Suggestions on a Realtor?

[talisman]

FYI zillow and realtor.com are not a good place to look at houses. They are not up to date. Get a realtor to send you auto updates off the mls.

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Use Amy. She's great. Also get on realtor.com daily and look for houses. I found mine before the daily update Nate auto-sent me did.

The fact is you have to be very pro-active as a buyer, as you're going to know the area you're looking at better than your realtor in most cases. Drive neighborhoods you'd like to live in and look for signs(not everything is on the internet, believe it or not), use google street view to look around things if you aren't familiar with the area so you don't waste the realtors time when you can see there is an obvious meth house across the street, etc. After 3 home purchases I've got it down to a science, but the whole process is still a beating. Have all your financing in place before even looking in person or making any offers.

[motoman]

FYI zillow and realtor.com are not a good place to look at houses. They are not up to date. Get a realtor to send you auto updates off the mls.

I wouldn't say they're bad places to look because they give me a pretty damn good idea on what things are worth in surrounding areas. Sure they may not be 100% up to date but they're not out of date to the point where I can't trust anything on thats listed. I'm open to suggestions on sites you like better than those two.

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The fact is you have to be very pro-active as a buyer, as you're going to know the area you're looking at better than your realtor in most cases. Drive neighborhoods you'd like to live in and look for signs(not everything is on the internet, believe it or not), use google street view to look around things if you aren't familiar with the area so you don't waste the realtors time when you can see there is an obvious meth house across the street, etc. After 3 home purchases I've got it down to a science, but the whole process is still a beating. Have all your financing in place before even looking in person or making any offers.

In my case I have to be a very pro-active buyer. The fact my complex manager is letting me out of my lease with no questions asked, no extra fees, etc... I'm not staying there a minute longer than I have to. So I'm spending free time out looking at houses and driving neighborhoods.

[talisman]

Sounds good. If you need any advice on Arlington areas, I've been here almost 30 years.

[motoman]

Thanks Eric, I'll definitely give you a shout if I have any questions. One thing I have working for me is the fact that Jessi (my gf) does property claims and is experienced in home inspection, and she works in the area on top of that.

[mschmoyer]

We bought "for sale by owner" and had a great experience. Really depends on the sellers though. Saved 10% or so by doing that. Just takes a lot of research and patience.

[BP]

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Drive neighborhoods you'd like to live in and look for signs(not everything is on the internet, believe it or not), use google street view to look around things if you aren't familiar with the area so you don't waste the realtors time when you can see there is an obvious meth house across the street, etc. After 3 home purchases I've got it down to a science, but the whole process is still a beating. Have all your financing in place before even looking in person or making any offers.

That's basically what my wife and I did for Killeen. Sites like Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com depend on advertising dollars. They are for profit and like Google and Yahoo searches certain things will show while others don't.

Basically I was looking for donks, portable basketball hoops and houses with cars that don't fit the neighborhood.

[Chili]

That's basically what my wife and I did for Killeen. Sites like Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com depend on advertising dollars. They are for profit and like Google and Yahoo searches certain things will show while others don't.

Basically I was looking for donks, portable basketball hoops and houses with cars that don't fit the neighborhood.

It's also a good idea to visit the neighborhood at various times.. Mid day, evening, weekend, to get a good feel for it. Sometimes a neighborhood looks good at certain times, but that may not be indicative of how it is at others.

[ELVIS]

It's also a good idea to visit the neighborhood at various times.. Mid day, evening, weekend, to get a good feel for it. Sometimes a neighborhood looks good at certain times, but that may not be indicative of how it is at others.

sometimes craig goes to the mailbox in his underpants.

god bless.

[Chili]

sometimes craig goes to the mailbox in his underpants.

god bless.

That wouldn't be a big deal, my mailbox is about 3' from my front door.

[GeorgeG.]

