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No real "limit" for serious buyers that have gone through a legitimate lender and have a realistic view of what they can afford in the marketplace but every time any agent spends time with one "client" that seems too wishy washy or difficult to talk sense to that diminishes the agent's resolve to get a fair deal for the client...
Hi,
Just wondering if some of the agents here have a limit on how many times you take your clients on home shopping tours?
Thanks!
I guess it depends on how you define home shopping tours. We are either actively house hunting or not. If the buyer is preapproved and ready to write an offer when we find something then we go and look at homes until we find the right one.
I don't spend a lot of time with non-serious buyers though and I've never heard anyone call it a home shopping tour so I'm not sure we are talking about the same thing.
I guess it depends on how you define home shopping tours. We are either actively house hunting or not. If the buyer is preapproved and ready to write an offer when we find something then we go and look at homes until we find the right one.
I don't spend a lot of time with non-serious buyers though and I've never heard anyone call it a home shopping tour so I'm not sure we are talking about the same thing.
Well, I don't know the lingo, but I've heard it referred to as a tour of some sort.
We're pre qualified with the agent's lender. We've gone out on a couple of "tours" of multiple listings to get an idea of what's out there, but we're giving it a breather until closer to the end of the lease on our apartment in a couple of months.
So once you know you're truly shopping with someone who's serious, how many times, (on average) have you gone out with a client before you find a reasonable place? How long does it usually take?
Just curious...
Thanks!
My "average" buyer buys a house the first day out looking within 6.4 houses they see. Yes, I keep stats. Many buyers lately are buying the 1st or 2nd house they see. The internet can narrow things down that well these days.
What's more amazing is that the vast majority of my business is relocation buyers, and for someone who doesn't really know the area before coming into town, or just researching school districts and such, the average is still only 6.4 houses. It was 6.1 earlier this year, but I just had a buyer look at 15 houses because his wife wasn't with him, and he needed to see extra to satisfy her curiosity of questions about the area, and another one that looked at 12 houses.
If you're a serious buyer and know what your area offers and what your price point can get you, you don't need but a couple of house "tours". It's people who have high dreams for their lower price who have to look at houses for months trying to find the one house that might fit their high expectations.
Well, I don't know the lingo, but I've heard it referred to as a tour of some sort.
We're pre qualified with the agent's lender. We've gone out on a couple of "tours" of multiple listings to get an idea of what's out there, but we're giving it a breather until closer to the end of the lease on our apartment in a couple of months.
So once you know you're truly shopping with someone who's serious, how many times, (on average) have you gone out with a client before you find a reasonable place? How long does it usually take?
Just curious...
Thanks!
As you've said - you're not ready to buy.
You'll be ready when you can sign an offer that will close in conjunction with the expiration of your lease.
Until then, it sounds like your Realtor has taken you to see some homes, and that has helped you define what you do and don't want.
What you need to make sure of this - buying a home is a process of elimination. Certainly you have an automated search where you're getting new listings daily or weekly. When a new neighborhood comes up, you should drive through it, and see what you think. If you think you like it, ask your agent whether its a "good" neighborhood. What did you think - based on a drive by, of the lot? This is called LOCATION.
Many times, you can spend your free time Saturday or Sunday going to Open Houses at these new listings. Then you get to see what you like, want, and will BUY in a home.
All of these activities are done on a pace that works within your work and "life" constraints and free time.
The average Buyer sees 12 homes in 12 weeks. With a QUALITY Realtor, there's no need to see that many, or at least - definitely not over 3 long months of looking with the agent. All of the above activites get you READY to buy a home. To figure truly the best 5-7 houses TOPS that come closest to your needs and wants and figuring out which one is BEST.
We have been narrowing down our "neighborhood" search thanks to open houses for sure. Here's a problem though that keeps coming up for us personally... We're in South Orange County, Ca. and yes it's expensive. Going small isn't the problem and we'd even be okay in a one bedroom if the square footage was in the right place. We've just been noticing the mass production that took place in the 80's and 90's, and are in the nicer areas have really small living rooms and often they stick a huge fireplace in the middle of the wall! It seems real common!
