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So my wife and I have decided to relocate to the Fort Worth area. We have seen several houses on realtor.com that we like, but have not made a move on any of them.
I was hoping to get some tips/advice/stories from those out there that have gone through the process. What things should we look for? Should we get a realtor in Fort Worth? How do you look for a good realtor out of state? Any other things I might be forgetting?
You might want to post this on the Texas -Fort Worth forum. People over there are very helpful. I live in Fort Worth currently and like the area. We are getting ready to move due to a job change. I would get a realtor in the FW area to help you out.
Absolutely get a realtor in fort worth and I second what cjones wrote. also do not get attached to what you see online. things will be VERY different when you view them in person. hubby and i just went through this. living in mass moving to va, spent months looking at homes online. worked with a local realtor in VA, realtor spent 3 days showing us all the properties we loved that we found online, hated every single one of them for one reason or another when we viewed in person. make sure you find a realtor who preferred form of communications matches your perfered communication (if you're an email kind of person find a realtor who is the same). Take LOTS of notes or pictures or whatever you need to help you remember. don't forget to check the sex offenders list.
start reading the local newspaper in fort worth. it will help you learn the area.
I'm in the process of buying a house while living out of state. I live in Mass but buying a house in Missouri. I used realtor.com to find properties and to also contact realtors in the area. Call them, email them - find one that is a "local" or has been in the area awhile. After a few calls or emails you should find a realtor you "click" with. Go with your gut. If you have a trusted realtor contact in your current town you might ask them to get a referral to where you are going.
The best way to go about get a Realtor in another state is just as wktully mentioned - a referral from a Realtor you know and trust in your current hometown. You can meet with him/her and give them a very specific "wish list" on what type of Realtor you would like to work with. Male/Female, young/old, native to the area that you're moving to, or maybe one who is has only been a Realtor for a couple of years and will be able to devote more one on one time to you and your wife, or the opposite, maybe you only want an agent who is a top producer. As I said, you can be specific. This will help ensure that you get someone who is compatible with you and that usually means a successful transaction all the way around. This will also mean that the Realtor in your hometown will get a referral fee for helping find you an agent in the place you are relocating to. He/She may also request to speak to the Realtor(s) in the other town prior to you being assigned one just to go over what type of home you are looking for. All of this is to help make your home buying process as easy as possible.
So my wife and I have decided to relocate to the Fort Worth area. We have seen several houses on realtor.com that we like, but have not made a move on any of them.
I was hoping to get some tips/advice/stories from those out there that have gone through the process. What things should we look for? Should we get a realtor in Fort Worth? How do you look for a good realtor out of state? Any other things I might be forgetting?
Thanks in advance!
We bought while living out of the state this past fall.
You have to see these homes IN PERSON, though & know the area.
First & foremost, I would never recommend buying if you are brand new to the area. Get a feel for the city first. Rent. No need to rush into buying with the state of the US economy & housing market.
Know your budget inside out & upside down prior to contacting a realtor or mortgage broker. Look on all the major RE websites plus ones like realtor.com & trulia. Remember all you are seeing are pics & what you see in person will be completely different.
A realtor can get you such info as crime & school stats.
Definitely go with your gut when talking to realtors.
We are doing this now, moving from NY to NC and we are closing on our house in 2 weeks. You need to plan trips in the process unless you like to be a gambler.
Our plan is based on the assumption that our kids will attend a private Christian school, but I'll still tell you the steps we went through and maybe you can alter it for your situation if its different.
We initiated this process in November, with plans to move in June at the end of the school year, and be setup for next school year. Its now February and our kids are enrolled in school for next year and we have a contract on a house.
1. School Research - I first did research online to find out which Christian schools in the metro area where we were moving had a high school and fit our criteria. In our destination, this was a list of 10 schools. I called each of them and filled out a spreadsheet with information that was important to us. From this, we narrowed it down to four schools to visit, and scheduled a trip and appointments. The school we liked best over the phone, I asked to recommend a realtor.
2. Initial Home Search - Based on the addresses of the four schools, I began to search online for homes that were within our desired driving radius of these schools. As it turned out, there was one area that fell within the radius of three of the schools, and this made those schools and that area more desirable. I used Realtor.com and a local realty site with the largest firm in the area to do my searchs. I used Google maps satellite, street view, and driving directions) and Microsoft Live maps (birds eye view and satellite) to explore the houses and the area around them. We came up with a list of about 10 houses to visit and scheduled these visits to coincide with the initial school visit. We actually did put an offer in on one of these houses that was a bit below asking price, but it wasn't accepted.
3. First Visit - During our first visit, we were able to identify our top school choice, and a second choice. We also had the realtor show us around the area a lot and narrowed our search to some areas that we'd continue to work with in the future. The realtor was invaluable in showing us the good and bad of different areas (there is always good and bad in any area), and the closeness of shopping, traffic patterns, etc.
4. Second Visit - About a month later, my wife went with one of our kids to do a second home search visit. We had a new list of 10 homes to look at and she brought a video camera to capture the homes so we could sit back down at our house and study them more.
5. Third Visit / School Testing and Interviews - The first day that our favorite school opened enrollment, we scheduled a visit to do interviews and testing. Based on this school selection, we revisited 4 of the 10 prior visited homes and spent a good amount of time in each one with the whole family. During that visit we made an offer on a home and negotiated a contract that was 8% below asking price. We were willing to buy earlier than our planned June move, if the price was right, because we still have to sell our house. The price differential should offset carrying costs and a possible reduction in our asking price.
6. Fourth Visit - Home Inspection - I came back a week ago for home inspections and to talk to some contractors about different things we have in mind for the new house. We are now down to a few weeks before closing and everything seems to be on track.
Rely on the web tools that are available for doing initial research, and in particular use the satellite and birds eye views to explore the area well. But, you still need to go there to understand. We had our realtor go back to a few houses we saw and take additional pictures for us. But you can't know for sure until you are in a house. One of them wreaked of cigarette smoke, but was gorgeous in the pictures. One of them had heavy road noise that wasn't predictable from the house placement in the pictures. One of them looked beautiful, but when we got in it we didn't like the layout and how our furniture would be arranged - impossible to know from the pictures. With the affordability of airline tickets now, plan some visits. I think we ended up spending about $4000 on the visits, but it was also like a series of mini vacations for us and helped our kids get comfortable with the move. They've met the kids in their classes for next year, and know what their house and rooms will be like.
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