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Is there any way to make sure you're the first to see a home in a neighborhood? There's a community I've really wanted to live in for a long time. Yesterday, a house that looked perfect went on the market in the morning but I didn't notice it until the evening and it was sold by then. I'm so bummed out. Do I have to just check every hour if I don't want this to happen?
That's nothing. A few weeks ago a house went on the market in the morning. I called my Realtor to go look at it and try to grab it. She called me back and told me the owner accepted an offer just 2 hours after it went on market.
Well, if it were me, I'd give the sellers a back up offer in case the first one falls through.
I'd also send a letter to all the owners in the neighborhood that you want to live in to let them know you're looking for a house in that neighborhood. Or, if there's any special houses you want in the neighborhood, go around one late afternoon/evening and hand them your card and tell them if they decide to sell their house before you find one in the neighborhood, you'd be interested. Even if they don't want to sell theirs, they may know of someone who does.
I think you're right that it was briefly on the market. I'm going to list the timing of events below and ask if you think this means the realtor let me down.
-7/11: House is posted on realtor.com in the morning
-7/11 at 6 PM: I notice it and text my realtor.
-7/11 at 7 PM: She gets back to me saying OK she got my message and at 8 PM she says she will check the showing instructions.
-7/12 at 7 AM: She asks me if I can see the house at noon today and says that she will check if that time works for the seller.
-7/12 at 8 AM: She tells me the seller accepted an offer at 11 PM yesterday.
I'm thinking she didn't contact the seller until this morning and they didn't even know I wanted to see the house when they accepted the offer last night. Is that a reasonable inference and would you find that unacceptable?
So . . . you didn't even see it on the MLS feed, you found it on Realtor.com. It may have been on Realtor.com for 9 hours, but it could have been on your MLS the night before, depending on how often your MLS feeds to Realtor.com. It could have hit Realtor.com soon after it was input that morning, AFTER she had already scanned the new listings for the day for her clients. Question: Why aren't you getting an MLS feed from your agent -- doesn't your area support that? Why are you depending on a feed from a national website? (Although: some are small areas whose MLS's aren't very sophisticated -- those of us in large metro areas with the latest technology sometimes forget that not every area has a very techy MLS interface.)
You call her at 6. After business hours, dinner time, summer time, especially if she has a young family. Time-blocking is key to staying sane in this business. But she acknowledges you within an hour, and gets back to you within an hour of the acknowledgement, again, during the dinner hour and after regular business hours. At that point, this is just another "hey, can we see this house?" call to your agent.
She is at work at 7 AM the next morning, checking your availability and the seller's availability. How is that lagging? For all you know, she sent the agent a text/email the previous evening, and the listing agent didn't respond, knowing that they probably had a full-price offer in hand and were negotiating with the buyer right then and there. Even if she had gotten through, it probably wouldn't have had any effect on the outcome -- by 8 pm, it was too late to show the property that evening, and even if they knew, they have have decided to move ahead, anyway. Perhaps their buyer had been aggressive and pushed for an early acceptance. Perhaps the sellert felt "bird in the hand" was better than a possibility from you. Perhaps the sellers were in a hurry to get under contract because they were feeling pressure on THEIR next purchase, and didn't want to risk offending their buyer on the off-chance possibility that your deal was better.
So, basically, you expect your agent to sit at a computer with her nose glued to the screen 24/7 looking at homes that might pop up for one of her clients so that she can pounce and feel that she is incompetent if one slips by. Agents have showings, they have inspections, they have closings, they have meetings -- they do not stay instant-wired 24/7. If I am showing a house, I only check my phone when I get back in the car, and I NEVER answer phone calls while I am with another client. It's rude. That's what voice mail or text messages are for.
Best tactic: Talk to your agent and see how you can get quicker notifications
Just as an FYI, I have a buyer who saw a house that hit our MLS last night at 10:30 pm. I had a text waiting for me this morning at 7 am, and I used our local internet-based showing scheduler to make an appointment. We were second to see the house this morning at 9:30 am. They had 7 other showings today. We had an offer in their hands by 12:30 pm. They had 3 other offers by 6 pm. At 7 pm, they accepted our offer. Great homes in great neighborhoods don't gather dust! Now, while I'm doing all this -- do you think I was also staring at the computer looking for other homes for other buyers? Uh - no.
