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What is the Right Sacramento Listing Term Length?
Sellers tend to focus too much on the Sacramento listing term length.
In my Sacramento real estate business, red flags often go up when a seller asks a lot of questions about the Sacramento listing term length or tries to alter my standard contract. It tells me I have somehow failed to communicate. Which would be very distressing for this Sacramento Realtor because I base much of my success in real estate on my outstanding communication skills. Plus, it kinda depends on who is doing the asking and the types of questions.
Bottom line, the deal is this top producer listing agent will immediately cancel a listing agreement for any reason for any seller. I am not one of those agents who will cry and beg to continue the Sacramento listing term length. That’s silly and unprofessional behavior if the seller wants to cancel the listing. I do not hold my sellers in prison. Therefore, the Sacramento listing term length for my sellers has no bearing on anything. It’s meaningless.
My standard Sacramento listing term length is 6 months, and if it is a short sale, it is a year. I do this so I don’t have to prepare even MORE paperwork if we need to extend. I don’t do it to hold my seller’s hand in the flame.
If I promise a seller that she can cancel the listing agreement at any time, and the seller demands a shorter time-frame than my standard term, my impulse is to walk away from the listing. A response like that tells me the seller does not respect my integrity, ethics, nor my word, and we have no fiduciary relationship. I have voided listing agreements sitting for signature in DocuSign over this. No trust. It’s a matter of principle.
I have learned over my 40 years in the real estate business that a lack of fiduciary is absolutely contrary to a successful business relationship.
A few days ago a seller contacted me about a home that was already listed. She wanted to change agents and pick a new listing agent. I looked at the listing in MLS. The lead photo looked like the agent had leaned out her car window, while still driving, and shot a picture with her cellphone. You could see the street, a blurry wall, and some kind of home poking out behind it. Terrible. I talked to that seller for a good 20 minutes at my home, then continued the conversation as I drove from Land Park to Folsom, another 30 minutes.
The seller wasn’t understanding much of the conversation, even though she turned up her hearing aid and put her caregiver on the phone for a while. She told me she was a real estate agent at one time, now lives in Phoenix, and asked how she could cancel her listing. She should know. Well, first you need a cancellation of listing and then the home needs to be removed from MLS. I spelled MLS, M as in Mary . . . What is a multiple, she asked? I have patience. I recognized the situation. I have empathy. Especially for older people.
But it was clear to me why her home has not sold. She asked what price it should be listed at. She adored her outdated wallpaper, shag carpeting and sheet-paneled walls. That love will cost her at least $50K off the comps, and if we could not talk about that, we certainly can’t discuss the Sacramento listing term length. I gave her a sales figure. That’s not what my agent is selling the house for, she cried. Well, the thing is, I said, your agent is not selling your home. I’m sorry.
It is rare that a seller wants to cancel a listing agreement but there are situations when a seller has a change of heart, or decides to rent the home, whatever. The reasoning is not important. I will cancel. No hassle. But when a seller asks before listing, over and over and over if she owes an agent any money upon cancellation (the answer is no), well, just saying, that could be a listing that is not worth the effort, and an agent would be wise to address that obvious concern upfront.
I don’t try to list every home in Sacramento but I do put my seller’s interests first. My sellers can trust I will do my best. My best is excellence. If there is no trust, we don’t belong in business together.
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.
Coming Soon Waterfront Home in Riverlake, Sacramento
Aerial view of 774 Still Breeze Way, Sacramento, CA 95831
Sitting quietly, specifically angled to catch the rays of morning light as the sun showers Riverlake in gold across the water, is a magnificent custom home in the exclusive gated-community of Stillwater at Riverlake. A home of this caliber comes along maybe once in a lifetime. The location is premier water frontage, next to a private beach with its own boat dock and forever panoramic views of the water.
