The Dissing of Calling a Fair Oaks Realtor the Devil You Know

It is not unusual for me to receive phone calls from disgruntled sellers in Sacramento who want to dump their agent. I know you might be thinking to yourself: how lucky is this Sacramento REALTOR — because she doesn’t have to search for business; listings just fall into her lap. The truth is I don’t particularly enjoy listening to a seller rant and rave about all the horrible things she believes her soon-to-be former agent has done. On top of which, I don’t add fuel to the fire; I don’t see any reason to disparage another human being, especially not for financial gain.

I try to get the callers to understand why maybe they are upset with their agent. Perhaps it’s because their agent doesn’t have much experience? If an agent sells one house every couple of months or so, for example, that real estate agent’s experience level will be very different from an agent like me who sells at least a couple of homes every week, on average, and continually lays her finger on market pulse. Not to mention, I’ve been in the business since the early 1970s and have easily adapted in a chameleon-like manner to changes and technology.

Not every agent is so fortunate. Agents are very different from each other. Should you change agents? That’s a loaded question.

Certain home sellers in Fair Oaks called me over the weekend, super irate with their present agent. I explained that I couldn’t really get into it with them until their agent releases the listing from MLS. I don’t ever want to be accused of swiping a client. Bingo, within the day, it was released.

The agent had removed not only all of the photographs but also the marketing comments! Uh, oh. He must have been really ticked off, a supposition I shared with the sellers. Why did they have to make their agent so angry? Was it him, was it them? I dunno. Not good, though.

During the course of our conversations, the sellers had asked what they could do to improve the photos to sell their home in Fair Oaks. The photos looked like they were shot with a cellphone, for goodness sakes, grainy and tilted. We probably talked for an hour, and I gave them a ton of information and then made an appointment to list the home.

The sellers said they were very grateful as I had opened their eyes. I had shared tips that they never had previously considered and which their agent had never mentioned. I gave them ideas for improving the marketability of their home, including how to stage it, down to the color of the flowers for their dining room table. Two hours before my appointment they shot off an urgent email explaining that their former Fair Oaks REALTOR had apologized and literally begged them to give him another chance.

They said it was the devil you know.

They would incorporate all of my ideas, too, and were extremely appreciative for my assistance.

There all sorts of people trying to sell a home in Sacramento these days and looking for a Fair Oaks REALTOR. It doesn’t mean I will change how I do business or stop offering to help. I wished them well and let it go. Besides, I didn’t share everything, and they have a surprise in store. Funny how that works out.