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Finding a good realtor
Our first realtor wasn't doing anything other than actually showing us houses. We had to find the houses and let him know that we wanted to see them. Letting him know on his website wasn't enough, we had to call him and pretty much beg him to take us. We decided that we didn't want to do all of the work. We have seen multiple houses gone on and off the market in the two weeks that we haven't heard from him since we didn't call.
Our second one refuses to send me her website so that we can start marking houses we want to see. She has mentioned it and I have e-mailed her twice, but she still isn't doing it. She sent us a listing that was 5000 over our top price. I told her we didn't want to go over (in all reality we want to pay less than our top range, and can't even afford that if there is an HOA) and she replys saying don't not see a house because of $5000. Her next e-mail was $10,000 over the first house.
My H and I have done the numbers. We have our pre-approval. We know exactly what we want. Houses in our area and price range tend to get offers in 3-4 days. We can't believe that finding a decent realtor is so hard. I didn't think we were asking too much by having someone find houses we might like and show them to us in a timely fashion. Isn't that what they are getting paid to do?
Did anyone else go through multiple realtors before finding a good one? How did you find one?
Re: Finding a good realtor
first, i asked friends in the area for recommendations. we then met with a few of these recommended agents in-person before selecting one. i asked for recommendations from past clients and activity lists (properties they've sold & helped buyer's buy within the past x years) prior to meeting them.
because they were all recommended by friends, all seemed competent and knowledgeable at least. we went with the one we felt most comfortable with, seemed to have the best track record, and was the most prompt in returning our calls & emails. she turned out to be really great agent, and we're now friends with her & her husband.
get recommendations from people you trust, if you can.
Regarding websites, you can pull up any RE company's website that you prefer and locate homes for sale. If they are listed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) they will be on all the realtors' sites. You don't need one particular agent's web address to look.
DH have an agent with Coldwell Banker, but we don't like their website so we do our home searching on one called Edina Realty because it's a lot more user friendly.
Sounds like you have had two duds for REAs. They should want to take you to homes since that means $$$ for them when you buy. I agree with PP that recs are a good idea. But, I also ask this key question: How many homes have you sold in the past year?
You'd be surprised at the variety of responses. You want someone who is active and has lots of transactions. Being helpful and nice is one thing, but sales activity reveals motivation. Motivated REAs are good communicators who embrace and love technology. Our last REA wore an earpiece all the time. I dislike the look, but she was lightening fast with call backs and texts...so I can't complain. She also worked from home too.
The number of sales an REA has had to be considered active will vary by market. However, I'd consider someone with at least 20 sales in a year pretty active.
Another point to consider, which DH and I discovered in our research is that REMAX agents are actually self-employed somewhat. Many of them have to pay REMAX to be using their marketing. So, since the REAs have to pay REMAX, they have to bring in business for themselves to pay their obligations to their parent company. It amkes them motivated to get sales done.
We just sold our home with a REMAX agent after a total flop with two other agents. And, we are only going with Coldwell Banker now so we can get a bonus from our bank, otherwise, I'm sure we would have used REMAX again.
I have Angieslist, which is well worth the subscription if you're buying a house. I found our buyer's agent there by just sorting by the best-rated agent near me. I contacted 3 in total -- one never emailed me back, one I called and I just didn't get a good vibe from her, and the one we ended up going with emailed me back within just a few hours and was open to a Saturday meeting.
I recommend looking for an exclusive buyer's agent -- I liked using one because I knew their sole focus was finding houses for buyers, not selling/staging/pricing for sellers AND finding houses for buyers.
I found my realtor on redfin. I don't know if they operate in your city or not but for anyone to review a realtor they had to have bought it through their website. So I knew all the reviews were real. I have heard in some areas you don't get as good of service with redfin but in Atlanta it is just like having any realtor but you get a rebate. I picked out on with 20 five star reviews and he is great. My loan would not allow for a rebate so my agent bought me a home warranty. I also searched Kudzu but it was more hit or miss. Good luck in your search!
The best way is going to be personal recommendations from people in the area. All realtors market themselves, but the only way you are going to know if they get results is by talking to others who have used them. Another thing to do would be to look around town-whose signs do you see the most?
Ours was a family friend, so the choice was pretty easy for us, but I also knew that he had a great local reputation and his agency is first in the area in terms of sales.