Need advice on finding a good realtor

[mia1181]

DH and I are looking to buy a home in Orange County, CA. Since we are new to the area, we don''t have anyone to ask for recommendations on realtors. So where do we start in trying to find one?

We are looking to buy a townhouse or condo. Are there realtors that specialize in these types of homes? DH is worried that a realtor who is used to selling McMansions won''t give us the time of day.

I have a vision where our realtor is constantly on the hunt for us and following up on any "promising leads." She/He will call us with "I found a house today that I just know you guys are going to love...." Or "Gosh, I know you said you hate those white ceramic tile countertops that seem to plague the kitchen of every home in California, but I think you should see this house.... With a little work it could be just what you are looking for!"

Does this happen in real life?
Maybe I''ve seen too many episodes of House Hunters, but so far we haven''t had that experience. DH has been in contact with a random realtor who is nice, but definitely not doing really anything for us. She offered to send DH a daily email of listings, but despite two reminders from DH, has yet to do so. She told him to search her site and let her know if he wants to look at something. We''ve been pretty much on our own and it is getting frustrating. Especially since it seems everything we like in our price range says "sale pending" or "backup offers only." It seems like we are going to have to act fast if we are going to have a chance at getting a home we like.

So if anyone has any advice for a first time home shopper... I''ll take anything!

 

[Hera]

1. Get an account at ziprealty.com. I don't recommend their realtors, but their website is superb and you can really narrow your choices and save searches.

2. I don't know if it's that realistic that you'll have realtors call you like that but you can expect that most realtors will send you listings and you can email them or call them back and let them know which ones you like. I would e-mail them mls numbers that were from zip realty and then they would look it up for further information.

3. I wouldn't be too concerned that realtors won't be that excited to help you. Sales are very lean for them right now and condos in OC are still pretty expensive I imagine. You might have to go through a few realtors, but just keep meeting them till you find one that is eager to work for you. I had two tell me that I was not being realistic in my expectations and I just moved on.

 

[lucyandroger]

SO and I LOVE our realtor. This is how we found her - We spent a Sunday going to as many open houses as possible. We ended up talking to around 6 or 7 different realtors that day and we treated the open houses almost like mini-interviews. We immediately took to our current realtor and she is a gem.

I''m not sure about your expectations for a realtor but I can tell you what ours does. She and her husband are a team. He sends us all the listings that meet our criteria on Wednesday. We pick out houses we want to see and we go out together on Saturday. This has been a couple weeks now.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Hi Mia,

Are you in Orange County now? I met my realtor at an open house. When I first started looking at houses, I went to several open houses and met several realtors. Some did ask me if I was represented by a buyer''s agent, and I did give some my e-mail address, but I don''t recall any being too aggressive about it. Eventually, I met my realtor at an open house for a house that I loved, but couldn''t afford back then. She sent me listings that fit my criteria. The program sets your criteria and automatically e-mails you listings as soon as they come on the market. She was really positive and ultimately, convinced me to put my condo on the market. I was really on the fence about the big move into a single family home on my own, but she really guided me through the process. Oh, and she actually was on an episode of House Hunters!! How funny is that?

I''ve since dealt with realtors in other states, who have shown no initiative at all. It''s almost as if they are not working on commission. lol. I don''t get it.

Anyway, I think going to open houses is a great way to meet a realtor, and it gives you and your DH an opportunity to see if you click with them.

Good luck in the search for your new home!!

 

[neatfreak]

You can certainly find a realtor who will work hard for you. We stumbled across our realtor blindly-but when we were actively looking for houses she would email/call at the end of almost every day telling us what she saw, why we would/wouldn't like it, etc. She was great-so I'd keep looking until you find someone who will work hard for you. We are in the "pending" stage of buying our first house now-and she is still on top of things for us. It's been great since we are buying from afar-so it has been crucial to have an advocate locally for us.

