Why Other Curtis Park Agents Gave This Seller a Higher Price

A seller in Curtis Park wants to put her home on the market next year and is looking for a Sacramento real estate agent now. She is calling agents to find out how how much her home is worth today. Listing now or waiting for spring is a hot discussion for many sellers at the moment, but the fact remains the price an agent names today is not the price the home will be worth next spring. That home in Curtis Park could be worth more or it could be worth less.

Plus, if it’s a Curtis Park home that few people want to buy due to location, condition or the seller insists on an over-the-top-of-market price, it could not sell at all. That’s always a very real possibility that few want to face.

I am always happy to talk with sellers who have future plans and are not ready to act right now. For one thing, if they are calling a bunch of other real estate agents, it’s probable many of those agents won’t still be in the real estate business by the time the seller is ready, which certainly decreases my competition — day after day I receive notifications via LinkedIn of agents who used to work in real estate and have since taken jobs in other industries. But I also want to remain in sellers’ minds when they are ready to list a home.

If they forget my last name, they can do something simple like go to Goggle and put in Elizabeth and Sacramento Real Estate, and out of the top 5 hits, four will be me. Or, they can just search on the keywords “Elizabeth Sacramento,” and in the middle of links for the incredibly delectable Ginger Elizabeth chocolate store in Midtown, they’ll find my website. It’s easy to find Elizabeth Weintraub on Google.

This particular seller remembered my name, though, because she contacted me a second time. By now, she has talked to other real estate agents, and she says two of them gave her a higher price than I did, and they both outbid each other. It’s so frustrating when this happens because I don’t want to say anything bad about another real estate agent, and I understand why they feel the need to falsify information to the seller, but to intentionally lie is considered unethical.

They don’t see it as lying. Because that would make them bad people. They see it as being overly optimistic. They hope if it doesn’t sell at the price they name, well, the seller will be willing to lower the price.

The seller doesn’t see it as lying because she just wants the top price and doesn’t really understand, I suspect, that she sets the price, not the agent. The price has to be based on something, though, such as comparable sales, what similar homes have sold at and not plucked from thin air simply to try to win a listing.

I suggested the seller call a couple more Curtis Park agents to see if she can’t push the price up. Get a couple more bidding against each other to try to win the listing. I was kidding with her, of course, because the price is really whatever the buyer will pay. I don’t choose the sales price. I give sellers enough information as to why I believe a certain home sales price will work, and I substantiate it by identifying homes within a 1/2 mile radius that are the same condition, location, type and age, and similar square footage.

The seller chooses the price and the market takes it from there. Buyers for a home in Curtis Park have the final word.

Remember, the seller has the first word, the agent second. The seller always picks the price. Sellers should choose an agent they like and trust and not the agent who pops up waving her bidding fan sporting the highest number, like at an auction.