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I have been looking at homes in various areas. I have noticed a pattern of agents virtually knowing nothing about these homes. I realize they are usually not the listing agent, so I am able to deal with that. I think I have been understanding about that. However I expect the agent to have some background on the home. Such as is it occupied, or vacant Is it a rental property being sold or homeowner. Is it presentable to be shown.
What really annoys me and its happened a number of times. I find the grounds to these homes unkempt frequently. I find the overall neighborhood the same way. With a home or two that is properly taken care of. Its the same where i currently live. My home is taken care of, but I'm surrounded by sloppy homeowners. I have found this is common in the southeast. If this offends someone im sorry, but it is very noticeable. Why I don't know but i definitely have my ideas, on the why this unkempt look is so common in this region of the U S A. Not that it can't occur elsewhere, but seems worse here, I live in Central Fla, but have been looking in GA, Tenn also.
I don't see how a seller could expect someone not to form an impression, when seeing these sloppy conditions. Grass uncut, weeds and overgrowth all around the homes. Belongings scattered about, bathrooms with junk in the tubs I just don't get it. I have only seen 1 house where this scenario didn't take place. The home had a contract the day it listed. The neighborhood there was also kept up. Its no wonder it sold that fast.
I saw a home just yesterday in Fla near the GA border. A beautiful townhomes the inside and backyard immaculate. The front yard and surrounding neighbors a total disgrace, I would have gone after this home, but I declined. I informed the agent yesterday of my feelings towards unkempt property being sold. Evidently if one doesn't have over $200,000 to spend on a home this sloppiness is common. Well my approval amount is less than $200,000, but I don't live like what I'm being shown. I personally don't get the how or why, incomes control how people present themselves or their belongings.
It really is extremely frustrating and a hopeless feeling, When trying to buy a home and this problem keeps happening over and over again. Its bad enough I have to find my own homes on Zillow, then chase agents much of the time. Please don't tell me to find a good agent that will find a good home. . I have tried that several times now its the same scenario. Even when there is a list of homes the realtor has scheduled for showing. Same exact problem. I could not be more verbal on my needs. Small home in decent shape, including grounds. In a neighborhood primarily homeowners that take care of their property. If that's not the case don't show me the home. I can't be expected to drive by every home before showing, to omit the ones I don't want, I really don't think this is much to ask for.
We have the same problem here, the homes around me have well & septic but the agents don't seem to know what they are. They are used to city water and sewer and think that W & S are old fashion and outdated.
These days it seems the customer finds the homes they want to see. The buyer's agent might set up an online search but not all of your criteria can be found online. They (agents) almost never have driven by or seen the house for themselves.
So, I need to drive out, see the neighborhood, then ask my agent to set up an appointment if it looks okay. In my case the agent then prepares an info packet for each house that she will show me, containing the advertising, the MLS documents, and sometimes a few county-level documents.
Then we go to the appointment and walk through and around the house to check it out in person.
I realize they are usually not the listing agent...
Then all you can really expect from them is to open the door for you to get inside and look.
That is 99% of the buyers agent role on a first pass tour.
I have been looking at homes in various areas. I have noticed a pattern of agents virtually knowing nothing about these homes. I realize they are usually not the listing agent, so I am able to deal with that. I think I have been understanding about that. However I expect the agent to have some background on the home. Such as is it occupied, or vacant Is it a rental property being sold or homeowner. Is it presentable to be shown.
What really annoys me and its happened a number of times. I find the grounds to these homes unkempt frequently. I find the overall neighborhood the same way. With a home or two that is properly taken care of. Its the same where i currently live. My home is taken care of, but I'm surrounded by sloppy homeowners. I have found this is common in the southeast. If this offends someone im sorry, but it is very noticeable. Why I don't know but i definitely have my ideas, on the why this unkempt look is so common in this region of the U S A. Not that it can't occur elsewhere, but seems worse here, I live in Central Fla, but have been looking in GA, Tenn also.
I don't see how a seller could expect someone not to form an impression, when seeing these sloppy conditions. Grass uncut, weeds and overgrowth all around the homes. Belongings scattered about, bathrooms with junk in the tubs I just don't get it. I have only seen 1 house where this scenario didn't take place. The home had a contract the day it listed. The neighborhood there was also kept up. Its no wonder it sold that fast.
I saw a home just yesterday in Fla near the GA border. A beautiful townhomes the inside and backyard immaculate. The front yard and surrounding neighbors a total disgrace, I would have gone after this home, but I declined. I informed the agent yesterday of my feelings towards unkempt property being sold. Evidently if one doesn't have over $200,000 to spend on a home this sloppiness is common. Well my approval amount is less than $200,000, but I don't live like what I'm being shown. I personally don't get the how or why, incomes control how people present themselves or their belongings.
It really is extremely frustrating and a hopeless feeling, When trying to buy a home and this problem keeps happening over and over again. Its bad enough I have to find my own homes on Zillow, then chase agents much of the time. Please don't tell me to find a good agent that will find a good home. . I have tried that several times now its the same scenario. Even when there is a list of homes the realtor has scheduled for showing. Same exact problem. I could not be more verbal on my needs. Small home in decent shape, including grounds. In a neighborhood primarily homeowners that take care of their property. If that's not the case don't show me the home. I can't be expected to drive by every home before showing, to omit the ones I don't want, I really don't think this is much to ask for.
