All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Just got word from our realtor and our offer was accepted on a property we viewed yesterday evening. Thanks again for all the feedback. Just goes to show you that regardless of where you are at in your REI journey there are always mistakes to be made, opportunities to learn from, and deals to be made!

My wife and I are going to enjoy the moment and recalibrate. 

Stay positive my friends and don't let negativity stop you from achieving your goals. 

Peace ;)

@Steve B. The way it was explained to me is that it was agreeing to work exclusively with an agent. I think it was referring to a situation where the realtor is entitled to the commission if he shows us a specific property, to prevent us from cutting him out of the deal or closing with another agent? Perhaps someone with more experience can chime in.

Originally posted by @David Song:

@Taylor King

Respect other people's time.

If you want to buy something under the market price at this time through an agent, forget it. You are wasting your time and the agent's time.

 Agreed. At our initial consultation I gave my prospective realtor my criteria clear as day. I even reminded him that I wasn't interested in finding a property unless it cash flowed or could be purchased under market price. He insisted that this was possible and made a commitment to me while shoving the buyers agreement in my face. 

My time is valuable too. 

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

the truth to it is that you gotta find the realtors who are hungry for business!

Couldn't agree more. Glad to hear it worked out for you!

Originally posted by @Elenis Camargo:

@Account Closed Have you thought of reaching out to the listing agents for the properties that you like on your own, instead of going through a realtor? 

Elenis, we realized that this was an option and considered contacting the listing agents on several properties when our agent was unresponsive. Unfortunately we had already signed a buyers agreement and didn't want to step on the realtors toes. Definitely will consider this method going forward. Thank you.

Originally posted by @Jerry N.:

@Account Closed A PP mentioned in passing Redfin.  Look to see if they operate in your market.  You can find everything you need on there including a lot of history.  You can also set up alerts.

Everyone on here was a noob once and you learn as you go.  If you were upfront with the agent(s) to begin with, they should have decided at that time if they wanted to deal with your requirements.  So we disagree with the posters who say you aren't respecting the agent's time.  

This is exactly the case, and the primary source of my frustration. It's like they told me everything I wanted to hear from jump street then got frustrated when we stuck to our guns. I think the fact that we qualified for a home 3x the price that we were looking to purchase must have been enticing to our realtors. 

I really can't thank you all enough for your insightful feedback. I understand that these are "the breaks" and despite the difficulties, I am glad my wife and I are able to learn through this process. We understand that as noobs, we aren't going to have the clearest expectations for our realtor, and vice versa. Given the Market conditions, our timing to jump in wasn't ideal for going the traditional MLS route. We are working on networking with wonderful, intelligent folks like y'all locally, so we can gain the knowledge and resources necessary to find off-market deals and work with sellers directly going forward.

From what i gathered scraping though the responses, it seems that what we actually needed was guidance. Instead of coming here to the biggerpockets forum or attending local rei meetups I think i tried to truck my way through our first deal. The fact that this is going to be our first home purchase just adds to the anxiety. 

Regardless, we are going to view a few properties later today that fit our criteria and analysis. If we hadn't pushed on further we most likely wouldn't have found what we were looking for. It's the nature of the business, I understand. Cash rules everything around me and it's all about the cream! 

The point of this post wasn't to whine or look for a pity party. My wife and I want to learn, adjust, and improve because we are just getting started and we plan for this to be the first of many. Hopefully, our experience can help any other noobs out there who are trying to navigate this crazy, scary, awesome world that is real estate. 

@Sean Lambert I appreciate you input. We do currently run our own analysis on each property before we send it to our realtor. Unfortunately, I don't have access to MLS beyond Zillow and I often have to ask the realtor for more details to get accurate analysis. I was under the impression that CMA's were generated in their MLS system and didn't require much effort on their part.

@Chris Mason I completely agree and in no way expect to be handed a deal. I fully expect, and have made offers, to pay retail prices for several properties during our search. I run analysis on every property before I send them to our realtor. The only reason I decided to go with a realtor in the first place is because we were new to the market and we've gathered that it was good to work with one on your first deal to help you learn the process. If it was up to me, I would have dropped our agent a long time ago, as all they have done is unlock doors and link us to MLS. We found a nearby market that is priced right doing our own research. That has led us to work with our current agent. I dont have access to MLS and I do not know any other agent/brokers or I would be doing it myself.

@Randy E. I appreciate your input. Throughout this experience we have definitely learned to adjust our expectations; and I agree that the first agent most likely had good intentions. We have adopted the strategy you've suggested with our new agent and we always defer to him before requesting a showing. We specifically ask whether he believes it is worthwhile seeing. I think the issue lies in the fact that our decision to buy is based on numbers and not emotions as he is accustomed too.