Sarasota agent recommendations (<200k homes) (Bradenton, North Port: houses, neighborhood, buying)

[MsOrange]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are looking to buy a SFH in Sarasota. I check the MLS through myfloridahomesmls.com every day and follow the market closely. We have a great agent in North Port that we work(ed) with to put offers in for (cash) properties of ~100k but we didn't get anything under contract. List prices in NP have increased a lot in the last year for those cheaper homes and while we were interested in buying something for 100k in North Port, now that those houses are closer to 130k, we're leaning more towards finding something in Sarasota instead. We're okay with going up to ~200k for a property and would rather go for a fixer-upper in a decent neighborhood than a move in ready one in a bad neighborhood.

We asked our realtor for recommendations but he said that the ones he would recommend would probably not be interested in taking on clients that are looking for homes in our price range.

Can anyone recommend a realtor who will work with us?

[mr&mrssunshine]

check some recent threads there are some very helpful realtors on here...more than one so unfair to name

[MsOrange]

Thanks, I always love the contributions of most of the realtors here. Not sure if any of them is interested in our price class though. But if they could recommend colleagues that would be great too of course!

[Sunshine Rules]

Some agents stick to particular price ranges, many cover a fairly wide range of price points.

The problem right now is the inventory of homes priced under $200k is low. If a home comes on the market that's priced well for it's condition and location, it generally gets snapped up within a couple of days. A lot of the other listings are sitting out there for a variety of reasons, one of the main ones I've noted is that sellers seem to be "over reaching" when they price their home for the market of late. For instance, a neighboring comparable home recently sold for $175k, this new listing is at $205k.

I'm curious though about your original post. You said you put in offers but didn't get any of the homes you bid on. Why do you think your offers weren't accepted?

[Sunshine Rules]

Here's a recent article from the Sarasota Herald that explains what's happening in our local market with homes in the median and lower price range:

Market frenzied for homes in median price range | HeraldTribune.com

[MsOrange]

Thanks for your response! I've been tracking inventory for about a year now and know it's not looking good for the <200k houses.

Originally Posted by Sunshine Rules

I'm curious though about your original post. You said you put in offers but didn't get any of the homes you bid on. Why do you think your offers weren't accepted?

We put offers in for 5 or 6 houses, all REO's, all within 1 or 2 days of hitting the market. Problem is that we weren't the only ones doing that and had a multiple offer situation on all of them. We went above list on all of the properties, some well above list but we lost out on all of them.

[Sarasota Sandy]

The REO market is tough right now. My last listing, I had 43 offers on the last home and it sold 20K over list price. Because of the REO hype, they sometimes are not the best deals in town. I know that you said that you were looking in Sarasota area. How far north would you be willing to go?

[MsOrange]

Thanks Sandy. I guess it's been exactly a month since my last post here and since that time we've found a great realtor and have a house under contract.

[modjewels]

I've been scoping out the 150k-220k market myself in both Sarasota and Bradenton for a few months now. Unfortunately I wasn't ready to pull the trigger earlier and as you have seen prices keep rising with the demand. I have an excellent realtor who is a friend of a relative that is willing to help me when I'm ready - but I worry she is only trying to be nice and may not really want to deal with such small potatoes. If you'd like to private message me your realtor's name, MsOrange, I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

[Shabotnik]

My 83-year-old father-in-law is interested in selling his Sarasota home; 2 bed, 2 bath near Beneva and Bee Ridge. It's in the 200k range and not too overpriced. PM me if you're interested.