looking for houses in the Gilbert/Chandler area (short sales, first time home buyer)

[law_jen]

My husband and I are first time home buyers. My question is how many houses do people usually look at before they decide. We have seen 30 and we want to see more as we haven't seen any house yet that we feel we really love. However, we think our agent might get annoyed already and we are almost embarrassed to tell him that we want to see another set of houses.

We viewed all these houses in the Chandler before we discovered that houses in the Gilbert area are way cheaper. Now we want to purchase a house in Gilbert instead of Chandler.

If you were the agent would you get annoyed with me for now deciding up to now. Should I be working with more than one agent?

[thegirlinaz]

We just recently bought a house in Gilbert. We only looked at about 5 before finding the right one. Maybe we just got lucky.

However, don't worry about your agent getting annoyed, they are there to work for YOU! You shouldn't just settle with a house that doesn't suit your needs or isn't in the right area you want because you are worried about what your realtor will think. Just make sure your agent knows what you want and hopefully you will find your house soon! Good luck

Ps. We had a really good and really helpful agent that knows Gilbert very well. If you are interested in switching agents give send me a message and I can give you her contact into.

[maybethistimearound]

May not be the case, but it sounds as if your agent wasn't doing much up front to help narrow down your focus. Personally my present agent doesn't offer me much more than access to the flexmls listings and I have a ton of different searches set there so I can see what all was out there. I prefer having more data available than I may need so I don't miss any options. We worked off all those listings and narrowed down what were priorities for us. This is our 3rd home purchase, and we have visited 5 homes, made an offer on one short sale, lost it, then are about to enter escrow on the 5th and (provided no big inspection surprises) final property.

I'd have to imagine there exists such a thing as an agent that takes time to help a buyer target what they really want..then helps select properties for viewing that meet those criteria. Maybe its just the market here today, but I got none of that from this agent..but since this was our third home we had a pretty good idea what we wanted and just needed her to let us have access to listings and keys to the lockbox. With that said, I'd of still liked her to engage more to help us target our search..but there didn't seem to be an effort on that front.

[sbmohr]

We too were looking in Chandler and Gilbert before finally settling on a house in Gilbert, due to better bang for the buck in Gilbert. I have heard it said that you should look at at least 20 houses before making a decision. The second day, after looking at about 15 houses we found a house that we really liked in Gilbert and made an offer. We still looked at other houses though while waiting to hear back on our offer. Don't feel bad about making your realtor work. After all, you need to be sure about the house, since you will be living in it for at least several years. In this market, I would find 2-3 houses that you really like and make lowball offers on them, that way you have several options. There are some great deals to be had in Gilbert. Just stay away from the short sales.

[iuki001]

Originally Posted by law_jen

My husband and I are first time home buyers. My question is how many houses do people usually look at before they decide. We have seen 30 and we want to see more as we haven't seen any house yet that we feel we really love. However, we think our agent might get annoyed already and we are almost embarrassed to tell him that we want to see another set of houses.

We viewed all these houses in the Chandler before we discovered that houses in the Gilbert area are way cheaper. Now we want to purchase a house in Gilbert instead of Chandler.

If you were the agent would you get annoyed with me for now deciding up to now. Should I be working with more than one agent?

We have moved a lot and, at at times, have found homes after looking at just two or three. On one occasion, we looked at approximately 70 homes before buying the one we did. When you find the home you really like, you'll know.

Tell your realtor what you like, have him/her provide you with the address and check out the exterior and neighborhood BEFORE asking the realtor to show you the home.

The other option, look on the internet (realtor.com; zillow.com; ziprealty.com; or trulia.com); check out the address on maps.google.com and property tax info. You can also do a "nearby" search on maps.google.com and some times even do a "visual" drive on the streets. When you find something interesting, then contact the realtor.

We do this to avoid taking up the realtor's time and wasting his/her gas.

Purchasing a home is a big investment, so you shouldn't feel guilty about taking your time to make the final decision.

Good luck.

iuki