Real Estate agents

[malmos911]

We are moving from New England to Charleston SC and need a real estate agent to find us a house. We have dealt with 2 so far and neither have been very helpful. We have not done this before and maybe our expectations are unreasonable. Does anyone have suggestions as to how to find a good agent? Thanks

[onewhippedpuppy]

Ask around for referrals. I'm convinced that there's about 1% of real estate agents that are useful, and the rest are crap. That's what happens in an industry with almost no barrier to entry and the combination of flexible hours with decent earnings potential. Seems like it attracts every bored housewife and semi-retiree who has ever watched HGTV.

[porsche4life]

Matt, having worked in the industry, I’d say 1% is being generous. I hated dealing with most cross agents or getting undercut by someones cousins friend who would give them a kick back of their commission.

[malmos911]

This is what concerns me. One of the biggest transactions and very few reputable representatives.

[vash]

i had to fire my last agent. i was such a wuss and i think i actually said, "it's not you, it's me"

i'm an idiot. i finally came forth with the truth after she pressed me. she was awful!!

i replaced her with a real go-getter. much better experience.

nobody will ever replace the first lady. i found her by pure luck. she helped me buy the house, then 10 years later sell the house. what a positive experience. i would bet she is top 1% in the nation in work ethics and professionalism. she was an absolute rockstar.

[mreid]

Use Zillow, then find an agent to show you the homes you like.

Interesting story and the reason why you need a good agent, the wife and I are selling our property in NY and buying a house. We looked in Woodstock and found a few we thought would be nice. I screened a few agents and found one a really liked. She interviewed us for about a half hour and when we were in town, took us to three houses we found and two she found. One of them is not listed and was Bob Dylan’s first home and is currently owned by Donald Fagen. It was a very cool English arts and crafts home built in 1904. I loved it, wife not so much.

Anyway, you can do 90% of the work online, but you need a realtor to get the total picture and in most states access to the available homes.

[recycled sixtie]

As mentioned above you need a good and honest real estate broker. I have witnessed recently a method that a real estate dude uses and it is not honest but does help to make a sale for the selling real estate rep.

The one example is one where a prospective buyer asks the selling rep if anybody else is interested. The rep says lots of people. I know for a fact this was not the case and the seller's rep got close to the asking price.

Also nothing wrong with asking the neighbors about the house you are looking at and also this way you see what the neighbors are like.

[Alan A]

Originally Posted by recycled sixtie

As mentioned above you need a good and honest real estate broker. I have witnessed recently a method that a real estate dude uses and it is not honest but does help to make a sale for the selling real estate rep.

The one example is one where a prospective buyer asks the selling rep if anybody else is interested. The rep says lots of people. I know for a fact this was not the case and the seller's rep got close to the asking price.

Also nothing wrong with asking the neighbors about the house you are looking at and also this way you see what the neighbors are like.

In NY the sellers rep works for the seller. Full stop.

If they were working for me and said “no one is interested” not only would they be fired immediately if not sooner, but I’d be lawyering up post haste for a share of that years income.

Ditto the buyers agent - they are supposed to be working for the buyer. But most of them are as much use as tits on a bull. I fired 3 in under a week the last time we moved. The first lasted 15 minutes - they took us to a house that had every single feature I said I didn’t want.

Lest you think I was being an ass we bid on a house we did want within 15 minutes of seeing it. It was a repo and after a ton of work we are still there. Realtors mostly suck.

[matthewb0051]

Originally Posted by mreid

Use Zillow, then find an agent to show you the homes you like.


Anyway, you can do 90% of the work online, but you need a realtor to get the total picture and in most states access to the available homes.

Best advice here in the quote above, along with the info about how most are horrible.

During my military career we moved countless times, 8 or 10 in the final 12 years. Bought a few houses sight unseen.

Told one RE agent that we wanted to lease while the deal was pending, same house up until closing. She said you can't do that. Fired here that day.

Without exception, every time we moved we did all of the leg work. Thanks to Al Gore for the internet. Narrowed down the search area by talking to folks and reading stuff online.
Even had friends/family go look at houses. By the time we engaged an agent the work was done. We only needed the agent to show us the properties.

My .02 is that if you are depending on the agent they will show you the crap they need to sell and stuff that fits their comfort zone. That even rings true when using them for rentals.

Good luck

[greglepore]

yeah, and in the days of low inventory that we have now you need one that can hustle and negotiate like yesterday. My s/o is in this biz, and I do legwork for her now that I'm retired, second the comments on incompetence. The buyer's agent for the home I live in now and am selling is clueless, and I'm really tired of being her real world continuing ed proctor.

The sad part is the 1% that are good are REALLY good, knowledgeable dedicated professionals, but finding one is a crapshoot. The problem is that listing agents want to do that, and view dealing with buyers as "too much work" and it is -you split the com, but the listing agent does the work up front and doesn't drive around all weekend with picky arrogant folks who dis you because they're not paying you.

What I would do is...nothing. Use zillow, let the listing agent show. If they don't have to split the com, they're more likely to get it done. Yes, they don't rep you unless you force them to do dual agency (many won't) but if you have half a brain you have more than the average agent.

[JavaBrewer]

Originally Posted by mreid

Use Zillow, then find an agent to show you the homes you like.