The agent can't control whether the homes and their grounds are unkempt or not. Evidently your budget is not sufficient to afford a home, small or not, in a neighborhood where people keep their homes and their properties up to your standards. You have the choice to either buy a home that you like in a neighborhood that you don't, or wait until you can afford to buy a home that meets all your requirements in a similar neighborhood. BTW, viewing the houses beforehand on Google can save you a lot of time and frustration. You can see all the neighbors houses and weed out the neighborhoods you don't want if they are "unkempt". That way you don't have to drive by homes before showings at all. BTW, if you're looking in Lakeland at all, I'd sure use Redfin to search over Zillow. It has a lot more information and usually more, and better pictures.
Your problem isn’t unique to Fl, it’s common all over the US. After moving to rural Washington, I had a few months of total shock on how some people choose to live. At least two of my neighbors have thrown mattresses on their front yards, more have piled junk everywhere and a man down the road has a literal mountain of trash, even put a toilet on top of the pile.
I showed pictures of some of these yards to a friend, she said it reminded her of the hippies in West Virginia. So your problem is not unique to one part of the US. It would be easy to say these people are unemployed, but more than one of my slob neighbors works. I suspect drugs play a big part in people who dump yard trash.
On the bright side, why not look for a junky house in a well kept neighborhood. You could try some lower offers than the asking price and might end up with a bargain. And your new neighbors will love you for buying the house and cleaning it up.
As far as checking out the place before viewing, try Google Earth. It will show an ariel view of the neighborhood and you can see how surrounding neighbors keep their yards. If there are a lot of big trees around, it won’t work so well, but a typical street will show up just fine.
It’s better if you do the legwork yourself, rather than relying on someone who happens to sell real estate. Educate yourself about the surrounding neighborhood and your success in finding the house and neighborhood you want will increase.
no matter the price range, there are going to be people ...
renting, and don't care about the yard.
reasonably in their affordability range, and don't care as much about the yard as you might
at the top of their range, and don't have leftover time or money to care for the yard in the way you would
potentially in financial straits where they let the yard go
have the same personality/preferences as you, and their yard presents in a manner that shows "pride of ownership" as you seek
Now, all that ignores weather/climate issues. in the summer in the South, where I live, you will see yards tend to look raggedy come July - September because the heat causes the grass to suffer, plants as well, etc. And then you can get a week of rain, or maybe a thunderstorm the day I had time to cut the grass and so it gets put off for as much as a week.
If you are dealing with and have hired ONE agent per location to represent you, and you are a ready & willing Buyer, then you should work in tandem to figure out which neighborhoods you are interested in, and which you are not. "Generally well-kept yards" is certainly a viable criteria, but it means you have selected/eliminated neighborhoods on the front end.
I will certainly preview homes for local AND relocating clients that are a good fit for them - price range, type of home, neighborhood on their list. I would say it's part of my responsibility. Nobody is happy to drive an hour or more to see some hot new listing, only to find out a simple preview could have saved the hassle. At the same time, if the house hit the market this morning and everything looks good, you're excited, maybe the speed of the market dictates you drive up TODAY, then it's also possible I don't have time in the morning to preview and save you a trip.
As to whether a new listing is vacant or occupied, a rental or owner-occupied, we're largely at the mercy of the listing agent, and the accuracy and thoroughness of the information they present. Of course, some don't want to "advertise" that a home is vacant because with the Internet, that is announcing to everyone in the world it's vacant. So not all homes with ample furnishings in the pictures are occupied when listed. Heck, not all empty homes are vacant.
So you expect random agents to drive to these properries and ascertain their viability for a person they never met?
Landscaping is easy to change. Not every property you are looking at is owner occupied.
Some of these owners might be in financial distress.
I expect you to find something better to do with your time. I have been polite to you before, but quite frankly you can be very condescending to people. As well as very unhelpful. I don't know if your an agent or not, but quite frankly please avoid my threads, posts or whatever. Have a nice day.
no matter the price range, there are going to be people ...
renting, and don't care about the yard.
reasonably in their affordability range, and don't care as much about the yard as you might
at the top of their range, and don't have leftover time or money to care for the yard in the way you would
potentially in financial straits where they let the yard go
have the same personality/preferences as you, and their yard presents in a manner that shows "pride of ownership" as you seek
Now, all that ignores weather/climate issues. in the summer in the South, where I live, you will see yards tend to look raggedy come July - September because the heat causes the grass to suffer, plants as well, etc. And then you can get a week of rain, or maybe a thunderstorm the day I had time to cut the grass and so it gets put off for as much as a week.
The problem is the OP's price point, unless you live in an area with a really low cost of living. I'm thinking about the neighborhoods in my area where you can buy a $200k property and none of them would meet the OP's criteria for "a majority of homeowners maintain their yards." Part of that is that people here let their grass go brown for the summer. It's an environmental/culture thing out here that we don't waste water on lawns, except in HOA's. So there are a lot of brown lawns all over the city in the summer. They pop right back when it rains. I warn people who relocate here from parts of the country where that is frowned upon that it is a cultural thing here. I wouldn't drive through any of those neighborhoods and think that most homeowners take care of their yards. When the OP says that I'm thinking green, edged lawns with no weeds, well-trimmed bushes, etc.
I think with the trend towards more natural/xeriscaping that the super green summer lawns will mostly be an HOA thing or more upscale neighborhoods where people can afford the water bills easily.
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