Since When Is It Wrong to Expect a Buyer's Agent to Pull the Comparable Sales?

As I was driving to West Sacramento yesterday to take a listing in Bridgeway Island, a buyer's agent called. Just for the record, I wasn't pulling a Maria Shriver, I was wearing my Jawbone. He asked about a Sacramento short sale home that I have listed and wanted to know how much his buyer would have to offer to buy it.

I explained that his buyer would have a running chance if the agent ran the comparable sales and based the purchase offer on the comps. This is the same procedure an agent would use for a listing that is not a short sale. The agent got huffy with me. "I'm an old man," he said, "and I've been in the business for 46 years. I don't have time for this."

His poor buyer. He's apparently working with an agent who doesn't have time to do the job the buyer hired him to perform. This is where the adage: "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" comes into play. So I thanked him profusely for calling me, and was as polite as I could be while following a cement mixer down Jefferson.

Here is a new listing in West Sacramento. It's a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, with vaults, boasting almost 1900 square feet of pure joy, especially if you own pets. That's because the living room, dining area, kitchen and family room have upgraded ceramic tile floors. The tiles are larger than 12-inch, but I didn't measure them to determine if the tiles were 16-inch or 18-inch. The home was built by Forecast in 2001. It's a desirable one-story on a cul-de-sac with a view of the greenbelt.

The interior is absolutely immaculate. It's in move-in condition. The kitchen has an island, the counters are ceramic tile and there's a breakfast nook that overlooks the incredibly landscaped back yard.

You'll love the spacious master suite, which is almost 20 feet. Plus, it has outside access to the back yard. The master bath has double sinks, ceramic tile floor, a separate tub, shower stall and a huge walk-in closet with organizers.

As I was leaving, the seller mentioned that she found me at my Homebuying About.com site when she Googled "short sale." When she read my article -- which ranks #2 at Google, right behind Wikipedia -- she discovered that I was a Sacramento short sale agent and was delighted when she realized that my office is in Midtown. See, Lyon Real Estate has 18 offices in the Sacramento area, and we have an office in West Sacramento, too. So, this seller gets the advantage of a For Sale Sign on her lawn that sports our West Sacramento office phone number, and she gets her home on tour with our Midtown office over the river, plus my cell phone number on a sign rider. Dual coverage. It doesn't get any better than that.

3044 Sherman Island Road, West Sacramento, CA 95691

Offered as a short sale exclusively by Lyon Real Estate at $235,000

Elizabeth Weintraub, 916.233.6759

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub