If you bought or sold a house in the last 5 years...How did you choose your last real estate agent?
832244
My realtor was a business contact. When we finally decided to buy our house I recalled the fact that she was a realtor and got the ball rolling. Everything turned out well.
504969
You should search yahoo answer first.  Similiar questions have been asked before.\n\n- Get pre-approval from a lender\n- Get a realistic estimate of the house you like to buy\n- find a realtor
907193
Get a realstate agent to help you depends where it is I guess
66123
I sell new homes for a living and I would say an older one.  But make sure you get a GOOD home inspector and warranty to ensure that everything is okay on/in the property and building.
1145335
My husband & I bought a foreclosed home last year.  We actually looked at several.  We chose this house because of its location.  It had been vacant for 2 years, and not well maintained prior to that.  We knew all of this before we made the offer of nearly 25% less than the asking price (which was low for the area to begin with).\n\nThere was some extra paperwork, mostly releasing the bank from any liability for things that did not work.  Nothing worked.  Our offer was accepted within 24 hours, and it still took 6 weeks to close on an unoccupied house with a cash purchase.\n\nWe have been doing renovations since December.  We have been doing them ourselves and have saved tens of thousands of dollars.  Even with all of the work we have still spent less than 1/2 of the curent market value of similar homes in this area.  If we had it to do over, we would.
907708
Yes, listen to your instincts.  If your agent is not doing their job, fire them!  Get someone who knows what they're doing.  This time, do extra research on who actually knows what they're doing.  You should have a comparative market analysis done free of charge by any agent that wants your business.  This will show you what houses are selling for in your area.  (Not what they are listed for, that information is useless).
264129
ask a realator or zillow.
8646
I just asked my mom, who's been a realtor for over ten years, her "recipe for success" on the floor and this is what she said:\n\n"Ask the person what prompted the phone call, i.e., for sale sign, looking to buy, looking to sell, etc.  If the person saw the house, what was it that attracted the person to the house?  Was it the neighborhood? The price? The design? Try to keep a dialogue going by asking questions."\n\nShe also pointed out that some people can't get hooked even by the most skilled salesperson.  There are people out there who just want a question answered and aren't interested in working with a realtor.
498916
I recently bought a home in another state.  I had online communication with almost a dozen Realtors.  I found that I preferred a Realtor that was willing to show me listings other than theirs, general good attitude, not telling me that what I was looking for wasn't out there but persistence in finding what I was looking for made the difference.
426496
You will need a WILL, beacuse you'll be dead meat. Do not sell with out a realtor or at least talking to an agent. Most agent would be glad to set you up with paper work and review it for no charge or a small fee in hopes for you doing business with them. Or pay more and talk to an attorney.
1159280
OK....sellers realty costs are no more than 6% of the sales price of your home, and take it from a realtor...when you list your house, and you don't offer a good commission to the BUYERS agent, they won't even SHOW your house to their buyers, so you can basically concider your home blacklisted and it will not be shown.  So unless you already have a buyer lined up to purchase your home, you really need to get an agent.  Not all of them are annoying, but there are always a few that give the rest of us a bad name.  Plus, when a buyer buys a home from a *for sale by owner* the buyers agent knows they will be doing the work of both sides and again, we avoid that at all costs.  Why should we work double duty and then only get paid for one side, and its usually only 1.5%-2% commission anyway? No thank you..so bottom line...get an agent.  Interview 3 or 4 and find one who's personality you can get along with.  There are a lot of very good, honest agents out there and with the right one you can have a smooth job of selling your home.  Good Luck!
1150555
I found 33 homes that meet your criteria on www.realtor.com.  Also check out www.zillow.com for recent comparable sales (not asking) prices.\n\nVisiting these web sites before going on too many trips with your realtor should speed up the process and I think you'll be happier with the results.\n\nGood luck!  There are a fair number of homes in your price range there.
142728
Talk to your real estate agent or laywer.
