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How to Sell Your House in the Fall Sacramento Market
If you’re looking for tips to sell your house in the fall Sacramento market, you’ve come to the right blog. I routinely sell a couple of homes a week on average so I manage a wide range of transactions. This gives me a unique perspective of the housing market in Sacramento. Because believe you me, I have been sailing high on the seller’s market in Sacramento for the past 7 years. It’s a little bit of a bummer to watch the tables turning, but that’s the cycle of life and of real estate. Gone is the “seller’s way or the highway.” New is: how can we help the buyer to purchase this home?
Does this mean multiple offers are a thing of the past? That’s what sellers want to know. The truth is there will always be multiple offers for beautiful and stunning homes or for severely underpriced homes. There will be no multiple offers anymore for the stuff that is in between. We have a lot of stuff, much inventory on hand that lies between gorgeous and cheap. That land known as average run-of-the-mill homes at a decent price. Or, otherwise referred to as: ain’t gonna sell come hell or high water. Because buyers today do not want an average home at a decent price.
In fact, I would say there is a huge disconnect between how sellers and buyers view the market. For starters, buyers are not crawling all over each other anymore to buy a home. They don’t want to overpay and are a bit uneasy purchasing. They will check with everybody within earshot for advice. To capture today’s home buyers your home needs to almost be perfect. This means no leaky roofs, busted water heaters, no black mold in the bathrooms, nor peeling and separating laminate floors, and certainly no creepy carpeting.
Sellers, if you want to sell your house in the fall Sacramento market, be ready to negotiate on price. It doesn’t matter too much your sales price. It can be right on the nose or lower than the comps. Whatever it is, if there is one little drawback to the house, you can bet a buyer will hit that price. That means if your home is worth $415,000, for example, and you want to sell at $415,000, it needs to be perfect. If it’s not perfect, a buyer might offer $395K. And after the home and pest inspection, the buyer will want more money or repairs. Buyers are driving sales.
If you’re not prepared to negotiate and give in to buyers, then your home should be in brand new condition. Completely remodeled, new appliances, flooring, paint and lighting. We don’t write the rules of Sacramento real estate, so don’t kill the messenger. This is just the way it is in our present real estate market. You either work within the confines of the market or you can just not sell your house. Your listing agent is not a magician. She can’t manufacture demand that does not exist.
Just a quick run in MLS shows over 3,374 residential listings in Sacramento County. That’s a big uptick from our August 2018 Sacramento Housing Report. Although, we’ve had that kind of inventory in 2014, when we had more buyers. Now, only 1,594 sales have closed over the past 30 days, and a mere 1,188 are pending. We are slowing down instead of going like gangbusters as we have in previous Septembers.
I met with sellers yesterday who need to do a bit of work before selling. They have a list of projects from me. If they don’t do the work, then they need to drop their expectations on price by about $30,000 to $40,000. There is no way around this. It’s not like a seller can simply wait a few months for the market to improve. The market is not about to improve for sellers so no amount of waiting will pay off. Don’t kick yourself that you didn’t sell early spring. Spring has come and gone and next spring won’t be as pretty. Don’t lament the past. Deal with the here and now.
If you were waiting for the perfect time to sell your house, when all the stars were aligned, anytime within the past 7 years would have been a good time. However, if you want to maximize profit potential today, the best way to sell your house in the fall Sacramento market is to rely on the advice and negotiation skills from a strong listing agent. Since I fit that bill, I offer my services to you. You can call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759 and put 40+ years of experience to work for you.
The Search for a Strong Sacramento Listing Agent Ends Here
Many sellers say they want a strong Sacramento listing agent who is not a pushover.
Let me say this right up front that I never set out to swipe another agent’s client but sometimes they approach me years later and ask this Sacramento listing agent to list their homes. It astonishes me a little because I tend to assume they would have had more loyalty to their buyer’s agent, but I don’t push the issue. They are looking for a strong Sacramento listing agent, and that’s why they call. They remember their experience in escrow, through offer negotiations and prefer to be on the winning side.
Is that interfering with another agent’s client? I don’t believe so because to have a client you need to establish Agency, and Agency is over when the transaction closes. Even though agents say they expect to be the client’s “agent for life,” nobody owns another person. These people are former buyers who used to be represented by a different real estate agent and are now turning into sellers who want a strong Sacramento listing agent.
I should also add there is a huge difference between being “strong” and being “mean.” Those terms are not synonymous with each other. There is never any excuse on Earth to be cruel or overly aggressive. Assertiveness is not aggression. Wikipedia says: Assertiveness is the quality of being self-assured and confident without being aggressive.
I don’t email these buyers or send them direct mail or stay in contact in any way after escrow closes, not like their buyer’s agent probably does. But I guess they witness first hand how a strong Sacramento listing agent operates and they want that benefit when it comes time to sell. They saw that their agent did not get the repairs completed they had hoped for during the Request for Repair dog-and-pony-show portion of the escrow. Or maybe they did not get the sales price they wanted and felt forced to pay over list price? In any case, they don’t feel their buyer’s agent served them with as much focus as this strong Sacramento listing agent had served her sellers.
Why is that? It’s not because their buyer’s agents are weak or inefficient. No, not at all. Far from it. It’s because their expectations were not properly prepared and set prior to escrow. It’s easy to look good against the backdrop of ill-prepared buyers.
I’m always a little uneasy when I show up at the house to collect my lockbox after a listing closes escrow. I’m not sure if the buyers are going to dash out with a water gun and blast me. Take THAT for not letting us move in early! Whoosh. But that never happens. They are always polite, shake my hand, and thank me for the opportunity to buy a home. And then they call me a few years later when they’re looking for a strong Sacramento listing agent.
To put 40 years of experience to work for you, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
