I just received a fan-email from an agent in her 70s. I think she's from New York. Said she had been spending the day yesterday reading my stuff on short sales on About.com, because she now needs to service these types of listings. She offered me a play on words: deed-in-lieu of foreclosure or Elizabeth Weintraub in-lieu of CRS course. I think what she meant was in-lieu-of CDPE.
Agents should get training from a multitude of sources, but the most important place to get training, it turns out, is sometimes from yourself. From experience. I learn from myself all of the time. I learn from writing about what I do. From sharing my experiences with other people, so it's not a totally selfless act when I write about short sales.
The thing about teaching other people is sometimes people think you are fabulous because you are telling them something they did not know. That doesn't make you fabulous. Because they can teach you as well. The thing about seminar companies is they are in the business of making money by offering a product. This product did not exist before they decided to offer it. So, they write the rules and make up the program. There is no degree and no test. Take some of this training with a grain of salt. I say to other agents: go earn those notches in your belt.
Then share what you know, and you'll have it all come back ten-fold. Sellers and buyers want information, and they look for it online.
I'll tell you one of the most important benefits I have picked up by selling short sales is how to be a better Sacramento real estate agent. Eventually the market will rebound. Maybe not for another 5 to 7 years, but it will come back. When it does, I am poised.
One of the things I've learned as a Sacramento short sale agent is to sell listings that nobody else wants. Homes that the bulk of the buying public passes by. It's easy to sell a home everybody wants to buy. It's hard to sell a home few buyers want and even fewer agents want to show. Not only do I have to sell that home which nobody wants, but I might have to sell that short sale over and over. And I do.
Try selling a home nobody wants a second time, why doncha? Then try selling that home for a third time and a fourth time or a seventh time. Agents have been known to say, whoa, this home has been on the market for more than a year, there must be something wrong with it. Buyers hold out their arms, with crossed forefingers, hissing, and then throw garlic at it.
If you're a seller looking for a good real estate agent, consider a short sale agent. Even if you don't have a short sale home to sell. Because we have skills other agents may never have had the opportunity to hone. Skills that can benefit you no matter what type of home you have to sell. We are the cowboys and cowgirls of real estate. It's a new frontier.
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Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.
Lyon Real Estate is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.
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 Lyon Real Estate.
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.
