Not all Real Estate agents belong to the Association of Realtors. Those that do not belong are not called Realtors, (that is a trademarked name) and they do not have access to the MLS. As you go through the active listings you can start to filter through the properties you are very interested in, possibly interested in, or do not want to consider at all. It is extremely helpful to go through the list ahead and delete those that are not to be considered.
I’ve been out on tours before with folks who have not done this process and it is challenging for a few different reasons. We end up either seeing a lot of properties and you soon cannot remember one from the other and you get the “deer in headlights” look and/or you waste the sellers time and their agents by viewing a parcel you have no desire to buy. I’ve pulled up in front of homes before and had the buyers tell me from the road they have no desire to see the home. I have to then go up and knock on the door if the seller is expecting us and cancel the showing. That is very hard on everyone involved.
After we spend a day or two looking I find it is often fairly easy for me to tell if the buyer is ready to commit or not. I’ve spent a lot of time with some buyers who spend our whole time finding fault with every property we see. I have found that when this happens the buyers are simply either not ready to buy or have something going on in their life that they are not being realistic about. (ha ha…another way to say they are not ready!)
If you find you are doing this while home shopping you may want to stop yourself and ask yourself if you are “truly” ready to buy a property.
When buyers are ready, they usually spend a lot of time at all the parcels and try to envision themselves living there. Sometimes they find “the one” and spend all their time there or they make arrangements to come back to “the one” every day or few days to re-visit it over and over.
Sometimes buyers surprise you, so you never know. I’ve been with a few buyers who I would have swore were not going to buy and the next day they call me to write an offer.
As a Realtor I try to find out from the listing agent if there are other offers potentially coming in or if we seem to have a few hours to sleep on it. If other offers are coming in, I then counsel my client to consider getting an offer in quickly or just letting the other agent know we are coming in with an offer. Most seller’s agents welcome a multiple offer situation so they are often willing to try to counsel their sellers to hold out to see your offer. Most are also willing to keep me informed of any updates while we are waiting for my buyers to make a decision. There is always the risk of losing it however.
I’ve been in some situations where my buyers and myself feel we are being manipulated into thinking another offer is coming in when in fact it is not. This is done just to get us to write an offer and a good one at that. It is not always easy to tell if there is truth to it or not.
Part of your buying process should be asking your Realtor for a list of all the most recent sales in your area. It is often amazing to find that there is a large discrepancy between asking prices and ultimate sales prices. Also, if you go to different states or areas you will find that buying practices in one area may be different then another area.
When I bought a parcel in New York I asked for all the sales comps and could see that the sales prices were within about 5% to 2% from the asking price. In Southern Utah, at the time, the difference was about 20%. So I knew if I wanted to be successful I needed to conform to the general buying practices of the area.
Your Realtor should have the ability to access all the sales comps in the area you are shopping in. I am not sure about the rules and laws of all the states but in Southern Utah at least this is true. Don’t be afraid to ask.
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