Buying A Home
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Finding a real estate agent?

Spouse and I have been looking into a buying a home and have gone through the steps with the bank/loan officer. We are pre-qualified and have done everything but given him the go-ahead to actually run our credit score (he has looked at our credit report, tax returns, W2s, bank statements, etc.). So we've been mostly looking at places online up to this point, but now want an agent to sit down and talk with. 

For some reason, we've had a hard time finding one. We've emailed a few different people that we've found that look good and deal with the areas we are looking at, and none of them have gotten back to us. We've also inquired about specific houses that are on the market with questions and heard nothing in response. Is this typical? Should it really be this hard? Since the areas that work best for us are pretty far away from where we live now, it isn't really feasible for us to just show up at an open house or a real estate office; we want to have someone to talk to that can set us up for multiple showings over the course of a single day so we can get the most out of it when we drive all the way out there.

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Re: Finding a real estate agent?

  • I would think that that isn't all that typical.  My husband and I are looking for a house now and the real estate agent we are using came recommended by his parents, so we didn't look around for one.  But that is odd that none of them will get back to you.  Maybe try posting on the local boards for where you want to live to see if anyone there has any recommendations?

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  • If redfin is in your area then you can create an account on their site and read reviews of agents.  The reviews are by people who only went through that site.  I used an agent off of there when I was looking to switch agents and he was awesome!  I just found the one with the most 5 star reviews in my area.
  • I second the rec to ask on your local board here, if it's active, or check out city-data if it's got postings for your area.  I asked a question once on Trulia in the Q&A section about local market conditions and got 4 responses back within a couple hours from agents in the area actively looking for clients, so look there too.
  • I found my REA as a recommendation from a co-worker who had recently purchased a house. It worked out really nicely because the REA actually used to work for the company I work for, so I feel like that adds another level of trust.
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  • When I bought my house, I "got" my realtor because she is the one that called me back when I inquired about a house.  I don't think the realtor you have is all that important when you are buying.  As long as they are looking at and showing you houses, that's all you need.  There isn't as much work that they have to put in when helping someone buy a house as opposed to selling one.  You might call around and find out which companies have the lowest realtor fee and start there if you still haven't been able to find someone.
  • As a realtor, I find it appaling that no one got back to you. My husband and I always try to get back in touch with people within a few hours at the most.

    If you need recomendations in your area, please email me and I'd be happy to help you find someone. kschulz@keithandkinsey.com

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  • Thanks, everyone. I keep meaning to update and forgetting! Someone finally got back to us, and we have been out with her twice now looking at properties. It still seems crazy to me that it has been over a month and she is the only one to respond at all- we were emailing someone new every day it felt like! 
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  • I'm going to give a quick disclaimer: I know that everyone's experience is different, but this opinion is based on my personal experience.

    My fiance and I recently purchased a home - closed in November.  With that being said, if I had to do it all over again - I wouldn't have wasted the six months of actually having a Realtor.  We essentially did all of the work (finding listings that interested us, following up with sellers' realtors, looking at comps on Zillow) - except for filling out the TEMPLATE contract.  The final straw was when he sent us back a contract with the WRONG HOUSE ADDRESS!  As soon as we let him know that we were not using a Realtor - we began looking ourselves and reaching out to the sellers' Realtors.  Within one month - we were under contract with a fantastic house - which we now live in!

    When we started the home buying process - I was intimidated. I grew up thinking I NEEDED to have a Realtor to purchase a home.  However, I don't necessarily think this is the case in certain situations. I'm not saying this is for EVERYONE - but if you have some spare time to do research on the home buying process - don't sell yourself short in finding and purchasing a home without a Realtor.

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