Email Elizabethbest realtor sacramento
Because Real Estate Agents are Suckers and Low Hanging Fruit
Just ask Top100RealEstateAgents.com how much they think real estate agents are suckers. Because that group has got it figured out. Although, you can’t give them all of the credit. They simply borrowed ideas that worked well for other companies that collect statistics on top producers. I should clarify that a top producer doesn’t necessarily mean what you might think it means. You may think a top producer is cream of the crop, an agent who sells more than anybody else. But it depends on whose definition you lean.
If you lean on the definition of the Sacramento Association of Realtors Masters Club Members, those are people who have sold a minimum of 8 homes a year that total $5 million or more in sales volume. So basically closing one $625K house every 45 days. Eight sales a year can qualify an agent for Master’s Club. Once they suck you into membership in Master’s Club, an agent pays for a plaque or stickers or both. But that’s not the worst part.
That’s peanuts.
Not the worst part by far.
The worst part is when all the leeches come out of woodwork. By leeches I mean companies that profit by putting together their OWN lists of so-called top producers. This is why real estate agents are suckers. Because they can so easily be taken advantage of. If an agent wants to be recognized as a member of Master’s Club, then all of these news organizations and media publications expect the right to publish that name, but only in exchange for payment from the Sacramento Realtor.
They see this as win-win. I see it as since my name doesn’t get included unless I pay, well, that makes it extortion. I do pay for a couple of publications simply because I know my clients do not understand how this works. People in Sacramento still read the Sacramento Bee. They might wonder why my name is not included on a list it should be on. This is an irritation. But I refuse to pay every publication and I do draw the line.
Now the Sac Bee has decided it can make more money by getting agents to pay to be promoted as a Master’s Club member at different times of the year. Like over the 4th of July when nobody is reading the paper. Or, on Thanksgiving, LOL. I wish this would please, just stop. I say no. I won’t do it.
I also draw the line at real estate agent scams like Five Star Professionals, which seems like a big hoax to me. Top Broker Agent and Top Agent magazines are another example. They pretend you are a top agent and make you pay big bucks in exchange for publishing your air-brushed glam photo on the cover. Also, Real Trends has stopped bombarding me with spam to buy plaques, thank goodness.
But yesterday, I received a new example of how real estate agents are suckers. Some of those other real estate agent scam victims seem to work at Lyon Real Estate. I wonder, do they know they are being suckered or don’t they care? This is a new thing that supposedly ranks the Top 100 real estate agents, but only in certain areas. This company wants me to pay them $350.00 to “accept my award” of being named to that list.
On top of this, when I searched for a Sacramento agent on their website, the search for Sacramento turned up no results. Even if Sacramento agents were listed, I wouldn’t pay for this alleged privilege. On the home page, you can view the top 100 agents, of which there are only 57, LOL. Since I already rank in the top 10 agents in Sacramento, why would I want to be included in a top 100 list that only includes agents who pay for it? You’ve gotta ask Top100RealEstateAgents.com, how stupid do they think real estate agents are in Sacramento? I guess the answer is very.
Is it true that real estate agents are suckers? I have a dead ex-husband, a seminar hustler from Orange County, who firmly believed all real estate agents are suckers. He made a lot of money from agents.
Agents are always looking for innovative ways to promote themselves. But when the promotion companies that supposedly honor your achievements also demand payment to be recognized, you’ve gotta stop dead in your tracks. You should question this crap. Why is true that real estate agents are suckers? This stuff will persist as long there are real estate agent suckers to fund it. Here is the real kicker, those lists are not easily found by consumers. So, agents pay for zero return, zero branding.
Of course, there is also the possibility that some agents recognize the hoax and do not care. I imagine many “award” companies count on this attitude as well. They are no different, really, than the porn ransom email scam. Those crooks also attempt to extort money and give you nothing in return.
This is why I print my sales production directly from MLS and show it as proof to prospective clients. There is so much jaw-flapping going on in this industry, such puffery, it’s hard to tell who is telling the truth. Everybody wants to be a top agent. Few really are.
Market Charts From the #1 Agent at Lyon Real Estate for July
15-month snapshot of housing market in Sacramento County as of July 2017.
While I did not expect to be named the #1 agent at Lyon Real Estate last month, it’s still gratifying to know the Elizabeth Weintraub Team is continuing to perform as a dominant force in the Sacramento housing market. I looked at the fact I spent a week visiting my sister in Minneapolis and a little over two weeks in Hawaii between June and July, but I never stop working regardless of where I may physically have been. That means the production we pumped out for July is pretty incredible, I suppose, given the circumstances. My team members were also visiting Europe, the East Coast and the Bay Area as well, so we all managed to get in a few trips while keeping track of Sacramento real estate.
