A Successful Elk Grove Agent Shares a Secret

I spend a lot of my time during business hours either talking to new clients on the phone or responding to questions via email. The actual amount of time spent driving around or doing paperwork such as signing new listings is minimal in proportion to the time I spend in communication with others. My brain is always on fire. Because of that, I am often direct, which means if a client is not used to dealing with a real estate agent who is upfront with them, it might be a bit unsettling at first. Yet, direct honesty always seems to be welcome.

Plus, I’ll let you in on a little secret. I think it was Mark Twain who said if you tell the truth you don’t ever have to remember what you said.

One of my callers was a potential seller in Elk Grove. I list and sell a lot of homes in Elk Grove, and throughout Sacramento, although not all of them are short sales these days. I’m getting quite a few calls from sellers who have equity. This particular guy started off the conversation by asking me how much I charge. I told him straight up that my commission — what I “charge” — is the least of his worries. Which is absolutely true. But I guess he was not prepared for that answer. Wha wha?

The thing is I charge the same amount I have always charged. Even after almost 40 years in the business, my commission has been the same. No raise for me. Whether it varies by a half a percent from some other agent’s commission is not really relevant, not in the overall scheme of things, and especially not in this hot market place. You’re not going to save any money by trying to negotiate an agent’s commission, even though all commissions are negotiable by law. You’re going to save money by choosing the best real estate agent. Period.

Nobody is going to gouge you or rip you off. And not this Elk Grove agent. Getting into escrow is the easy part. Closing it is the hard part.

You’ve got all kinds of agents in this business. My caller from yesterday said an agent told him he could get half a million for his house — a home in Elk Grove that comps out in the upper 300’s. Perhaps he misunderstood the agent or perhaps the agent was overly zealous, hard to say. I tried to explain that simply because words poured out of somebody’s mouth does not mean this seller will score a windfall upon resale. But after a few minutes of discussion, it was clear that trying to pull him into reality would take up such a huge amount of my time — time that I could be spending selling homes in Elk Grove and closing them — that I was probably better off focusing on the sellers who really need my expertise.

I really, really like all of my clients. I’m successful in this business because I keep it that way. If you’ve got a home to sell in Elk Grove or anywhere within the Sacramento area, I’ve probably recently closed a sale or two in your neighborhood. So, call Elizabeth Weintraub. I’d love to talk with you. My cell is 916.233.6759.