When a Seller Wants the Best Sacramento Real Estate Agent

When flipper investors call to lament that they just can’t find a Sacramento real estate agent to work with and are horribly unhappy with the agent they’ve got, I know something is seriously wrong, and it’s not necessarily the agent. My radar detector goes off. You can’t turn around in a crowded Corti Brothers without rubbing elbows with a real estate agent. Even using Guassian distribution, one is likely to end up with an agent who can, under most circumstances, eventually sell a home.

Nope, these flipper dudes are looking for something else. It’s not a top-producing agent who is their heart’s desire, either. They don’t want to hire an agent anywhere near the rankings of the best Sacramento real estate agent they can find. They don’t put a lot of credence in superior skills or experience, although they probably should and are making a big mistake that way.

Many flipper dudes don’t really respect real estate agents. Some agents don’t care about respect and say they will laugh all the way to the bank, but I’m not one of those.

I think these flipper guys understand the concept of highest sales price and bottom-line net profit, but the bulk of the information that is centered between those two points seems lost on them. As is an agent’s ability to overcome challenges, strategically market homes to targeted audiences and avoid problems before they pop up. None of that really matters to investors like this, which is why they are often penny-wise and pound-foolish, but that’s another story.

Such a flipper called yesterday and began his sad story of not being able to find a Sacramento real estate agent, of being awfully miserable with the one he has, and how his partner is disturbingly impatient. He rambled on about how he and his partner love to fix up homes in such a manner that a buyer would never even realize they were being flipped, which he presented as a huge benefit for us agents. What?

In the interest of eliminating needless chatter, I cut to the chase to say that my experience shows that many flippers don’t really value the services of a top producer and generally want to discount her fee by 1%, so perhaps I was not the agent for them. I am a full-service agent who earns the commission she deserves. Yes, I am saying that when selling a home valued at $300,000, the flippers will let $3,000 get in the way of hiring one of the best Sacramento real estate agents.

He seemed somewhat miffed that I would dare to be so abrupt with him. Well, what if you were selling 10 homes a year —he tried to entice. What? He must have thought he was talking to a brand new agent who was starving for business. Had he not conducted any online research or even glanced at my website? I sell so many homes a year the numbers make my own head spin. Let’s see, he already told me his partner was incredibly impatient and he’s shown himself to be clueless. Not a good combination for this agent.

And that’s when I realized how incredibly and unbelievably fortunate I am. It took me 40 years to get to this spot in my life, but it’s such a relief to be able to pick and choose my clients. It’s not really the money. It’s the self respect and the opportunity to conduct business the way I choose, with integrity, honesty and to the best of my ability.