Real Estate Buyers agents in SD?

[eyedoc1]

and through some great fortune, ran into a fantastic realtor (and his wife who works with him) who made the process easy and effortless. Even though we won't be living in San Diego for about 10 years, our realtor gave us the straight up goods about desirable neighborhoods, issues with individual houses and so forth. While I agree I have a general distaste for real estate agents, for once I believe that our realtor was well worth his salt. Feel free to PM me if you are interested in getting his name.

We bought in Allied Gardens, and our realtor is also a renovator and property manager. Really down to earth guy, who took plenty of time with us to assess our needs. No hard sell, and he really knew what he was talking about. We couldn't be happier renting out our beautifully renovated home to very qualified renters, knowing that our investment will be well managed with no headaches.

Cheers and happy house hunting.

Full disclosure: I have no financial interest in their real estate company other than I know I will be buying another rental property using the same company.

[ontheGtrain]

Originally Posted by kathygrl

Realtor here.....don't shoot me puhleeze! In response to your question regarding empty houses...there are many ways for us to check on the status (I have good working relationships with the title/escrow companies and they are more than willing to give me the latest stats on a particular address), some of the empty ones you see may already have been foreclosed on and will be released on the market shortly (again, this is where it helps to have an "in") best bet is to catch it before it comes on the market (which is exactly what a lot of investors are doing). Right now, the San Diego area has very low inventory of available houses, therefore creating multiple offer situations on any property that is in halfway decent shape. Agents definitely need to stay on top of everything happening in their local market area. And, this just ticks me off to no end, you as a buyer should not have to be doing all the work....that is what we are paid to do. Insist your agent do their homework and if that doesn't happen then it's time to move on. I've seen quite a few in the Alpine area come up on the MLS just in the past couple of days...so hang in there.

Houses do come on the market here but for 400 to 800k. Not one decent house for around 300k since early march. Last year at this time alpine had multiple properties in my price range but I didn't have the down payment money saved up. What happened Kathygrl? Will the inventory come back this year or are the banks holding everything back to inflate prices, or is it something else altogether? Do tell? My agent does not have an answer.

I wish I could get a transfer away from San Diego or find a different job in some other part of the country where the income and COL have some basis in reality but that does not appear likely any time soon in this economy. I'm stuck renting in this place and it looks like I'll be a renter until I find a way out of here.

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Originally Posted by ontheGtrain

Houses do come on the market here but for 400 to 800k. Not one decent house for around 300k since early march. Last year at this time alpine had multiple properties in my price range but I didn't have the down payment money saved up. What happened Kathygrl? Will the inventory come back this year or are the banks holding everything back to inflate prices, or is it something else altogether? Do tell? My agent does not have an answer.

I wish I could get a transfer away from San Diego or find a different job in some other part of the country where the income and COL have some basis in reality but that does not appear likely any time soon in this economy. I'm stuck renting in this place and it looks like I'll be a renter until I find a way out of here.

You are asking for crystal ball predictions and if you asked several professionals in that industry, you will likely get 3-4 different answers lol
This thread might offer some insight
//www.city-data.com/forum/san-d...sure-blog.html

Out of curiosity have you looked anywhere else besides Alpine like Lakeside or the Crest area of El Cajon? I mean Alpine is really nice, but some of the zip codes on the border with it arent bad either.

SDLookup.com | Lakeside Map of Homes For Sale
SDLookup.com | NE El Cajon Map of Homes For Sale

My suggestion to anyone that is being diligent about house hunting is to use the 'daily market updates' page from this website. It refreshes as changes are made to the MLS and it could very well get you in to see a property before it shows up on an agents generated email or alert.

If you are able to be in front of a computer, just click refresh or check on it daily. After a couple of weeks, you will see patterns of what is selling.
http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS_Updates-68-Alpine