By Michael Allen
Well we started this quest about three weeks ago and have been on the hunt to figure out just what Mark could afford, where he would like to be in relation to his work location and many other factors.
Listed below are some of the websites & resources we started with. We used them all because each one provides different information and there are overlaps and gaps in the homes each one will show you.
www.realtor.com - This is the site of the local Board of Realtors. You would think every listed house is there, but we found a bunch that were not. Which is why I recommend using EVERY internet database & resource you can find to locate homes.
eBay.com - If you have not been to ebay or are not yet signed up, CLICK HERE to go there and sign up for free! Then you can search under the real estate category and use the search term such as “homes in (yourcity,state)” and it will narrow down the search somewhat.
craigslist.org. Cumbersome but still a good source.
Zillow.com - A search site for home value estimates. We discovered it shows if homes are listed for sale and then links to the listing in Realtor.com or a local broker’s site with more listing detail. Frequently out of date though, so keep looking! This site gives a Google map view of the subject you search for and then you can click for more detail. Plus get street views in many cities so it can help you save driving time of if you don’t like what you see.
local TV stations or newspapers often have local “city” sites with real estate listings. We used this one for San Antonio first (www.mysa.com) and it gave more detail information about each home than the realtor.com listings do, so helps to narrow down your list of prospects.
Call agents who have homes listed and discuss what you are doing. If you think you would like to look at a home, let them know what you are looking for and they may volunteer to run off a list and email it to you. I had one nice lady offer that and in 10 minutes received an email of all the MLS listings in the price range and area we were looking in. We later changed the price range so it was no longer useful, but it can happen.
NOTE THIS CRITICAL STATEMENT:
One of the reasons I am helping Mark is so he does not have to use a “buyer’s agent” and therefore he can save 3% of the sales price right off the top. I cautioned him to say the same thing to every Realtor who he called about a house at the very beginning of the conversation. “I am not using a buyer’s agent so if I were to make an offer on this home, I would only deal directly with you, the listing agent and we will be reducing our offer by the 3% that would normally be paid to a buyer’s agent”.
This sets the stage and you have offered “full disclosure” of your position right up front . On a number of occasions when Mark or I called an agent, we would get another agent in the office who would try to help us. We said to them the statement above and then added “so we can only deal directly with the actual listing agent”. They then would just pass the message on for the listing agent to call us back personally.
On one occasion I got a man who was the broker in a rather large real estate office and he tried politely to hand me off to one of his agents. When I made the “no buyer’s agent” statement he gladly agreed to work with us directly. I tell you this to demonstrate the sorts of answers you will get and how to spot the attempts to get you connected with an agent who will become your “buyer’s agent”. If you decide to work with an agent then you would not need to do all this but I tell you since we did it that way and so you can see what is involved in case you choose to go without the buyer’s agent yourself.
On one call Mark made, the lady said to him “well you have to have a buyer’s agent!” he calmly replied that he did not “have to” so then she said, “well that is just too much work for one agent to have to do”. We were prepared to meet her with all kinds of rebuttals when we got to the house, but she was really nice. Did keep trying to get Mark to let her be his buyer’s agent and help him find a house. After about 5 tries she finally gave up though. (lol)!
Next post topic: How did we do our search and decide which homes to eliminate?
Check back for it later. Bookmark this post or share with a friend who might be looking for or thinking about buying a house. They will appreciate you for it!
Happy House Hunting!
