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Reasons to Review Sacramento MLS Before Showing
Always review MLS for status before showing
The good news is this morning the elk head that was sitting in my family room has gone to its new home at the Elk’s Lodge in Sacramento. Sometimes I feel like my life is a TV sitcom. As though I am but a mere viewer, sitting on a stool at a bar, glass of bourbon in hand, neat, and watching the goofy antics of some other Sacramento Realtor and not myself.
The bad news is I had 2 cancellations to deal with before the sun rose, but like my blog of yesterday, good news is often on the tail end of bad, and one of those cancellations is back in escrow with a new buyer. That home never saw the light of day back in MLS because I keep meticulous records of interested parties. When one collapses, another can slide right in.
My client who shot the elk will get a nice donation letter from the Elk’s Lodge, which she can most likely use as a tax deduction on her income taxes because she technically made a contribution to a charitable organization. Even if the elk did park itself temporarily to live on my family room floor. And thousands of US Service women and men can now appreciate Elkie daily. It is a fitting home for him.
I wish I could solve all of the problems we face in Sacramento real estate like this. The most pressing issue lately has been real estate agents and Sacramento REALTORS who do not read the MLS property information sheets they print. It seems like such a simple thing to do, just read the property data and the confidential remarks. If there are attachments to MLS, download them by clicking on the paperclip. Yet, I’d venture to guess that at least 1 out of every 3 agents do not.
The worst violation is showing instructions. They don’t seem to know that Call First Lockbox means call the seller (and not the agent) when the seller’s name and number are listed. If we meant Call Listing Agent, then that box would be checked instead, and the instructions would be Call Listing Agent. But that can be ambiguous if the listing agent doesn’t complete the listing correctly as well. The worst showing instruction violation, though, is when the buyer’s agent just sails into the house without calling, and it’s occupied. Hello?
I want to get down on my hands and knees and plead, please please read MLS showing instructions. Don’t use the Supra lockbox and unlock the door if you haven’t read the instructions for showing. Because you know who the seller blames when this happens? I lost a listing last week because a seller completely freaked out when an agent did not call and tried to enter his home unannounced. It almost makes me want to go back to the days of no lockboxes, when you had to pick up a key at the listing office.
If in doubt, review the MLS before entering a home. It’s that simple. Just double check yourself. While you’re standing near the lockbox, read the instructions one more time. I realize the MLS app for the iPhone 6 Plus seems messed up but it can work in a browser window like Safari. Believe it, many buyer’s agents are using worthless apps to access information from their mobile devices (like Trulia and Zillow), but only MLS shows the correct information. Please use it.
Why This Sacramento Agent Carries a Display Key
There are days in Sacramento real estate when it seems like one just can’t use enough technology or have enough electronic gizmos at one’s disposal. The gift of magic always come with a price, though. Sometimes digital wonders don’t work. They can go haywire. Or, something else malfunctions. Like the other day when gmail went down and thousands of gmail users went bonkers.
As a Sacramento real estate agent, I maintain a half dozen email accounts through various service providers and online sites, yet I take great precautions that no one will ever find my email address online. I utilize a variety of devices to access the Internet, and I have more than a few ways to get online, which means short of an asteroid hitting the Earth and wiping out all communications, I can always reach out and touch someone.
This is why I don’t subscribe to an eKey through my cellphone. I don’t like putting all of my eggs into one basket. If it doesn’t work, I’m hosed. Agents need either an eKey or display key to access a Supra lockbox, which contain keys for showing a home. An agent on another website wrote a cute blog yesterday about playing an online game and in order to earn extra points, had set his cellphone clock ahead by 24 hours. Then, he tried to show homes to a busload of passengers and his eKey would not work.
Hey, a person can drop his cellphone into the toilet or she can flip it out the car window. What happens if the cell tower is down or a Sacramento agent is showing a home in the foothills without cellphone coverage? There are must too many variables. For me, it’s much safer to just subscribe to a display key and forget about using my cellphone to access a lockbox. That way, if I experience a little hiccup, I can call the Supra toll-free number and an extremely patient person will explain how to straighten a paperclip, stick it into the hole in the back to reset the display key, and all is well with the world.
To have it not work once is too many times. Yeah, it might cost a little bit more, but this Sacramento agent prefers to be safe than sorry.
What Sacramento Buyer’s Agents Want to Know
As a listing agent in Sacramento, I hear almost immediately from a lot of buyer’s agents when any of my new listings hit the market. Ding, ding, ding, my phone rings, one call after another. Especially if the listing is priced well and a turnkey home. The first thing agents want to know is if it’s still available, even if it’s only been in MLS for 30 minutes. That’s not as unusual as it may sound because my photos look enticing, the marketing verbiage is attractive and, in our competitive market in Sacramento, sometimes buyers don’t view the home before writing an offer. With digital online signing services such as DocuSign, buyers can quickly sign an offer within minutes for submission.
Of course, I check the Supra lockbox online showings to determine if the agent representing the buyer has entered the house. But that doesn’t tell me if the buyer was with the agent at the time. The buyer could live in San Francisco for all I know, but I can get a clue from the address on the buyer’s preapproval letter or earnest money deposit check. I can also just ask the agent. This is part of the information I pass on to my sellers as together we analyze the purchase offers.
The second thing buyer’s agents want to know is how much their buyer must offer to buy the home, on top of how many offers we have received. I will answer the third question but not the second, unless the seller instructs me to do it. And since it’s not really in the seller’s interest to disclose how high a buyer needs to go, few sellers will give me the go-ahead, yet buyer’s agents will still ask about it. They need to study the comparable sales and act accordingly; do their job.
Buyer’s agents will say: My buyers really wants to buy this house, so tell me how much they have to pay to get it. Well, I don’t know because it’s not my house. That’s the seller’s decision, and the seller probably doesn’t even know. If there is financing, the home needs to appraise. Moreover, if I tell that buyer’s agent how much everybody else offered, then I have to go back to all of those other agents and tell them how much the other buyers have offered. I can’t treat one agent with preference over another agent. They wouldn’t like it if the tables were turned and it was done to them. I am a REALTOR, which means I have to abide by the Code of Ethics, and I must treat all parties fairly.
It’s not just a made-up code that nobody follows.
