Email Elizabethtips from a top sacramento realtor
Top Sacramento Realtor Tips About Working the Listing
Working the listing means answering the phone, being prepared to talk to agents and buyers.
As a top Sacramento Realtor, I don’t always think about what I do, I just do it. But when I explain to sellers what I do, especially during a listing presentation, stuff comes out of my mouth that sometimes amazes even me because I’m not consciously coming up with those thoughts. They just flow from my day-to-day business operations. When I have to verbalize my actions, that creates a life experience to share with others.
Last week I met with sellers in South Land Park who had initially talked with me while I was on vacation in Mexico. They set aside 3 available appointment time: 11:30, 1:30 and 3:30. They planned to interview 3 top Sacramento Realtors referred to them by an agent friend from the Bay area. I told the seller I would take the first appointment because, after he talks with me, all the agents that follow my presentation will pale by comparison. That’s not bragging, that’s just the way I see it. And yes, they wisely decided to hire me.
I am focused and high energy. I listen. I offer advice. I customize each presentation to meet my seller’s anticipated needs. Nothing is canned or artificial. One of the my top Sacramento Realtor tips about working the listing is to engage with other Realtors. Oh, the very idea! The first day that listing hits the market, I am prepared to answer my phone and talk with buyer’s agents who call with questions. I have answers. I market that listing to each caller and share small details not readily apparent in MLS. I’m upbeat and cheery.
That alone differentiates me from many others. Do you know how many agents never answer their phones? I have worked with listing agents over the past 40-some years with whom I’ve had zero contact during escrow. No emails, no text messages and certainly no voice phone calls. They dumped everything on their assistant or transaction coordinator and did not talk with me once. Many listing agents don’t want to talk to other agents at all. They consider buyer’s agents a “time suck.” I want buyer’s agents to call the listing agent.
I consider buyer’s agents an integral part of the transaction. Because I don’t directly represent buyers. When buyers call me, I’m working the listing, during which I am emphasizing the strong points of the property, I give them advice and put them in touch with a team member. It doesn’t really matter to me if one of my team members bring a buyer or if an agent at another company brings the buyer. What matters is my listing is sold and my sellers are happy.
As a top Sacramento Realtor, I put the needs of my sellers first and I will only represent them. I work that listing. No call goes unanswered, and I encourage cooperation with other buyer’s agents. I answer my phone no matter where I am or what I am doing, or I strive to call back within an hour. I’ll help buyer’s agents to write winning offers as best I can, without stepping on anybody else’s toes or treating anyone unfairly. If you want a home sold, you can call Elizabeth Weintraub, and you can count on me to perform. 916.233.6759.
The Reasons Realtors Get Paid So Much
There are many valid reasons Realtors get paid so much.
For those who wonder about the reasons Realtors get paid so much, I’ve got news for you. For starters, they don’t. According to NAR most Realtors earn around $45,000 a year. Is that a lot of money to you? Further, you’ve got good Realtors and bad Realtors, just like any other profession. I hate to break it to you, but that dentist who is sticking a drill bit in your mouth? He’s that snotty-nose kid who used to sit behind you in third grade, kicking your chair. Although his grade point average throughout grade school was a lousy D-minus, he grew up and got a license to practice dentistry. And now he’s your dentist. Or your Realtor.
The really good Realtors make a shitload of money. Because they have knowledge. You’re paying for their knowledge and expertise on every single transaction. The more transactions a Sacramento Realtor closes, for example, the more she is worth. Any mistakes along the way she never repeats. She has answers to questions you don’t even know to ask. Because she has paid the price to earn a reputation for excellence.
She has held open houses in 115-degree heat sans air conditioning while you were relaxing at home in the pool. She has hauled buyers from hell and back to show homes while you napped. She has trudged in 6-inch heels through filthy foreclosures unsafe for human occupancy while you shopped for back-to-school clothes at Macy’s. She has endured crazy rants from lunatics who had no business listing a home while you licked the bottom of your ice cream bowl. She has chased cats in her bare feet who bolted from a home showing in pouring rain while you taught your dog to shake. She has saved transactions from canceling, pulled rabbits out of a hat and pounded lenders into funding while you gazed at the evening stars from your front porch.
Excessive soap suds can make a dishwasher overflow.
