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Old 01-31-2013, 08:46 AM
 
Location: DFW
40,951 posts, read 49,189,517 times
Reputation: 55008

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowyy View Post
Actually this works other way around. My sister's realtor brought her offers only from ones who had no agents because he was getting to keep extra 3%. Makes sense? It's a win win situation for realtor, buyer and seller if they renegotiate terms and every body gets 1% worth saving.
It's not a win-win for the seller if those other offers would have been higher and better. Your sister should not agreed with the agent about only offers from unrepresented buyers. The Buyers she missed might have paid her more than the savings.

The best buyers usually are working with Buyer agents.

 
Old 01-31-2013, 09:05 AM
 
440 posts, read 867,303 times
Reputation: 544
I don't normally plug for realtors but I will in this case-we looked for over a year for a house-we didn't know the area or the market-alot work was done while we were in another state-we told our realtor what we wanted and she guided us-we put a bid in on a house and and lost it because the seller tried to gouge more money from us that was way over the value of the house-our realtor put a stop to this and she she saved us alot of money and frustration-she spent alot of time driving around homes for me -taking pics and sending details to me and eventually she found our new house for us -exactly what we wanted. She negotiated all the details for us and we have a fab home now. I might add that where we ended up was where she suggested might work from us in the beginning-but I had my eye on somewhere else and she went with it and showed me everything -and she proved to be right! When we were having issues with our builder she was there everytime fixing things....without our realtor we would have paid too much and ended up who knows where!
 
Old 01-31-2013, 09:41 AM
 
115 posts, read 194,016 times
Reputation: 73
Gracias! I am ok with spending few hundred bucks on a competent inspector and a structural engineer if required to make sure that its not a money pit. I have no intention to put the burden on a realtor to perform skilled work that he wasn't trained for. I have access to a computer, a car, a smart phone, a GPS, a camera, home listings, county CAD, school finder, a good real estate attorney, an experienced inspector and last but not the least to helpful local posters like you at City-Data. I am quite confident that I'll not do worse than an average realtor.
 
Old 01-31-2013, 10:15 AM
 
119 posts, read 247,829 times
Reputation: 121
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowyy View Post
Tracenat, Where did you buy?
Hi! Sorry, I just saw this. We made offers in Murphy, Allen, Plano and finally got our house in Dallas. We couldn't be happier where we are, to be honest.

Best of luck. If you need a Realtor rec, DM me.
 
Old 01-31-2013, 10:33 AM
 
Location: North Texas
24,561 posts, read 40,285,459 times
Reputation: 28564
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowyy View Post
Gracias! I am ok with spending few hundred bucks on a competent inspector and a structural engineer if required to make sure that its not a money pit. I have no intention to put the burden on a realtor to perform skilled work that he wasn't trained for. I have access to a computer, a car, a smart phone, a GPS, a camera, home listings, county CAD, school finder, a good real estate attorney, an experienced inspector and last but not the least to helpful local posters like you at City-Data. I am quite confident that I'll not do worse than an average realtor.
Best of luck to you. You'll need it. DFW is a tough market for the uninitiated.
 
Old 01-31-2013, 10:50 AM
 
119 posts, read 247,829 times
Reputation: 121
Snowyy, I just had a chance to read through all of the responses. I wouldn't have offered a realtor if I knew you weren't looking for one, I apologize. But I will give you, unsolicited, our experience with buying less than a year ago and I hope it's useful in some way to you.
When we started off, we had lived here for about 2 years, so I had some knowledge of the McKinney/Allen/Plano area. Or, I thought I had experience. I worked part-time at two campuses (then full-time for one) for a local college and at some of the high schools teaching college courses for the college. So, I drove around a lot. Looked at neighborhoods. Found one we really liked. We went with a realtor rec. and they were not helpful at all. Tried to get us to buy even further north than we were comfortable with and built when we didn't want to. So, we dropped them and I went with a different one. We figured why use someone telling us that Dallas was "dangerous" and trying to convince us to buy in Lovejoy ISD because they lived, no joke, a couple of neighborhoods over. The next realtor was extremely helpful. Gave us tips and drove all over the place, getting us in homes that weren't on the market long, etc. He had great connections with inspectors/engineers/etc. I learned more about the areas, and eventually settled in an area that we never would have found for ourselves. We couldn't be happier. Knowing how much trouble he had with some other realtors getting us into homes, or guiding us to help us not lose on homes, and walking away from one that had just too many issues, and sticking it out with us for months as we grew more and more frustrated, I cannot imagine having tried it myself. Yes, it's expensive, but at least for us, that expense meant we got a house that had cars lined all the way down the road on the day of the open house and in an extremely competitive area. Home buying is so frustrating in this area because it is very competitive, especially in areas that are desirable. I wish you luck, and I hope that you don't have as much of a frustrating time as we did. We looked from Feb-July before we got our home.
 
Old 01-31-2013, 10:58 AM
 
115 posts, read 194,016 times
Reputation: 73
Thank you so much for taking time to share your experience. If during my search I met a realtor that I liked and felt he or she is worth the commission then I may reconsider my strategy.
 
Old 01-31-2013, 11:39 AM
 
53 posts, read 144,566 times
Reputation: 56
Realtors also network with other realtors to get clients viewing on pre market homes are well before they're listed. Can't find everything on Zillow.
 
Old 01-31-2013, 12:13 PM
 
212 posts, read 410,010 times
Reputation: 243
FWIW, I worked with a realtor from April to June last year. I viewed 50+ houses. The one I bought was one my realtor got me in to see before it was listed in MLS (and realtor.com). I made the offer the next morning, and even so there was at least one other offer.
 
Old 01-31-2013, 12:47 PM
 
Location: North Texas
24,561 posts, read 40,285,459 times
Reputation: 28564
When I bought a house I found the actual house myself. I hired my realtor to guide me through the actual buying/escrow process, not in finding a house. The area I was house-hunting in (Richardson) was not her area of expertise (Allen), but she was a superb buyer's agent who negotiated a good deal for me and who made the actual purchasing process as painless as possible.
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