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We're considering moving to Charlotte and would like to start looking at homes online. What is the best MLS to look at without using a realtor?
Are there any other sites to look at (besides city-data of course) for senior citizens not interested in good schools, more interested in low crime, good access to grocery stores and hospitals not 30 minutes away.
Thanks for your suggestions. We have relatives there but want to pre-research so when they make a recommendation we know a little in advance. One lives in Belmont but we are not HOA lovers. The other lives south of downtown but had to do major renovation, not what we want to do unless no other choice.
I don't think non-realtors (or more specifically non MLS members) can access an MLS. For general purpose real estate sites, I prefer Realtor.com
City-data doesn't like discussions of competitor sites, so your best bet is to simply ask on here about locations that meet your criteria.
Whats your budget for a house? Is proximity to the center city ("Uptown" in Charlotte) a priority? Pretty much everywhere has access to grocery stores and a a hospital within 30 minutes.
Thanks for your help. In my area of Florida there is a public accessible MLS and that is how I've bought 3 properties over 10 years (only 1 owner occupied one). I really dislike going through a realtor until ready to look seriously.
In the past Realtor.com seemed less up to date than the FL MLS but I'll give it another go.
Non-HOA home is so far our main "must-have" and low crime. Uptown not a priority.
Need 2 car garage or room to build that. Budget $350 max
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Originally Posted by twinkletwinkle22
We're considering moving to Charlotte and would like to start looking at homes online. What is the best MLS to look at without using a realtor?
Are there any other sites to look at (besides city-data of course) for senior citizens not interested in good schools, more interested in low crime, good access to grocery stores and hospitals not 30 minutes away.
Thanks for your suggestions. We have relatives there but want to pre-research so when they make a recommendation we know a little in advance. One lives in Belmont but we are not HOA lovers. The other lives south of downtown but had to do major renovation, not what we want to do unless no other choice.
It all depends on your interests.
For instance, Kings Mountain is close in size to Belmont. It's west of Gastonia. It has a small hospital, which is in the Atrium system. There's a senior center which is for 55+. There's a large Ingles supermarket (85k sq ft), a Walmart Neighborhood Market, & 2 Food Lions. It's situated between Gastonia & Shelby which both have Aldi & Lidl.
There is limited shopping besides grocery stores & drugstores. It's convenient to Gastonia and Shelby for other shopping & reasonable to drive to Hickory & Gaffney for expanded shopping, or just a change of pace.
We moved from eastern PA to Charlotte this past July.
I used a “buyers agent” to find our new house.
They helped us work with several banks to get pre-qualified for the loan.
Then we gave them our list of wants and requirements for the house & lot.
After that they setup a private website with all of our potential houses on it.
Whenever a new house came on the market, if it met our requirements we got an email alert that the site was updated.
This was automated and happened several times a day.
I believe it is against this sites rules to list the company we used, but if you PM me, I will send the info.
Ironically the house we ended up buying was NOT found by the buyers agent.
I happened to drive by it and saw a FOR SALE sign when I was out looking at ones they suggested.
It didn’t show up because it was well above our original price range.
But a combination of them lowering the price and us raising our budget a bit allowed us to get it.
Our MLS feeds directly to MLS. The realtors that you see listed on the MLS are not necessarily the actual agents that have the home listed though, so if you do call about it, you may inadvertently end up another Realtor involved. Just FYI, in North Carolina, it is typical that the seller pays for the commission. Additionally, you may want to know that NC is a Caveat emptor state. We have some pretty unique real estate rules in NC. Even if you are not interested in working with an agent in the area, you may want to give a call to a few and find out some things about NC real estate rules or head to the real estate commission website. Best of luck!
Now I am sooo curious about NC "caveat emptor" because it has seemed that way in 2 states we've bought in. Agents have never given us any negative or actual useful information about a property. Every property seems just fine to them, they don't want to lose a sale by pointing out issues. Crime? Don't know. Rezoning scheduled? Don't know. Less knowledge, more commissions.
Now I am sooo curious about NC "caveat emptor" because it has seemed that way in 2 states we've bought in. Agents have never given us any negative or actual useful information about a property. Every property seems just fine to them, they don't want to lose a sale by pointing out issues. Crime? Don't know. Rezoning scheduled? Don't know. Less knowledge, more commissions.
There are plenty of sources of information other than realtors.
Now I am sooo curious about NC "caveat emptor" because it has seemed that way in 2 states we've bought in. Agents have never given us any negative or actual useful information about a property. Every property seems just fine to them, they don't want to lose a sale by pointing out issues. Crime? Don't know. Rezoning scheduled? Don't know. Less knowledge, more commissions.
While there are some subjects that Realtors are more sensitive about handing out information; hopefully your agent would be able to point you in the right direction so that all of your questions are answered on schools, crime, demographics. Most of this information can be found online or through knowledgeable resources. Every home that you look at should have residential property disclosures and oil and mineral rights disclosures; even if being sold by owner. They are required to answer this information truthfully, however (big however) there is a column that can be marked as "no representation". Sometimes people honestly don't know how to answer. Finally, if an agent knows about any part of a home that should be disclosed they are responsible for disclosing that information regardless of who they represent. (buyer or seller) All of that being said, In NC we do have a due diligence time period. This is a negotiable time period for the buyer to do inspections on the property. During this time period in NC, a buyer may back out of the contract for any reason or no reason at all, and they are still able to get a full refund of Earnest Money. The NC contract for residential real estate is pretty extensive and if choosing to go the process alone, definitely visit the NC real estate commission website and review. I hope and do think that a good agent will point out all of the above information as most agents rely heavily on referrals for their business.
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