Trust and Your Sacramento Real Estate Agent

If a client doesn’t trust and believe in his Sacramento real estate agent, the two have no business working together. And vice versa. Wha-what you say? What does trust or belief have to do with anything? Plenty, I say. Whether it’s a seller and listing agent or a buyer and buyer’s agent, there is a legal document signed that creates what is called a fiduciary relationship between the parties. If the fiduciary relationship is broken, so is the business.

This point was so beautifully illustrated in Mad Men, Season 6, Episode 6. OK, maybe a bit of it was a trifle narcissistic, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Don is sitting in a restaurant with Herb, the slimy Jaguar account guy. Don is about to ask Herb about the reason for the meeting. Herb says, hey, there’s this guy at the company who is new and doesn’t know much, but he’s got some good ideas, I think. I’d like you to pitch your campaign to him and get his input.

Don reaches into coat pocket, retrieves a business card and hands it to Herb. What is this? asks an astonished Herb.

This is the guy who will be handling your account from now, Don replies.

When Don gets back to the office, his co-workers and partners are royally ticked at him for dumping the Jaguar account. Don defends himself by saying it was already over. And it was over. He was absolutely correct. There was no trust and no belief in Don’s abilities anymore.

Furthermore, when the office learns that they’re about to land the GM account, which I presume was the new Corvette — because let’s not forget I was growing up during the time period in which Mad Men is set and was actually there — everybody is ecstatic. Suddenly, losing the Jaguar account is not all that important anymore. You close one door and another door opens.

I have a client who started out a little bit wary with this Sacramento real estate agent. I could sense he didn’t quite trust agents, probably because he had had such a bad experience the first time around. Rather than walk away, though, I gave him my time. His friend had referred him to me. I explained to him how I work, how the business works, what he needs to do to sell his home and buy a new home, how I would help him to accomplish that, and I insisted on his trust — not blindly, I would earn it. He gave me that precious commodity. Trust.

We put his home on the market last week, sold it over market and closed it yesterday, while he is in a contingent contract to buy a new home. Sold and closed in fewer than 7 days. The buyers gave him up to a year to rent back at a greatly reduced market rent, with the ability to move out as soon as he closes on his new home. His new home happens to be a short sale. This seller did not want to move until he could move into his new home. Agents who work in this business will know a situation like this is almost impossible to do.

In case you’re thinking I knew the buyers for his home, I did not. I found them. They were investors from the Bay area and they had their own representation from San Francisco. I solely represented the seller as his Sacramento real estate agent. Trust and belief — it’s everything in real estate. If you don’t have it in your business relationships, fix it or cut the ties.