If you own a house.....how did you find it?!

[thespeakerbox]

Im looking for a house, and have checked real estate agencies and the paper, along with craigslist, but haven't seen anything good. Im willing to wait until i find a deal, but does anyone have anymore advice or ideas?

 

[Kelemvor]

Get a good Realtor. Get referrals from friends and co-workers. A god realtor sees listings before they hit the itnernet or newspaper. And they will learn what you are looking for and can setup flags that as soon as a house come son the market it emails you or them right away.

A Good Realtor can be the best thing in the world. However a Bad Realtor can be the worst thing in the world. That's why I'd only use a Realtor that someone referred me to.

 

[thespeakerbox]

Is there any consolidated list to search for ALL houses available in the immediate area or do i have to search each real estate company individually?

Anyone know of a consolidated list of realtors ?

 

[Ornery]

Everybody and their brother is looking for "fixer-uppers". Nitwits are even buying perfectly good homes, and trying to tweak them a bit to flip them at a profit. You could try sheriff sales and foreclosures, but don't expect bargains, because there's just too many people doing the same thing.

Buying through a real estate agent is a sure way to lose 3.5% right from the start. You're plan was to make money, right?

Don't forget you have to pay capital gains if you flip it inside of a year, so there goes more money. If you have a loan on the house, you'll be paying huge interest during that year, so there goes another big chunk of cash. It really ain't what it's cracked up to be.

Figure on just buying a house and living there a good while. You'll have no choice but to "fix it up", because something's always in need of repair. Just take on the repairs as they come, and do a good job of it.

I picked our house based on location. Just this little theory I have about location being top priority. Try to get close to work, good schools, shopping and freeways. You can change almost anything about any house, but the location.

 

[Vinney]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/busin...1139720400&en=efa8ee5e99b0b52a&ei=5070

 

[bctbct]

I used a metal detector. Been a good house so far

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

We bought a few years ago when it was impossible to get a house without knowing the seller before hand, or having a realtor. We told the realtor that we wanted a house with XYZ and that was something we could build some sweat equity in. The first house she showed us was exactly that. We put an offer in the next day, and it was accepted.

 

[farmercal]

realtor

 

[Descartes]

My friend is a broker

 

[thespeakerbox]

Originally posted by: Ornery
Everybody and their brother is looking for "fixer-uppers". Nitwits are even buying perfectly good homes, and trying to tweak them a bit to flip them at a profit. You could try sheriff sales and foreclosures, but don't expect bargains, because there's just too many people doing the same thing.

Buying through a real estate agent is a sure way to lose 3.5% right from the start. You're plan was to make money, right?

Don't forget you have to pay capital gains if you flip it inside of a year, so there goes more money. If you have a loan on the house, you'll be paying huge interest during that year, so there goes another big chunk of cash. It really ain't what it's cracked up to be.

Figure on just buying a house and living there a good while. You'll have no choice but to "fix it up", because something's always in need of repair. Just take on the repairs as they come, and do a good job of it.

I picked our house based on location. Just this little theory I have about location being top priority. Try to get close to work, good schools, shopping and freeways. You can change almost anything about any house, but the location.

I'm not looking to flip or anything. I'm looking for something i can fix up (meaning to my liking) and live in for around 7 years. Then i will decide to move. Im not looking to make a quick buck or anything.

 

[Lola]

we looked on realtor.com (tons of houses within a range you choose) but also, if possible, I would go every sunday to locations that you would like to live around and search for homes that way.

We looked for weeks and weeks and weeks. Our home was a FSBO (for sale by owner) and we say it on a helpusell.com site, but the husband actually found it when he went up and down each street in the city we wanted during lunch one day.

 

[Ornery]

Find the crappiest house, in the best neighborhood. Any additions or improvements you make will be returned when you sell. Location is top concern though, so work on that first and foremost.

I started with a map, circled the best locations and ONLY looked in those spots. Never let myself be swayed from those circled areas. We did what LolaWiz said. Drove through those areas and looked for homes for sale. I didn't need a damn realtor tagging along to do that. I only dealt with the listing agents of the homes for sale.

Negotiate Your Real Estate Agent's Commission

• Explore payment options (beyond just straight commissions) with agents. For example, you can discuss a flat fee; a dual fee in which you pay 5 percent if the home is sold with a buyer broker and 3 percent if sold only by the listing broker; or pay consultant fees on an as-needed basis.

