Newbie's realtor Qs

[Edgar Raman]

       Hello all. Me and my brother discovered bigger pockets about a year ago and after listening to podcasts and reading through some forums/books, decided to pursue home ownership for passive income. We both work in government sectors and have been able to save up enough for a down payment on our first house. Our strategy is to buy something that needs a little bit of work, move in for a year, fix it up, rent it out and bunny hop like this while we still young and can do it. We live in OC, California and hope to own realty in the area. We know market is bad right now here, but with rent prices as they are, it still makes more sense to own then rent. Plus we would like to capture low interest rates before they rise again.

We began shopping around for an FHA loan to get pre-approved for one and are looking towards the next step to start searching for a realtor. However, as we have no experience in the process I hope we can get some advise in finding one.

- How should we go about of finding a realtor we can trust? Our father bought a house way back when and got screwed by one as he knew nothing about the process. He got stuck with paying all the fees, inspections and generally bad service.

- From what we read here on forums, we should look for an investor realtor. What questions should I ask him/her to determine if they know what they are talking about.

- Have any of you worked with someone in OC who left a positive experience.

-Do you have any tips/advise when dealing with realtors?

-Is there anything we should watch out for?

[Russell Brazil]

I generally recommend that people get a referral to an agent from a friend or family member. If they did right by someone you know, they will likely do right by you.

I dont quite understand though how your father got screwed? Why wouldnt your father need to pay for inspections and fees associated with buying a house? Those are costs he is supposed to pay.