Hmmmm. I'm wondering if I need a different realtor. She knows I want to live in this neighborhood but has never contacted me about a house going on the market. I always find them and contact her. (There have been about 4 or 5 in this community - one of which I had a deal on but it fell through after the inspection.) She had me on a search but I was getting too many e-mails and I stopped using it. I know that's my fault. I should have told her to narrow the search down but I figured I could just check the websites like Zillow and Realtor. I learned the hard way. She did say she could make sure I'm on a search and could make it more narrow. That said, I wonder if I'm a low priority of hers. I know she sells houses that are much more expensive than my range. Also, we looked at a decent number of houses before I knew what I wanted (before the 4 or 5 in this community). I wonder if she's lost a little patience with me. There's no hint of any of this from our interactions but I can't help wondering.
However, the main reason I'm reluctant to go to a new realtor is that I feel comfortable with her. She knows I have a long list of questions I want to ask sellers, and she's never complained about asking all the questions. Maybe that's just her job though. I would feel a bit guilty if at this point I picked someone else. If she puts me on the proper search, is that good enough or do I need a new realtor?
So you HAD an MLS feed, but you stopped it? Umm . . . yeah, that was probably a mistake, especially since she had offered to tailor the search for you.
Personally, I'd stop with the reverse snobbery ("Oh, I'm just a little fish, she doesn't want to bother with me") Some agents may be like that, but most aren't. We know that some buyers are going to take more time than others. That's just the way it is. I don't think you need a new agent. I just think you need to use the tools she gives you instead of playing cowboy with the internet. It's a wild wild world in real estate right now.
Why are you looking at Realtor.com? You should be getting on the spot updates from the MLS feed your realtor set up for you. If your realtor has not set this up make sure it happens immediately to avoid any lag time in being notified of new listings. You can also go to Redfin and set up alerts, or Realtor.com, so you don't have to keep searching and any new listing in your preferred zip code with filters is emailed to you right away.
It could be several things. A friend of mine bought a house just before it was officially listed. Agents knew about it and it had three offers. My friend's offer was lower, but it was the only cash offer and was accepted. In another situation, a house on my street was sold before ever being listed because the neighbors across the street were chatting with the owner when she said she was going to sell. The neighbor said he knew someone who would be interested. That friend bought the house, so it was never even listed. I only found out when I stopped by the garage sale. Got a almost brand new 6' fiberglass ladder for $20! Saved me $40 or $50.
I don't know anyone in the neighborhood. How would I get started? Could I just walk around on a nice day and talk to whoever is outside. I'm not sure where I'd park though.
Walk your dog all through the neighborhood. There is nothing like a dog to get a conversation started. If you don't have one, get one. Preferably a Labrador Retriever or Golden Retriever. Just about everyone loves retrievers and they're very friendly.
Hmmmm. I'm wondering if I need a different realtor. She knows I want to live in this neighborhood but has never contacted me about a house going on the market. I always find them and contact her. (There have been about 4 or 5 in this community - one of which I had a deal on but it fell through after the inspection.) She had me on a search but I was getting too many e-mails and I stopped using it. I know that's my fault. I should have told her to narrow the search down but I figured I could just check the websites like Zillow and Realtor. I learned the hard way. She did say she could make sure I'm on a search and could make it more narrow. That said, I wonder if I'm a low priority of hers. I know she sells houses that are much more expensive than my range. Also, we looked at a decent number of houses before I knew what I wanted (before the 4 or 5 in this community). I wonder if she's lost a little patience with me. There's no hint of any of this from our interactions but I can't help wondering.
However, the main reason I'm reluctant to go to a new realtor is that I feel comfortable with her. She knows I have a long list of questions I want to ask sellers, and she's never complained about asking all the questions. Maybe that's just her job though. I would feel a bit guilty if at this point I picked someone else. If she puts me on the proper search, is that good enough or do I need a new realtor?
You haven't learned if you haven't yet gotten the agent to narrow the search, as she had offered.
You haven't learned if you haven't yet gotten the agent to narrow the search, as she had offered.
I mean I now learned. I did ask my realtor to adjust the alerts I'm getting.
Thanks for the help everyone.
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