Unlike many Sacramento Realtors, I don’t tally my active listings and sold sales. Don’t waste time keeping track until the year is over. Nose to the grindstone. My clients can’t believe it. They ask, incredulously: “How do you not know how many listings you have?” Because it doesn’t matter when they all sell. So, it was surprising to hear I am the #1 agent at Lyon Real Estate for last month. What’s even more surprising is how the housing market behaved in Sacramento County for the month of July. We saw an uptick in inventory over the previous month by almost 15%, however, that increase was not enough to satisfy the demand. The inventory is still low as compared to last year at this time. The number of homes for sale in Sacramento County is down more than 16% from July of 2016.
Below are two more interesting charts that reflect the housing market activity in Sacramento County for July of 2017.
Average square foot prices in Sacramento County over the past 15 months.
You don’t have to be a math wizard to understand that prices in Sacramento County are rising. This chart shows the average square foot price moving from $202 in May of 2016 all the way to $222 in July of 2017. It’s up over 8% from a year ago. Except for a seasonal dip in December and January, which is normal, our average square foot costs in Sacramento have been on a steady climb since then.
You’ve got questions, I’m sure. Will prices continue to rise? Will prices fall? Will prices remain the same and level off at some point? I’m fairly certain prices will not fall. For prices to fall, we would need to experience deceased demand for housing, coupled with a big jump in inventory and perhaps rising interest rates, and none of those things seem to be happening. Plus, buyers are telling us is they feel an urgency to buy now before prices go up further and they are priced out of the market all together. Few people want to be a renter forever.
Days on market in Sacramento County show a downward trend.
Will you look at this chart of the average days on market for Sacramento County? It is unbelievable. Last year at this time, the average time to sell a home in Sacramento County was on the upswing. Not in 2017, though. Ever since February, our days on market have been falling. My average days on market for most of my listings is probably close to 4 to 5 days, so I am beating the average countywide statistics. I put a home on the market on Thursday night at midnight, and by Monday morning, it is often in escrow, with multiple offers.
This is a fabulous time to be a seller in Sacramento County. If you’re thinking about waiting until next year, you’re playing with the odds. If there is a 50% chance of rain in the forecast, it means you need to carry an umbrella because it’s going to rain. The time to sell a home is now. I’ve been in the business for 43 years, and I’ve never in my entire life seen a better time to sell a home than today. Don’t count on the market continuing in the seller’s favor. It could level and become neither a seller’s nor a buyer’s market. The only constant is change.
If you’re thinking about selling your home, why not call July’s #1 agent at Lyon Real Estate and bump up your odds of success? Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. I’m never too busy to take on new business. Lyon Real Estate has almost 1,000 agents in Sacramento. We are the largest independently owned company in Sacramento and a market leader.
Charts: Trendgraphix, used with permission.
Elizabeth Weintraub Ranks as the Best of Trulia Agent
Trulia — the homes for sale website — sent me an email this morning to congratulate this Sacramento Realtor on earning recognition as a Best of Trulia Agent, ranking in the top 1% of all agents on Trulia. This distinction is awarded based on number of reviews and sales. ?It wants me to claim my “badge” for the Best of Trulia list and put that special?code on my business website to generate more traffic to the Trulia website and less traffic to my own website, based on Google authority. I imagine lots of agents in Sacramento and elsewhere will do this very thing because they don’t know any better. Trulia is smart that way and in a few other ways, too.
For example, it put my name on a list of other agents around the country who rank in the top 1%. Let’s say you were a Sacramento home buyer who noticed that Trulia was promoting its Top 1% Trulia agents and you decided, yeah, I’d like to work with the Top 1% of all agents at Trulia. Working with a seasoned pro is likely to reduce stress and anxiety and just makes common sense. You don’t have to sort through agents if Trulia has already done that job for you.
Yet, the best you can sort by is the state. So you can find agents in California but trying to find an agent in Sacramento requires many, many clicks to figure it out. Trulia makes it very difficult to find that special agent in Sacramento. On top of this, the agents in Sacramento, for example, seem to be sorted alphabetically by first name. It doesn’t rank by reviews and sales or this Sacramento REALTOR would head the?list. So, there obviously is a system but it’s a poorly designed system if it’s meant to promote agents to Sacramento home buyers.
I suppose it is entirely possible that this special recognition is meant to look like a benefit but not actually BE a benefit.
I mean, look at the Best of Trulia Agent certificate above that Trulia awarded to me, along?with the email. It doesn’t even have a name on it. It’s blank. It’s signed by Pete Flint, good guy that he is, but no agent name. Perhaps they think nobody will notice and nobody will care and everybody will still maintain a strong, favorable impression of Trulia. Or, maybe it’s a result of committee planning, where the important parts of the meeting tend to vanish during discussions, just to keep the peace.
You can see I am not a big fan of committee planning. But I’ve got my Top 1% of all Trulia Agents, my Best of Trulia award, that nobody will ever see or care about. Not to mention, green is a good color except for when the Enlightened blow up an Ingress portal I’ve held for 38 days. And I can look on the bright side, at least Trulia isn’t trying to sell me a commemorative plaque with my name engraved for $29.99 ?. . . but wait, there is more.
