<p>We are considering retiring to an area not far from where we vacation every summer.</p>
<p>I’ve been looking at things on Trulia, and contacted a realtor about seeing a few possible houses while we are in the area next week.</p>
<p>In speaking to the realtor, I got the sense that he was not particularly keen on showing us anything, since we are not planning to buy immediately.</p>
<p>Is this common? Are we unreasonable in wanting to see property to get sense of an area, even though it is unlikely we would buy now?</p>
<p>"… contacted a realtor about seeing a few possible houses while we are in the area next week."</p>
<p>Well there’s the issue. The Realtor’s looking at three days showing houses in hopes that the out-of-towners might see something they can put on their ‘Dream List.’</p>
<p>I know … harsh, harsh, harsh. But “casual lookers” are a bane of Realtors’ existence. And wouldn’t you feel insulted if the Realtor asked you to pay Him/Her three days wages for showing you around town? For better service you might consider making the Realtor a partner … you know, have the Realtor prequalify you for a mortgage locally, or sign the Realtor on as your Buyer’s Agent, etc. At the very least you’ll need to hold out a carrot: “Fendrock is retiring next March, and we want to be in the house by then.”</p>
<p>Your request seems very reasonable – especially since both properties aren’t exactly selling like hotcakes… </p>
<p>Definitely call someone else, but I wonder if the realtors who advertise on Trulia are more oriented to “buy it now” sort of customers vs. people who need more of a relationship. Yet you say you would buy it now if it was right for you. I wonder if the realtor just has poor communication skills.</p>
<p>Who are the top 3 realtors in that area? Are there any independent realtors? They might be more amenable to starting a relationship with you. Good luck.</p>
<p>You did the right thing (contacting the listing agent). You just got the wrong person.
Check out this site: [National</a> Association Independent Real Estate Brokers Agents REALTORS](<a href=“realestatetrainers.org”>http://nationalrealestatebrokers.org/) to find independent realtors.</p>
<p>The other thing you could do (and you wouldn’t be the first) is to act as if you might buy something right away (because in a sense, you would – with the unusual house).</p>
<p>Just two houses? Sorry, I misunderstood. A request to see just two houses is called “a lead” … a leads are good things.</p>
<p>As Classof2015 points out, you’ll still want to convey some sense of urgency in your purchase plans. Be prepared with an encouraging reply when the Realtor asks “When are you planning to buy?”</p>
<p>And of course the biggest, juiciest carrot to dangle would be “I’d love for you to sell my current home!” Realtors want listings. But it doesn’t sound like that would work because it seems like you’re relocating to a different area.</p>
<p>My only comment = “wow”. You contacted the listing agent, asked for a showing, and received a less than enthusiastic response? I wonder how the property owner <a href=“Both%20properties%20have%20been%20on%20the%20market%20for%20months”>quote</a>
<p>When the Realtor asks you “When are you planning to buy?”–simply say “I’m bringing my checkbook with me!” Doesn’t mean you’re writing a check anytime soon.</p>
<p>If you’re just interested in seeing the houses you saw in Trulia now–ask for listing agent specifically to show them to you. The listing agent will be the most motivated agent to show them to you because he could potentially get a bigger sales commission. If you hookup with these listing agents and they are on the ball they’ll steer you to right house for you. If they don’t help, find an agent who will help you buy right house. Remember each real estate sale is actually two transactions–a listing side and buying side. If the listing agent sells his own listing he can get both commission sides.</p>
<p>Don’t tell agents you have to sell your own house out of town first to buy, they will cool off on showing you listings. Most top agents spend most of their time listing houses and letting other agents sell them for them. If you are exploring buying house, find an buyers’ agent who will devote time to assisting you. Busy, top sales producers are not going to waste time picking up lookers at airport, giving tour guides, buying lunches, etc. unless they have a good shot at a sale.</p>
<p>Sounds like you should play your cards a little closer to your chest. If they ask when you are moving, you can say when you find the right house. If they ask about how you plan to finance you can say that when the time comes you will look into prequalifying. Answer a question with a question- ask them about the market there, their experience, etc. Sounds almost like the car-buying experience.</p>
<p>I also heard that USAA has real estate agents listed with them and that you get a credit back after purchasing. Never knew that.</p>
<p>I spoke to this fellow for about 25 minutes yesterday, and was pretty frank with him.</p>
