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I would call the agent that was managing the house directly. If it's not for sale or lease why would they show it. You could pretend that you are interested in renting it and look at it if they let you.
Don't call and be dishonest about your goal.... You don't want to poison the relationship here... you want to maybe make a deal on the house.
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Or you can ask your agent to find out from their agent what's up with the house.
That's it.... don't get ahead of yourself until you can answer this first question.
thanks again, I did contact the agent who has been working with us to find something and she is going to do some recognizance on the property and get back to me.
They are called buyers agent and seller's agent for a reason, because the buyers agent works for you the buyer and the sellers agent works for the best interest of the seller.
So if you are working with a buyers agent always call them with any questions.
Of course is this house is not for sale then there is no reason for them to show you the place.
The very first thing I'd do is check the county records. Maybe it sold privately. Our county sale records are online just by entering the address. Sometimes the sale price can be $100 which means nothing, sometimes buyers don't want their buy price public but again easy to find out by looking at what the transfer tax paid and then doing the math.
Second, if it did not sell or was pulled I would not contact the listing agent. Perhaps the owner had a falling out with them. I would send the owner a letter (address at county property records) or if you are bold (as I am) go knock on their door. First thing out of your mouth: "I am a not a real estate agent but I have been admiring your house for "X" years and would like to give you my name and phone number in case you ever sell it." Or you can put this in writing if you are shy and mail it.
Be prepared to have a number in mind but do not state it. Ask them what number they thought of selling it for. And then say "That's in the ballpark" (no matter what number they state). You have opened a conversation and in my state anything verbally discussed is not legally binding. Check the laws in your state.
I would never ask why it was no longer listed. Only your interest in buying it.
Good luck.
PS If you are female I would not enter anyone's home without having an escort like my husband. He could stay in the car while I knocked but then wave him in to see the inside. The biggest reason people here don't answer the door is Jehovah Witnesses so do not dress in church clothes, jeans are better.
I don't fully understand this situation as described. However, generally I think people should think carefully before engaging agents in things. I'm not saying not to involve them but to think first. Agents (like all sales people) have a strong concept of 'territory'. It's a fundamental concept of sales. You work things that you know you'll get paid for if you can do the deal. I don't know the nature of your work with these agents but speaking generally, if you have a simple inquiry, why complicate it with agents being involved?
It always seems casual and easy up front to just start having an agent do things for you but make no mistake - you're in their 'territory' from that point on. You can always engage an agent at any time later but there's often a lot of nonsense to "uninvolve" an agent once they latch onto you as part of their sales territory.
I don't fully understand this situation as described. However, generally I think people should think carefully before engaging agents in things. I'm not saying not to involve them but to think first. Agents (like all sales people) have a strong concept of 'territory'. It's a fundamental concept of sales. You work things that you know you'll get paid for if you can do the deal. I don't know the nature of your work with these agents but speaking generally, if you have a simple inquiry, why complicate it with agents being involved?
It always seems casual and easy up front to just start having an agent do things for you but make no mistake - you're in their 'territory' from that point on. You can always engage an agent at any time later but there's often a lot of nonsense to "uninvolve" an agent once they latch onto you as part of their sales territory.
It's not like she's gonna make this a habit and I'm sure she would choose the agent that helped her as her buyer's agent.
I don't fully understand this situation as described. However, generally I think people should think carefully before engaging agents in things. I'm not saying not to involve them but to think first. Agents (like all sales people) have a strong concept of 'territory'. It's a fundamental concept of sales. You work things that you know you'll get paid for if you can do the deal. I don't know the nature of your work with these agents but speaking generally, if you have a simple inquiry, why complicate it with agents being involved?
It always seems casual and easy up front to just start having an agent do things for you but make no mistake - you're in their 'territory' from that point on. You can always engage an agent at any time later but there's often a lot of nonsense to "uninvolve" an agent once they latch onto you as part of their sales territory.
My gut reaction is to groan when I first read your post... Just because. I think it's something about using the word "latch onto" as if we are insecure gold diggers, or leeches.
However! You're right JB... one should be careful engaging an agent to work for you, because we won't charge you a thing today, but we will be doing the work on a promise of compensation later... That's just the way it works. And so, we shouldn't be used lightly if there is no intent to use us for the eventual sale. Not because we're territorial or clingy but just because that's not fair. In exchange for our loyalty to the client and deferred compensation, we rely on the client's loyalty and mutual commitment to us. It is a two way street.
JB... this poster already has an agent working on their behalf, someone who is working for them in their home search in the hope of eventually being paid at the end... It's a relationship, a process, of finding the place the OP may want to buy. If there's a property to check out, let the agent check it out... it's what we do. Our involvement, and our compensation, is for the whole process, not just the last place you look at, or we get blamed for coming in at the end and expecting a big fat paycheck that seems huge if you only consider the 'work' of showing you that last home. For me, it's not just about that last home. We've been working many months to get there, sometimes.
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Originally Posted by LifeIsGood01
It's not like she's gonna make this a habit and I'm sure she would choose the agent that helped her as her buyer's agent.
I hope she DOES make it a habit to ask her agent every "what about this place?" question she finds! The OP should use us because that's what we're there for and that's what we're good at! One of these trails will lead to the right place that the OP wants to buy.... we hope.
My gut reaction is to groan when I first read your post... Just because. I think it's something about using the word "latch onto" as if we are insecure gold diggers, or leeches.
However! You're right JB... one should be careful engaging an agent to work for you, because we won't charge you a thing today, but we will be doing the work on a promise of compensation later... That's just the way it works. And so, we shouldn't be used lightly if there is no intent to use us for the eventual sale. Not because we're territorial or clingy but just because that's not fair. In exchange for our loyalty to the client and deferred compensation, we rely on the client's loyalty and mutual commitment to us. It is a two way street.
JB... this poster already has an agent working on their behalf, someone who is working for them in their home search in the hope of eventually being paid at the end... It's a relationship, a process, of finding the place the OP may want to buy. If there's a property to check out, let the agent check it out... it's what we do. Our involvement, and our compensation, is for the whole process, not just the last place you look at, or we get blamed for coming in at the end and expecting a big fat paycheck that seems huge if you only consider the 'work' of showing you that last home. For me, it's not just about that last home. We've been working many months to get there, sometimes.
I hope she DOES make it a habit to ask her agent every "what about this place?" question she finds! The OP should use us because that's what we're there for and that's what we're good at! One of these trails will lead to the right place that the OP wants to buy.... we hope.
I think we are largely aligned but I'm seeing it from the consumer's perspective. I was careful to say "generally" as I don't really know what is happening in this specific situation. I note that the OP describes the agent as "that has been working a little bit with me to find a house for us". If the OP said that they have a buyer's agent that they are working with, I probably would have held my comment. But those words aren't loaded with commitment. Could be just how I was reading it so that's why I was just speaking generally.
I'm sorry if you prefer words other than 'latch onto' but that's how it might seem to a buyer who does not really think about it and just passively accepts help from an agent (call up and ask questions, accept an offer to "just show you a couple of places...", etc) and then ends up in (at best) an unpleasant situation having sleep walked into an important relationship that they did not actively choose.
I'm deeply offended that your knee-jerk reaction to my words is to groan. You may dislike the person saying it but what I say usually makes a lot of sense. With intellectual discourse, one should set aside personal feelings for the messenger and receive ideas and views with an open mind.
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