When You Think the Location in Sacramento Doesn’t Matter

The seller who made an appointment with me to assess her home and its value canceled last week. She called to say another agent had persuaded her son to list with that agent so she did not need to speak to me. She further elaborated that the agent had greater exposure. Hmm . . . what was the comparison? After all, in 2012, I ranked as the #2 agent at the #1 company in Sacramento. It’s difficult to put a real estate phrase into Google without finding my name. But then I dropped the matter. I did not want to list a house that was slammed up against the freeway all that badly. Not as badly, apparently, as the agent who pushed for the listing and came up with whatever was said.

Nope, I will give it to my sellers straight. I don’t need to fabricate numbers or paint a rosier picture of myself than what exists. You get what you see with this Sacramento real estate agent.

As real estate agents, we can’t always choose which properties we sign on to sell. Well, sure, we sign the listing agreement, and we don’t have to do that. We could turn down the listing, and some agents will turn down certain types of listings. Sometimes, agents won’t take listings under a certain dollar value or in a certain neighborhood, but I don’t discriminate. I will list and sell just about anything that is located anywhere. It’s all real estate. Some sales are just more challenging than others. Sure, I love that beautifully staged home in Granite Bay, but I’ll also list that water-logged, varmint-infested roach motel. I’m flexible — like a round peg in a square hole.

Just this morning, I explained to a seller that he shouldn’t get upset with me because I was not the agent who sold him the house, which is located in about the worst location possible in Sacramento. The only worst kind of location, would be next to garbage dump. Location is everything in real estate.

People forget. They get caught up in the excitement of buying a home and they don’t stop to think about location. The next time location pops into their head is when they are trying to sell. That’s when they realize the home they bought is not in a desirable location. Homes in desirable locations quickly sell. Homes in not so desirable locations take longer to sell and sell for much less than others around them.

The time to think about location is when you buy that home.