This story is part of our March 2024 issue. To subscribe, click here.

This story is part of our March 2024 issue. Click here to subscribe.

If you’re looking to buy a luxury home in Sacramento, the odds are good that it’s listed by Kim Pacini-Hauch, widely acknowledged as the region’s top Realtor. With over 37 years of experience, Pacini-Hauch has notched over $1 billion in lifetime sales, including more than $100 million in 2021 alone. 

Pacini-Hauch’s secret? “I answer the phone,” she says, adding that clients are routinely surprised that she always picks up or calls them back immediately, no matter when. “This way you don’t miss anything. Your clients are represented night and day, seven days a week. I’m going to write a book, and I’ll call it, ‘Answer the Phone.’” 

How she stays current: “You adapt and adjust to available technology.” She laughs and says she started her career before the fax machine but has now embraced email blasts and social media.

Critical part of every day: “I’ve never left my house with the bed unmade, ever, ever, ever.” 

4:00AM – Wakes up, pours a cup of coffee, then nestles into a comfy chair and reads the Bible. This is prayer time, and it’s sacred. Her husband, retired physician Dr. Richard Hauch, soon joins her. 

5:00AM – Checks email, scanning for urgent client requests that trickled in overnight. “This is a service industry, so if someone wants to get into a property, we do everything possible to accommodate.” 

5:30AM – Knocks out household chores like pruning the roses or taking her three dogs for a walk. 

6:00AM - Wakes up her 92-year-old mother who lives with her. Makes her mom breakfast and gives her medicine.

7:30AM – Either works out in her home gym (sometimes weights, sometimes Peloton) or takes a power walk around Ancil Hoffman Park. While walking she’ll call her staff to coordinate the day’s schedule or maybe listen to talks from ministers in her earbuds. 

8:30AM – No day is routine. Starting now, her schedule is dictated by the needs of her clients. Sometimes she’ll start the workday in her home office, but often she’ll head to a client’s showing.

8:35AM – While driving she’ll return calls (clients first), often pulling over to the side of the road. “When people are stressed and they call their agent, if you don’t call them back right away it accelerates their anxiety.” 

9:00AM – When Pacini-Hauch arrives at a showing, she ensures the place is clean, immaculate and has the lights and music on. “I don’t use Realtor lockboxes. The sellers hire me to be present.” Pacini-Hauch even keeps a leaf blower in the trunk of her car, because you never know. 

10:00AM – More listings, more calls, more listings, more calls.

11:00AM – Her days often involve consultation with a new potential seller, where she goes to their home and gives an on-the-spot analysis. This can involve meeting a home inspector, getting an estimate from a painter and organizing a cleaning crew. “My job has 1,000 pieces to it. This is not just about putting a sign in the ground.”

1:00PM – Lunch is usually on the go, or if she’s home she’ll enjoy a quick meal with her mother. 

1:30PM – More listings and more calls and more consultations, always coordinating with her staff. Pacini-Hauch has only two staff members: a full-time assistant and someone who handles all the transactions and escrows. “I’m just a solo agent,” she says, as she’d prefer not to manage a team of agents. “I tried it years ago, and I don’t want to have to be a babysitter.”

3:00PM – She’ll make calls regarding the many charities she’s involved in, such as the Christmas in 2016 when, during the overcrowding of an animal shelter, she personally paid for over 1,000 animals to be adopted in “Home for the Pawlidays.” (This made national news.)

4:30PM – Sometimes she finishes her listings at 2 p.m., sometimes not until late at night. But regardless of when she gets home, before she pulls into her garage, she sits in her driveway and returns every call. 

5:00PM – Knocks out more emails and calls from her home office.

6:00PM - Richard makes dinner; she can finally relax.

7:30PM – Cleans the dishes, then gets her mother ready for bed. “I get her all snuggled up.”

8:00PM - Pacini-Hauch is not much of a TV viewer, but she’ll often watch religious videos on YouTube, then is in bed by 9 p.m. “I love to start the day with the Lord, and I love to end the day with the Lord.”  

–

Stay up to date on business in the Capital Region: Subscribe to the Comstock’s newsletter today.