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No Big Rush to List a Home in Land Park
The year of 2019 is starting out very busy. I thought this weekend would be fairly quiet, but I guess as people sat around watching football or perhaps recovering from New Year’s Eve activities, they started to think about buying and selling real estate in Sacramento. That’s because I received a ton of phone calls: Should we list a home in Land Park now? Can I afford to buy a home before interest rates rise? When is a good time to put homes in Land Park on the market? Should I fix up my home or sell as is?
One home seller in Land Park asked if I wanted to come over to sign the listing paperwork or if I preferred to wait until the seller finishes making improvements. I’m not one of those agents who worries about losing clients to another agent, so there is no rush to list a home in Land Park until the home is ready to be shown.
The thing is it is in the seller’s best interest to put a home on the market when that home is in tip-top shape. In the past, I have shown homes that were not yet prepared for sale to real estate agents, erroneously believing that agents have the ability to look past defects and construction work and give an estimate of value. What I have discovered is that many agents aren’t any different from buyers. Some of them can’t see past a mess. They want to view the home in turn-key condition.
The first few weeks on the market are crucial. A seller in Land Park needs to present that home in its absolute best light. It should shine from top to bottom and be immaculate. There is no reason to give a buyer even one small reason to pass up that home in Land Park. I don’t want buyers to come away from a showing with any lingering doubts.
I prefer to hit the market with a bang. Virtual tour, in place and uploaded. Check. Perfect verbiage on every website. Check. Professional photographs, tweaked, brightened. Check. Broker / MLS tours, set up and scheduled. Check. Open house, advertising ready. Check. Online marketing, extensive exposure. Check. Bay area emails prepared. Check. No rush to toss a listing into MLS. In the immortal words probably last uttered by David Carradine: Patience, young grasshopper. And look what happened to Carradine. OK, maybe don’t.
Think of it this way: Would you push a fashion model down the runway who is limping on one foot, pulling on her second shoe? Well, some misguided eager-beavers would. I prefer to make a grand entrance. When I list a home in Land Park, I find my sellers expect a big splash.
Land Park Seller Bought and Sold Concurrently Without Listing First
Another satisfied Land Park seller closed escrow last week. The incredible thing was we didn’t even have his house listed when we helped him to buy a new home contingent on his existing home closing concurrently. Sometimes we can pull off that remarkable type of sale. How we do it when other agents cannot is an interesting story.
For starters, I’m not saying this will work 100% of the time but usually it does. First, it helps to have a desirable home to sell, and it doesn’t get much better than owning a vintage home on a fabulous street. Second, if the listing agent of the home the seller wants to buy knows me, well, they know I will sell that home, whether it’s on the market right now or not. I will find a way to sell the seller’s home because that’s what my reputation is built upon. In other words, we sell the listing agent being Elizabeth Weintraub to the other agent.
I always tell my sellers it is better overall to put their home on the market before going off to buy a home. We can make the sale of their home contingent on finding a home to buy. But I also understand that they don’t always care what is best. They don’t want to sell until they find the home they love, which ultimately is their motivation for selling. In this particular sale, the seller had found the home and started the negotiations to buy that home prior to finding our buyer.
But in the middle of everything, we suddenly were prepared to go on the market. No grass grows under my feet. The house was painted, everything cleaned up and ready to go. When I told the Land Park seller how much he could get for his home, he was fairly blown away. He could not believe he had acquired that much equity since I sold him the home almost 10 years ago. We priced the home very attractively, right at that sweet spot.
After the open house, we received an aggressive offer through an experienced Lyon Realtor I’ve closed other sales with. It’s always wonderful to work with a competent and skilled agent on the other side. My team member Amy McMullan jumped in to help this Land Park seller purchase his new home. On the day before closing, a series of events popped up that required immediate attention, and Amy got on the horn and made it happen. I thought she was gonna have a heart attack. But no, she got the job done professionally and efficiently.
This Land Park seller sold his home for $23,000 over list price. He closed on his new home the same day, and we negotiated an extra day for him to move out. We do the impossible just about every day on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team. If you’re thinking about buying or selling a home in the Sacramento area, please call Elizabeth at 916.233.6759.