137388
I just did this recently! I will be first to tell you it is not as scary/stressful or hard as some will tell you.\nFirst find a mortgage broker. If you can find one like our guy, you're good. You give him your info, (name, social security number etc.) We told the broker that we wanted to know EXACTLY how much money we would be approved for prior to looking for a house.That way we weren't looking at stuff we couldn't afford.\nHe called us and gave us our amount and told us to go find a house.he also suggested a real estate agent, which we made an appointment with.\nMeanwhile we looked online and got those real estate books you see everywhere. We found a house on our own prior to even meeting the agent and when we went to see her it wasn't one of hr houses but she called the agent that did have it listed and we went and looked at it.Said we wanted it, and then the agent and the broker did the rest of the work and all we had to do was keep checking with them , calling them to see what the next step was.Most agents/brokers know you are a first time buyer and will help you along in the process, they know how hard things can be. Although , the hardest part is actually finding a house you want. If you have a spouse, you'd be amazed at what you 2 will argue about.(my husband got all annoyed with me when I said I wanted something that was already wallpapered- and he wanted painted walls because wall paper peels-whatever- that's just how stupid it can get)\n1 month later we bought it and moved in for around 400 dollars.We don't have the greatest credit in the world either. To break down house hunting here you go:\nLook within your price range.\nget a real estate agent who will ask for the world. You want the seller to pay closing costs. \nIf it's you by yourself buying, or with someone else, then sit down and decide EXACTLY what you NEED in a house.What you want, and what you can live with/without. This will be your home for a while you are going to want to have certain things when you are paying that kind of money out.\n\nMy husband could not live without a garage.I wanted a 2 story, and we both knew we did not want to live in a subdivision. Not only did the house we pick have a 2 car garage in the front of the house, it had a 2 car outbuilding/garage in the back, a hot tub, and a playhouse in the backyard that looks exactly like the real house.\n When I say get an agent who will ask for the world, I mean just that. This house did not come with the playhouse,and they wanted a certain amount for it, we offered about 20,000 less than what they wanted, and told them we wanted the playhouse, and we also wanted them to leave the fridge, stove, dishwasher, and an upstairs airconditioning unit, not to mention we wanted them to pay all of the closing costs. of course they said "no" but they didn't just say no flat out, they said "we want what we asked for the house, but we will let you keep all the things you asked for, plus the playhouse and we will pay 80% of the closing costs." We tacked the rest of the closing costs onto the mortgage and we were good to go.\n\nI know you probably don't live in my area, and I am not sure how the schemantics of it work, but if you are interested in knowing the name of our broker, he'd be happy to contact you.He asked us to put his name out there and he is relatively new, so he is anxious to please. Of course I'm not giving you his name on here but if you are interested drop me a note, by editing your question and saying you are interested in who he is.\n\nItried to email you but no luck, email me if you get a chance, and I will give you that.
72575
Depends on the market. If sales in the neighborhood are hot you can probably do a FSBO. But the market needs to be VERY hot. Most sellers overprice their home because they're emotionally attached to the house. In a hot market, you can get away with listing on the high end.\n\nBut an agent will treat it as a business transaction - which is what it is.\n\nAnd not all agents are created equal.\n\nIf you decide to select an agent ask them some questions like: \nHow fast are homes selling in my area? They should be able to tell you what the average days on market are.\nWhat will I net from the list price you suggest?\nHow did you come up with the list price? If they don't sound like they did their homework move to the next one.\nHow will they market the home? Open houses are a waste of everyone's time - look for agents that use creative marketing like custom mailers to a database of past customers.\n\nGood luck!
113283
Here is what I would sugest for you to do:\n\nGather up your last 2 months bank statements for all accounts, your last 2 pay stubs, last years w-s, 1099, or tax returns.\n\nThen go to a mortgage company and tell them you want to prequal. They will pull your credit and then use the documents you brought in to figure out how much house you can afford at what interst rate, and how they will need to structure the loan. \n\nOnce you have this information, I would sugest obtaining a Real Estate Agent. The reason is this .. the buyer pays nothing for having an agent ... the agent gets paid by the seller once the house is sold. So it is in your best interest to have one. Tell the agent what you qualify for, and what you are looking for. They will pull up properties in MLS and then you can choose the ones you want to see. The other benifit of having a Real estate Agent is that they will look out for your best interest in regards to the REPC, and typically will not let you get hosed by the lender either. This is important if you are new to all of this.\n\nIf you have a good lender and a good Agent then you should not have anything to worry about. Ask lots of questions to the lender, you can learn alot about the process.
295437
I would interview at least 3 agents or brokers within your community, look at their sales record, marketing material and see if they have an internet presence this should get you started. 95% of the real estate is generally sold by 5% of the agents in any community. Coldwell Banker is a good company and I contend its not the company but the agents experience that will get the job done.