I showed them 20+ homes (commercial, kitchen, bedrooms, cost)

[tresjolie3]

Twenty houses is not that many for a sales agent to show. It's their job. If the husband and wife serious buyers, the agent needs to educate them about the market and "position" their bid so it will be taken seriously, yet leave room for negotiating a fair market price.

Our agent showed us a total of 35 homes. She did not complaint or even hint that we were seeing too many homes - we found the right one and have gone to contract on it - hope to close soon.

It's difficult times and everyone has to work harder - in every profession -
So quit your whining, get out there and sell!

[TexasHorseLady]

Why did you need to see 35 homes to find the right one, just out of curiousity?

[Rakin]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Why did you need to see 35 homes to find the right one, just out of curiosity?

In a large metro area like DFW looking at 30-50 homes is not unusual for someone new to the area. Withing 30 minutes of work a person may have 6-8 cities, school districts and differing pricing on homes. A lot of it is learning what you can get for your money in a particular area.

I just had a couple from LA purchase a home and coming from CA was a real education on what a home should cost in a reasonable market. We did look at about 40 homes in 8 cities,3 counties and all were within a 25 minute commute to his work.

[TexasHorseLady]

My record, as I think I've said, is 37 homes in 5 counties in 3-1/2 days. That was, however, a very exceptional situation where the time frame was extremely short (one of the couple was about to be deployed back to Iraq and we wanted to get his wife settled before he left, for his piece of mind) - usually once I've got the requirements down (this assumes they're on the same page, of course), it usually only takes 10 or 15 over two or three trips. I don't normally recommend more than 6 a trip because beyond that, I've discovered that whatever notes you take, no matter what you do, they do tend to run together in the brain of the average buyer.

My question was actually wondering why the poster needed to see 35 homes, what particular situation necessitated that. More for my "Make a note if this type of situation comes up" file than anything else. I like to learn from the experience of others - helps deal with the little problem of only 24 hours in a day.

[f_m]

Just FYI, I know at least 2 people that looked at around 60+ houses before buying. Although in this case, it seems the husband just wants to buy whatever is a "good deal." I do know someone that got almost 10% off the asking price in a mid-200k home because the sellers were in escrow for the house they were moving to and had to sell.

[f_m]

Originally Posted by Rakin

In a large metro area like DFW looking at 30-50 homes is not unusual for someone new to the area. Withing 30 minutes of work a person may have 6-8 cities, school districts and differing pricing on homes. A lot of it is learning what you can get for your money in a particular area.

I just had a couple from LA purchase a home and coming from CA was a real education on what a home should cost in a reasonable market. We did look at about 40 homes in 8 cities,3 counties and all were within a 25 minute commute to his work.

The interesting thing about this situation, I would suspect, is that they could probably afford a large number of the homes on the market but needed to find the exact one they wanted. So that would take a bit of time.

[Jamesww]

Find them a a home in a newer subdivision that is bank owned or a pre forclosure. Then you have chance to meet both of their wants. As it sounds to me that the wife wants a place she can be proud of and turn into a home and the husband wants to feel like he got a great deal so that he can brag to his buddies.

[grannynancy]

Wow, with computers and MLS info online, I can't even imagine looking at that many homes

I have never looked at more than five [but REALLY prescreened the ones I wanted to look at, to the point of looking up the lot on the tax maps, etc.]

[dangdesigns]

How about showing virtual tours? the cost of gas for 35 houses can't be good.

[jimj]

We've looked at upwards of 50 homes before we bought on a couple of occasions but were new to the area, there was lot's of inventory in our price range and we were looking for the "just right" house.