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40 Years in the Real Estate Business Pays Off
I see the look in sellers’ eyes when I tell them we will receive multiple offers and we need to put the home on the market right away. They stare at me with reservations blinking like strobe lights in their eyes but they also have blind faith that I know what I’m doing, which I do, so they agree to whatever I suggest. These are the kinds of sellers whom I love to work with. We have a trusted relationship that is based in the real world, and still I can astonish them when my predictions come true. 40 years in the real estate business pays off.
Just a few weeks ago, a tenant delighted in telling me that she had a good friend who worked at a competing brokerage, and her good friend said the list price I had proposed was way too high, and she predicted the home would never sell for that amount. Not only did the home immediately sell, but it sold for 2.5% more, and it was priced at the top of the market. My seller made out like a bandit, and I truly earned my fee. 40 years in the real estate business pays off.
A seller in Elk Grove called yesterday to inquire about putting her home on the market. She has spent a lot of money on upgrades and expects to get somewhere between $800,000 and $900,000. It’s not on the water, I pointed out. Well, she didn’t want a home on the water and deliberately bought it a few doors off the water because she didn’t want to deal with, you know, bugs and stuff.
How do I tell her that an identical model with upgrades that is actually on the water is for sale at $700,000 and nothing in that neighborhood has sold in her preferred price range, ever? Well, I’m not asking you, really, because I know how to break the news to her, but she doesn’t strike me as a seller who will gladly accept that news even when I back it up with hard, cold facts. She’ll just call another Elk Grove agent who will agree with her and list it.
Ordinarily I’d take the listing because eventually somebody will come to reality, and I kinda like to be the agent at that point. However, I don’t think this particular situation fits well into my architecture. My gut instinct tells me I would regret listing this home as an overpriced listing, and I listen to my gut instincts as they rarely steer me wrong. That’s the difference that 40 years in the real estate business brings. 40 years in the real estate business pays off.
Some Homes in Elk Grove Sell 3 Times Before Closing
There are ten million stories in Elk Grove, and this is only one of the homes in Elk Grove that has been sold several times before the buyer stuck with the program. The listing in Elk Grove closed on Friday, a mere 21 days after going into escrow. The buyer’s agent was on the ball, efficient, reachable by cell and text, and an all-around pleasant guy. I’ve been so fortunate lately that I’ve lucked out with such great buyer’s agents to work with because they can make the entire experience memorable or forgettable.
I tend to put fresh hell situations out of my mind. There is no sense in dwelling on them. But I do want to revisit this particular transaction because it is indicative of other listings of in Elk Grove. It is not an anomaly.
First, this home was initially listed by a property management company. To me, this like a mortgage broker trying to sell real estate. Or an Elk Grove listing agent deciding to manage rental property. We all have our specialities and should not try to wear 2 hats. The qualities that make a person a good property manager does not equate to making a person a good listing agent. The seller lived in the Bay area and didn’t know the difference. She thought a property manager could sell her home, but the property manager tried for 3 months and didn’t get anywhere.
The main problem with this Elk Grove home was the carpets were filthy. Why didn’t the property manager notice this? When buyers spot dirty carpeting, the first thing they think is it will cost $20,000 to replace, or some other crazy number, and they pass on buying the house. I recommended an excellent company that specializes in cutting out and replacing damaged portions so it’s invisible. They also do a bang-up job of removing spots.
I listed the home in mid September and we eventually received 9 purchase offers. The first offer was 10% under list price from “a throw offers at the wall and hope they stick” cash buyer. Unacceptable and we countered, no response. The second offer was a bit under list price, we issued a counter and the buyer accepted. A few days later, for no reason, the buyer canceled. We went into escrow with a second buyer near the end of September, and a few days later that buyer canceled. Then came 5 more offers, most with closing cost concessions, and another offer I couldn’t open because the file was corrupted and I had to wait 2 days for the agent to fix it.
I was a bit worried that the seller might be getting discouraged or start to believe that all buyers for homes in Elk Grove were off their rockers. In actuality, she was very happy with my performance and continued to comment all through the transaction that she had wished she had found me in the first place.
Then came the offer the seller could accept. It was clean. No concessions. No mistakes. No lowball offer. We zinged through escrow in 21 days with no request for repairs, just like it should be for a fairly new home in Elk Grove built in the last decade. Eureka, we closed. It was a relief but it wasn’t easy to close on this home in Elk Grove. It just goes to show that one can easily put a home under contract; it’s not so slam dunk to get it closed. This is when you need a professional, an experienced Elk Grove agent who doesn’t give up and doesn’t quit until the keys are dangling from the buyers’ hot little fingers.
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.
