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I'm working with a realtor and she seems like a good one, however, I am doing all the searching for houses. She sends me a daily listing retrieved from HAR.com and I search myself on Zillow.com then send her the ones I want to preview.
Is she sending you ALL the listings, or selecting listings that match your criteria?
If she's doing it right (imho), she should be refining a selective search based on criteria you've given her, and those listings she sends should be appropriate for you, and more complete and more accurate than what Zillow has.
Then yes, once she sends properties for your consideration, you need to decide which ones you actually want to go see.
Last edited by Diana Holbrook; 01-14-2016 at 02:10 PM..
It's gotten a whole lot more normal the last few years. I always show the houses my clients find first then I show them the good houses I find.
Many Buyers cannot read between the lines and none have the confidential info we may see.
Many times the Internet has actually made our job harder when it comes to looking at homes.
Also, I would stay away from Zillow and use HAR. They can be terribly outdated.
I'm working with a realtor and she seems like a good one, however, I am doing all the searching for houses. She sends me a daily listing retrieved from HAR.com and I search myself on Zillow.com then send her the ones I want to preview.
Is this normal?
Zillow is notorious for inaccuracy and outdated listings.
What your agent should be doing is taking the criteria that you gave her regarding what you're looking for and sending you listings that meet most of those criteria (meeting all is almost as rare as unicorns), and weeding out those that do not meet your criteria (a house might have something that you have said is a deal breaker for you, for example, so if the agent happens to know this even if it doesn't show in the MLS listing, she might eliminate that house to avoid wasting your time).
Whenever a client sends me a house that I've "missed" sending them, I look at their criteria and look at the house and see exactly why the house did not pop up on my search, and it's always that it doesn't fit their own criteria in some way. Then I point this out to them and ask them if they want to change their criteria and if so, I can tweak the search so that houses with that particular deal breaker show up anyway.
What I do is set my clients up with an automated search on my local MLS (in your case that would be HAR). The search emails them daily new results that meet their criteria. I review the search results as well multiple times during the day. More often than not though, my clients are telling me which properties they want to see. So, I've begun to spend more and more of my time trying to dig up properties for my clients not on MLS. These are a lot harder to come up with and aren't as plentiful as the properties that come up on MLS, but I feel it's a value add service that my clients benefit from. I have a deal right now that's a property that wasn't on MLS. My client benefits because it wasn't a multiple offer situation and they probably got the house for less than they would have had it been on MLS.
I realized that me searching and setting criterias on HAR.com produces more desired results than my realtor's listings (which shows the same houses almost).
I just thought that realtors would be spending time searching houses for their clients.
Agents do search for homes that fit the clients criteria among all of other things they do to help you with your home purchase.
If your searches are finding homes more to your liking than what your Realtor is sending you, it is because you are working on a different set of criteria. I would talk to your agent and compare the search parameters you are both using. Though, if you prefer doing your own searches, and many people do, then keep doing it the way you are as it seems to work for you. Happy House Hunting!
If you don't already, you need to understand that the information you see on any website other than your local MLS is to an enormous degree info that is coming directly from the MLS in the first place. So, it is not odd that you would see the same homes on your sites as she sends you. If you are finding homes that her search on the MLS is not, the first thing you should do is re-examine the search criteria you gave her because apparently you are willing to give consideration to properties that her search parameters are excluding.
That happens a lot. Buyers tell us what they want and don't want, but then bring listings to us that don't match what they've told us. It's a process and we need to assume that criteria evolve. If she is not seeking your feedback and making adjustments to her auto search (or however she likes to do it), you should probably bring it up to her yourself.
I realized that me searching and setting criterias on HAR.com produces more desired results than my realtor's listings (which shows the same houses almost).
I just thought that realtors would be spending time searching houses for their clients.
Still not real clear what your complaint is about "time spent searching houses".
Are you saying you think your internet searches are getting better results, or that you think the realtor should be spending more time narrowing down what she sends you, or that she should be driving out to preview homes without you? Is she sending you things that don't make sense?
Are you going out to look at homes that one of you chooses? How is that going?
Truth is, there's a lot of sites out there now that give you access to "listings". If they are not connected live to your mls, they may be wrong or out of date, therefore, a waste of your time. What your realtor sends you should be the complete and most accurate listings.
I'm working with a realtor and she seems like a good one, however, I am doing all the searching for houses. She sends me a daily listing retrieved from HAR.com and I search myself on Zillow.com then send her the ones I want to preview.
Is this normal?
What kind of searching do you want her to do?
As an agent, I know that what clients tell me what they want, and what they actually end up buying, are sometimes two wildly differently things. :-) If she's sending you a targeted list of daily listings that are meeting your broad criteria -- i.e., price, bedrooms, school district, style of house, etc. -- then the next step is for YOU to decide what, if any, of these houses pique your interest enough to actually go and look inside.
If the homes you're finding on Zillow are different from the ones that she is sending you, then there is a break-down in communication over what it is that you are looking for. If I have someone on a search for a 3 BR home in Top School district, up to $500,000, and they keep sending me Zillow listings for a $600,000 2 BR condo in Second School district, then obviously I either need to expand my search field, or have a talk with my client as to why they have changed directions on me in mid-stream -- do they even realize that the Zillow listings are in a different school district?
Our MLS is very good about sending updates as soon as they come on the system -- but it only works if I have the criteria correct. If I have the criteria correct, it is waaay better than anything Zillow does -- I have some clients I have to tell, "Step away from Zillow!" because they waste their time looking at homes that are already under contract, but Zillow hasn't picked up on that, yet. They get all excited, and then crushed when they find out it's under contract -- and has been for two weeks (which is why it never came over on their listing feed, duh.)
If you have very specific requirements, it may be that she's not able to search on those criteria. For example, I can't search on "must be within walking distance of supermarket". I would have to eyeball each listing and see where it was in relation to shops. I can definitely do it -- but then I might miss The Perfect House that might be just a tad too far from the supermarket, but the client might fall in love with it. Who knows? I just know that priorities shift as people look for homes, winnowing out what's available to what they can live with. What was a "must have" becomes a "well, it would be nice, but it's not a deal breaker." And what was, "Oh, that's cool," becomes a "I can't live without a laundry room".
*Shrug* It's a dance -- but someone has to lead.
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