Pennsylvania-Pittsburgh

NWR - house hunting question

With your buyer agent do they suggest houses for you, or were / are you stuck sorting through the master search yourself?  (by master search I mean things that loosley fit what you are looking for).  Mine happened to start at over 600 houses, and I've got it down to 235, but sheesh.  What am I paying them for!?

Also, do you meet your agent at the houses, do they drive you, or do you drive them?
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Re: NWR - house hunting question

  • edited December 2011
    For us, it was a mix of both the agent suggesting places and us looking through the list ourselves.  Though we were pretty picky about location, so we were no where near 600 houses after we entered our parameters.  I found that that our agent was always trying to sneak in listings that didn't really meet our location requirements.  I'm not sure why becuase looking at them often ended up being a waste of both of our time.  I think maybe she thought she was trying to broaden our horizons or something.  :) 

    For driving, we mostly drove ourselves and met her.  Occasionally we would meet at a central location and she would drive us if we had a lot to see.  This was a little weird to me because my parents just bought a place recently and the agent would always drive us around (and bring us snacks and bottled water) while we were looking.  I guess it just depends on what your agent is like.

    Good luck out there!  :)
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  • Ash2985Ash2985 member
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    edited December 2011
    When FI was looking at houses, he had one or two in particular that he wanted to see.  We met his agent at the real estate office, and she drove us around to the different houses that fit within his parameters.  She was really helpful, especially because he was a first time home buyer (this was about 3.5 years ago).  I don't think he went out looking more than twice, but I know she drove both times.
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  • edited December 2011
    Our agent has been sending us listings but none of them have really been all that great. I'm on the email list from pittsburghmoves.com which has been helpful.  DF and I are always looking for new listings. 

    We've mostly drove our selves.  She did pick me up once and we met up with DF.  But, she is a family friend so it wasn't awkward. 

    Where are you looking?  600 listings is crazy!  We had a list of 25 this past week and was quickly narrowed down to 17 (as many of them were contingent).  GL!
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  • edited December 2011
    Did you put in location parameters, budget, # of bedrooms, type of unit, or any criteria at all?
    I think 600 houses would be what you'd find if you didn't put parameters in the search. You need to have your REA narrow down for you to those houses that fit your criteria.
    Use things like minimum number of bedrooms; school district; neighborhood; price; whether it is a condo, townhouse or single family home; or even style of house.

    The highest number of matching houses we had was 65, looking in 5 school districts and a range of prices within $40K of each other.
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  • edited December 2011
    I think you need to get a new REA agent...that is not typical!
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  • edited December 2011
    we have a minimum 3 br, 2 full baths, master bedroom size, kitchen size, off street parking or garage, and central air, and price parameters (within 80k), and unit type parameters but several locations we are willing to live in.  I think that's why it's 600.  It's down to 237 now, but that was a LOT of work. 

    As far as the riding question, I was asking because our REA's wife drops him off at our house (they only have one car), then he rides with us, and then take him home after.  I think that's awkward.  His wife is a doctor - I just don't get the one car scenario thing, and it's kind of inconvenient to take him back to Oakland every time.

    I'm going to maybe contact some other REAs.  Any ideas? 
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  • edited December 2011
    Bri - that's probably why you have so many houses.  Those are wide criteria because of the price.  80K is a huge range, especially in Pgh!  If you could narrow it in, you'd probably be better off.  For example, start out looking at the price you are most comfortable at, then maybe go higher depending upon what you are seeing.  You are going to see major differences between, say, a 100K house and a 180K house.  

    I do have to admit that we drove our REA around.  But, reason being, we lived in a condo and she was our upstairs neighbor.  It made things very convenient to take just one car.  
  • edited December 2011
    Did you sign a contract with your REA? If so, you can't really break it for the car thing.
    I agree with Shannon, 80K is a big range in Pittsburgh and you'll see a big difference in a $170K house versus a $250K house. Also, a big difference in those prices over different areas.
    Have you driven through the areas to knock some of them off, perhaps? We knocked off the entire North Hills that way.

    It seems you still have a long way to go with narrowing down your search. We looked at 28 houses before finding ours and that seemed like a flipping marathon.
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  • AP910AP910 member
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    edited December 2011
    Please, please, please make sure you trust your realtor and don't sign ANYTHING until you are SURE he is doing you the best service. The reason I haven't been on all week is because we put an offer on a house on Saturday, on a short sale, and our realtor is completely incompetent. I feel like we are stuck now, and that I am being our agent. This is not a fun place to be in, and it is our fault for giving her so many chances before, and trying not to hurt her feelings by going with another realtor when we started to realize she isn't the brightest. Now we are paying for it.

    We found every house that we liked via sites like  Trulia. You can also try Zillow. Both were pretty helpful!  Remember to advocate for yourself now, so you aren't on three-way calls with the  manager later! GOOD LUCK :):)
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