<p>He did indeed ask if we planned to sell our current house in order to buy the next one, but I told him I wasn’t comfortable sharing that type of information without my husband present.</p>
<p>He wanted us to come by his office to talk to him, which is not of much interest to me – I want to see the houses, not meet him.</p>
<p>On the one hand, I can see why an agent doesn’t want to waste time where there is no chance of a sale, but on the other hand, it seems that it would be worthwhile to spend an hour or two in hopes of establishing a relationship that would eventually lead to a commission.</p>
<p>If he doesn’t have the time to spend with us, he could just simply say so.</p>
<p>I will probably follow up and ask to set up an appointment to meet him at one of the houses, and if he balks, just tell him we’ll find someone else with whom to work.</p>
<p>The one-of-a-kind house is attracting a lot of curiosity seekers (sort of like people who would want to see a house because someone famous lived in it, with no intention of buying), so he is screening for that… I wouldn’t put us in that category, even if it is unlikely that we would write a check on seeing the place.</p>
<p>I think it is unreasonable. I used to think it was not unreasonable. But then I read an article that explained how this is their JOB, not their social outlet. If they take a day, or two, to show you around, that is a day or two of their time, at work, when they need to earn a living too, just to show you around with little chance of ever making a penny. If you make it clear up front that you will never pay them, then they still need to make a living, then clearly they are not likely to show you anything.</p>
<p>lmkh70, clearly real estate agents show MANY houses where they don’t make a sale.</p>
<p>You are seeing it from the agent’s perspective, but what about the buyer’s?</p>
<p>A house is a huge investment, and it is rather unreasonable to think that people won’t want to “kick a few tires” first.</p>
<p>I think it is fair to request a showing; and I suppose it is within the seller’s right to say they don’t want to show it to you, but clearly if they don’t show it to us, there is absolutely zero chance that we will consider buying it.</p>
<p>I was also thinking that, if a seller posts a listing on Trulia or a similar site, they are in a sense telling the public that the house is available for viewing.</p>
<p>If they want to qualify buyers prior to deciding whether or not they want it shown, it might be better to give the listing to agents but not put it on Trulia and the like.</p>
<p>But it is not like the OP is never going to earn the realtor a commision - it is just not a commission now. This should be an investment on the realtor’s part. If the OP does indeed relocate a year or two from now and has a good relationship with the realtor, then there is a good chance that the OP will come back and use the realtor for the future purchase.</p>
<p>The problem may be if the listing agent mainly acts as a selling agent, getting listings, and rarely works with buyers. If that is the case he may feel it is unlikely that the OP will use him in the future when they are ready to buy.</p>
<p>You may have better luck going through the broker’s relocation specialists. Most every brokerage has several agents who specialize in relocations. Call the brokerage office and ask to be referred to a relocation specialist. Better yet, if you know any realtors in your local area, have them get you a relocation referal. They are usually glad to do that, because if you do eventually buy they will get a cut of the action for the referal.</p>
<p>I have done several relocations and have had no problem having realtors show me houses, even if it wasn’t certain that I would be relocating to that area. This was part of the recruiting process, when it wasn’t even clear yet whether or not I’d get the job, so there was a possibility that I would never move to the area.</p>
<p>My bottom line is that a realtor should look at this as an investment. If they spend a couple of hours (or even days) with you now and can build a good relationship with you, then they may very well earn that 3% (buyer’s agent share) of the purchase price a year or two down the road. If the first realtor you talked to can’t look at it that way I suggest you should be able to find one who will be happy to start building a relationship with you.</p>
<p>This is important to the realtor (not to you of course) because they want you sitting there, in their conference room, while they “get to know you” (which is basically them hoping you’ll let something slip about what you’re willing to spend or what you would love to see in a house). The only way they make money is by getting you to pay the most for a house. They want to know who the decision maker is (you or H), what you want, how much you want it. They get more out of the face time in their office than they do following you up the stairs to see the master bedroom. That’s why they prefer to have you in their car to drive to listings. They want information.</p>
