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Coming Soon Listings From Sacramento and Elk Grove to Lincoln
Coming soon listings are no longer allowed by MetroList in Sacramento without a waiver.
Many Sacramento Realtors do not know we are prohibited from marketing Coming Soon listings that are in off-market status in MLS. We can’t do it (unless we get a waiver signed, which I see no advantage to). That means no signs with Coming Soon on the property, no blogs about it, no posting homes in Zillow or Facebook as Coming Soon listings. And then there are the agents who do know but don’t care. I’m not any of those agents. However, I do have Coming Soon listings from Sacramento to Lincoln that are not yet in MLS, which I bet you’d love to hear about.
Am I right? Would you like to know about Coming Soon listings that are not yet listed but will be soon? You can get on the list of my buyer’s agents or you can contact your own agent and ask your agent to contact me. It doesn’t really mean your offer will receive priority because I have a fiduciary to my sellers, but at least you won’t miss the home when it hits the market. In today’s real estate market, you’ve gotta be Johnny-on-the-spot to snag a house. We have very few homes for sale and a million more buyers than houses. (For you fact checkers, a “million more” is not a literal term.)
Coming Soon Listing Lincoln
Heading the top of the list price-wise is a place in the gated community of Verdera Village, known for its majestic golfcourse homes in Lincoln. Huge square footage, over 5,000. Mind-blowing panoramic views. Explosive sunrises / sunsets. Infinity pool. More bedrooms than any person can probably use except for Octomom. A short sale in the low 900s. Available May 12th.
Coming Soon Listings Curtis Park
Two homes in Curtis Park are coming soon. Both are vintage homes exploding with character. Three to four bedrooms and two baths. Hardwood floors. Two stories each. Updated kitchens and baths. Fairy tale master suites. Hard-to-find garages. Low 700s to high 600s, depending on square footage. Available by Memorial Day.
Coming Soon Listing Elk Grove
Looking for homes in Elk Grove? This is a beautiful single-level K Hovnanian homes situated on a cul-de-sac with almost 1/3 of an acre! Lots of fruit trees and flowers, with a large covered playhouse or hobby room. The home was originally built as a four bedroom but the sellers decided they wanted a formal dining room. So the builder converted a bedroom by opening a wall and turning the closet area into a built-in buffet. Many upgrades throughout. Low 400s. Available May 12th.
Coming Soon Listing Del Paso Manor
The original owners have remodeled this home with love and devotion. All new kitchen featuring subway backsplash and ceramic floors, plus new cabinetry with granite counters. New stainless appliances. Contemporary light fixtures. Refinished hardwood floors. Almost double-size lot, three bedrooms. Low 300s. Available May 17th.
As to why our MetroList doesn’t allow marketing of Coming Soon Listings, I’m not sure, but I suspect it’s because some unethical agents try to capture direct buyer leads and lock out the competition to do dual representation. A few bad apples ruins it for the rest of us. I am a seller’s agent and I do not work with buyers. I don’t have a vested interest in which agent sells our listings, whether it’s an agent on my team, an agent at another company or an agent from the Bay Area. Just as long as it sells and my seller is ecstatic.
Like I said, if you’d like to get on our list of Coming Soon Listings and are unrepresented, call me and I’ll match you with a team member, or call your own buyer’s agent and ask your agent to contact me. Elizabeth Weintraub, Top 3 Listing Agents, Lyon Real Estate, 916.233.6759.
Why Don’t All Realtors Use Professional Photography for Sacramento Listings?
Professional photography for Sacramento listings should not be a choice for a professional Realtor.
A while back I read an article about the reasons to use professional photography for Sacramento listings, for all Sacramento listings, and not just high-end listings. The author was a photographer, of course. But what he said struck home. Why do Realtors discriminate against their clients by shooting the low-end listings with a cellphone and hiring a professional photographer on the high-end? Is a $100,000 condo homeowner less deserving of beautiful photos than a luxury waterfront home seller? I don’t believe so. We provide a service to our clients. Why should that service differ based on the sales price of the property or on the seller’s income? We don’t charge a lower percentage of commission for a low-end than a high-end.
A guy with an entry-level home in Oak Park deserves the same quality of photography as the guy in Granite Bay.
Because I sell all types of properties in the Sacramento area, from $30,000 condos to $1 million+ luxury homes in Sacramento, I would often over the years shoot my own photos. I’m a decent photographer with a Nikon 7200, and I have a good eye; I’ve been a Photoshop user for decades and am adept with the software. But slowly I’ve been converting to hiring professional photography that better showcases my listings. As such, I had to face that inevitable question.
