Housing Market Ugliness

I have been a Realtor for long enough to know, when the local Sacramento housing market tips to an extreme buyer or seller market, the ugliness comes out. The saying, “power corrupts,” could not be truer than in today’s seller’s market.

With inventory of listings at all time lows and demand for homes high, many sellers and their agents are putting listings on the market with conditions and requirements which are boarder line ridiculous. We recently had a client who wanted to see a home. When I reviewed the showing instructions we found the home was only being shown on Friday from 4 to 5 PM. I called the agent to request access to the vacant home at a different time because our client was not available during the open house. He asked about our client who has just completed a divorce and is a cash buyer. He said he couldn’t let us see the house because, “In divorces, there are often delays in getting the money.” We did end up going to the open house and the agent was 20 minutes late for a one hour event.

⤥ Summer Fun Starts Here ⤦

⤥ Summer Fun Starts Here ⤦

⤥ Summer Fun Starts Here ⤦

⤥ Summer Fun Starts Here ⤦

Another example of the seller’s market is, just this week we were told the offer from our client would not be reviewed unless we provided a copy of the buyer’s credit report. Who in their right mind is going to send off their credit report to unknown persons?

It is also becoming more common for seller’s to require buyers to be pre-qualified with their preferred lender. This fine because they cannot require the buyer to use their lender but we have now seen, on two occasions, where we have seen evidence of personal financial information being give to the seller by the lender for negotiation purposes.

In addition to these examples some listing agents have taken rudeness and laziness to the next level. This is unfortunate and reflects poorly on our profession. Refusing to communicate by not returning calls and emails prevents other agents from being able to keep their clients informed and makes us look like we are not working for them. If 25 offers is the excuse for not responding, my advice in don’t price the listing $20,000 below market. Just yesterday, we discovered an offer we made which was all cash and $50,000 above asking price was not accepted. We found out from our client who noticed the MLS status had been changed to “pending.” Even with the offer we made, the listing agent did not think we deserved to be notified before the changed the status.

If you are in the process of selling or are considering selling please make sure the Realtor you are using or hiring has the professionalism to represent you in the same way you would like to be treated if you were a buyer.

If you have had a bad experience with a seller or agent recently, please let me know. I would like to do some additional work in this area and your input is valuable.

Julie Jalone

If you or someone you know is considering buying, please feel free to contact me MagnumOne Realty office in Roseville at (916) 276-6883 and email at [email protected].

We specialize serving the needs of buyers and sellers of homes in the Roseville and Sacramento area including Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, Sutter and Yuba counties.

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