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How to Use Strategy and Not Games to Sell a Home in Sacramento

By
Real Estate Agent with Elizabeth Anne Weintraub, Broker DRE #00697006

sacramento real estateOne of my team members said at dinner last night that my home sellers are really nice to buyers. Apparently, that's the scuttlebutt in Sacramento real estate if that home is listed by Elizabeth Weintraub.

Often buyer's agents will text to ask when I am presenting offers to my sellers. I present offers as soon as I receive the offer. I don't play games. I might consider playing a game if it would be more profitable to my seller, but those kinds of games typically are not, so I don't. Games are games. Strategy is strategy. It's easy for sellers to confuse the two.

Some agents write in MLS that all offers will be presented on a particular day way off in the future. That game can backfire, and I don't believe it's particularly useful. Little is worse than reading "all offers presented on June 1st" and that home is still on the market on July 8th. It works better with high-end homes than with 99% of the homes in Sacramento on the market today, the reason being buyers of high-end homes are not usually in a huge rush. There's also not a lot of competition for those homes like there is for median-priced homes and entry-level homes.

Some Sacramento listing agents like this particular game because it gives them an increased opportunity to represent both the seller and the buyer. They want to double-end the deal and make twice the commission. They hope for dual agency, more than anything. That's a sorry state of affairs in my book.

My sellers typically are not looking for dozens of multiple offers. We want one buyer. One solid and committed buyer. If that buyer is the first offer, that's the buyer with whom we go into escrow. My sellers set the price and, in this market, it will be high -- if a buyer meets it, a buyer gets it. If that buyer is the 20th buyer, then it's the 20th buyer. Pretty simple and straight forward.

The real question is how long does a seller have to accept a buyer's purchase offer in Sacramento?

Before I answer that, let me say that if you're trying to buy a home in Sacramento right now, I feel your pain as a home buyer. I know the odds are you might have to write more than one offer to buy the home of your dreams. If you give the seller 24 hours to accept your offer, it doesn't mean the seller will rush a decision. In fact, the seller might view you as pushy.

For example, back in the old days, like 30-plus years ago when I started selling real estate, I used to write offers "upon presentation." This meant the seller had to decide right then and there whether to take the offer. But it was a buyer's market when I began my career in real estate. Today, it is a seller's market. This means home buyers are buying a home in a seller's market. The strategy is different.

Standard purchase contracts in California give the seller by default 72 hours to accept an offer. As a home buyer, your agent can change that date to anything a buyer wants. If a seller doesn't accept within that time period, the offer expires. However, there is really no rush for a seller to accept because a counter offer puts the offer back into play and starts the clock ticking again. A multiple counter offer lets the seller choose which offer to accept, and the seller is not bound to any of them in the process. That's strategy. Not games.

As a Sacramento home seller, do you want to be a game player or do you want to be a strategist? Remember, unless a buyer's offer is all cash, that home still needs to appraise to close escrow. Don't get caught up in the hoo-ha of the market. Home sellers can make buyers feel good about buying their home and still get top dollar. That's win-win strategy. You don't have to be a jerk to win.

There is a reason this Sacramento real estate agent has closed more than 70 homes so far in 2012.

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Elizabeth Weintraub is co-partner of Weintraub & Wallace Team of Top Producing Realtors, an author, home buying expert at The Balance, a Land Park resident, and a veteran real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown, Carmichael and East Sacramento, as well as tract homes in Elk Grove, Natomas, Roseville and Lincoln. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put our combined 80 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at RE/MAX Gold. DRE License # 00697006.

Photo: Unless otherwise noted in this blog, the photo is copyrighted by Big Stock Photo and used with permission.The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of RE/MAX Gold. Disclaimer: If this post contains a listing, information is deemed reliable as of the date it was written. After that date, the listing may be sold, listed by another brokerage, canceled, pending or taken temporarily off the market, and the price could change without notice; it could blow up, explode or vanish. To find out the present status of any listing, please go to elizabethweintraub.com.

