Realtor Question for Tampa Area (rental car, for sale, rental)

[sraccine]

We are planning on moving to the Tampa area when we sell our house here in Vermont (probably not for 6 months or so minimally), and are going down to visit mid March. We'd really like to check out some houses while we're down there, but aren't sure of the etiquette of taking up a realtor's time since we can't make an offer on anything until our house sells. Any suggestions, since we can't seem to find many open houses.

[chi_tino]

You may just want to check out neighborhoods if you are looking that far in advance, so that when you are ready to make a decision you can move more precisely and quickly. There is a huge amount of inventory in each neighborhood, so I would not worry about that.

Although the average property in the Tampa Bay area is one the market for well over a year, I'm not sure why you would want to lok at houses that you wouldn't be able to do anything with for that long. It's not like prices are going up, either. Don't believe the hype from "professionals" who have been wrong the last five years. 2012 will most likely be the sixth year in a row that prices fall in the region.

I'd put some serious miles on the rental car and nail down your favorite area to live.

[sraccine]

Yeah, we're planning on driving around different neighborhoods to try and narrow down where we want to move. We wanted to check out a few houses just because we wanted to see if the houses are as nice as they look on Realtor.com for the prices. I realize that this may be a big tease for us since it's so far in advance.

My husband is worried that we won't get the right 'feel' of a neighborhood just by driving through it. I'm hoping he's wrong.

Thanks for the advice.

[BucFan]

GLHOMES - 3 Day/ 2 Night Stay at Valencia Lakes!

Valencia Lakes has a stay 2 nights, listen to their sales pitch - stay. You can check out their homes for sale and the other ones in the areas as well.

[chi_tino]

note: Valencia Lakes is a senior (55+) community.

If there's a for sale sign in the yard and a lockbox on the door, I'd peek in the windows. That's what I did when I was in my first phase of house hunting and didn't want to hassle the seller's agent.

Heck, even when the house I live in now was "under contract" (I moved in before the deal closed), I'd see people wandering through my yard.

[BucFan]

VL allows under 55

[BBI]

Originally Posted by sraccine

We are planning on moving to the Tampa area when we sell our house here in Vermont (probably not for 6 months or so minimally), and are going down to visit mid March. We'd really like to check out some houses while we're down there, but aren't sure of the etiquette of taking up a realtor's time since we can't make an offer on anything until our house sells. Any suggestions, since we can't seem to find many open houses.

No etiquette issue, it's completely normal. Just explain your timeline and where you are in the search process when you initially call. Some realtors may refuse to help you since you're a ways off, but most will jump on the idea of helping you now with the hope that you'll come back when you're ready to buy. Lots of hungry realtors out there these days.

Also, while I agree with the other poster that you should focus on neighborhoods at this stage, not particular houses, I strongly agree that seeing houses is a great way to get to know a neighborhood better (and how far your dollar really goes in it). If you can narrow it down to a few neighborhoods online before you visit (and this site is a good resource, along with zilow), realtors will be more willing to help you since you'll use less of their time (there's so much inventory in each neighborhood that you can see several houses in a neighborhood very quickly).

[bentlebee]

Any good realtor will not deny you service only realtors who are interested in a short future, and unfortunately it seems many realtors work like that.

We hear a lot that people are refused to get service or never receive any return calls because the pre approval amount is too low, or the time frame too long out...To me that is bad service. JMO.