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Location: Sometimes Maryland, sometimes NoVA. Depends on the day of the week
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I'm curious as to how many houses most people look at before they make a decision to buy. So, for agent - how many houses do your clients look at, on average? For others - how many did you look at before you bought your last house?
(and side questions for agents - about how many would it take before you get annoyed with your buyers? What is the most houses any one client asked to see?)
I'd say it depends on how detailed a buyer's criteria is. IMHO the more information you give a realtor, the fewer houses you will probably look at, simply because more will be eliminated as being not suitable. I'd hope that a good realtor would appreciate being told "I want a house with at least 4 bedrooms, at least 3 of them being on the second floor, a 2-car garage, no swimming pool, not located on a main road, with 2000 or more square feet, and it must have a full basement" rather than just "I want a decent sized house with 4 bedrooms" .... because the criteria narrow the number of Houses To Look At considerably.
When I bought my first house I looked at 19. I went back for a second look at 3, then took my husband to look at 2 (he hates house hunting).
When I bought this house I looked at 6 with one agent who was seriously rubbing me the wrong way. I looked at 13 more with a different agent over a 2 day period.
I'm an agent and I typically send a client everything in MLS, ie., if they want a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath in Lithonia, GA ranging from 300-$400,000 ...I send them every property that pops up in thier criteria....I then ask them to go through the list and pick 15 properties that they may like... and we go from there. My clients will normally dwindle that list down to 10..... they are going to buy from that list.....Don't be afraid to tell your clients to go and check out the neigborhoods without you....they will normally see a house online they like, but not like the yard, etc... it makes my list get shorter. just my two cents...
Location: Danbury CT covering all of Fairfield County
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I'm an agent as well, and I sent them everything on the MLS that come close to what they want. I send them in batches of about a dozen, depending on their criteria. I ask them what ones they like or don't and take it from there. If they are local, I encourage them to go drive around the neighborhoods at different times of the day. If they are going from out of town (NYC) and have their list down to 2 or 3, I make appointments to go into the homes at different times of the day.
Location: Sometimes Maryland, sometimes NoVA. Depends on the day of the week
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Now that my answer isn't the first one, I'll explain a bit
My first house, I think I looked at 6 or 8. It was just me, I had a small budget for the area, and I pretty much bought one of the two townhouses I saw in my range (other options were condos).
Now I'm married and my husband and I have relocated to a new area (renting while we look). I feel like our agent must be getting annoyed with us (although she keeps encouraging us to keep looking if we aren't happy yet). Over the past 10 weeks we have seen about 30 places. (we've done some open houses, and the first 6 were with an agent we were refered to and hated). The good news is we have now realized it will be impossible to find the *perfect* place. But I'm just curious how outside of the norm we are.
i send my clients, everything in the price range, thats on the market..why?
early on, i use to send listings on the strict criteria, they gave to me (how many bedrooms, two car garage, etc)
thru time and experience, i;ve seen buyers, fall in love with a house, that didnt fit thier strict criteria, and many times, going into a showing, im thinking this may be a waste of their time and mine,,,and after seeing the house, they want to make an offer.
i send them as many listings as i can, let THEM decide what they want, and call me foolish, i actually like showing houses, gives me an excellent feel of the market, and i always make notes of any new amenities, im not familiar with, to learn more about them. (and if i have a competing listing on the market, i can relate to a potential buyer discussing what they have already looked at(and why my listing is a better choice,,lol)
As a realtor, I will ask husbands and wives to each tell me their top 3 priorities. With them having that fresh in their minds, I then send everything "close" in the MLS. I also tell them about some that have those qualities that I have already been in. To answer your question about how many? However, many it takes....
You look at as many as you want to. Don't worry if your agent is annoyed with you. He/she has to put up with you for a few months, but you have live in your house, hopefully forever.
The BIGGEST mistake I made was settling on not having 4 bedrooms. I let all of the fancy upgrades woo me. Who cares if my fireplace is beautiful, my daily life of having 2 children share a room is hell. My point is don't settle.
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