1731 Bidwell Way, Sacramento, CA 95818 closed escrow on April 12th, 2018 at $572,000.
Selling Homes in Land Park
Land Park agent Elizabeth Weintraub works from home in Land Park.
My buyer’s agents were out of town this weekend, so I had to funnel some business elsewhere, plus I put together a couple of transactions myself. This was on top of writing my homebuying articles for About.com, following up on showings and preparing new listing paperwork for this week. I was astonished that only 2 agents responded to my requests for feedback on my new Land Park listing, because we’ve had 8 showings already. That’s a 25% response rate, which is sorta low, especially for homes in Land Park.
But because I’ve been so busy, I was unable to personally meet with a buyer yesterday. He made it pretty clear that he wanted me to write his offer and not somebody else, so it wasn’t like I could ask an associate from my office to do it. You know what they say, right? If you want something done correctly, ask a busy agent. Because a busy agent is an organized agent.
I’m so organized I can make your head spin. Well, not literally because then you’d be like Linda Blair in the Exorcist. Not a pretty sight. I saw that movie when I was 21, and it still freaks me out. Just like it freaks out some people that I can do business without ever leaving my house. If it comes down to it, and it did on Sunday.
My buyer and I emailed for a while, talking about homes in Land Park. He went to the open house, and let the agent know that he was working with me, as all of my buyers are asked to do. It avoids discussions about procuring cause, and it reduces the possible solicitation. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that some buyers walk into open houses in Land Park and blatantly announce they are working with Elizabeth Weintraub even when they are not. Because they have discovered that Land Park agents won’t try to convert them into clients then.
I like writing offers in solitude. It gives me time to reflect on each portion of the offer, time to double check the contract for typos and math. Leisure sans pressure is a great tool for eliminating mistakes. Then I uploaded the offer to DocuSign, answered a few questions for the buyer before he asked — because I know which questions buyers ask. Then zipped it off to the listing agent after signed receipt. Selling homes in Land Park just gets better and better. I love my job. Just ask my Land Park clients. They’ll tell you.
While Elizabeth is in Cuba, we are revisiting blogs published elsewhere.
Tips for Selling a Home in Land Park Sacramento
Some people believe all Land Park agents are the same, just like they view real estate agents anywhere, but when it comes to selling a home in Land Park, a leafy urban neighborhood in Sacramento, choosing the right Land Park agent can make a big difference. I can say this because I’m only repeating what my seller told me yesterday when I called to provide verification that we had closed on his home in Land Park. He was another seller I had never met in person.
I should mention that some sellers find it very unusual to sell a home without ever meeting the listing agent, but it’s pretty common place for me nowadays to handle real estate transactions for individuals I have never met. We talk by phone, they read my articles on About.com and peruse my Sacramento real estate website, and we mostly communicate through email or texting, which works brilliantly. We don’t need no stinkin’ handshaking and eyeball bounces.
When the seller first called to discuss possibly selling a home in Land Park, I drove by the home, which was only a few blocks from my own home in Land Park. Even though I know the neighborhood like the back of my own hand, I don’t know every house on every street, and homes in Land Park are unique. They are not like homes in Elk Grove or Natomas because they differ wildly from each other. That’s why the Zillow estimates are often way off base. Zillow estimated the value of this home at about 12% less than it sold. I came up with a sales price based on what I know about the neighborhood, then confirmed my instincts through comparable sales and a drive by.
After I viewed the home and realized there were a few drawbacks, I had considered revising my initial estimate. But given the way the market is moving at the moment — and it is a strong seller’s market in Sacramento — I decided against suggesting a revision on price, and shared those thoughts with the seller. Together, we chose a sales price positioned in just the right sweet spot against the competition and sure enough, we received multiple offers. We shrewdly negotiated and managed to drive that price about 3% higher. I also talked with the appraiser to ensure the appraised value would match the sales price.
Doing what is best for my clients always tends to work out well in the end, and that’s my focus. Some people might scoff and say that attitude is a bit OCD, but it works for me so there’s no reason to change it. We had no request for repairs, nothing. No hiccups. Of course, working with an excellent buyer’s agent on the other side of the transaction helps tremendously, too. Buyers who choose the right buyer’s agent and sellers who choose the right listing agent tend to close escrow faster, smoother and without drama.