Should I use professional photography in Sacramento for all of my listings or just the upper end? I pondered the question for about all of 3 seconds before I realized what a stupid question it was. OK, maybe I would not use professional photography for a short sale that needs a ton of work because the bank would be confused and demand a higher price. Every other listing, yes, absolutely. Because every seller who is not in a distressed sale situation, and that accounts for 95% of all home sellers in Sacramento, deserve the same stellar service regardless of income, status or price of their home.
I don’t even care if it’s a fixer home with carpet beetles hanging from the ceiling, I hire professional photography in Sacramento. The photos are clear, sharp, focused, and my photographers use high-definition technology. There is no fish-eye in those pictures. I saw a set of photos in MLS shot with a cellphone recently and the agent’s thumb was in one of the pictures. Cellphones cannot shoot interiors, people. The depth is too short to showcase an entire room.
You may wonder don’t sellers ever look at their listings online and get angry that their agent shot such horrible photos? Toilet seats up (you can guess the gender), vertical shots, upside-down photos, dark rooms without flash. Why do the listing agents do that to their sellers? Because they don’t give a crap. And it shows. On top of this, they are cheap. These cheap agents who discriminate do not want to spend a hundred bucks.
Well, I do give a crap. I don’t discriminate against my sellers. Each listing is precious and deserves my best effort. If an agent is not willing to spend $100 or so on professional photography for Sacramento listings, perhaps that seller should hire a different Realtor whose brand reflects better service? There is no place for discrimination in Sacramento real estate, yet you and I both know it exists. At least you won’t find that attitude with the Elizabeth Weintraub Team. I can’t vouch for everybody else, but I sure would like to see the bar raised.
How a Sacramento Realtor Earns That Full Service Commission
How an agent who charges a full service commission returns bigger profit margins to her sellers.
There are agents from the Blue Fish Realty Company who tell sellers in Sacramento that they don’t have to pay a full service commission because Blue Fish offers the same services for less, but that is a falsehood. I have proven time and time again it is not true. Cheap agents can’t do what I do for less. It’s impossible. In fact, I often tell sellers who want to list with Blue Fish to go ahead, and when they figure out they’ve sold their home for less plus they can’t get through the home inspection without paying for repairs or giving the buyer money, they can cancel and call me.
And often they do. I earn my full service commission. But why-oh-why do they have to learn this the hard way?
I will tell sellers if I think they can negotiate for a higher sales price. My services are more in line with those of a top-notch defense lawyer. Maybe that’s why I attract so many lawyers as clients. I’m a different kind of Sacramento Realtor. Because I’ve been in the business for so many decades that I can tell by looking at the offer and chatting with the buyer’s agent whether we should counter. Would another listing agent tell a seller she is selling for too little and should demand a higher price? Maybe, maybe not. I think the likelihood is no, though. Because an agent would have to care. And there are many who do not. They care if it closes, but they don’t care how much money the seller makes or loses.
When the sellers of a home in South Land Park interviewed agents, they decided to pick me, even though I quoted them a higher commission than a discount agent. I pointed out why I’m worth more. Because I can give them more money in a stress-free transaction, I’ll negotiate the highest price possible, and I’ll get them through the inspections without paying for anything. That’s a certain skill I’ve acquired. And when an agent has a refined skillset, she gets paid more. Because sellers profit from that knowledge. It doesn’t cost more, it pays the sellers.
We just closed yesterday on that home in South Land Park. The list price was $545,000 and our final sales price was $552,500. That’s a difference of $7,500. Not to mention, some of the other agents suggested a lower list price of $499K. My suggested price of $545,000 was $45,000 more right off the bat. That’s a whopping difference. But the clients didn’t pick me for that reason. They chose me because I defended my estimate with proof.
Further, during the home inspection, a lot of defects popped up. For starters, there was $5,200 worth of pest work the sellers did not have to pay. In addition, the water heater had problems, the roof leaked, and the master bath shower needed to be replaced. Oh, and there was asbestos. That’s a scary word to many home buyers, asbestos. Does a salaried Blue Fish agent know how to resolve these issues without leaning on the seller to pay? Probably not. My sellers didn’t pay a dime toward any of that.
So, while a seller might hope she is saving money by hiring a Blue Fish agent, in comparison, she is instead paying through the nose. From the sales price all the way down to closing. And let’s not even discuss the drama. I don’t do drama. I just do my job, get the sellers the highest price without the usual hassles that befall other agents. My services returned more than $57,000+ of extra profit for these sellers. That’s over 10% more.
