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Thanks Ryan and Beachbum.

I can understand both your perspectives. I will say that I've gotten more information and education about REinvesting from this site alone, than any other place.

Just by sharing my experience with this real estate person and posing a question about comps here has generated a dialogue that has given me (and I'm sure other newbies and veterans) new information and other alternatives. That's what keeps me coming back to biggerpockets over a lot of other forums because the discussions are so indepth.

A friend of mine emailed me about an abandoned property in central Dallas, so I'm heading out during lunch to take a look at it. I'm going to try another realtor (recommended by the same friend) to run the comps for me because the property is in an area of town that I'm not too familiar with. I only travel this area as an alternate route to work on rare occasions.

Its a decent neighborhood though. An older community with tudor styled homes built in the late '30s or so. There's a lot of renovation going on in this particular community from investors and young couples who've inherited homes. I've seen a lot of young families in this neighborhood and retail business are slowly populating the area, so hopefully, it'll be my first slam-dunk!!!!

I'll hit you all back later this afternoon with my assessment. :superman:

-K Austin Realtor. I will ask around and interview these agents before assuming they know my business and are willing to help. You're right, I just think this particular agent wasn't sure about the investing side of real estate and perhaps that threw her for a loop. I will consider working with an agent in the future, but the first question I'll ask is if they know or have assisted anyone with investment deals.

Thanks for your suggestion.

Yes Charles. Please share your system.

Oh ... by the way AA, ARV is the After Repair Value on a property. Welcome to the forum. There's a lot of great information here. :welcome:

AWESOME!! Absolutely way to go!! I'm encouraged and can't wait until I can post my first deal too!!! :rock: ROCK ON....

GREAT INFORMATION!!! This is why I enjoy coming here. I can't get this type of discourse on a daily basis which is what I know I need to help nurture my understanding. My local REI group is cool, but its primarily monthly. I can come here everyday on my own time and participate in discussions.

Charles, you're absolutely right. I have a lot of studying to do if I'm going to step my game up to the level of getting accurate comps on my own.

Mike ... thanks for the insight!!

This discourse is great. John, I was just thinking that with so much detail in every deal, when do you have time to actually land one? I'm glad you acknowledged the issue of being too caught up to actually get a deal done.

I'm very new to this and its been my little 2 month experience that by the time I even get to the table to try and negotiate an offer, my target has moved and is snatched up by someone faster and more efficient than myself. So, I know I have a long, long way to go in fine tuning my research techniques.

Thanks everyone for your responses. Especially yours MikeOH.

Because if I could ultimately know the value of homes myself, that would save time. And I wasn't looking for any short cuts or substitutions, just other options to this area of legwork.

This question came about through a challenging experience with a realtor. Just asking her if she could run comps on some properties I was curious about was like pulling teeth. She had a million questions and still wanted blood. I was going to just call another realtor, but was so discouraged by her response that I came here to ask. I thought maybe her response was typical or something. So, I wanted everyone else's experiences with comps and was also hoping for alternatives.

Heading down to the county records office and researching on my own sounds more appealing to me after talking with this particular realtor. It was just a time consuming, exhaustive conversation.

Is the only way I can get comps through a realtor? :roll:

COOL!!! Thanks you all for your quick response.

Hey...is there a way that I can find out what someone paid for a home? I got an email about a property that's in pretty good shape, just needs some miscellaneous, cosmetic repairs and the seller (who is an investor) says that the house should retail at $145K after these small adjustments, but when I went online to the appraisal website, the house appraises at $119,560. They want $109,000 for it, but I'm just curious about how much they paid for it and just wondering if there was a way I could find that out. Any advice?