Getting Business as a Sacramento Listing Agent

Anybody who thinks Sacramento real estate is dull and uninteresting is probably not a top listing agent in Sacramento. They probably don’t read this blog, either. There is always something horrific going on, some transaction trying to slip sideways down the hill that I’ve got to attach to a crane and hoist back up, but it’s never boring. I stay on top of my files.

Right now, ever since the vague thought of I really need to take a few more listings crossed my mind over the weekend, suddenly bunches of sellers have been contacting me to get their homes into MLS and sold. Now, I am not a spiritual person much less a religious person but it reminds me of Tom Robbin’s new book (memoir?) I’m reading, Tibetan Peach Pie. Robbins talks about picking tomatoes in the hot sun as a kid growing up in the South. His kid buddy he called Gumboot cried out in desperation one day as he was sweating to death in the tomato fields, “Good Lord, if it’s in Thy power, send me that knocking-off shower.” And lo and behold the heavens opened up and it poured down rain.

Those thoughts didn’t pass through my brain with much conviction. It was a passing minor panic attack of sorts, probably lasted all of 2 seconds, but it did cross my mind that I’ve been closing so many escrows lately that I need to pop a few more into the hopper on the front end. Where was that business gonna come from? Selling real estate is a balancing act, if you’re gonna run it like a business, which it is. A good Sacramento listing agent can’t run out of inventory.

The way I see it: I’ve got new listings to take, existing listings to sell and listings to close. Those are my 3 main focuses throughout the day. Everything else is external noise. I am almost impaired that way, my intense concentration is on those 3 areas. Some agents have to go out looking for business but business finds me, so that’s one aspect of being a Sacramento listing agent that I am fortunate I don’t have to spend a lot of time on.

Somewhere I read that agents spend 1/3 of their time canvassing for business. I suppose when I started in the business, I spent more time looking for clients but that was so long ago I don’t recall. Or, maybe it’s ingrained in me to such an extent that I don’t even notice it any longer. Perhaps I solicit in my sleep? I meet a person, doesn’t matter who or where, and that person knows I sell real estate in Sacramento. You can count on it. It’s a lifestyle.

My team held quite a few open houses yesterday. Oh, people like to pooh-pooh open houses and say they don’t sell real estate and some do not. Although buyers might not decide to buy a house through an open house; however, it’s how they often see the house they are planning to buy. Agents swarmed one such open house Sunday in Elk Grove. We ran out of flyers, which is highly unusual. One agent went into the back yard and started handing out business cards to visitors before she was slapped by my team member.

There’s a time and place for that kind of thing, and at another agent’s open house is not the time nor the place.