The No Drama Sacramento Real Estate Agent

Arthur Burke, a real estate agent in Sacramento has, on more than one occasion referred to me as the No Drama Sacramento Real Estate Agent. Probably because there are real estate agents who will yell and scream to get their point across, but I’ve never found that approach to be necessary. The truth is everybody knows you get more attention if you whisper. Does that stop some agents from bellowing at each other or their clients? Logic would say yes but logic doesn’t govern real estate nor some Sacramento real estate agents.

I recall once driving down I-80 with the top down on my car and my right hand trying to steady a giant cat tree in the seat next to me — not the safest thing to do with cars whizzing by at 75 MPH — when my phone rang. Even though that was not the most opportune time to answer my cell, I was wearing a hands-free Bluetooth device. The problem was I could answer it only if I temporarily removed either my right hand from the cat tree or my left hand from the steering wheel. It’s not like I couldn’t talk and drive at the same time, but trying to do so with a 6-foot high cat tree wobbling in the seat next to me probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do. If all of us always made the smartest decisions possible, though, Bandaids would go bankrupt.

Using my elbow to steer, I answered my cellphone. I had a lot of deals in escrow, many of which were short sales, and when banks call, a Sacramento agent better answer because she might not ever get back through to the negotiator. The bank’s call-back number isn’t just an 800#, it also involves a series of digits for an extension, sometimes up to 7 numbers, plus you need to know the last four numbers of the seller’s Social Security, including their middle initials, and the complete property address with correct ZIP code. Knowing I did not have any of that information available at this time as I sped past the bottleneck mess at the 99 South exit, I did not feel the least bit anxious about answering my phone.

It was a Sacramento real estate agent, and I won’t mention where she works because you might figure out who it was, and I’d rather not have to talk to her again. High, shrill voice. Screaming with accusatory tones. I had not spoken to this person for months. It took a while to figure out why she was calling and why she was so angry. She was upset because a seller she was representing had asked me to do a CMA for a home this seller owned elsewhere. I tried to explain that I did not call the seller, I did not solicit the seller, and we did not discuss the home the seller presently owns. After all, the seller is free to choose a different agent to sell a different property. Nobody owns a seller.

It made me wonder how this agent became a top producer when she screams at people. It’s one thing to scream when you’re right, which is not really justifiable, btw, but it’s another to scream when you’re wrong. I also tried to explain that this was not really the best time for me to be discussing our mutual client while driving down the freeway with this cat tree in the car.

She then began to scream at me for answering my phone.

There’s only one thing to do with these kinds of people. Click.

That action involved removing one hand from the steering wheel again. It didn’t feel like a life threatening situation at the time. Staying on the phone sounded like a life threatening situation. Whenever I see this agent’s name, I recall the experience in which I concluded I would rather face death than continue speaking to her. If anybody ever said that about me, I’d want to curl up and die. And that is one good reason I don’t scream at people. I don’t mind being known as the “no drama” Sacramento real estate agent.