<p>We’ve had wonderful luck with realtors in all the areas we considered for relocation. Over the last few years we made several trips to scope out the cities we were investigating. All of the realtors knew that we were looking at several parts of the country and were not planning on moving in the near future. In the last few cases, we were set up with web sites ahead of time where we could track and review the market and identify the kinds of houses we liked. Then when we visited the cities, the realtors took us around to as many houses that we liked as we could see in a day. </p>
<p>I was looking for a Jewish realtor, or at least one familiar with where the synagogues were etc. because this was one of our factors in selection. Some of them we found through the JCC in the city (contacting the membership director). I think I found one name through an online Jewish web site. I googled around to learn as much as possible about them. We communicated back and forth ahead of time. We met one at her office, one at the JCC, two at our hotel, and one at a coffee shop. I would not hesitate to go back to any of them. My favorites were in Irvine, CA and Atlanta; also San Diego, which is where we hopefully will end up. </p>
<p>Everyone gave us the impression that they were very happy to take us around. They appreciated the amount of research we (me) had done ahead of time. Some of them seemed to enjoy the opportunity to see the range of houses themselves, and specific houses. As the day progressed and they considered our reactions, they were able to steer us to or away from various houses, or show us ones we hadn’t considered. Most of them did buy us lunch.</p>
<p>Our story. We spent the past few years determining where in the country to relocate for retirement. Vacationed in several areas. Finally figured out what was most important, what we could and couldn’t live with et al. Saw different cities in Florida. Nixed one, chose the other. </p>
<p>We did the online area search and made the trip down here (moved just a couple of months ago) for house hunting over a year ago. H looked up realtors with the company we were dealing with locally to sell our house- national company with good policies. Chose a realtor from a branch in our desired part of town who had ties to our home state per the online bio. Found out she was on vacation so saw another person in that office. She showed us 3 houses but none fit and we didn’t click. </p>
<p>On our way out of town we stopped at the real estate office in the huge development we were most interested in. We ended up with a team of two agents we much later found out were acting as buyers agents (no fees to us). They sent us online info and our next trip a few months later we saw some houses (including one seen before). They got a better idea of what we wanted and we learned that too, and what houses are like here. Last summer we made a low offer on a house not in the same development but one we figure would work for a few years. The owners rejected our offers and we let the house go- they sold at a bit over our initial offer- we were in the correct price range! We learned what is involved in a real estate transaction from that experience.</p>
<p>Our house up north was still for sale in the horrible market. We kept looking and got emails of new listings. Found out pros and cons for some that looked good “on paper” from these wonderful agents. Found some we liked but not enough to suddenly travel over 1300 miles to see- and they usually sold before we would have seen them. Considered renting so we would be around when a good house came on the market but had other things going on and didn’t. Finally found a good time with several options last winter. Found THE house, on the market only about 2 weeks. You can read my posts in the house selling thread. Realtors suggested a good starting price, were there for the inspections, helped find the pool and lawn guys… Moved a couple of months later when convenient. Had changed Wis real estate agents after two years and that house sold just after we moved. Now we have the cash to remove all of the PINK (location, layout, views etc worth the updating for us).</p>
<p>Finding the right agent needs to happen. We did, but not on the first try. You have to start looking to know the market and to grab the right house when it comes on the market. It can take a long time when you don’t need to move for work or school. Online info makes a huge difference but never tells the whole story. I even printed out Google maps and taped them together to get my bearings with all of the little neighborhoods. Noted the busy streets, highway, schools (noise) and power line right of way. Those details don’t show up on the descriptions.</p>
<p>You do have to look at houses to know what is the norm for an area. You also need to see the houses- one had a shower door a skinny person would have to turn sideways to enter. Another had the master bedroom visible from the entryway. Some were just too big for us. We had a wide range of prices to consider.</p>
<p>Good luck finding an agent you “click” with. It makes all the difference.</p>