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.
24 hours to respond is not good, unless it's a non-urgent matter. Needing to find a house immediately deserves a quicker response. Not sure why the agent won't show during the week, but maybe he booked this week several days in advance. I, personally, rarely show houses on the weekends. That's my family time, and offer negotiating time. I show during the week, for the most part. However, I also work with a lot of relocation as Austin gets over 150+ relocating people a DAY! Relocating people need to give me notice to ensure I have my schedule blocked for them, and then local people work around the schedule of the people paying for flights into town for specific days. You might have caught him on a bad week where he's just actually booked.
I don't think there is anything wrong with working with a busy agent. That usually means they're a good agent. In a fast-paced market, if you find an agent that is "slow" with business, something is wrong with them. Why aren't they able to get business? They must be a "bad" agent.
Call the agent, it's only Tuesday, and see if there is anyway you can get an appt this week, and not wait until the weekend.
Thank you Mike and Falcon! We made the beginner's mistake of going with a recommended agent, but did not think of asking him exactly how he works. He said he can help us, and we took it at face value, without asking details. It turns out that he has a sick mother that he cares for and he has set times for showings (3 hours on Mon, Tues, Thurs and weekends). The way my work hours are set (24 hour shifts) I usually can not do Tues, and my husband would have to be in a pinch to take Thursdays off. We could do it once or twice but not every week. The agent seems flexible now and willing to show us homes at other times/days but it's random times during the week, I guess when he has openings in his schedule. It seems that it might be difficult and stressful for both parties to coordinate schedules.
We interviewed another agent today. She was a lot more on the ball, pulled up listings that we looked at together, narrowed it down to homes that had potential and she offered to set up meetings this week to go see them. She also showed us "tricks" that she is using to figure out stuff about the house, like accessing the public records, listing history, etc. She said that she will also sift daily through the listings to see if she can find other matches that are worth seeing. I think it is a whole different level of service than our current agent (whom we haven't met yet!) who set us up with MLS and told us "look at these, go drive by and tell me which ones you want to see". No other input into our chosen houses, no review of the listings... I feel bad, but I think we should part ways with our first agent before anyone wastes more time, as it seems that the process will be a lot more difficult with him. At least he hasn't spent much time on us up to this point, other than giving us MLS access and emailing back and forth with us a few times.
Any suggestions for a nice way to end the relationship with the first agent? We never went out with him, never signed anything. Still, I feel bad that he did spend some of his time on us. But I have to watch out for my interest and find an agent that would work with us as much as possible.
The trick is finding a job -- like I said, >10% unemployment in Prov area. Economic recovery really hasn't touched RI, hardly better job situation than 2009 here.
Also, if kids are a factor, RI schools are much worse than MA, even adjusting for income. I.e., a rich town in RI will have good schools compared to the rest of RI, but lousy compared to similarly wealthy towns in MA.
If you really want cheap, there are plenty of neighborhoods in Prov where you can get a house for well under 100,000! Which is good since you'll need to install bulletproof Kevlar over the whole thing.....
By many basic measures, Providence fits the profile of Buffalo or Toledo, or god forbid, Detroit, than Boston. It's definitely more Springfield or Worcester than it is Boston when it comes to economy and real estate, though PVD has a _lot_ more culture going on than they do.
If anyone has questions about Providence, I'd be glad to answer them. I notice that MA residents love to make comments such as the above but really don't know the neighborhoods and essentially don't know what they are talking about.
If you normally communicate with the agent via email, send them an email letting them know that you've chosen to work with someone else. Just tell them they seemed more responsive and helpful in the search. If you've signed nothing and haven't even met them, you have no obligation to the first agent. Agents really need to be responsive and show their worth to keep potential clients. As others have said, the Boston area is a really fast moving market, so find someone that can help you effectively. This is about you getting good service and finding a property that works for you, not accommodating someone else's schedule that can't match your own. I wouldn't do a text, but I would do an email if that's how you've communicated thus far.
I think one of the things I liked the most about my buyer's agent was his response time. It was usually within the hour via email. He also text me to confirm viewings. On the today my offer was accepted we were texting, emailing, and on the phone. All for different reasons. I think my first time buying experience has been as smooth as it is because he responded quickly and acts quickly.
If my agent told me to wait six days in that market I would find a new agent. We moved to Texas and the market is very hot. Houses go under contract very quickly, sometimes a day. We had set up four houses to look at the following week. They all were gone by that time.
Our agent was wonderful about getting us into houses before market, the same day they were listed or a last minute showing. Thank the stars for having someone like that or we would have never found a house!
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.
Text him
I worry too much about hurt feelings.
