When house hunting

Were you doing all the work, such as scouring for listings and giving them to the realtor, or did the realtor find places to show you? I get the report everyday of what's available, but all the houses I feel like I am the one emailing her to go see them instead of her finding them and bringing me. I don't mind doing it, but half the time I don't know if a house is in contract or what.

I am so stressed about the whole finding a house, I just don't want to deal with it right now, but I am wondering if I should use a different realtor.

When house hunting

Our realtor always had listings to show us - she would have a printout of everything she thought we might be even slightly interested in

Re: When house hunting

Both. I was very hands on in the process. I picked the house we bought 7 months before we signed contracts!. I had seen it and fallen in love but had to sell our old house. Some act of god it was still available when we finally sold.

Re: When house hunting

Our realtor was absolutely amazing - she knew exactly what we wanted and for the first time, I didn't have to do any work. And if I ever did send her a listing, she already had it on her list.

Re: When house hunting

Our real estate agent was great. She showed us every house for sale in our price range in the area we wanted.

She would email us several listings and we'd review them with her.

We eventually bought a house on the same block she lived on.

Re: When house hunting

Our agent (along with other agents who got our email at open houses) would email us with houses frequently. DH and I spent tons of time on MLSLI browsing but we sorta enjoyed it so it didn't feel like work. DH to this day will still sit and scour MLSLI for fun, although we're not looking to move anytime soon.

Re: When house hunting

We did not use a realtor.

Re: When house hunting

As a realtor, I'd say it really depends on the client and their wishes. For most of my clients, it is probably a mix of both.

I feel like a big part of my job is to know the inventory, so I review new listings and price and status changes in the areas where I do most of my work, as well as any areas where I have an active client looking at least once a day if not more. If I come across any listings that I think will work for my client, I will send them an email (or call) letting them know about the house and finding out if they are interested in seeing it. I also try to preview a lot of houses at broker's open houses and caravans, so I can see first hand what's available and know if my buyer should see it. Online listings give a lot of information, but they don't tell the whole story. Even the online listings available to brokers have a lot more detailed info than what the consumers see.

But a lot of my clients do enjoy looking online. I offer Listingbook accounts to them, and many of them get addicted to them and have their own ideas of what they want to see, or will contact me about specific listings with questions for me to answer or follow up on. Sometimes my clients will want to see properties that I don't think will suit their needs -- because I have more info than them, or I know the location better, or I've seen the house -- and I will give them feedback on their list before we book appointments.

So when I am setting up a day/time to meet with clients, the list of what we aim to see usually evolves from my own research and the clients' input. But if a client wanted me to set up showings based on their criteria and didn't want to do their own online search, that would be fine, too, and it sometimes happens that way.

I am a full-time agent, though. A part-time agent may not have the time or experience to do the things a full-time agent does.

However, keep in mind that the value of having a real estate agent, in my view, is not just to help you find a property, but also to act as a "project manager" for your purchase, guiding you through each step of the transaction. A lot of my job involves not just showing properties, but negotiating, preparing paperwork, coordinating inspections and appraisals, communicating with attorneys, lenders, and other parties, troubleshooting (issues like COs, repairs, etc.), and -- most importantly -- being accessible to my clients so they can get questions answered every step of the way!

When house hunting

I was very hands on. I was all over the listingbook, mls, etc.... In the beginning it was more of the realtor giving me stuff, but more and more I was the one saying we want to see this and that. She was fine with it, I guess it made her job easier lol

When house hunting

Realtor just took us to homes we informed him about. We looked online, did the research, and then just let him know and he would then find out if it was still available and then take us to see it if it was.

Re: When house hunting

My realtor knew what I was looking for **thanks Beth*** she sent me the listings of what was available every morning or it was automatically sent I don't remember. I looked to see if there was anything I liked and she did the rest. I just met her at he scheduled time and place.

When house hunting

Both. I was very hands on and reviewed the listings daily and told her what we wanted to see. She would then suggest others based upon my reactions to other homes.


The house we ended up buying I had completely written off bc there were no inside pictures. Our realtor insisted we see it and I fell in love immediately (once I looked past the pink kitchen and faded teal carpet). Even though I was so hands on, wo my realtor we would have never found our dream home

When house hunting

I had a mixture of both...most of the time we ended up sending the same listings to each other because I was looking in a very small geographic area with a set maximum budget and had a few must haves that limited things even further. I was/am glad to have a good agent to handle all the things that came after we put in our offer(s). When it came to dealing with multiple offers and all the back and forth my agent was a life saver.