Email Elizabethworking with bay area agents
Tips for Writing Purchase Offers in a Foreign Market Like Sacramento
Being an out-of-area agent working at writing purchase offers in a foreign market must be really tough. For example, as a Sacramento Realtor, I would not want to represent a buyer to purchase a home in San Francisco. I would refer that buyer to an agent in San Francisco. I don’t know the values, the neighborhood pockets or even much about local customs. Except I know enough to realize agents in San Francisco do a lot on the front-end of the transaction. In Sacramento, most of our due diligence is during escrow.
To be blunt, my 40+ years in the real estate industry absolutely do NOT qualify me to represent a buyer or a seller outside of my local four-county area. If another agent believes differently, that’s certainly that agent’s prerogative.
Further, it is not against the law for any California agent to engage in writing purchase offers in a foreign market. Because a California real estate license allows a broker to collect a commission for the sale of property anywhere in our great state. I’ve watched San Diego agents try their hand at listing homes in Sacramento, generally very poorly, too. Such a bad idea. Those poor sellers.
If you are an agent who has elected to begin writing purchase offers in a foreign market, you might ask a listing agent to share local customs. This procedure would stop the seller from having to clean up all of the mistakes in the offer before the offer could be accepted. During the time a counter offer is out for signature to the buyer, another buyer could swoop in and snatch that house.
Sacramento is in the midst of a strong seller’s market. Not to mention, once a buyer decides to buy a particular listing, another buyer often falls in right behind. It easily comes down to timing. That second buyer could cause a bidding war, induce multiple offers.
It is so easy to ask a listing agent about writing a purchase offer in a foreign market. For example, sellers do not pay for a buyer’s home inspection report. Yet, some Bay Area agents I’ve noticed believe they do. If I were a buyer, I would not rely on a home inspection from a seller, LOL. Which is probably why buyers pay for their own inspections. It only takes a second to ask how to split fees, which party chooses title and escrow.
Benefits of Working With Bay Area Agents to See Sacramento Listings
Not all Sacramento listing agents are happy to take on working with Bay Area agents, but it’s never bothered me. Probably because I do not care to double-end transactions. I would much rather let somebody else represent the buyer. My business is such I don’t need to squeeze every dime out of every corner of a transaction to make a good living for myself and my family. So, I do not have that problem that some other agents have when it comes to elbowing out, er, working with Bay Area agents. I will assist Bay Area agents anyway I can.
Now, it used to be that Bay Area agents did not have a Supra lockbox key so they could not access our lockboxes. But now there is some system where they can register to use it. I don’t know the exact specifics because I do not show property outside of my MLS nor go to San Francisco to show homes. But in the old days, listing agents in Sacramento could try to force Bay Area agents to turn over their clients to the listing agent in exchange for a referral fee. Because if they couldn’t show listings, that was a setback for them. Something is better than nothing mentality.
It hardly seemed fair. Besides, Bay Area agents have a right to sell outside of their area if they want to. Maybe some of them have even lived in Sacramento at one point? They do things a little bit differently in the Bay Area, however. For example, agents expect to get all of the disclosures upfront, which we don’t do in Sacramento. They might divide fees a little bit differently between sellers and buyers. But those are small issues.
The important thing that I see about working with Bay Area agents is . . . they have a buyer. That’s a huge benefit. It benefits my sellers and it benefits me. Further, those buyers are typically very well qualified. Many are paying cash. Will I ever tell an agent we won’t work with her to show a home to her Bay Area buyer? Hell, no. I’d have to be half insane to turn down that kind of situation.
It’s even better when after an open house on Sunday a Bay Area agent calls me. They typically say their buyer came through the open house and they want to know what they can do to help their buyers purchase the home. These are buyers who generally conduct little to no inspections, they understand buying AS IS, and they are sophisticated.
Further, in comparison to the price of a home in San Francisco, where the median sales price is $1.61 million, the median price of a Sacramento home is peanuts.
Read it and weep. Yup, the median price in Sacramento County for April of 2018 is $370,000.
But let’s look at the pros and cons. Now, we know that agent in the Bay Area did not show the property their buyer wants to purchase. Their buyer came through an open house alone, hosted by my team member or another Lyon agent. Downside. But the upside is tremendous. So, how motivated is that Bay Area agent to close a transaction in Sacramento? An agent who is doing little work apart from writing a contract? Well, I’d say very motivated. Which is yet another reason to love working with Bay Area agents.
If Bay Area agents can’t find a listing agent to work with in Sacramento, they are welcome to come over and sit down next to me.