Oh also-just an FYI- in our experience the good houses are often pending even before they hit the MLS in markets with a lot of buyers. So that is why a good agent is ESSENTIAL because they can see the listings before you do most of the time-which is why many of the houses listed on the MLS are pending even before you can get a chance to see them.

 

[D&T]

Date: 6/23/2009 3:39:06 AM
Author: heraanderson
1. Get an account at ziprealty.com. I don''t recommend their realtors, but their website is superb and you can really narrow your choices and save searches.

2. I don''t know if it''s that realistic that you''ll have realtors call you like that but you can expect that most realtors will send you listings and you can email them or call them back and let them know which ones you like. I would e-mail them mls numbers that were from zip realty and then they would look it up for further information.

3. I wouldn''t be too concerned that realtors won''t be that excited to help you. Sales are very lean for them right now and condos in OC are still pretty expensive I imagine. You might have to go through a few realtors, but just keep meeting them till you find one that is eager to work for you. I had two tell me that I was not being realistic in my expectations and I just moved on.

In this market, the realtors would love your business, but don''t settle. Find the ones that will preview homes for you first. Definitely look into ziprealty.com. Their listings gets pulled from the MLS directly- great consumer site with actual addresses! and you don''t have to commit to their realtor -, it takes about two - three days to show up on their site from the MLS but is inclusive with all the MLS unless its open listing not the exclusive ones. I''ve pulled listings off the MLS and compared them before. But the agents will have more specifics targets and narrow down your search. Realtors.com also pulls from the MLS within 24 hours any any new MLS listing homes but you don''t get the address so you can''t do a pre - preview. Good Luck and congrats!

 

[mia1181]

Oh wow thanks for the responses.

Heraanderson- Thanks for ziprealty.com link. I just registered there and I really like how search friendly it is.

Lucyandroger- Oh, open houses? Never thought of that. We can certainly do that! I know I am not completely crazy in wanting someone that will do a little searching on her own for us, because I went through the whole house-hunting procedure with DH''s parents a few years ago. Yes, that was a different market and across the country from where were are looking now, but seriously the realtor they had was amazing! I know they are out there.

LovesVintage- Not me yet, just DH is down there for now. I''ll probably be joining him at the end of summer. It makes it even more difficult that he has to do it all by himself, especially since he is just starting a new job. But I''ll definitely tell him to get to some open houses this weekend and see who he meets. Haha I love that your realtor was on house-hunters! I was just telling DH that we should be on the show and our sob-story for the beginning would be us living seperately. They could show his tiny studio apartment in complex filled with college students, and my "bedroom" that is really a bed thrown into a playroom (I am a nanny so I decided to live-in until DH got settled and I was able to find a suitable replacement for the kiddos). Ah well, the way it''s looking I don''t think I''d be able to choose from the standard 3 options they give you on the show. Everything I like has already been sold.

Neat- I totally had you in mind when I started this thread. I remembered you saying that you had a really great realtor that was going out and taking pictures of properties that didn''t have pictures in their listing. I remember thinking "wow, how did she snag such an awesome realtor that she could trust when she doesn''t even live here?" I actually thought maybe because you have PS friends in the Bay Area or maybe because you have family here. Interesting to see that it was probably the same way we stumbled on our not-so-great realtor. And yes, that was exactly what I was wondering about all of the "pending" houses we are seeing. I feel like there has got to be inside information that the realtors are privy too, and it seems we might really need that information if we are going to ever find something we like.

 

[TravelingGal]

ziprealty users...

I highly recommend redfin. I was a hardcore ziprealty user but then read about redfin on all the housing blogs I read. It is so much better. Right in the listing, it will tell you what the house last sold for, which is interesting info. It also lists 3 value estimates including the one from zillow.

I bookmark houses I like and copy and paste the listing into the "notes" section. I do this because when the house sells, it moves to inactive and the listing info goes away, including the asking price. I am keeping tabs on what people are asking in my area and what they actually get because redfin will update all your favorite listings with the selling price when it finally closes.

