Email Elizabethworking with lawyers
Working With Lawyers as Clients in Real Estate
Working with lawyers as their Sacramento real estate agent is not high on the priority list of many agents in Sacramento, if you want to know the truth, but I really enjoy that type of personality. I enjoy working with many types of personalities except for the you-know-who’s. I’ll also take the harmless nut-jobs, but not the explosive guys. I draw the line there. Yet, Type A personalities and the analytical guys are interesting and fun for me. Lawyers also tend to care more about their transactions, sometimes as much as I do.
You might find that difficult to believe but lots of people don’t put a lot of credence into what agents do for them, especially when we are talking about listing agents. The public has this impression that it’s easy to sell a home, that all we do is stick a sign in the yard and people call us. They don’t always understand why we are so highly compensate for what we do, because they don’t view the inner workings of real estate and often agents don’t share that information.
One of the things that I try to do with my blog is share what goes on inside a transaction without giving away any personal identifying data about anybody so people can understand what agents do. OK, maybe not all agents, but this particular Sacramento real estate agent. I do things a little bit differently. I constantly evolve, reassess.
I focus completely on my sellers and what’s best for them. Ordinarily that part is pretty easy, because what’s best for them is usually netting the most money out of a sale and closing without headaches. When I’m working with lawyers, they expect me to handle the details efficiently and effortlessly.
For example, when my seller receives a purchase offer that entails crediting closing costs of say, $15,000, to the buyer, I go that extra step. I will call the buyer’s lender to schmooze. In the middle of schmoozing, I might say, “Hey, this borrower of yours, how well do you know her?”
Then, they tell me all kinds of things they wouldn’t ordinarily spill.
I might also say, wow, this borrower is very strong and you are lucky to work with somebody like this who can afford to pay her own closing costs. Not many borrowers today can do that. This borrower has a lot of assets and is fortunate.
Then the buyer’s mortgage lender confirms it.
See, right there I might have saved that seller $15,000 or more. Turns out the buyer did not “need” a closing cost credit. Because I think about purchase offers and strategize counter offers. The seller didn’t ask me to go that extra step, I just did it because that’s my job, and I like my job. It’s another reason that lawyers love to work with me. So, you sellers who are hemming and hawing about paying a full commission, you have no idea what you get when you don’t. You want to save $5,000, yet throw $15,000 away.
You would be really hard pressed to find an agent who loves working with lawyers in Sacramento real estate more than this agent. Lawyers get it.
Representing Two Buyers for Land Park Homes
Representing two buyers for the same Land Park home doesn’t happen very often. But in our crazy Sacramento real estate market, it’s possible. Yup, an agent can represent more than one buyer to buy the same home. Especially with limited inventory. Our California Association of REALTORs team of lawyers have even designed a form for this called a DA — Disclosure and Consent for Representation of More than One Buyer or Seller. It lets an agent engage in dual agency, too, as well as disclose the terms and conditions of an offer (without a confidentiality agreement). When I read that document, I no longer wonder why the public has problems with trust issues concerning real estate agents.
Can you imagine a lawyer representing two different clients who were competing with each other? I work with a lot of lawyers. I’m not sure why lawyers tend to gravitate toward me but I like to imagine we speak a similar language; we probably approach the same subject matters in an analytical way. They know I will be direct. I suspect they appreciate that directness as not every person does.
There are some Sacramento real estate agents who won’t work with lawyers. They flat out refuse. They call lawyers “deal killers,” and maybe they’re worried a lawyer will sue them; I don’t know. The way I see it, I’m least likely to get sued by a lawyer, knock on wood. And I really love the fact I get to tell them that I can’t give legal advice. Especially when they ask me for legal advice. But I also realize that lawyers specialize in certain types of law and not every lawyer knows much about real estate, much less short sales. But they do understand strategy. I respect lawyers, and I like them. I wish all my clients were lawyers. That would be a happy day for me.
I recall a few years ago I was working with several lawyers to buy homes in Land Park. This was back when law firms were flourishing and hiring new lawyers, bringing new talent to Sacramento. As luck would have it, both of these lawyers decided they might be interested in buying the same home. Let’s just say I was not about to whip out the DA form. Instead, I explained the problem to both of them individually.
I suggested one of them could choose to work with me and the other could choose to work with a different buyer’s agent. However, as I reminded them, the lawyer who drew the short end of the stick would be competing against me in negotiations. Which Land Park agent did they want to represent them? This Land Park agent or my associate? Put that way, one of the lawyers decided to look at a different home and keep me as their agent. The other lawyer bought the home through me.
Not every agent employs this approach. In fact, not every agent who represents more than one buyer for the same property even uses the DA form. I received this week two different offers on the same listing from an agent, and no DA form with either offer. The second offer was much better than the first offer. Coincidinky? We just don’t know.