Comments (11)

Edward & Celia Maddox
The Celtic Connection Realty - Queen Creek, AZ
EXPERIENCE & INTEGRITY - WE TAKE THE HIGH ROAD

Seems like for a high percentage of time, the first offer is usually the best one, if the home is priced to the current market and is in good condition.

Jul 08, 2012 01:17 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Elizabeth - excellent post. Though I agree with you on the strategy, I was smiling while reading, as you can't teach these things. If agents do not have sense of real estate (and many don't), their strategy and tactics are someting borrowed and used then indiscriminately.

A friend of mine has a phenomenal memory, he remembers our conversations for years. And now and then he would stop me and say "Hey, but you said something very different 4 years ago when speaking about this and that"

Yep, but that was 4 years ago, and that was a different market, a different property, a different Seller, and a different buyer.

After all, it was a different weather...

You gotta have sense of real estate, and then the strategy would come.

What is always so fascinating in your blog is this keen sense of real estate.

Jul 08, 2012 01:24 AM
Pamela Smith
Award Realty - Sun City West, AZ
Sun City West, Corte Bella, Sun City Grand

Elizabeth,

This is a wonderful no nonsence post.  Also, your new picture is great!

Jul 08, 2012 01:41 AM
Tim Lorenz
TIM LORENZ - Elite Home Sales Team - Mission Viejo, CA
949 874-2247

I to like the new pic.  Selling the home is the job.  Having a Strategy that you can explain is key.

Jul 08, 2012 01:56 AM
Chris Ann Cleland
Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

We need some standard language in offers in our NoVA to give the offer an expiration date.  Right now, it's up to the buyers and their agent to come up with that language and add it to the offer.

Jul 08, 2012 02:46 AM
David Burrows
Classic Realty - Fairfax, VA
No Pressure, Just Seriously Devoted to Real Estate

Elizabeth, in my experience, the first offer is often the best offer. I know there can and are exceptions to this. Nice post your new picture looks wonderful!

Jul 08, 2012 03:20 AM
Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Broker
Elizabeth Anne Weintraub, Broker - Sacramento, CA
Put 40 years of experience to work for you

Hi Jon: I do see certain tactics used indiscriminately, as though they weren't completely thought through. It's like an agent discovers a new idea and slaps it into practice without realizing there is a time and place for everything. You've got to think 2 steps ahead at all times in this business. BTW, I referred C Tann-Starr on AR to you yesterday because she moved to Florida.

Hey Chris Ann: Why don't you suggest this to the lawyers who craft your North Virginia purchase documents? That's how change happens. Our purchase contracts say this:

EXPIRATION OF OFFER. This offer shall be deemed revoked and the deposit shall be returned unless the offer is signed by the seller and a copy of the signed offer is personally received by the buyer or by  ___________ who is authorized to receive it by 5:00 PM on the third day after this offer is signed or, if checked ____ by ___ AM ___ PM on ________ date.

When I represent the buyer, I always fill in my name so the offer can be deemed accepted and in contract upon my receipt, not the buyer's.

Jul 08, 2012 05:15 AM
Gary Woltal
Keller Williams Realty - Flower Mound, TX
Assoc. Broker Realtor SFR Dallas Ft. Worth

Interesting in Texas we have no default acceptance time for an offer. In some states it has a blank for that. I don't like playing games either although often the other side does Elizabeth and also strategy is different. Great post.

Jul 08, 2012 05:19 AM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Elizabeth - C. Tann moved to Florida? Woiw... and thanks. I pushed this "Sugggested" button

Jul 08, 2012 05:26 AM
Melissa Zavala
Broadpoint Properties - Escondido, CA
Broker, Escondido Real Estate, San Diego County
I'm sure that you have lots of tricks (err... strategies) up your sleeve that help to select the best buyer for the transaction.
Jul 08, 2012 12:00 PM
James Dray
Fathom Realty - Bentonville, AR

Morning Elizabeth here in Arkansas we usually put a 48 hour expiration but there is no (default) time frame.  Interesting how from State to State things differ in the contracts. 

Jul 08, 2012 08:09 PM