More than using a good realtor, YOU have to do the homework in your area. I would also recommend propertyshark.com. You can only look up two free listings a day, but it''s enough IMHO and great for finding extra info on a house you may want.

I also found my realtor at open houses. I just lost her as she moved up north so will need to do the process all over again.

 

[Mara]

We found our realtors at an open house that we visited. The house wasn't for us, but the realtors turned out to be fabulous. The 'main' realtor is one who has been in the business for 20+ years and was raised in the area that we were looking in. Under him he 'mentors' like 6-7 other realtors who are fairly new in the business, like 2-3 years. With the two of them functioning as a team, the junior realtor tended to do more of the legwork, grunt work, labor kind of stuff (phone calls, follow ups, answering my emails etc) and the senior realtor was the one with all the crazy knowledge you could ask almost any Q of and get a good answer back (aka he knew how a street had evolved in the neighborhoods we were looking at, knew which streets were good, what street you'd cross to not want to live there, remembered all this crazy history of the neighborhoods etc) and also had an excellent network of people who he could talk to and ask questions of as well.

They were with a mainstream company (Coldwell Banker, big in CA) and had offices in an expensive part of one of the towns. The senior realtor often sells $3-5million dollar homes. We were feeling a bit like you in ... will they even want to talk to us if we are only looking at 3/4 of a million? And we even asked him that, like hello wouldn't you rather be selling a $3m house? But he was frank and said it was about building relationships, he liked us, etc. And he is a total straight shooter, from the hip. Sure sometimes he'd get into his realtor spinning kind of moments, but for the most part he was frank and honest about what he thought and he would hands down tell us what HE would or wouldn't do. And since he was a stickler on a lot of the same things we were, we appreciated his candor and honesty. There were countless houses we looked at and he was like *I* would not buy this. And he would tell us why. I loved that he wasn't just trying to get us to buy a house...he really wanted us to find a home that we loved (and he loved hahaha).

Also I didn't rely on realtors to find me the houses, that is just not how I am. I would bring them lists and links to look at and then tell my why we SHOULD or SHOULDN'T go see them. We were extremely easy to work with because we made it easy for them to learn more about us and figure us out in a quick period of time. We put an offer in on a house within 3 weeks after we started looking with them. We had seen about 20 properties in 2 weekends. Also make sure that the realtors you find work how you want to work, aka via email or phone. I am a strict email person, its easiest for me. They were not email people, but they worked with us that way anyway because they knew it was easier for me to answer an email than get on a phone call. I didn't need to be schmoozed ... I just wanted to find a good house.

Sorry this is so long, but it IS hard to find a good realtor, and we love our team. They were not able to sell our house but they tried for 6 months. We ended up renting but I refer everyone to them, and they are the kind of personalities that clicked with us. Also their network of people they know is extensive, aka they referred us to a great property management company to rent our townhouse out, and the senior guy inspires crazy loyalty aka 'hi Mara I am just following up to make sure you got this email because Bill asked me how things were going and I don't want to disappoint him'...I am not kidding.

So anyway, long story short, I'd visit some open houses, talk to some realtors, see if you click with any of them, and if that doesn't work...maybe try looking up some top sellers in your neighborhood or the neighborhood you want to live in and then call them and find out how they tend to work. The team effort really benefitted us because we had 2 people working for us. I am glad we didn't just assume that he wouldn't want to work with us because we are 1/4 of what he typically sells, we would have missed out!

ETA...I love Redfin, totally recommend it but it's not in all areas. But I still look on there all the time because it's the best inferface in my opinion for the online searching engines.

 

[Hera]

Date: 6/23/2009 2:10:43 PM
Author: TravelingGal
ziprealty users...

I highly recommend redfin. I was a hardcore ziprealty user but then read about redfin on all the housing blogs I read. It is so much better. Right in the listing, it will tell you what the house last sold for, which is interesting info. It also lists 3 value estimates including the one from zillow.