She gets paid for what she knows. No matter what you think you know about real estate, you do not know what a Sacramento Realtor who has been in the business for more than 40 years knows. This really hit home to me the other day when our dishwasher overflowed. I could not find the source of the problem. I called an appliance repair guy who checked it out, charged me $80 and said somebody (not me) had inadvertently put a dish or glass into the dishwasher with dish soap on it. Probably the cats. The dishwashing cycle churned so many suds it overflowed and seeped through the door.
Do you know how to eliminate excessive amounts of soap suds? I didn’t know. You pour cooking oil into the dishwasher, 1/4 cup or so, and voila. The suds vanish. It cost me $80 to learn that. Money well spent. Same reasons Realtors get paid so much.
There is a secret to loosen an aerator when it refuses to turn.
Another expensive lesson. I could not remove the screen from a faucet in our master bath. I tried turning it counterclockwise with my hands. I tried a pliers. I asked my husband to give it a go. The aerator seemed clogged. Our water pressure was low. I called a plumber. He charged $75 for a home visit. Would you like to know the secret to cleaning a faucet screen when the aerator refuses to turn? When a pliers doesn’t work, there is an answer. You squeeze the aerator while simultaneously turning the faucet. I did not know that. Cost $75. Money well spent. Same reasons Realtors get paid so much.
I met with a potential sellers a few days ago. His wife has self-diagnosed a neurological disorder. I suggested she go to the doctor, but these guys don’t trust doctors, they think doctors make too much money and that doctors don’t know everything because, hey, we have the internet. You’ve got good doctors and bad doctors. I hate to say this, but doctors do know stuff that we don’t know. I’ve researched symptoms, been completely convinced I had some weird disease, and it was nothing remotely similar to my research and, yet, a doctor fixed my ailment. Money well spent. Same reasons Realtors get paid so much.
I would not hesitate one second to visit a doctor if something was wrong. I am paying that doctor for her years of medical school, training and knowledge acquired on the job, for her expertise. There is a place where people go who think they know everything and don’t need qualified professionals. I think it’s called Fox News.
Of course, the trick is to hire a good Realtor with top-notch reviews and decades of experience. Realtors like me get paid for our insight and offer negotiation skills. You can call a full-service Realtor like Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Or, you can call a discount agent and also get what you pay for.
Is the Client Always Right About Real Estate in Sacramento?
Selling real estate in Sacramento involves more than knowledge about real estate.
What does a Realtor say when others ask if the client is always right about real estate in Sacramento when it seems they are not. It’s sort of a tricky question because the answer, of course, is in the affirmative. Even if the clients are wrong. Like when a buyer decides, for example, that they should ask a listing agent to represent them, in hopes the agent will be greedy enough and unethical to do whatever it takes to shove her seller into escrow. Except a dual agency action with that type of agent can open the door for both parties to get thrown under the bus. You let them make their own mistakes.
Way before I became involved in real estate in Sacramento, I recall an interview process in the early 1970s, at the electric company in Minneapolis, just before I moved out of town and went into real estate myself. My interviewer asked how would I handle a situation with a customer who was clearly in the wrong. My answer was something about educating the customer, and I didn’t get the job. Because the customer is always right.
There are certainly conflicts in dealing with people involved in real estate in Sacramento. It’s a people business. It is not really a real estate business, although understanding real estate, how it works, and possessing an analytical ability to negotiate are all strong positives, it still boils down to the people involved and managing expectations.
This doesn’t meant that I don’t educate my clients, because I do. If they tell me, for example, that they do NOT want an open house held for any reason because they believe open houses only benefit the agent and not the client — which is totally incorrect, btw — I don’t do it. I might explain to them that buyers see homes in all sorts of different ways, and stopping at an open house is one of those ways that generates buyer motivation. The buyer might view the home, call an agent and write an offer a day or so later. It happens all the time. I know this because I am heavily involved in real estate in Sacramento.
But if the client, who maybe sells a home once every 10 years insists on no open houses, that’s what I do. It might take longer to sell the home; it won’t be exposed to the widest pool of buyers available, but that is not my call. It’s my seller’s right to choose. I would feel guilty if I didn’t explain my reasons, but I would never demand a seller do things my way, if my way makes them unhappy. The client might not always be right about real estate in Sacramento, but they are right because they chose me to be their Realtor.
