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Please do yourself a favor and listen to the people who are telling you to get a new agent now before you are in the thick of things. You say that you did not have a good impression of your agent and you need to keep in mind that this is the person who will be representing YOU during all of the interactions with the sellers and the seller's agents. You will not be able to speak with the sellers or their agents and you will need to completely rely on this person to do all of your communicating for you. If you did not have a good impression of the agent, if the sellers and their agents also do not get a good impression, that is the impression that they will have of YOU since he/she your representative.
We went with an agent who we had reservations about and now the sellers of our dream house won't even talk to us because he offended them so badly and gave us poor advice and now this reflects on US. We are now in a big mess and having to find a new realtor who can hopefully pick up the pieces and smooth things over and we will be paying a lot more for the house plus we are so stressed that we are sick worrying about someone else buying this house before we can get a new offer going with a new realtor.
I am constatly researching and thought that I had it all figured out and didn't need much help from my realtor other than letting us into the properties and writing up a contract....wrong...wrong....wrong. This may have cost us our dream house and if not, it cost us at least $10,000 because now we are having to offer more to smooth things over.
Trust your gut.
Both you and Bill Keegan have given alot of food for thought. Zelari - was your agent downright...nasty? Mine is very sweet, kind, looks like Mom. I really enjoyed my time spent with her looking at houses. Now, we communicate long-distance, and it creates uncertainty in that alot of our 'discussions' are over the internet and you lose some of the meaning by lack of tone, fluctuation, expression, body language, etc. While there is lack of communication and what I feel is misleading information, I still give some benefit of the doubt that our method of communicating is causing problems. I dont like to believe that anyone would intentionally be conniving or deceptive. Although I am open to it in this situation because there are incongruencies, and there is commission money involved.
If the only thing we have left to do, is to actually close on closing day, is there much left that can go wrong at this point? I had planned to get a copy of the documents prior to closing and have them looked over by a r.e.attorney local to me here if possible.
So what you're saying is...I should do it now? J/k! I couldnt help myself . I really do learn so much from everyone on this forum. The issue I have with confronting the agent now is that whole thing where "if you thought I wasnt helping you before, you just wait and see what it reallllly feels like to be uninformed". .... We're getting closer to being done with it all though. Why is this a bad move, because it lets a less than stellar realtor remain unchecked? Lemme think about it...
NOOOO. You still haven't got it. If you address it now and you have a good Realtor they will work hard to fix it because they want you to be happy and informed. If you don't let them know there's a problem they can't fix it. If you tell them and they don't fix it you fire them and hire someone else.
I think that's a great idea. Seems to me he gave you quite a bit of information to digest on the first visit, you aren't at the point, really, IMO, to go into what the steps are. You're right now sorting out what you want, where you want to be, and being educated on the differences of the various types of transactions. In reality, that IS the first step. From there, you start asking additional questions, he starts giving additional information and guiding you through the process. Again, IMO, I think you would have had information overload. It's a lot to take in the first time around.
Well, I am always a believer of second chances. There were times where I fault myself because I should've asked more questions. Y'all are right, too, though in that he probably should've picked up on our inexperience.
After all said and done, however, maybe I was expecting perfection and when I didn't get it, I wrote him off as "unimpressive". I hardly make good first impressions myself so if things don't work well this time around, I promise to give him the ax!
No, our realtor seemed perfectly nice when we were looking at houses, but like you I had reservations about communication and not giving us all of the information and trusting that we were getting good advice.
If you feel that your realtor is not communicating effectively with you via any methods use, the sellers/listing agents will most likely have the same issues.
Our issue was completely caused due to lack of communication. We were left hanging for days while we waited to hear back about what was happening with our offer, important information was left out making the seller leary of working with us...all information that should have been passed on by our realtor.
What I didn't know or understand when we started this process was how much goes out of your control when it comes time to deal. You really need someone who can effectively communicate in all circumstances to make the best impression of you and to get you the best possible deal within your market.
What I didn't know or understand when we started this process was how much goes out of your control when it comes time to deal. You really need someone who can effectively communicate in all circumstances to make the best impression of you and to get you the best possible deal within your market.
Yes, this is so true. I am also a first time home buyer and am very very grateful that I found someone who is a very effective communicator. She is not perfect, no, who is? No buyer should completely 100% rely on the advice or direction of their agent. I see it as a joint process. But when it does come time for those delicate and key negotiations, we have no control over that whatsoever- very nerve wracking!
So to the OP, I have two comments. First, the fact that you came on here to ask the basic questions about the initial steps tells me you don't feel comfortable asking your agent. My agent invited me to ask 10,000 questions and I did and she patiently went over things with me. She also has an assistant who fills in when she is not available for questions. It's so important that you feel a good rapor with them!
NOOOO. You still haven't got it. If you address it now and you have a good Realtor they will work hard to fix it because they want you to be happy and informed. If you don't let them know there's a problem they can't fix it. If you tell them and they don't fix it you fire them and hire someone else.
yes, this is so true. I am also a first time home buyer and am very very grateful that i found someone who is a very effective communicator. She is not perfect, no, who is? No buyer should completely 100% rely on the advice or direction of their agent. I see it as a joint process. But when it does come time for those delicate and key negotiations, we have no control over that whatsoever- very nerve wracking!
So to the op, i have two comments. First, the fact that you came on here to ask the basic questions about the initial steps tells me you don't feel comfortable asking your agent. My agent invited me to ask 10,000 questions and i did and she patiently went over things with me. She also has an assistant who fills in when she is not available for questions. It's so important that you feel a good rapor with them!
There is no excuse for an agent who does not spend the upfront time counseling a first time home buyer and preparing them so that they can negotiate from a position of strength.
I would find another agent who was willing to invest the time.
First, the fact that you came on here to ask the basic questions about the initial steps tells me you don't feel comfortable asking your agent.
I don't agree with that, although, I could be wrong. But she specifically said "I forgot" and when asked what they talked about she named a couple of things adding she forgets the rest.
I think she came on here and asked because she was anxious to know the answers to additional questions and didn't want to wait. For a first time buyer there is sooo much information to gather. People get excited, anxious when buying a house and want all the information now. You can only retain so much and I'll bet dollars to doughnuts she didn't come armed with a pen and pad, and will more than likely be asking the same questions of the agent as well as to others. She'll be sorting through erroneous information from relatives, 'helpful' friends, articles online and... us.
It's not unusual at all. It takes time to sort through it all and get your confidence up.
So to the OP, I have two comments. First, the fact that you came on here to ask the basic questions about the initial steps tells me you don't feel comfortable asking your agent.
Actually, it was just a "I forgot to ask" moment. Any questions we did ask him he answered them in pretty good detail, I thought.
The question I haven't asked yet, however, is how he gets his commission, especially since I have a feeling we're going to be working with foreclosures. I know in a "normal" transaction, he would get somewhere around 6% - part of it goes directly to him and the rest goes into a pool or something.
Quote:
Second, I forgot, I think I need more coffee.
Ha, me too!!
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. I really do learn so much from everyone on this forum. The issue I have with confronting the agent now is that whole thing where "if you thought I wasnt helping you before, you just wait and see what it reallllly feels like to be uninformed". .... We're getting closer to being done with it all though. Why is this a bad move, because it lets a less than stellar realtor remain unchecked? 
Lemme think about it...
