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Our first home was through an agent. Our agent at the time, knew of a home that was coming on the market and we went and saw it and bought it.
Our second home we found on the Internet. We were out of state and looking on several internet real estate sites for homes for sale. I saw the home for sale on a site and flew out and bought it.
We are planning on moving again (out of state) and the same thing, looking at different internet sites.
I seem to look on realtor.com and ziprealty.com the most.
Actually, when we relocated (actually in the midst right now. Current home closes on the 11th, new home closes on the 18th) we used HAR.com in Houston to narrow the search to what we wanted.
When I got here, I did some pre-driving of the areas to get a feel beyond just the listing, and then got an agent once I had narrowed the focus a bit.
You know, if it weren't for the agent we had, we wouldn't have ended up in a neighborhood we love with great schools around. Now this was 9 years ago and my husband was determined to live in the town where he grew up and we looked at houses in that area. We were just married and didn't want to get over our head so I told him those houses were just too steep. Our agent (who is selling our current house and will get the sale for the new one we are building) said let me take you up to Dallas and show you this new development just starting. Way more house for the money and you can build what you want. My hubby was so against it b/c it's 15 minutes further up the road on our commutes to Charlotte. Well, we liked it and when we saw the house plans, it was all over but the signing. If we had not listened to her, we would have wound up in a house we didn't really like and missed out on all the wonderful friends and neighbors we have now! For all the talk on here about not needing an agent, we are really thankful that she got us up the road that day!
Four years ago we were househunting ; we wanted to trade up. This house came on the market and I saw it. The following day, dh was going to see it and it was taken off the market. The couple decided to work on their marraige and stay.
One year later, we still hadnt found anything we liked and had changed realtors. The new one was great. I would look up properties on the internet and tell him which ones I liked and then we would go and see them. Nothing jumped out. I was just about to call off the search again as I was getting so frustrated and prices were going up and above our reach. He called and said he found something that I would be interested in. I went to see it, it didnt even have a sign up yet. I twas going on the MLS on Monday, this was thurs and I was leaving for the weekend on Friday. Dh rushed over on the Friday and we put in an offer straight away, full asking price, and they accepted it the next day.
It was the one we had seen a year earlier. The couple were divorcing!! We love it here.
dorothy
I was a renter and was well familiar with the areas I was hunting in. I scoured the internet (HAR.com like Mikey above), even had a realtor show me some places. One thing I love to do is go to garage sales and estate sales...well I happened to go to one in one of my target areas (found some good stuff). After going through the house looking at stuff, I enquired to one of the estate representatives, the exectrix as it so happens, if the house was for sale. She said that they had just signed with a realtor but had not placed it on the market yet as more paperwork to do. I told her I was seriously interested. Two months later, we agreed on a price and closed a month after that. The house was never actually listed on the market. The neighbors were still kind of shocked when I moved in since they had never seen a sign go up and it had been empty slightly over a year.
I have since sussed out at least one other house this way for a friend of mine, and looked at two more (really liked the one I saw just before Christmas). The trick to this is that you have to be willing to pretty much take the house as-is (minus any ordinances or laws otherwise) and have a very good inspection before hand. My home is a solidly built, 1958 ranch that was lovingly cared for (but not overly updated) by it's original owner.
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
6,957 posts, read 22,311,234 times
Reputation: 6471
Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain Bill
For Discussion Purposes...
Here is the latest info on where buyers first learned about the home they purchased. This is from the NAR statistics.
1% Home Book or Magazine (steady)
And yet if I don't use the stupid things, my sellers question my marketing tactics and strategy. These are almost a total waste of time and money, but I feel obligated to keep using them.
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