NWR: Advice from homeowners

litskispecialty

Hi Ladies,

I know I could/should probably put this on the nest but you've been such a great help.

I posted last week that DH and I put an offer in on a house and unfort. it was not accepted.   Really bumed this was a perfect house for us and such a great deal!

Just curious for the homeowners on here how many offers did you put in on houses before you finally got one accepted?  Are we going to face this again?

Our realtor kinda stinks and we're contractually bound to her until 12/31.  She is brand new (and we're first time home buyers not a great mix) and not very knowledgeable.

Any advice?  She's not even sending us listings after we've told her what we want/need/hope for in a house, what towns we want to live in and price range.  She's sending us listings in towns we've said we won't live in and well (like $15K) over our price range saying just to low ball them on the offer.  Hello isn't that how we got into this bad economy in the first place?  She expects us to just go to open houses she doesn't want to do showings. 

Sorry just needed the vent and advice from someone who's already been through the process.

ladyd522

FI & I actually just bought our first house March of this year. We had a rough experience with the process b/c the house we fell in love with was a short sale. We put the offer on the house in September of 2009 & our offer was accepted in March.

During that time we did put offers on 2 other houses & got out bid on both of them. The best advice I can give is be very very patient. I know it's hard, I got very frustrated waiting & waiting, but to be honest it all worked out.

I lived on www.nneren.com and looked at all the houses myself & e-mailed our realtor when we found something we liked. That might be a good option for the time being while you are with this realtor!

Good Luck!!

[Deleted User]

Is there any way out of your contract (failure to provide services requested, etc) before 12/31?  I would request another realtor if you're really serious about buying a home soon.  He/she should be working for YOU, not the other way around.

It's a frustrating process, especially in this market, but it will happen for you.

Personally, we use beangroup.com to peruse the listings, but had an agent through BHG/Masiello.  Good luck!

litskispecialty

Thank you ladies! 

Unfort the house we loved was a foreclosure and another deal fell through while we were on our honeymoon, so there must be something really wrong with the house but it's still a huge bummer.

Unfort we're stuck living in MA because DH is on the Worcester Fire Dept. and can't live outside of a certain radius.  The search is that much harder because only recently did the plan change to living in MA when we were looking at NH where you can get a lot more house for a lot less money.

Our realtor is a lady I used to work with.  You never do business with friends holy cow do I understand that saying more than ever!  We keep sending her listings and asking her to set up showings.  We finally have 1 showing out of the 7 listings we've sent.  Somehow I'm attracted to a lot of short sale houses and she won't touch those (but given the length to get into one I guess I see why).

I just don't want to lose a month and a half god willing we could be in a house in that time!  I'm hoping our showing on Thursday night will be fruitfull.

MrsR0511

We bought our house last August. It is awful to have to put multiple offers in and not get them. We lost the most amazing house in the town we wanted to be in because it was a short sale and the bank selected another offer. It's so frustrating but it will happen eventually. Honestly we took a break for a month because it got so stressful.

As for your realtor- she should be setting up your search engine with the towns and price range you want. You can get out of your contract if you can show she is not doing what you ask but it is a bit of a hassle. A good realtor would not send you to open houses without having shown you some places first to make sure you know what to look for and ask during the open house and feel comfortable. Being a first time homebuyer is stressful enough and your realtor is supposed to help you. If you can get out of your contract or you wait it out, you should look for another realtor that doesn't mind short sales and foreclosures because they are a lot more work and you need to know about them as the rules are different. My realtor specialized in working with first time homebuyers and she knew all the tricks and was very comfortable with short sales and foreclosures as that's what many 1st time buyers can affod to get in to, I wish you luck and if you want any realtor referrals let me know- mine was amazing! Good luck- I hope you find exactly what you are looking for.

DirtyWater

It took over a year to get our house.  We put in a low ball offer and the guy laughed at it.  A year later it was still on the market and he took the offer.  It was another few months before all of the paperwork went through. 

This house has a million problems because it is so old but FI couldn't live without it. 

redvi01et

We were advised to stay away from short sales and foreclosures just because they are so much of a pain. You don't want to end up putting an offer in and then have to wait around for the bank and everyone to figure it all out while you could be finding another house that would be even better. We closed on our house in Hudson in July, and other than a few back-and-forth offers with the sellers over a few days, we didn't have any problems at all.

Don't be afraid to look at A LOT of houses. We probably drove our realtor crazy, but we went to see over 30 homes. They really just want you to buy something, so if they have to bring you out a zillion times, it will still be worth it to them. If she's not willing to set up showings, you need to figure out how to get someone who will (not sure how to do that...)

We really did a lot of the legwork ourselves to find the houses. She set us up with a daily email with houses in our price range in the area, but I just made a gigantic spreadsheet of houses that were our top priority to visit based on acreage, square feet, garage, school district, etc. It was a lot of work, but when you think about how much time you are going to spend in your new home, it is worth it!

crysperry

me and the FI are in the process of a foreclosed home purchase. we are working with erica stewart, shes young but very knowledgable on the buying process and showing us all kinds of places in out budget. we found one that we love and are hoping to put in an offer this week!