I bookmark houses I like and copy and paste the listing into the ''notes'' section. I do this because when the house sells, it moves to inactive and the listing info goes away, including the asking price. I am keeping tabs on what people are asking in my area and what they actually get because redfin will update all your favorite listings with the selling price when it finally closes.

More than using a good realtor, YOU have to do the homework in your area. I would also recommend propertyshark.com. You can only look up two free listings a day, but it''s enough IMHO and great for finding extra info on a house you may want.

I also found my realtor at open houses. I just lost her as she moved up north so will need to do the process all over again.

Redfin, I found, was good for finding supplemental information like how much houses in the area sold for, but I found Ziprealty''s site much more user friendly. Ziprealty has a tab that goes straight to zillow''s estiimate and another property valuation site (can''t remember the name).

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 6/23/2009 2:39:37 PM
Author: heraanderson

Date: 6/23/2009 2:10:43 PM
Author: TravelingGal
ziprealty users...

I highly recommend redfin. I was a hardcore ziprealty user but then read about redfin on all the housing blogs I read. It is so much better. Right in the listing, it will tell you what the house last sold for, which is interesting info. It also lists 3 value estimates including the one from zillow.

I bookmark houses I like and copy and paste the listing into the ''notes'' section. I do this because when the house sells, it moves to inactive and the listing info goes away, including the asking price. I am keeping tabs on what people are asking in my area and what they actually get because redfin will update all your favorite listings with the selling price when it finally closes.

More than using a good realtor, YOU have to do the homework in your area. I would also recommend propertyshark.com. You can only look up two free listings a day, but it''s enough IMHO and great for finding extra info on a house you may want.

I also found my realtor at open houses. I just lost her as she moved up north so will need to do the process all over again.

Redfin, I found, was good for finding supplemental information like how much houses in the area sold for, but I found Ziprealty''s site much more user friendly. Ziprealty has a tab that goes straight to zillow''s estiimate and another property valuation site (can''t remember the name).

I can see that. I hunt by area and so just poke around at the map. It depends how you search, I suppose...it''s been son long since I used ZR that I forgot what the interface is like.

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 6/23/2009 11:56:05 AM
Author: mia1181
Neat- I totally had you in mind when I started this thread. I remembered you saying that you had a really great realtor that was going out and taking pictures of properties that didn''t have pictures in their listing. I remember thinking ''wow, how did she snag such an awesome realtor that she could trust when she doesn''t even live here?'' I actually thought maybe because you have PS friends in the Bay Area or maybe because you have family here. Interesting to see that it was probably the same way we stumbled on our not-so-great realtor. And yes, that was exactly what I was wondering about all of the ''pending'' houses we are seeing. I feel like there has got to be inside information that the realtors are privy too, and it seems we might really need that information if we are going to ever find something we like.

Well I am glad I could help then! We really wouldn''t of been able to do this without her. She previewed TONS of houses for us then took tons of pictures of the most promising ones. For example-the house we are under contract on we have over 100 pictures that she took for us.

There totally IS an inside track-it takes a few days for new listings to make it to the "public" MLS-so you need a realtor who will be on top of things for you. I also did some of my own research and sent her houses to check out-but in the end she was the one who found our house for us.

 

[iheartscience]

Do you have any friends who can recommend a realtor? If not, I would definitely go the open house route.

Honestly, I am really not happy with our realtor AT ALL, but since we have a contingent contract on a house with him, I''m pretty much stuck. If (God forbid) this contract falls through I will be parting ways with him immediately.

I think it''s VERY smart of you to really try to find someone great before you get started. My realtor is a friend of a friend and he barely does anything-I have found every single house I want to see and have told him to set up my showings. Plus I live in an area where houses are still selling left and right, and I''ve missed out on several houses because he''s been too slow to even set up showings. Okay, sorry to threadjack but hey-I guess my vent goes to show how important it is to have a great realtor.