Dining patio at 774 Still Breeze Way
When I first entered this home, it gave me the same feeling I experienced when I first laid eyes on the Grand Canal after leaving the Santa Lucia train station; unprepared for the historical beauty that gloriously unfolded below my feet. That’s not to say I did not enjoy the tamukeyamas, palms and assorted Japanese maples adorning the front yard, nor that I did not appreciate the stamped concrete steps set on the diagonal with the whimsical carriage man statue at the top, accentuated by the high walls of glass around the home; still, the water view is overpowering and dominant.
Pool at 774 Still Breeze Way
Apart from the 6 bedrooms, 5 baths and more than 4,000 square feet of refined luxury, this waterfront home in Riverlake also boasts a pool every bit delightful as its marvelous interior. Ample yard space near the pool provides access to the dock and your paddleboat, plus a beautiful patio perfect for entertaining. An office features a gleaming hardwood floor with mahogany inlays and an old world map from before Russia split up on the ceiling. Much of the first floor is covered in blushing pink Mexican pavers, which lends an Old World connection to the modern updates such as the unique Brazilian granite gracing the kitchen counters and island or the rare South African wood used in the family room. An unexpected bonus is the separate guest quarters with its own set of stairs, kitchen, work-out room and master suite.
Master suite balcony 774 Still Breeze Way
Of course the kitchen features everything your discriminating taste demands such as a wine refrigerator, a built-in Subzero, a built-in Miele coffeemaker / expresso, Wolf gas range, and quite possibly the quietest dishwasher this side of Germany. The master suite is the piece de la resistance, with her to-die-for closet, which came into life as a bedroom and today features walls of built-in storage for your designer shoes and bags, plus rows of rods, thoughtfully laid out under a large chandelier. Touch the mirror in the bath and the TV appears, just like you might find at The Four Seasons. You can also relax on the romanic master suite balcony at the end of the day, if you prefer an elevated view from this waterfront home in Riverlake.
For a private showing beginning on Friday, April 24th, 2015, you may call the listing agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916.233.6759.
774 Still Breeze Way, Sacramento, CA 95831 is exclusively offered by Lyon Real Estate at $1,195,000, and will be on the market on April 24th.
Top Sacramento Listing Agent Ranks #70 Nationally
The brokerage your Sacramento listing agent works for makes a difference — which is yet one more reason for sellers to interview agents from competing brokerages and not from the same brokerage. Some agent from Illinois wrote this morning to say she disagreed with an article I wrote for About.com — and that’s not the first time some agent has approached such an issue with disdain and horror, as though they were splashed by a spoonful of spaghetti sauce flipped off a spoon held by yours truly and directed with precision at the front of their white shirts.
There are many reasons not to interview an agent from the same brokerage much less the same real estate office, but marketing provided by the brokerage is a strong reason. Sellers should see how other brokerages market their listings, and if all they’re doing is comparing one apple to other apples in the office, they won’t see the differences among brokerages.
This is not to say that all agents are the same because all agents are not the same. It’s like a bell curve. Plus, every agent offers a different education level, experiences, marketing, strategies, analytical reasoning and they sometimes talk to each other in the office about listing presentations. If you are a seller interviewing two agents in the same office, they might even talk about you, a common element they share. It’s human nature and to suppose otherwise is a bit naive.
It’s the same as believing that maybe Nixon was not a crook. Maybe Clinton didn’t have sex with that woman. Perhaps there is no revolving door between corporate America and government. Maybe the 99% are at fault and deserve what they get. Maybe the honeybees are dying because they’re supposed to. Maybe the world is flat after all.
Of course, if you’re listing with an agent at Lyon Real Estate, you’re getting a brokerage that ranks #1 in Sacramento. A brokerage that spends a ton of money on advertising and support for its agents’ listings. Real Trends issued a report this month showcasing the top 500 agents in the country. The Elizabeth Weintraub Team ranked #70 in America for last year’s number of sales. I never thought I’d see the day that I ranked in the top 100 teams in the country. That just blows me away. See what happens when you’re busy?
The downside is Real Trends and its affiliates now want to sell me every kind of statue, plaque and award thingie, and even Trulia has hopped on the bandwagon. Criminy.