I just fired one myself. It was pretty much she sits back and waits for me to find one. And when she would decide to respond she would always say that listing is no longer open. Terrible experience. . My only guess was my budget is low and we chose a realtor that mostly deals with more expensive homes. I dont think she cared enough to make pennies off of us.

most of those type of agents will typically refer the sellers/buyers they don't want to someone else. But I'm sure there are a few that just list it and sit back and wait. It's unfortunate and those agents definitely ruin it for the one's that actually work

I did message Amy and she was helpful but we decided to hold off a little while to try again in a few months.

The experience I had was our realtor setup an auto search on homes in the area and they were emailed to me everyday early in the morning. Most of them were the same homes or homes that really wasn't what we were looking for.

My wife found our home by doing some type of internet search and we had a bid on it the second day it came on the market. TBH, all the realtor seem to do was answer some of my rookie questions and sit there at the signing of the papers. I was the one pushing my paperwork through my lender, meeting with the inspector, etc.

Looking back, I really am not sure what she really did.

The key is knowing that you can fire an agent, and actually going through with it. I don't know if the buyer/seller feels "locked in" with a shitty agent or what though. My wife's an agent so she gets to deal with all types of agents daily...some of them make her cringe. I joked that I should make a DFW Agent registry and list all of the shitty ones, lol.

[ceyko]

If buying in the northern areas - I can't recommend this guy enough.

http://www.kw.com/kw/agent/fredhelms

[BP]

It's also a good idea to visit the neighborhood at various times.. Mid day, evening, weekend, to get a good feel for it. Sometimes a neighborhood looks good at certain times, but that may not be indicative of how it is at others.

True, had I noticed the stacked Cummins at our apartment in Temple I might have skipped the place. I'll take that over a bunch of donked Caprices any day of the week though.

[talisman]

The key is knowing that you can fire an agent, and actually going through with it. I don't know if the buyer/seller feels "locked in" with a shitty agent or what though. My wife's an agent so she gets to deal with all types of agents daily...some of them make her cringe. I joked that I should make a DFW Agent registry and list all of the shitty ones, lol.

When I was starting to look at trying to buy my first place, I walked in to the Realtor office my parents had used to buy our house in 1985 to talk to them. I was 22, driving a heavily modified 87 5.0 and didn't look like a millionaire. I got rushed out of the office after a guy spent about 4 minutes talking to me, and when I fired the car up, 2 old bags in the parking lot had their noses so high in the air if it rained they would have drowned.

When I told my dad about it, who was about to retire, and use them to sell the house, he found a different realtor. Lost what would have been a pretty decent sale on that, not to mention both my sister and I bought our condos from the same lady within a couple weeks of each other. There are a ton of shitty realtors out there, and a good one is worth their weight in gold.

[Baron Von Crowder]

When I was starting to look at trying to buy my first place, I walked in to the Realtor office my parents had used to buy our house in 1985 to talk to them. I was 22, driving a heavily modified 87 5.0 and didn't look like a millionaire. I got rushed out of the office after a guy spent about 4 minutes talking to me, and when I fired the car up, 2 old bags in the parking lot had their noses so high in the air if it rained they would have drowned.

When I told my dad about it, who was about to retire, and use them to sell the house, he found a different realtor. Lost what would have been a pretty decent sale on that, not to mention both my sister and I bought our condos from the same lady within a couple weeks of each other. There are a ton of shitty realtors out there, and a good one is worth their weight in gold.

We were renting from an agent, and she was always saying that she wanted to be our agent when we bought. My wife was a cheer coach, and the head coach was married to an agent. He was hitting me up to use him when we got ready. I called each of them, neither seemed remotely interested, and he didnt even return my calls. She gave me the "sure, ill get on that ASAP" and never did a damn thing. Nate was johnny on the spot with listings, and was great when we were looking and buying.

The two others were all pissy when they found out we bought.

[bcoop]

Greg, I don't know what your price range is, but there is a house on my street that will be listed in the next two weeks. 4/2.5/2, 2 living areas, pool, COMPLETELY remodeled. If interested, let me know. I'll be down there tonight as a matter of fact.


EDIT: I'll add, he's looking for a quick sale, and someone ready to buy. He's got to be in Houston in Dec/Jan.