 

[Miranda]

If you are looking in South Orange County I could give you the name of a realtor. I can''t imagine you would have a hard time finding a realtor in this housing environment who is NOT willing to go the extra mile to close a deal, though! I echo what others have said. Go to open houses. Look in the paper and call around to find someone you click with.

 

[mia1181]

Date: 6/23/2009 7:06:53 PM
Author: Miranda
If you are looking in South Orange County I could give you the name of a realtor. I can''t imagine you would have a hard time finding a realtor in this housing environment who is NOT willing to go the extra mile to close a deal, though! I echo what others have said. Go to open houses. Look in the paper and call around to find someone you click with.

Bingo! We''d love a recommendation! We really don''t know anyone in there area.

Tgal- Thanks for the tip on saving properties to follow up on after they are sold. Since it seems all the houses we love are already in the process of being sold, I''d like to see what they are actually going for rather than listing price. I''m worried about multiple bidder situations and how that corresponds with what we could actually get with our price range. Even though there are tons of properties in our price range, maybe they are all actually selling for much more, and I really want to be realistic about what we can get with our budget. I''m also going to check out Propertyshark.com right now....


To everyone else:
Thanks for all the information! I apparently found Redfin before because it was in my browser history. I definitely love the map feature! I also like that there is a little window with pictures for the listing you choose. That way you don''t have to click on each listing to scroll through the pictures. One thing I don''t like on either Ziprealty or Redfin is that you have to click on each property to see the status (backup offers only, sale pending) whereas the realtor''s website list that information in the title of each listing. So overall, I think we''ll be using all 3 in our search.


One last question, how do we find all the open houses? Just drive around on Saturday?

 

[D&T]

Date: 6/23/2009 10:27:34 PM
Author: mia1181




One last question, how do we find all the open houses? Just drive around on Saturday?

sometimes it gets listed in the newspaper or local Internet news about open houses, and I would also list on realtor.com and will give you an address (once you find your MLS # search for it that way) I know I used to list it on all three outlets. Otherwise, Open Houses are advertise through the MLS as well and agents can find that info out for you.

 

[Mara]

if you know an area you want to live in, drive around and look for open houses. or if you see a house you like online, then you can see if they are doing an open house.

re: only showing props that are not foreclosures or pending sales etc, redfin will do that for you, it''s a search option you click under more options.

i checked out a ton of sites and loved redfin the best, it gave more info seemingly than other sites. i never checked prop shark though!

 

[Haven]

I''m sorry if this has already been said, but it''s also important to find a realtor who is good at finding the homes for you, and at managing the deal-making and back and forth that comes once you decide to put in an offer.

We also found our realtor at an open house, and she was fabulous when it came to finding homes, doing the research on comps, and putting up with our insatiable need to keep on looking. However, when it came to making the actual deal, she was a lot softer than we would have liked. DH ended up being really straight with her and telling her how he wanted the business to be handled, but it was a bit difficult there for a while.

I have no idea how you can tell if someone will be good with both things, other than through referrals, which are always a good way to go.

Good luck buying a home! We looked for months and months, and we saw over 70 homes, and it was all worth it in the end.

 

[Regular Guy]

Date: 6/24/2009 10:58:27 PM
Author: Haven
However, when it came to making the actual deal, she was a lot softer than we would have liked. DH ended up being really straight with her and telling her how he wanted the business to be handled, but it was a bit difficult there for a while.

I have no idea how you can tell if someone will be good with both things, other than through referrals, which are always a good way to go.

Wouldn''t you know that was our experience, too?

Actually...I think you would.

We''ve only bought two homes, now (maybe three, if you count my condo, which I try to forget...a MAJOR mistake), and after each time, I say to myself...self...don''t use the realtor again to negotiate the price at the end. Strategically, though they''re there for that, it doesn''t make a lot of sense. It''s not in their interest to get a lower price, and it''s very much in their interest to have the deal go through, somehow. Consider hiring an attorney for the specific purpose of negotiating the price.

It''s something to think about, at least.