Does Treasure Coast have open houses? (Vero Beach: sales, real estate, buying a house)

[zippyzippy]

Coming to TC soon. I have two questions: 1-Does the Treasure Coast area have open houses? Where would we find the listings? 2-Are there any free newspapers for the area? I view the TCPalm online (the free portion, that is, which isn't much. But it does keep me informed a little...).

[newred5]

The Sunday real Estate section of the St Lucie paper lists open houses , don't know where you would find it online though

[HarryWho?]

You can look here: Florida Open Houses - 782 Upcoming - Zillow

Click on an area you're interested in.

[SeaLark7]

The Scripps Treasure Coast newspapers, which have several editions for the various cities, has a Real Estate Source section in the Sunday paper. The web site for it is listed as
www.homes.tcpalm.com
There are lots of ads for open houses in it.

In Vero Beach there are a LOT of free newspapers and magazines about the area. Assuming you will be visiting, check out the main library on 21st Street; it has a wide selection of them just past the New Books section on the main floor. I would imagine other cities' libraries will offer them as well.

[SeaLark7]

One thing to be aware of regarding going to open houses here, based on what we were told by a Realtor at an open house: If you visit one by yourself, without your own Realtor with you (assuming you have one helping you look for houses in the area), you have to deal directly with the Realtor who has the open house if you are interested in buying it; you cannot bring your Realtor into the deal afterwards. (FlaLadyB, is this correct info ?)

[SeetheUSA]

If you look at new homes, there are always sales agents on site that will guide you through model homes as well.

[FlaLadyB]

SUNDAY paper....thats where the open houses are listed. We have them on Saturdays too but that is usually just putting signs out and informing the neighbors.

[CrowGirl]

Originally Posted by SeaLark7

One thing to be aware of regarding going to open houses here, based on what we were told by a Realtor at an open house: If you visit one by yourself, without your own Realtor with you (assuming you have one helping you look for houses in the area), you have to deal directly with the Realtor who has the open house if you are interested in buying it; you cannot bring your Realtor into the deal afterwards. (FlaLadyB, is this correct info ?)

I'll be interested to hear realtors' reactions to this, but it makes no sense to me. When I was buying a house on the Treasure Coast I remember visiting several open houses without my realtor. I also made some appointments and visited some listings on my own (I never said she was a great realtor) and ended up buying a house that I visited on my own.

What would they do? Turn down the sale?

[SeaLark7]

I thought it was odd too, CrowGirl. But the open house realtor was almost huffy when I said that we were working with an agent already. He quickly told us that since we had come to the open house without the agent, she could not represent us if we put in an offer on this house. Fortunately we weren't interested in the house, and his attitude really put me off !

[FlaLadyB]

ok..HOLD IT .....

IF you go to an open house by yourself and you are working with a Realtor- you DO tell the person there you ARE WORKING WITH ANOTHER REALTOR-- and NO you do not have to work with the Realtor who is at the Open House no matter what that one told you.

As for the agent who told you "she could not represent us if we put in an offer on this house" SHE REPRESENTS THE SELLER, NOT YOU! so you need to stay with YOUR agent so they represent YOU.

Crowgirl -you were wondering so here ya go ---- you were working with an agent and then bought a house without them? Great...thank you from ALL OF US who spend all of our a time working with you so you can find a home only to find out you did this. Thank you for letting your agent know you wanted to see those houses since I'm sure she would have shown you them had you asked. Thank you for telling the open house agent you were working with someone else since they are supposed to respect that--although some do not. OH, and the same applies to you from above --that agent you bought from REPRESENTED THE SELLER....not you.

So, some other agent who sat for a couple hours in an open house, and didn't help you at all, or spend any time with you, or represent your best interest got paid the BOTH SIDES of the COMMISSION (commissions are money that is paid by the Seller when you work for something (sometimes as long as a year) and are only paid when a sale is closed, and not before- but all the expenses we have to be in business like the time, gas, car, computer, mls, phones, etc etc are still our bills that continue to come in)
Thank you for your loyalty......

ok...Im off my soap box for this morning. I could say more, but I have appointments...

Have a nice day