The Search for a Strong Sacramento Listing Agent Ends Here
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.