How Sacramento Realtors Find Home Sellers and Buyers

Sacramento Realtors often turn to technology to find clients.

Sacramento Realtors, especially those just starting out, often struggle mightily to find clients. If a Realtor knows a lot of people in Sacramento, it helps. My standing joke is I moved here in 2002 and I still don’t know anybody, and I do very well, typically ranking in the top 10 agents in town. It’s true, though, I work with people I do not know. But if you have connections through school, work, church, friends and family, you’re pretty much golden to make a successful career in the Sacramento real estate business, even if you’re a lousy agent. That’s because people think every agent is competent when they obviously are not. People presume that merely possessing a real estate license somehow magically imparts years of knowledge when it does not.

I spoke with an agent this morning who has been knocking on doors. To each his own in this business, and I’m sure some agents find success doing that, but it seems rather creepy to me. To wander the streets, knocking on doors of strangers to ask if they want to sell their home. I just couldn’t do it. And you’re reading the words of a woman who, in 1970, scampered door-to-door in Colorado selling encyclopedias. I had memorized my 90-minute speech and delivered my one-act play with enormous enthusiasm. I made a few sales and realized that was not a career for me. I refused to become a Fuller Brush guy. Back to college. Yet, some agents enjoy knocking on the doors of strangers, and I don’t begrudge them that. Seems like a really hard way to find clients.

Sometimes agents look at Sacramento Realtors like me and believe we’ve earned our spot of glory because we’ve been in the business for so long that all of our clients are referrals. Maybe that’s true for some Realtors. Many of my clients are referrals but many are complete strangers who found me online. Remember, I’ve only been in Sacramento for 14 years. I jumped to the top of the charts by embracing the internet and I’ve remained at the top by performance. I keep my promises and I deliver.

My 40-some years in the business benefit my clients in ways they don’t even imagine.

In the early days, I handled a lot of “Floor Time,” meaning I went into the office, sat at a desk and answered calls from buyers who wanted to look at homes in Sacramento. We used to call that the “up desk” when I sold real estate in the late ’70s, early ’80s in Newport Beach. I also held open houses every single weekend. I answered my phone whenever it rang. But I also shared my vast real estate knowledge that I’ve acquired over the past four decades by writing articles and blogs and posting that information online. From those efforts I built and adore my Elizabeth Weintraub Team of smart, friendly and assertive agents who work with me and support our buyers while I focus on sellers.

Today, when my phone rings, it’s no different than a “floor” call in my early office days. It’s a person on the other end who needs information and assistance, and it’s my job to deliver it. I still answer my phone. It’s an opportunity. I don’t send people to voice mail and haughtily announce I’ll get back to them at a certain hour of the day. I take on new business as I drive, shop for cat food or pull weeds in the garden. Experienced and well known Sacramento Realtors like me still work 7 days a week. We just don’t walk the streets knocking on the doors of strangers.