Selling a Home to Reluctant Buyers in Sacramento’s Fall Market

Selling a home in Sacramento is more challenging today over our spring market. Many a Sacramento real estate agent is frustrated with the way our real estate market has changed this fall and having a hard time dealing with home buyers. It doesn’t matter if one is a listing agent or a buyer’s agent, you’ve still got to deal with that home buyer if one wants to get into escrow. Selling homes in Sacramento is what I do for a living. Don’t look at me sideways, somebody’s got to.

Gone are the days when upon receipt of a goofball offer a listing agent could say: Hey, buddy, pony up or don’t let the door hit you in the butt. Neither can a listing agent adopt the attitude of say, have you suddenly morphed into a moron or were you simply born stupid? Because one would not under any circumstances poke fun at those who came into this world unprepared, unsupervised and without the ability to reason and deliver rational thought — that would be unacceptable behavior, especially after test results proved the individual was incapable of functioning in a social environment in a normal manner. That would just be mean.

Now, the tables have turned, the winds have shifted and we’re wearing our underwear inside out. We Sacramento listing agents are grateful for an offer. Any offer. It’s like, hey, sweetie, yes, you, you with the head-to-toe tattoos, shaved head and metal gauges in the lobes, come over here and sit down next to me. Here’s a satin pillow. Let me rub your feet and bring you a cup of tea. Would you like lemon? A cool towel for your neck? A copy of People Magazine?

To survive in any real estate market, a good Sacramento listing agent must be a chameleon. Go with the flow, change with the market. Adapt.

Last week a first-time home buyer made an offer on a home in Elk Grove. After much discussion, weighing the pros and cons, my seller negotiated and then elected to accept the offer. Everybody was happy. We changed the status of the home in MLS to pending. The following day, the buyer’s agent called to say the buyer had changed his mind because the buyer’s wife didn’t like the home.

What? Let me talk to the guy. I would say: hey, just divorce her. Get rid of that witch. There are plenty of women in this world who would LOVE that home in Elk Grove. She doesn’t deserve you, man, if she can’t see the beauty in your world. You do something nice for that woman and you get crap. You don’t need that.

And this is why sellers love me.