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We have been talking with our realtor on the phone prior to moving letting her know our wants/needs for a home. Now that we are here I contacted her and asked that she spend some days with my husband and some with me so we don't have to drag 2 kids(6 months, 2 years) around when we look at houses. The response I got back was "I tell my clients to drive around themselves to scope out the neighborhoods/houses and areas-you can do this while your kids take a nap in the car-then tell me what houses you want to look at." I am needless to say a little annoyed. I expect any realtor assisting with a relocation to familarize their clients with the area for at least a day or 2 to help narrow down the areas which they will want to settle in-then I can search the MLS. Am I being unrealistic? What is the exact point of a realtor if I am doing all the legwork? Just a little frustrated. We obviously are going to not use her so if you have someone fabulous DM me. Thanks!
If she wants your business, she'll show you around.
When we moved here, we had no idea where to look and our realtor was great about finding out the things that we wanted out of a house/neighborhood and then showing us around. Additionally (on our own) we went to many open houses since there was so much to see and we were anxious to narrow down our location.
On the other hand, I don't really want to drag my realtor through houses I can quickly determine are not in the neighborhood I'm comfortable with the feel of, or not aesthetically what I'd consider.
When we were buying our last home, we got the list of what "fit" our parameters and did a series of drive bys ourselves, narrowing it down to the ones we really wanted to see.
Did the same years later with property.
Perhaps a little bit more communication will go along way. Don't assume your realtor is an idiot or uninterested until you're sure you've 100% communicated how you want to be worked with.
I agree do drive-by's of the potential homes first. You will easily eliminate some of them. That is what our Realtor asked us to do as well. She did show use the area and helped a lot. I didn't have any kids to deal with however...
If you just moved here, I dont think you have unrealistic expectations asking her show you around for a day or 2.
We relocated in 2007. During our site visit, our realtor drove us around for 3 days, showing us countless homes/neighborhoods, knowing full well that we were just browsing (waiting until our house up north sold). She sent me listing info based on our criteria and we picked which houses we wanted to look at. She was kind and patient, 100 degree + weather and 2 toddlers in tow (my kids loved her).
When we moved 5 months later, we had it narrowed down to spesific areas. She continued to send us listing info but we also did some legwork ourselves and did the driving around thing your (ex) realtor suggested. We ended up viewing over 50 homes before we found the right one, hundreds were eliminated after a quick drive by I found the house we ended up buying bec I played around with our search criteria (max price) a bit and thought lets check it out anyway. Got a nice suprise at the showing, the sellers had just lowered the price with and it wasnt showing up in MLS yet. Without much effort we got them to come down another $8K, so we ended up getting a really nice house within budget.
ETA - You prob know this this but realtors are not allowed to steer you towards a certain area/neighborhood which makes narrowing down neighborhoods harder. I understand why but I found it a bit frustrating at the time.
Last edited by MammaLakn; 08-11-2009 at 12:29 PM..
Different Realtors work different ways with different clients.
I have clients that want me to drive them around 100% of the time and I have those that want to do the majoirty of driving around by themselves and then I have those clients that want a combination! For those clients who are do it yourselvers, I give maps and MLS listings, with directions and send them on their way. They then check in with me at the end of the day to tell me what they liked and didn't like so that I can make appointments to show them the listings they want to see.
Usually with relocating clients, I like to show them different areas FIRST and then a few different NEIGHBORHOODS and then a few HOMES. That gives them a good appreciation of what they can get in different areas.
I'd suggest you call your Realtor and explain how YOU want to work. If he isn't agreeable with that, move on to another Realtor that WILL work WITH you.
I like to drive around first myself - that's what I did back in 2005 when I was looking to relocate. I met with my realtor when I had narrowed down the houses I was most interested in, and we went from there. I can understand how some people would prefer to do it differently.
And MammaLakn - 50 houses? Wow.. I don't think I've ever gone inside more than 5-10 before making a decision, and at least once I bought the first house I looked at! I have pretty narrow criteria though so my list of possibles is always pretty short.
Yeah, I think this realtor in particular probably didn't handle it well, but I myself would certainly rather get an idea of an area on my own before having a realtor show me around. And by "get an idea", I'm talking broad-stroke things like figure out an area or two where I'd like, or not like, to live. That's probably why I'm a big fan of renting in a new town for a year or so before committing to anything. Then you have the time to really figure out what you want.
A realtor should be willing to work with you, especially in this economy, but I'm not sure I'd be confident in my ability to make any decisions based on just a few days of driving around a new area.
It sounds like the Realtor had the right idea, and was trying to help, but had the wrong approach.
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I found the house we ended up buying bec I played around with our search criteria (max price) a bit and thought lets check it out anyway. Got a nice suprise at the showing, the sellers had just lowered the price with and it wasnt showing up in MLS yet. Without much effort we got them to come down another $8K, so we ended up getting a really nice house within budget.
