Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Initially I thought this sounded good, but after a few weeks of this, I'm starting to really feel like I'm doing a lot of work. I don't know if I'm the one picking the houses just because he's letting me have the driver seat, or if I didn't "favorite" anything, he'd just pick stuff out for us to see.
I got annoyed a couple of weeks ago, because he said he really only had an hour or two for us on a Sunday to "show us around." This past week I had "favorited" 12 houses and of the 12, by the time the weekend rolled around, he could only set up appointments for two of them. Some had accepted offers, or something else to the same effect.
Hey we are going through the same exact thing, we might even have the same agent
We are getting very tired of constantly searching for and adding houses to our favorites list - we also only end up seeing a few of them.
Everyone we mention this process to seems to think this is crazy, and that buyer's agents are supposed to find and send you listings to pick from after they hear your wants and needs.
We're thinking of not adding any houses to our favorites list anymore and seeing what happens
To be clear, I don't get the impression that our Buyer's Agent is lazy... just busy. I do know he does this full-time and also represents some sellers, as well as other buyers. I believe he has a family commitment on weeknights, which in conjunction with our work schedules, prevent us from being able to see any homes during the week at dusk (without me having to leave work early).
However, on the weekends is our peak time to go looking. When I said I "favorited" 12 properties, it's not that I expected to see 12 - I just knew based on previous weeks' experiences that not all of them would be available. I also expect him to help me prioritize them and try to schedule appointments with the ones that he thinks would be a better match for us.
I think if things don't work out with this house we currently have an offer on, we'll just see if we can start working with someone else who maybe exclusively works with Buyers. I will also seek out the First Time Home Buyer's Guide for more information. Thank you.
People go without buyer agents all the time and then they end up having to schedule multiple appointments on a weekend and try to get them back-to-back so no time is wasted. That's if you can even get the seller agents on the phone. A good, organized, buyer agent with attention to detail does this for you and all you really have to do is choose favorites on top of some the agent may have picked out for you already. I think 3-4 a day is just about all you can handle objectively before you start to lose focus. This means you need to look at some on weeknights. Your buyer agent needs to make time for all of their clients and being busy is only an excuse that you as a "paying" customer should not have to worry about - your needs are more important. Some agents may lose sight of that doing their job everyday without a possible sale and so you need to find the right one who stays hungry for you. Fortunately there are a lot of buyer agents out there. The not-so-busy ones may be hungrier than others.
You need to interview a handful of them the next go-round. You should be able to tell who will try hardest for you vs. who's just trying to get you signed-on.
Our buyer's agent gave us a listing book account which I used, but I did find the house we ended up buying on MLS. I'd strongly suggest being proactive on your search -- some agents are more aggressive than others, but in my experience, she didn't "find" the houses for us, she just got us into them once we found them ourselves. I can see how this might not work for some people, but i knew what I wanted and didn't want to waste time looking at things that didn't interest us; plus I'm addicted to MLS
If you are "favoriting" 12 houses, I wonder if you have a clear idea of what you're looking for?
However, I digress -- if you don't like this agent, try someone else!
To be clear, I don't get the impression that our Buyer's Agent is lazy... just busy. I do know he does this full-time and also represents some sellers, as well as other buyers. I believe he has a family commitment on weeknights, which in conjunction with our work schedules, prevent us from being able to see any homes during the week at dusk (without me having to leave work early).
However, on the weekends is our peak time to go looking. When I said I "favorited" 12 properties, it's not that I expected to see 12 - I just knew based on previous weeks' experiences that not all of them would be available. I also expect him to help me prioritize them and try to schedule appointments with the ones that he thinks would be a better match for us.
I think if things don't work out with this house we currently have an offer on, we'll just see if we can start working with someone else who maybe exclusively works with Buyers. I will also seek out the First Time Home Buyer's Guide for more information. Thank you.
Our situation was comparable to yours. We were hooked up with an agent through a program at the bank we used for our mortgage. She took us out to look at a couple of houses over a few days and after she got a feel for us, how she operated and how we got along, she asked if we'd be interested in signing her as our buyer agent. Of course, we had the option of saying no and moving along to a different agent or continuing with her as a regular agent (not representing us). We agreed to have her as our buyer agent and, in the end, it was a great decision that helped us immensely.
The situation was similar because she also put us on Listingbook and had us notate houses that we had an interest in. She would then either set up appointments for us to visit, or she would get back to us with information as to why a particular house might not be good, potential issues, already an offer, etc. We never felt like she was shortchanging us on availability.
After seeing about a dozen houses with her, I asked her if she knew of any homes that we may have missed or are not yet listed on the website (but might be soon), and she said that with all the tools available to prospective buyers now online, there really aren't too many cases where an agent knows much more than the buyers. She could have been full of it, I suppose, but I didn't find that too surprising. Once you're on Listingbook you have access to a ton of info at your disposal, and it didn't shock me that in some instances we seemed to be more aware than her of what was available within our interests.