Anyway, you can do 90% of the work online, but you need a realtor to get the total picture and in most states access to the available homes.

Nailed it. The resources are online for you to eliminate most of the ground work from the comfort of your home. If you don't know the area then I would definitely rent for 6+ months to figure out where you want to live. I would NEVER trust a realtor to recommend the community I am looking to invest and live in. Loads of variables, schools, commuting, crime, rentals, investments...etc... Only you know what is a priority and what you can live with.

Ideally, you find a home w/o a realtor and negotiate with the selling realtor as they would be on the receiving end of both sides of the commission. Selling a home you definitely need a realtor/broker who can get you on the MLS and you will have to pay % to the buying agent (1.5 to full 3%). In a sellers market you can negotiate to a 4% total commission for buyer/seller agent. The last 3 homes we purchased we found on our own...no realtor needed. As already mentioned, less than 1% know what the hell they are doing. Most are just looking to close w/o your best interest in mind.

[A930Rocket]

What part of Charleston?

[widgeon13]

Most are scum of the earth, only looking out for themselves!

[malmos911]

Looking in the Kiawah / Seabrook area.
Thanks for the replys. We have been on Zillow etc and doing the research. Been there a couple times and like the location. We are boaters and beach people but also like city activities that Charleston can provide.

[legion]

Finding a good realtor in a new area is dumb luck.

I've worked with five realtors in my life.

Realtors 1 and 2 we used as buyer's agents and were "retired on the job". We spent the first hour+ of each appointment while they did MLS searches and we sat in the office. Both tried to talk us into spending more than we were comfortable.

Realtor #3 promised a flat-rate no-service MLS listing. He basically took my money and spent 45 seconds creating a hack of an MLS listing which drover potential buyer's away. The final straw was that his lockbox ran out of batteries. I had to cut it open to get my key back. I ended up having to sue him to get my money back.

Realtor #4 was the replacement for Realtor #3 and came recommended by a friend. With her help, we got the price correct, started getting traffic, and sold in a couple of months (after being on the market for over a year). I gladly paid her commission after treading water for so long.

Realtor #5 was my relo realtor to Georgia and my selling agent leaving Georgia. We did Zillow and realtor.com and found a list of houses we wanted to look at our first day house hunting in Georgia. We hated every house that we picked out. Realtor #5 listened to our comments on the houses, and knew how to read between the lines on Atlanta-area real estate listings. On the second day of house hunting we looked at houses she suggested and found two we really liked.

Selling, she helped us set a price (which I thought was way too high at first) and get the house staged. We ended up selling for cash at asking price.

Then we used Realtor #4 again to move back to Illinois. As we had a newborn in Georgia, I had to make the house-hunting trip by myself. She helped us find a house and reminded me of my wife's preferences. The first time my wife saw the new house was at the walkthrough and she was very happy with the realtor for keeping me on track.

[asphaltgambler]

When we purchased our current house, I did all the leg work, research and figured driving times, etc. My wife and I then set out to confirm actual driving times to our work places to verify what was tolerable and what was not. Northern Va / Metro area traffic is brutal here.

After narrowing down, picking one - we contacted the owners agent for a showing. We represented ourselves as we've done this a few times which worked out great. I wouldn't recommend that for just anyone but I'm an educated buyer, had done sales professionally and enjoy the process.

I sat down with their agent, we made an offer and just before signing the agreement, I paused..........on purpose..........until he said something.

I said "If we come close to a deal, both sides have given some and cannot come to an agreement, are you then willing to cut your commission to make it come together?"

He just about fell out of the chair in disbelief, muttered something about that being 'highly unusual'...............I let him continue as I looked him in the eye.......saying nothing. After some extremely uncomfortable minutes on his end, he agreed.

[dennis in se pa]

Rent first.

[rcooled]

Why is it that RE agents always have their photos plastered all over the ads in newspapers and magazines? I've never seen a car salesman's photo in an ad for a dealership...why only in RE?

Originally Posted by asphaltgambler

I said "If we come close to a deal, both sides have given some and cannot come to an agreement, are you then willing to cut your commission to make it come together?"

Great tactic...thanks for the tip.

[Deschodt]

Used very bad ones and very good ones. Still needed preparation H after each in terms of fees...

The way the industry is going, with all those sites that offer virtual tours, and charge a fraction of a real estate agent, I predict this industry is going to change drastically... (not a hell of a stretch, I know). We're looking and several organizations out there offer 0.5 to 1% for the same MLS access and agent opening the door...

In the CA market where a dump is $1Milm saving 2.5% on one side is appealing ! You can buy a car with that... It's probably going the way of Travel agents, the really good specialized ones stay... The rest is gone and now work in a call center ;-(

[biosurfer1]

Originally Posted by rcooled

Great tactic...thanks for the tip.

If you use the advice, I hope it's to move away from Santa Cruz. Most of my family lives in SC and Aptos and the only thing real estate agents are used for is trying to market a 800 sq. ft dump for $1 million

I know San Francisco is about as crazy as a market can get, but Santa Cruz is not far behind. My sister is moving at the end of the month from SC to Bellingham, WA. After years of looking, there is just no way they will EVER be able to afford anything remotely considered a house.