Good or bad realtor? (appointed, for sale by owner, new home)

[blueamber]

I'm looking to buy a house. I'm just wondering how can you tell your realtor is a good one or a not-so-good one? Just a brief description of what my realtor does for me: hu sends me house information several times a week based on some basic criteria, namely build year, price, sq ft and zipcode. Indeed, I gave hu way more detailed requirements, but hu wouldn't do the search based on my detailed criteria. So the house info hu sent has pretty much no value to me. I had to do my search on public house website, such as zillow.com. If I found anything looking acceptable on website, I contact hu who would arrange a tour for me. Sometimes, I asked some advice, but often I got very blurred answer, especially about the house value and price. For one house I'm interested in, hu brought me 'comparable house price' sheet based on sq ft and zipcode. The 'comparable' houses are so expensive. They are all at least $20,000 over the house listed price. I pointed out that build year and renovation could make huge different on the price, and hu agreed. I'm quite disappointed right now.

I watched HGTV a lot, and the realtors in the shows are so different. I never used a realtor before, and hu is my first realtor. I don't know if my experience is common in reality; otherwise, I'd change a realtor.

[sawatchdog]

Sounds like he is just doing a basic search for you...he would have to actually call each listing agent to make sure the home has the specific features you are looking. I sent you a direct message with my personal recommendation for the realtor we used when we purchased our new home in December. I call her my angel...she really did help us.

[blueamber]

got your message, sawatchdog, thanks

[todd00]

I think you are better off to do your own complete research without them. Why do you need assistance with that? They are not going to go a lot of their way with regard to searches. It's easy enough to have new listings sent out, that can be done automatically. They may be able to answer some questions about neighborhoods, but people here can do that as well. I would try and find one that has a team of people behind them, look for one that knows the specific areas where you are looking and is in the top tier of sellers.

I'll tell ya straight out, I don't like most of them. They don't do much for the commission they earn. They can also be the fly in the ointment when it comes to buying, by steering you to areas they prefer or to their own listings, and objecting when you want to see other areas. And when selling by totally mucking up and wasting time. Sit back and let them handle it and one may regret having that much confidence they will do things correctly and on time. The latter is what has happened in my recent case, being out of state from the selling property. Good luck to you.

[iliveinsa]

Through the MLS system, a realtor can search on much more specific criteria than you can on zillow or other public sites. Everything from number of stories, size of lot, type of flooring, exterior material (e.g. brick, stucco, wood, etc.), master on ground floor, type of foundation, type of roof, etc. If you have specific criteria, you should have a realtor that helps you with that.

Realtors have different types of clients. There are some that are ready to buy, and they know that they are going to make a decision in the next two weeks no matter what. These move to the top of the list. If you are just looking around waiting for the perfect house, it makes sense that they might just periodically send you things, waiting for you to tell them whether it is the perfect house.

If you are ready to buy, and he doesn't realize it, you need to make that clear, but it does seem like he is being pretty passive, and you may need someone who's personality is a better match, and who can actively talk you through the process.

The cost is the same (paid by Seller) whether you have a mediocre realtor or a really good one. So, you might as well get a good one!

P.S. HGTV is totally staged. By the time they film it, they've already closed on the house that they "discover" on the show, and they go look at a few others first just for show...

[todd00]

I don't like Zillow, they don't even keep up with current prices, sales and so forth. Realtor.com is much better. They do have many search features there, lot size, by age of home, swimming pool, 1 or 2 story, and so on. I don't believe these days the realtor has many more tools than one can find on a public site. Also I would not trust them to over look something, it happens regularly these days. Peoples word and follow through does not mean what it did many moons ago. I would much rather do an extensive search myself than trust it to a 3rd party to feed me info on houses I might like.

OP, what area(s) are you considering? Maybe some people here can be of help too.

[blueamber]

Thanks for all the advice. Thanks todd00, I'm looking for 78255, 78249, 78023 areas, because I don't want to be too far from work.

[CLR210]

I've had good realtors and bad realtors and I've bought and sold properties without a realtor at all. It doesn't sound like your realtor is actually working for you if all they are doing is throwing you a few listings hoping something will stick. EVERYTIME I bought a property with a realtor, I did most of the work including negotiating with the seller because my realtor didn't want to or knew how to. The only thing I need a realtor for is the paperwork to make sure everything is legal. I'm not saying there aren't realtors who really do work for you. I'm just saying they are hard to find. I had one realtor that would only show me their listings and dont even think about asking them to show you a for sale by owner property which could possibly be the perfect property for you. I'd find me a new realtor if I were you.

[pr57001]

I know this will be unpopular with Realtors, but like long-distance calling cards the role of the Realtor has greatly diminished with technology; the high commissions we continue to pay are a relic of another era and due to the anti-competitive MLS monopoly.

With the internet and and the daily searches, there really is no need to have a realtor pour over the details for you. You have all the information you need to make a decision as to whether you should go see the house. They have been relegated to door-unlocker.

Many will tout the value they have in negotiating or determining price, but the reality is if you are in a homogenous neighborhood, it is relatively easy to determine pricing and if you are not (say older or re-developed area) it's a crap shoot. There's no penalty for them if they are wrong: just have to "pay more" or just have to "drop the price"

In my experience of buying and selling many homes (all with realtors, mind you), many times they do more harm then good in interfering with negotiations, raising concern and alarm about the condition of home on trivial or cosmetic items.

[Readerfeeder]

Zillow is a complete joke! They have "zestimates" for our home when it wasn't even built, not to mention it's never been worth what they have as the highest value, nor has it been as low as their lowest zestimate. They continually put the wrong number of beds and baths on there, despite me writing for YEARS to them.
As far as realtors, we've always sold our own homes, but will be using one here. I'll be VERY picky, too, because the realtor we used to purchase was horrible. We bought at the very top of the so-called bubble and she was only interested in closing FAST. We were active-duty at the time and it was a mistake to try and shop for a home long-distance and come down with four house-hunting days to buy. Never again...live and learn.