fnord wrote:
I found realtors to be incredibly annoying. No matter what I told them
I was looking for, they would take us to see things that had *nothing*
to do with our descriptions. We would say "we want something quiet,
with some land, away from busy roads" and they would show us houses on
main streets, with no yards.

After we'd say "We're trying to find something with acreage, for $x,"
they would invariably say, "Ah, well, there aren't many like that on
the market." Well, we only need ONE, thank you. And that should make it
easier to show us houses, if there aren't many. Thanks again, ma'am.

Here's what we did in the end:

1. Search http://www.realtor.com for what we wanted
2. Print out maps to the houses and drive by 5 or 6 of them on a
Saturday
3. Call the listing agent for the houses we were interested in
4. Buy the one that fits

This way you also *always* meet with the listing agent.

And never, EVER sign an exclusivity contract. They're ludicrous, and in
no way benefit the buyer. We met with a couple of realtors using our
method that would say "You have to sign one of these contracts or we
can't show you the house," to which we replied "Fine, we'll sign it,
for a 24-hour period."

That always worked. Keep it in mind, it will most likely come up.


hth....
fnord


Yea, I would get off work friday and the agent would have a list for us
to see. So first how was like $50000 over my limit. I would just
laugh. Then we went into some fixer-uppers, which I got no time
for...After a few outtings with the 'stupid look' I kept giving her, she
cleaned up her act.

in the end though I got a house that I didnt really know I wanted and
didnt really meet my criteria. So I guess she knew something afterall
and we were happy.

Yea, we used reltor.com and sent many of the houses to her, telling her
to get us to see them.

She was also our seling agent for our house.

I didnt like calling the listing agents for the houses on realtor.com as
we would have to go through the same jibberish and conversation and
contract waving every time. 'twas easier to just send them to our agent.


--
Respectfully,


CL Gilbert