The stresses of house shopping (Realtor recommendation, appraised, new agent, accept)
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Hubby and I are house hunting and would like to be done in the next 6 months or sooner. I would say that makes up pretty darn motivated. We went out and got our loan approval and we have over $30,000 to put down.
I contacted an agent about guiding us through this process as we are house virgins. The first week we contacted him he sent us an email list of mobile homes and double wides. Neither of which we are interested in. Since then We have sent him a couple of lists of homes we wanted to see but he will wait until the end of the week before getting back to us. He has not sent us any information on houses that he thinks we should look at since the first list. A couple of houses hubby and I have found that we loved turned out to already be sold
Do as much research as possible, via all the available homesites (redfin, zillow, mls, etc.), track home values of the home you are interested in & do comparison with the value in that area.
Make sure you hire an agent who likes doing that homework too & will find out who & what the situation of the homeowner is. Insight is very important I've found & the more paid off the home is the better the bargaining (say it was paid off in the 70s at $100K & home is worth $300K now... owner may have a lower price point they are willing to accept VS a home seller underwater & should they sell low, they will take a big loss).
And never ever accept to buy any home at the appraised at value (again that depends on the location)... always try to guesstimate the bottom & buy yourself "underwater value" time should the value continues to drop (eg. say the appraised is at $150K, you can still see the market skimping bottom bouncing at around $15K less, offer at least $15K less).
I have a rule of thumb... I would never do any bidding wars where the ball is not in my court. I would walk away time and again from that scenario no matter how much I like the house/property. But that is just me.
Notice even in the buyer's market (and the internet still buzzed about where the buyers are) as often featured on HGTV's show like house hunters / property virgins etc... most all homes the people offered have a "bidding war" going on??? Makes one think if that is not a common tactic.... and who is to know if there aren't other offers???
I think we will have to be very picky when it comes to the next agent. This current one is just not on the same page as us.
And that's totally your right.
What I consider the right agent is one who is 5 years more advanced than you are in life. For example, my wife and I got an agent who has a rugrat, married, and lives in a house. She is exactly where we want to be in 5 years. So she knew our mindset because she'd been there before and knows what we're thinking.
Last year I had a little hottie try to sell us some hip and trendy condos in the middle of the city that were within our price range but TOTALLY not in our mindset. We wanted to live in a nice house without sharing walls with other people. I guess it didn't compute in her brain that was still obviously stuck in PARTY TIME BACHELOR PAD SEXY TIME! Yeah. We didn't stick with her.
I'd agree you need a new realtor. For some reason, they are not taking you seriously. I see you are located in Mt. Pleasant -- is that where you are looking? That's a nice area, I graduated from CMU 17 years ago.
Hubby and I are house hunting and would like to be done in the next 6 months or sooner. I would say that makes up pretty darn motivated. We went out and got our loan approval and we have over $30,000 to put down.
I contacted an agent about guiding us through this process as we are house virgins. The first week we contacted him he sent us an email list of mobile homes and double wides. Neither of which we are interested in. Since then We have sent him a couple of lists of homes we wanted to see but he will wait until the end of the week before getting back to us. He has not sent us any information on houses that he thinks we should look at since the first list. A couple of houses hubby and I have found that we loved turned out to already be sold
I am thinking I may need another realtor.
I am getting really frustrated!
Find a realtor who is willing to work for you at your convenience and find you homes that are suited to what you have told them you want to see. Quit wasting your time on the current realtor it is NOT HIS CHOICE when it comes to looking at homes YOU WANT TO SEE.
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