These sellers believe it was worth paying a full service commission to enjoy those benefits. If you’d like to do the same, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Who is The Number One Agent at Lyon Real Estate Downtown?
The Number One Agent at Lyon Real Estate Downtown is Elizabeth Weintraub.
A team member reminded me this weekend that I have not yet blogged about who is the Number One Agent at Lyon Real Estate Downtown. First, it helps to know that Lyon has almost 1,000 agents in the company. As if it’s not enough that this Sacramento Realtor has placed four times in the 3 top agents at Lyon Real Estate, she has also earned the top agent at Lyon Real Estate Downtown for the past 6 years straight. Of course you know I’m talking about myself. How quickly time passes by when you’re busy with Sacramento real estate.
If my mother were alive today, she would harp on what I’m going to do with the rest of my life, why don’t I go back to school and finish my degree? Or, her favorite, why don’t I get a real job? Then she’d drone on about the doom and gloom of international politics and how our economy is about to collapse. I’d certainly never get to stop listening to her rant about the horrors of our present administration, unless I set the phone down and picked it back up 20 minutes later . . .
I study the awards sitting on my shelf in my home office, and I can hardly believe the journey myself. I’ve had such highs and lows in my real estate career. When I started in the business in the 1970s, I was selling 10 homes a month to investors my first year. Then the Tax Reform Act of 1986 sent the investor side of things to a crashing halt. It’s been ups and downs every since until about 2003. First I earned a few Executive Awards and most Most Improved Sales from Lyon. Then Senior Executive Associate, followed by a couple of top 1% agent awards.
In 2009, I placed as the Number 3 agent at Lyon Real Estate Downtown. That was a good year. But 2010 was better; I moved up and earned Number 2 agent at Lyon Real Estate Downtown. Now, ever since 2011, I’ve been the Number One Agent at Lyon Real Estate Downtown. I recall sitting in the lobby of Lyon Real Estate when I first moved to Sacramento in late 2002. My husband and I were waiting for an agent to show us homes. I glanced over at my husband and said, “I think this where I am going to work.”
Sure, I interviewed with many other real estate offices in town, but I kept coming back to good reasons to work at Lyon Real Estate. Besides, one of those other smaller offices did not want to hire me. I was flat-out turned down. Rejection has never stopped me. And today, well, I have a long history of being the Number One Agent at Lyon Real Estate Downtown. We have around 80 agents, so it’s a decent accomplishment. Not that my dead mother would agree.
If you’re looking to buy or sell real estate in the Greater Sacramento region, please call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
How Fast Can Realtors List Houses for Sale in Sacramento?
The timeframes for listing houses for sale in Sacramento vary among Realtors.
You would be amazed at how fast Realtors can list houses for sale in Sacramento. Well, maybe not all Sacramento Realtors, but this agent is organized. If you call me in the morning, I can research the comparable sales for your home, draw the paperwork, run over to complete my visual inspection and shoot professional photographs, and your home can be in MLS by late afternoon. It’s not the way I prefer to list houses for sale in Sacramento, but sometimes sellers need an emergency listing. I accommodate.
Chuckle as you may, but emergency listings happen more often than most people probably think. Some pop up out of the blue. I may never have spoken to the seller before the day she calls. She might need an appointment in a few hours. Or, I might be working with a seller for months and months before he is ready to go on the market but when that moment arrives, it needs to be right now. No problem.
I don’t always have the luxury of time. Ordinarily, it may take me several hours to prepare a comparative market analysis, depending on where the home is located and other factors such as condition, upgrades, market temperature, demand and positioning. If I have my druthers, I often hire a third-party photographer with more time and better equipment to deliver HD photographs. That appointment alone can take several days to obtain. Then, there’s also the preparation time to tweak and deliver the photos to my email. The average time involved in listing houses for sale in Sacramento is generally a week.
But if you need your house on the market immediately, I can do that, too. In fact, I talked with a seller last night about listing her home in Roseville. Laid out how the process works, how long it will take to sell, and let her know I can still score a four-color online and inprint Sac Bee ad in our Open House Extravaganza for this coming weekend. We could be on the market by Thursday night. Set an appointment for 4 PM today to prepare an inspection, attach a lockbox, sign paperwork. This seller should be in escrow at least by December 20th, by my calculations.
Just as I was beginning to implement my organizational chart, the seller emailed to say they were not selling the house after all. Well, that’s OK; when she changes her mind tomorrow, next year or 10 years from now, she knows where to find me. Elizabeth Weintraub is not going anywhere. If you need an emergency Realtor for listing houses for sale in Sacramento, just call 916.233.6759.