There are some older condos that have more square footage for the money, but the areas are where the schools have gone down hill, etc.
Our agent showed us some condos we liked that were a little older but in an okay neighborhood, but then someone who had a friend that lived there warned me she had just moved out because the economy turned the place into a real problem area. A bunch of foreclosures, investors snatching them up and renting them out to whoever...found out the local police even had a nickname for the complex which is never good.
That was frustrating, because we really liked the grounds and location. Oh well.
Price wise we qualify for enough to squeak into a small SFR, which would be nice, but we don't want to be house poor.
As far as the timing, either way it will be tricky. The apartment complex we're in now demands a 60 day notice. (We'll need to pay up to June, so that puts us out by July 1st.) I don't mind paying an extra month of rent to take our time packing, but with the whole short sale thing, (our agent says it's about 80%???) it could be months. The manager said we could extend our notice, but if someone comes along who wants to rent our apartment, we'll have to leave.
IT'S YOUR JOB! Get off your fat butt and work for a change.
Yes, it's my job and I do it quite efficiently and effectively. Do I force a buyer to buy a house within 6.4 houses? No, they choose to. I educate my clients and give them all the information they need to make decisions. THEY make the decisions, not me.
As for the computer having all the information necessary, sorry, but you're wrong. Texas is a NON-DISCLOSURE state. This means that no consumer can get sales prices without working with a Realtor for their research. You can't go to the county records or other sites to see sales history. The only thing you can obtain is loan amounts, and that means nothing.
I think it depends on the area in which you are looking.
I've never looked at less than 25 houses. Sometimes I look at 50 or more hell, on my own - probably 100.
Here's the deal - I've got up to 1.5 million to spend. You are a realtor - work for your money.
I'm so tired of the realtors who complain about having to show houses. That's like being a social worker and you compalin about having to pick up some poor abused kid up in the middle of the night to take him/her to a safe home.
IT'S YOUR JOB! Get off your fat butt and work for a change.
The few years I've bought I now only use a lawyer. With all the information available online - relators are just about obsolete. My last purchase I paid cash for a second home which had fallen into foreclosure - I did not need a realtor to close the deal.
PEOPLE - Learn to use a computer and don't let any of these City-data realtors try to tell you any different. Unless you are an uneducated illiterate newbie - there is enough information out there to easily buy a house (and save thousands while you are at it) on your own.
REALTORS are worse than lawyers - DO NOT BELIEVE A WORD THEY SAY....
For starters, i would agree that many (most?) realtors are down in the pit with many lawyers. They just are a sleazy lot with poor professional work habits and ethics.
But, there are good in every bunch, and i am REAL IMPRESSED with a realtor who interprets a buyers needs, does their work, and shows houses which suit the buyers needs. I don't find it to be lazy at all, but just the opposite: You don't need to look at every house out there; you need to look at the one's that meet your criteria. If the buyer knows what they want, it is time to see a realtor. When the realtor meets the buyer they ask the questions, get the answers, and preview homes which meet the buyers needs. Once this is done, they take the buyer out to see the six or seven homes which fill the bill. Why does it have to be onerous, unprofessional, and a waste of evryne's time? If you are looking at 75 or 100 homes, you are not a buyer, but rather a shopper.You can shop on your own without a realtors help. And if you need or want to see 75 homes, you obviously don't know what you are looking for. Any realtor who falls into the trap of showing that many homes deserves what they get. Like you said, you can do a lot of work on the internet, make a few phone calls, take a ride on your own, and get your list of criteria pretty tight before you ever meet with a realtor. That is just smart for everyone involved.
Now, don't get me started on the sellers who have to get their homes ready for "buyers" who are just out there 'seeing what is available'...
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Thanks...