It Pays to Negotiate Your Agent's Commission

• When buyers approach a traditional real-estate agency, they are often assured that the agent's help is free. That's true in the sense that the home buyer doesn't normally pay the agent. But the service isn't really free because home sellers factor in the cost of commissions when they price their homes. In fact, some sellers are willing to lower the price if you show up without an agent.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I used "realtor.com" initially when looking, but then when I knew more about the specifics as to what I was looking for, I talked to a realtor and he got me access to his MLS search on his website. It showed a bit more info then realtor.com (as in, was up to date as to what was still open and what was taken...)

 

[timswim78]

I recently bought a fixer upper and put about $20k cash into fixing it up. It's now worth double what I paid.

- Find out what agency HUD has contracted with to sell foreclosures in your area. That agency will provide free listings on their Web site.
- Foreclosures are only open to bids from homeowners for the first 30 days, in most cases. Then, everybody and their brother will put in a bid.
- When you put in a bid, negotiate the rate with your realtor. This is VERY IMPORTANT, because HUD sells homes on the net bid to them, not your gross bid. Here is an example, one person puts in a bid of $200,000 on a HUD home, and his agent charges him 2%. So, the net to HUD is 196,000. Another person puts in a bid of 205,000, and his agent charges 6%. The net to HUD is 192,700. HUD will award the house to the person who put in the 200,000 bid.

 

[thespeakerbox]

Originally posted by: timswim78
I recently bought a fixer upper and put about $20k cash into fixing it up. It's now worth double what I paid.

- Find out what agency HUD has contracted with to sell foreclosures in your area. That agency will provide free listings on their Web site.
- Foreclosures are only open to bids from homeowners for the first 30 days, in most cases. Then, everybody and their brother will put in a bid.
- When you put in a bid, negotiate the rate with your realtor. This is VERY IMPORTANT, because HUD sells homes on the net bid to them, not your gross bid. Here is an example, one person puts in a bid of $200,000 on a HUD home, and his agent charges him 2%. So, the net to HUD is 196,000. Another person puts in a bid of 205,000, and his agent charges 6%. The net to HUD is 192,700. HUD will award the house to the person who put in the 200,000 bid.

Thats really interesting. Where could i look to find properties in my area. The HUD site is hard to navigate. Is there a number to call to find out the agency?

 

[DrPizza]

Just stop by a realtor and ask for the listings for your area...

We simply had a list from our realtor of every property in about a 50 mile radius. Didn't take long to find the house we're in now.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I had a realtor. She took me around on my lunch breaks and showed me about 20-30 houses in 3 days. She Emailed me a bunch more....then, by luck...I found one that was just listed and it was priced extremely low for the area. I would only buy an expensive house based on location....2 good things to remember when checking the quality of a house is seeing what the inside of the closets look like (are they totally finished with drywall, etc) This tells you if a contractor cut corners when he built the place... the other thing to check is the quality of the counter tops/cabinets in the kitchen. If they're nice, then there's a good chance the rest of the house is at that same level of quality...after all kitchens are the most expensive rooms to remodel.

 

[AdamSnow]

I bought from a friend of mine's parents...

Did the whole deal privately and it was great.

 

[Mermaidman]

Realtors, because we weren't familiar with the cities.

 

[flot]

Originally posted by: thespeakerbox
Is there any consolidated list to search for ALL houses available in the immediate area or do i have to search each real estate company individually?

Anyone know of a consolidated list of realtors ?

Of course. http://www.realtor.com - this will give you the MLS listings for your area. (Well actually the whole country) Easiest way to search in MY opinion is to get a zip code map, find the zip codes where you'd like to live, and then search those zips for your price range.

90% of all houses for sale are listed in the MLS. The remaining 10% are either private listings with individual RE offices, For Sale by Owners, etc. For those you will have to go to the individual offices and/or websites. (There are a few big franchises that do a lot of private listings - for instance, www.assist2sell.com, www.buyowner.com, etc)

As a buyer it does not cost you anything to use a realtor. So use a realtor. If you are just browsing, by all means, do everything you can online so you have a good idea of what you want and what is available in your area.

Finding a 'deal' is all up to you. It will depend on what you want/need in a house and what you are willing to put into it both financially and effort-wise. If you are handy, then look for a run down house in a great neighborhood. If you are not, look for a modest house in an improving neighborhood. The only thing you typically DON'T want to buy is the nicest house in any given neighborhood - if you do that you will be waiting (sometimes years) for everyone else to catch up. Great if you can afford it, but will appreciate at a lower % rate than the ones around it.