What Happens When You Hire a Cheap Sacramento Realtor?

Because agents are not the same, hiring a cheap Sacramento Realtor can be very expensive.

Would you like to hire a cheap Sacramento Realtor, the cheapest you can find? Not knowing any better, that is often the criteria some home sellers use, and it’s not really their fault that they think this way. It is perpetrated by websites touting “when Realtors compete,” which is not really true and, as Sacramento real estate agents, we are constantly warned not to advertise our commission because, due to Fair Trade Laws, all commission is negotiable. However, the truth is the negotiation wars are generally fought over a 1% difference, and most Mega-Star Realtors do not negotiate at all because their service and knowledge is in high demand.

I’d like to discuss some of the problems inherent with hiring a cheap Sacramento Realtor that you might not have considered. First, all real estate agents are not the same. Having a license does not an agent make.  About 10% of us do 90% of the business. If you can hire a discount agent from the 90%, typically what you get is an agent who can’t get paid what he is worth. You might think that’s OK because they all provide the same service (they don’t) and once you get past his unprofessional cellphone photography, the lousy marketing attempts and the flimsy command of the English language, not to mention poor communication skills, what you end up with is a cheap agent who can’t negotiate for you the way you deserve to be protected. But you saved that 1% or whatever.

Yet, what did you lose? It’s always a trade-off, regardless of what a cheap agent might promise.

Usually, I do not knowingly participate in bidding wars among agents because clients who want the cheapest Sacramento Realtor don’t want the best Sacramento Realtor. They want a breathing body to toss the home into MLS, regardless of how much money they will lose. The best Sacramento Realtor earns her commission, and therein lies a major difference.

I’ll show you an example. Last year a seller asked me to compare homes in Elk Grove and give him an estimate of value. I explained how I work and delivered my CMA in person so I could tour his home. He said I was hired. Then, he called me back to say a friend of his had offered to list the home for 1% less than my standard commission. He wanted me to discount my commission, just because there was competition. That agent was not a competitor. She was a person with a real estate license. She was a cheap Sacramento Realtor who sells a couple of homes a year, little experience. I did not denigrate his agent because that’s not my style, but I did explain what would happen if he didn’t hire me. He’d lose money, not make money.

He refused to listen and was very angry that I would not discount my commission to match his cheap agent. Almost as though he believed I did not have a right to refuse his request. He thought I should be willing to work for less for some unknown reason. He screamed at the top of his lungs that he expected to hire the BEST Sacramento Realtor — he wanted me — but the truth is he did not want to pay for it. I could have found a way for him to win but I didn’t bother because he was too emotional, had a bad attitude and you can’t fix a person who won’t listen.

I spotted his home enter pending status after his “friend” listed it. Noticed it did not close escrow at list price. I don’t know if it was a home inspection that generated a request for repairs that his “friend” could not negotiate her way out of or if she just backed down for other reasons, but his closing also did NOT happen within 30 days. It was delayed. Moreover, he sold at a lower price that was thousands of dollars less than the 1% difference he did not want to pay. See, real estate is a service business, based on negotiation skills, strategy and experience. When you hire a cheap Sacramento Realtor, you probably don’t get top service or quality negotiation skills, and that little experience typically gets reflected in your bottom line.

But I get it. It’s not your fault. Consumers don’t know until it is too late.

Don’t let a supposed discount of a percent here or there keep you from hiring the best Sacramento Realtor. Even though “commission is negotiable,” many of us charge our standard fees, which tend to separate the wheat from the chaff, regardless of baseless claims by the cheap agents. I charge the same as I charged 40 years ago. Pick the agent who will save you the most money, even if her fee is slightly higher than a cheap agent. Her superior service will save you in the long run.