One 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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