’s advantage. This simple act can save a seller a lot of money because sellers don’t really know what they need to do to get ready for the market as much as they think they might know.
I see my neighbors down the street, for example, doing things that make me think they are getting ready to sell, and I heard it buzzed about the neighborhood that they’re trying to sell by owner. People try to do a for sale by owner because they wrongly believe they will make more money, even though it’s a proven fact they won’t*. But they want to save that commission, and while they’re so busy saving that commission on the front end, other money is leaking out the back door.
*The typical FSBO home last year, reports the National Association of Realtors, sold for $183,000 as compared to $230,000 for others. Mind you, that’s just the sales price and not the net profit, which also gets mangled during many transactions.
Nothing beats professional representation.
One of the things I noticed yesterday was a termite company truck parked down the street. Somebody must have told these people that they needed to order and pay for a clear pest report, which is untrue. But they don’t know that because I’m betting they haven’t talked to a Sacramento Realtor who works in the neighborhood. Many of my sellers in today’s real estate market do not pay for pest reports nor pest completions because it is not required in all instances.
I have a number of new listings coming on the market after Labor Day, some of which I’ve been working on for more than a year: an enormous home in Galt, another home in Lincoln Crossing, a duplex in Fair Oaks, a single-story in Natomas. It’s never too early to call a Sacramento Realtor and ask for help. We won’t advise you to throw away money. We’ll tell you where to best invest to prepare your home for sale. We’ll help you to find contractors, if you need them. If you have questions such as whether it’s better to sell your home with a tenant in place or as a vacant home, your Realtor will answer those questions.
You can call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. I am an experienced Realtor who works in four counties and a consistent top 1% agent. You may as well hire one of the best. We’re not all the same.
Does It Matter Which Agent You Hire to List Your Sacramento Home?
It matters a great deal which agent in Sacramento will list your home. I’ll tell you why. When people ask me how much I charge for commission, the first thing I realize is they don’t really know very much about Sacramento real estate agents or the business, which is OK, but it tends to explain why they may harbor the wrong belief that all real estate agents are the same. Some sellers believe that agents are separated only by the amount of commission they charge, and other than that, we’re all identical.
Which is a shame because it’s not true.
Real estate agents are not the same. We are all different. We come from every walk of life, with varying degrees of education and experience. You’ve got high school dropouts working alongside of guys with Ph.D degrees. Some of us are top producers selling a hundred homes or more every year, some consistently sell at least once house a month, and some agents sell a home every few months or so just to keep toes in the water. Some of us earn our full commissions and others barely stay alive on discounted fees.
Some agents are hysterical and maniacal. Others are calm, tempered and even keel. I believe clients prefer an agent who is loyal, dedicated and works her fingers to the bones for them. Kinda like Freda Kelly, who was the secretary of the Beatles fan club for 11 years. She kept her lips zipped and ran a tight ship. Didn’t even speak out about her experiences until 50 years later.
If Freda promised a fan a lock of John’s hair, they got a lock of John’s hair. If she promised that Paul would sleep on the pillowcase a fan sent to her, you can bet that Paul’s face had been pressed overnight into the pillowcase, even if she had to nag Paul’s mom about it.
If you’re thinking about hiring an agent to list your Sacramento home, you may also want to consider the mission, qualifications and local customs of the brokerage where your agent works. Not every real estate brokerage in town, for example, supports agents who want to hold open houses. I can tell you that Lyon Real Estate is a huge proponent of open houses, and ranks itself as the number 1 real estate brokerage in Sacramento with 17 or so offices and almost 1,000 agents.
When I list your Sacramento home and agents spot the name of Lyon Real Estate, they also recognize my name and know I will handle the transaction fairly, honestly, efficiently and without preferential treatment of some agents over others. That’s not to say an agent who works by herself or at a small boutique might not be qualified in that light, but she won’t have the advantage the number 1 real estate company can offer.
I’m not the answer for everybody to list your Sacramento home. I might be the answer for you, though. I do what I say I’m gonna do. Hundreds of happy clients are proof. You can call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Don’t be that seller whose deal blows up and wonders why.
The X-Rays of Selling a Home in Sacramento
In between 3 real estate closings last week involving selling a home in Sacramento, I paid a visit to my dentist in Midtown, plus my specialist dentist who does implants in Elk Grove. The main problem I see with going to the dentist is their assistants tend to mess up my lip color, forcing me to carefully reapply, and sometimes they splash water on my face, resulting in splotchy blush patches. I would beg: the make-up, guys, be careful of the make-up, but in the overall scheme of things, the condition they leave my face is not as important as the stone carvings that inhabit the cavern beyond my lips.
My dentist in Midtown, I have discovered, is the same age as me. That news was a bit shocking because I’ve always figured he was much older; it’s in his demeanor, his walk, his way of clasping hands and communicating. It actually makes me feel better knowing how old he is because he probably won’t retire before me, so he’ll be around for a while. He’s the guy mentioned by the kid who wrote the book about lessons she learned (at the ripe old age of 8 or something) when she penned don’t bite the dentist.
I brought him my X-rays from the specialist dentist in Elk Grove. Explained how proud of his work that guy appeared. He told me so, said he had done a beautiful job. He also smiled when his assistant came into the room, saying: “Look at that sinus lift, who did that?” I respect and like veteran professionals who take pride in their work. It means the work still matters to them. It’s not just become routine. My Midtown dentist says I probably have a famous mouth, and that my Elk Grove dentist most likely takes those X-rays on the road to conventions and stuff.
Whenever a transaction closes, I often stop to contemplate and commiserate about the pros and cons, mostly elated that my clients are thrilled. No real estate transaction in Sacramento is routine. Each is special, unique and present their own particular set of circumstances. I feel a strong sense of duty to my clients, apart from the legal obligation, to do the best job and to exceed expectations.
I just wish I could take their X-rays of selling a home in Sacramento on the road. To show how my expertise and experience results in happier sellers who end up with more money and less stress than others, simply because they were smart enough to hire this Sacramento REALTOR.
