[quote=bearishgurl]
As a licensee going on three decades with nearly that amount of concurrent legal experience as well (much of it in the field of land use), I can tell you that there is NO substitute for contracting with a buyers agent who knows like the back of their hand the area you are seeking to purchase in, to help you locate and negotiate the purchase of an acceptable property. Better yet, they should possess a photographic memory of intersections of and major thoroughfares in their market area and be familiar with the nuances of all its subdivisions, no matter what their age. It’s also helpful if they are familiar with the original houseplans as they were built, longtime small businesses in the area and their owners, locations of the premium lots, exact school attendance boundaries, what lies over the ground, what lies under the ground (easements), which complexes were/are in litigation and what the outcome of it was, etc. . . and this is only inventory knowledge. If you are using an agent without inventory and market knowledge of the particular area you want to purchase in, you are doing yourself a HUGE disservice, as there are MANY agents who have lived and/or worked in that particular area all of their lives.
[/quote]
All their lives? Good luck in San Diego: nearly everyone is a transplant. People start calling themselves natives around here as soon as they can manage to credibly pull off a “dude” or two in daily conversation.
Those few of us who really are natives know far more about the area than any agent.