In the end, we noted a house on Listingbook, she set up a visit and we bought it...eventually. When a contract dispute arose and nearly torpedoed the deal, we were grateful that we had her on our side.
You're making the biggest investment of your life thus far and you want others to do the work? I would suggest you go to the MLS site and the Daniel Gale site (only because they do the internet thing pretty well) and set up e-mail alerts on newly listed homes in the area(s) you want. You can do all kinds of filters, from property taxes to number of bedrooms.
I'm guessing you have had the agent set you up with ListingBook, which I have found to be one of the more cumbersome ways to find real estate on Long Island. The two sites above are much easier to deal with.
You can contact multiple agents and ask that they keep you informed on homes that might interest you, but I would not necessarily sign an exclusive agreement. After all, your time is limited. If you spy an open house and want to make a quick stop, the last thing you need is to have to track down the broker and make formal arrangements because you signed an agreement stating that the agent is due a commission. You want the flexibility to look at homes when and where you can. Plus, if you go directly to the listing agent on a particular home, s/he gets all the commission and this could make a difference in how hard that agent works to get your deal done.
And after you find a house, there's even more legwork. You need to apply for the mortgage, check the taxes with the assessor, make sure there are no permit violations or easements, etc., etc. You will need to verify all of these things yourself and not trust a single thing to an agent. (In the condo complex where I am moving, I went so far as to go to the tax rolls, get the names of my future neighbors and Google them to see their backgrounds.)
The bottom line is that, from now until you're fully settled in a new home, you will spend many of your spare hours in the hunt for the right piece of real estate. That's just the way it is. Don't think you can outsource it to someone else unless you're very rich and can hire a person on staff to do it for you.
I am in contract on a house and we had been looking for over 6 months. Frankly, you should WANT to do the legwork to find the house you like the most. I spent a lot of time on Listingbook (BTW, Listingbook is HORRIBLE now...just absolutely HORRIBLE. They did an update a few months back and the site is basically unuseable now) , clicking and clicking through many houses, trying to find ones that I was actually interested in. Why would you entrust what will be the biggest purchase of your life to an non-interested party. Find the house YOU want and do as much work as necessary to do it. Honestly if you are both working full time, the onus is on you to try and streamline the process. The only people who have the luxury of allowing realtors to show them around during the week are those who don't need to go to work.
I will say it is absurd that your agent can't show you properties during the week. If there were house I REALLY liked I would get my agent on the phone and we'd get in there right away.
Our buyer's agent gave us a listing book account which I used, but I did find the house we ended up buying on MLS. I'd strongly suggest being proactive on your search -- some agents are more aggressive than others, but in my experience, she didn't "find" the houses for us, she just got us into them once we found them ourselves. I can see how this might not work for some people, but i knew what I wanted and didn't want to waste time looking at things that didn't interest us; plus I'm addicted to MLS
If you are "favoriting" 12 houses, I wonder if you have a clear idea of what you're looking for?
However, I digress -- if you don't like this agent, try someone else!
I've also been using both MLSLI and Listingbook. I like the interface at MLSLI better and I get more alerts, etc. I typically find them on MLSLI and then look them up on Listingbook to add to my favorites.
I've been extremely proactive, but when it comes to scheduling appointments to see the houses we're interested in, that's where I can't really do much more.
We're getting better at knowing what we want. I think we're still learning what is available to us in our Price Range. But in the five weeks we've been working with our Agent, we've seen maybe 13 houses? I don't think that's enough to really know what we can get in our price range.
I am in contract on a house and we had been looking for over 6 months. Frankly, you should WANT to do the legwork to find the house you like the most. I spent a lot of time on Listingbook (BTW, Listingbook is HORRIBLE now...just absolutely HORRIBLE. They did an update a few months back and the site is basically unuseable now) , clicking and clicking through many houses, trying to find ones that I was actually interested in. Why would you entrust what will be the biggest purchase of your life to an non-interested party. Find the house YOU want and do as much work as necessary to do it. Honestly if you are both working full time, the onus is on you to try and streamline the process. The only people who have the luxury of allowing realtors to show them around during the week are those who don't need to go to work.
I will say it is absurd that your agent can't show you properties during the week. If there were house I REALLY liked I would get my agent on the phone and we'd get in there right away.
I must have given off the wrong impression. I'm spending HOURS each day searching MLSLI and Listingbook and I don't mind it - I'm learning a lot, etc. But what I do mind is, what is the point in me leaving a "comment" on a "favorited house," saying, "Hey, this one was listed yesterday. We'd like to get in to see it some time before the weekend... it looks like just what we're looking for." Then, I get a phone call from him on Thursday or Friday (since he doesn't check our Favorites until Wednesday) and tells me, "This one's gone, this one's gone, this one's gone, etc." What is the point of all my time-sensitive work if it's all just going down the drain.
It's apparent to me that we probably are not paired up with the best agent for us, so I will be exploring options to work with someone else.
Don't go through the agent; set up appointments directly with the listing agents. Cut out (at least one) of the middle men in the process.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
