Suggestions on a Realtor?

[mschmoyer]

We bought "for sale by owner" and had a great experience. Really depends on the sellers though. Saved 10% or so by doing that. Just takes a lot of research and patience.

[motoman]

Thanks Eric, I'll definitely give you a shout if I have any questions. One thing I have working for me is the fact that Jessi (my gf) does property claims and is experienced in home inspection, and she works in the area on top of that.

Sounds good. If you need any advice on Arlington areas, I've been here almost 30 years.

[motoman]

FYI zillow and realtor.com are not a good place to look at houses. They are not up to date. Get a realtor to send you auto updates off the mls.

I wouldn't say they're bad places to look because they give me a pretty damn good idea on what things are worth in surrounding areas. Sure they may not be 100% up to date but they're not out of date to the point where I can't trust anything on thats listed. I'm open to suggestions on sites you like better than those two.

....

The fact is you have to be very pro-active as a buyer, as you're going to know the area you're looking at better than your realtor in most cases. Drive neighborhoods you'd like to live in and look for signs(not everything is on the internet, believe it or not), use google street view to look around things if you aren't familiar with the area so you don't waste the realtors time when you can see there is an obvious meth house across the street, etc. After 3 home purchases I've got it down to a science, but the whole process is still a beating. Have all your financing in place before even looking in person or making any offers.

In my case I have to be a very pro-active buyer. The fact my complex manager is letting me out of my lease with no questions asked, no extra fees, etc... I'm not staying there a minute longer than I have to. So I'm spending free time out looking at houses and driving neighborhoods.

FYI zillow and realtor.com are not a good place to look at houses. They are not up to date. Get a realtor to send you auto updates off the mls.

....

Use Amy. She's great. Also get on realtor.com daily and look for houses. I found mine before the daily update Nate auto-sent me did.

The fact is you have to be very pro-active as a buyer, as you're going to know the area you're looking at better than your realtor in most cases. Drive neighborhoods you'd like to live in and look for signs(not everything is on the internet, believe it or not), use google street view to look around things if you aren't familiar with the area so you don't waste the realtors time when you can see there is an obvious meth house across the street, etc. After 3 home purchases I've got it down to a science, but the whole process is still a beating. Have all your financing in place before even looking in person or making any offers.

[mstng86]

Pfft, Moto's moving down here to God's country.

Garland?

[TexasT]

I like homesnap.com or something like that. Used to be sawbuck.com
I have a good lady we used last year if you are looking In Arlington.

[mk5.0]

FYI zillow and realtor.com are not a good place to look at houses. They are not up to date. Get a realtor to send you auto updates off the mls.

[Baron Von Crowder]

Last year I was the first person to look at a house, at 10am the morning it went to market, bid 4k over asking price. Got outbid and lost it. God I was pissed. I think I ended up doing better with this one, though it needs more updates. The location is far more to my liking.

Pfft, Moto's moving down here to God's country.

It looks to be pretty competitive. We've already found 2 places that were on the market less than 20 days that are on contract to close.

Last year I was the first person to look at a house, at 10am the morning it went to market, bid 4k over asking price. Got outbid and lost it. God I was pissed. I think I ended up doing better with this one, though it needs more updates. The location is far more to my liking.

[MattB]

My ex-gf is a realtor. I'll pm you her info if you haven't found one already.

[motoman]

It looks to be pretty competitive. We found 2 places that were on the market less than 20 days already on contract to close.

Use Amy. She's great. Also get on realtor.com daily and look for houses. I found mine before the daily update Nate auto-sent me did. Not sure if it's as competitive as it was 6 months to a year ago, but you've got to be ready to move fast.

[motoman]

It was suggested that it's in my best interest to use a realtor as a first time home buyer. I've been looking for homes on Zillow and Realtor.com, so finding stuff isn't too difficult. SVT Lurch is going to walk me through getting financed for home.

[mstng86]

The experience I had was our realtor setup an auto search on homes in the area and they were emailed to me everyday early in the morning. Most of them were the same homes or homes that really wasn't what we were looking for.

My wife found our home by doing some type of internet search and we had a bid on it the second day it came on the market. TBH, all the realtor seem to do was answer some of my rookie questions and sit there at the signing of the papers. I was the one pushing my paperwork through my lender, meeting with the inspector, etc.

Looking back, I really am not sure what she really did.