Need advice on finding a good RE agent to buy and mortgage lender

[mixxalot]

Hello my fellow piggs,

I want to buy a place next year in San Diego and have been looking at the Claremont area since it is centrally located to places in San Diego and far less expensive than coastal PB, OB or Point Loma. With that said budget is under 700K for first time RE primary residence and FICO is 750 score with 10-20% down for the purchase. How do I find the best RE agent to work with and lender? I find many of the agents that advertise the listings on sites like Zillow and Redfin to be in the same league as slimy used car sales people or life insurance agents!

[FlyerInHi]

I’m sure people will come with all kinds of advice.

But… you’re not buying during the best of times, or in a “normal” market.

When the market is not “normal” you need to take “abnormal” measures. There’s a lot of competition for good deals now. If you want to pay the “regular” price, by all means, find a good, pleasant realtor to work with.

If I were you, and wanted to buy now, I’d look at new listings everyday. If you see something priced well, that you like, drive by, look at the outside, put in an offer immediately sight unseen with the listing agent. Then go look at it.

[XBoxBoy]

First a couple of practical suggestions:

1) Find an agent who works the area you are interested. (Clairemont)

2) Go to open houses in the area you like, chat with the agent to get a feel for what they are like.

3) Create a list of possible realtors and then call them up, ask to meet with them so you can interview them. A good agent will give you a half hour, or hour of their time to talk to you before you make any commitment.

4) Shy away from any agent who wants you to sign a contract as an exclusive buyers agent.

Lastly, let me suggest that an agent that you think isn’t slimy used car salesman, might be honest and great, but maybe they are just be good at hiding it. How would you know? So… remember at all times in the real estate transaction process that it is your responsibility to watch out for your interests. Your agent will of course be looking out for their commission. When negotiating, tell your agent what they need to know to do their job, but you can keep your top price and other such things to yourself. And always remember to watch out for your interests yourself! (Did I say that already?)

Hope this helps.

[bearishgurl]

I’m not quite understanding why you’re interested in Clairemont, mixxalot. Just a little while ago, you were posting about wanting to buy inland so you could have a “fun sailboat” and even afford a hangar for a private plane.

http://piggington.com/are_home_prices_just_silly_right_now#comment-258746

Where are you going to park a sailboat in Clairemont? Granted, there may be a (very) few lots on the Mtn Sts with room to park a sailboat (if it’s not too long) but are any of those (premium) lots available? In the above thread, you didn’t even seem that committed to staying in SD. Are you SURE you’re going to stay in SD long enough to make a $700K purchase in Clairemont “worth it?” I personally don’t think Clairemont is worth that much money. Perhaps a few properties in there with premium lots might be worth $600K – $650K but I just can’t see $700K. Some of those tracts up there weren’t even built with attics!

[ltsddd]

^^^I am just shaking my head

Anyways, agree with xbox suggestion. Drive around the ‘hood and go to open houses will give you a better feel of what’s available and how much. Also opportunity to see and talk to the agents – you might find your agent that way. For $700K, you should be able to get something in west clairemont/bay ho/morena; and maybe even one with a view of the bay.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=ltsdd]^^^I am just shaking my head

Anyways, agree with xbox suggestion. Drive around the ‘hood and go to open houses will give you a better feel of what’s available and how much. Also opportunity to see and talk to the agents – you might find your agent that way. For $700K, you should be able to get something in west clairemont/bay ho/morena; and maybe even one with a view of the bay.[/quote]

Agree with the italicized portion. Homes in northern 92110 and the southern and western portion of 92117 (as opposed to 92111/northern and eastern 92117) are “worth” ~$700K. I really feel like the OP may still be able to find a cosmetic fixer, especially in SW 92117 … that is, IF he has given up on parking a big toy on his lot.

You can “shake your head” all you want, ltsdd, but most of those early ’60’s tracts in Clairemont (92111) weren’t built very well. They were built for an ~$11K purchase price primarily to house defense workers and their families who relocated here from “flyover country.”

[ltsddd]

[quote=bearishgurl][quote=ltsdd]^^^I am just shaking my head

Anyways, agree with xbox suggestion. Drive around the ‘hood and go to open houses will give you a better feel of what’s available and how much. Also opportunity to see and talk to the agents – you might find your agent that way. For $700K, you should be able to get something in west clairemont/bay ho/morena; and maybe even one with a view of the bay.[/quote]

Agree with the italicized portion. Homes in northern 92110 and the southern and western portion of 92117 (as opposed to 92111/northern and eastern 92117) are “worth” ~$700K. I really feel like the OP may still be able to find a cosmetic fixer, especially in SW 92117 … that is, IF he has given up on parking a big toy on his lot.

You can “shake your head” all you want, ltsdd, but most of those early ’60’s tracts in Clairemont (92111) weren’t built very well. They were built for an ~$11K purchase price primarily to house defense workers and their families who relocated here from “flyover country.”[/quote]

Give a counter example to Clairemont’s “weren’t built very well” claim. Which community in San Diego that was built in the 50s & 60s that was not “weren’t built very well.”

[bearishgurl]

[quote=ltsdd][quote=bearishgurl][quote=ltsdd]^^^I am just shaking my head

Anyways, agree with xbox suggestion. Drive around the ‘hood and go to open houses will give you a better feel of what’s available and how much. Also opportunity to see and talk to the agents – you might find your agent that way. For $700K, you should be able to get something in west clairemont/bay ho/morena; and maybe even one with a view of the bay.[/quote]

Agree with the italicized portion. Homes in northern 92110 and the southern and western portion of 92117 (as opposed to 92111/northern and eastern 92117) are “worth” ~$700K. I really feel like the OP may still be able to find a cosmetic fixer, especially in SW 92117 … that is, IF he has given up on parking a big toy on his lot.

You can “shake your head” all you want, ltsdd, but most of those early ’60’s tracts in Clairemont (92111) weren’t built very well. They were built for an ~$11K purchase price primarily to house defense workers and their families who relocated here from “flyover country.”[/quote]

Give a counter example to Clairemont’s “weren’t built very well” claim. Which community in San Diego that was built in the 50s & 60s that was not “weren’t built very well.”[/quote]I’m sure I already covered this subject in depth on another thread that I would have to dig deep to find, ltsdd. Suffice to say, many Clairemont tract homes were NOT built with insulation, attics or gas dryer hookups and some tracts were built with nearly flat roofs with no eaves. Also, some of these tracts were built without central or forced air heat. This type of house has suffered a lot of issues over the years, not the least of which was extensive dry rot. Some plans were built with a few (leaky) glass shutter windows (similar to the kind used in HI). SD’s climate gets too cold at night for these type of windows.

These subdivisions were built fast and cheap to cure a housing shortage at a price point necessary to house badly needed incoming workers for defense contractors. And that’s primarily who bought them.

There are a LOT of SD metro areas which have much better-built homes than Clairemont (92111/17) but the bulk of those homes were built in the mid ’50’s and prior.

[bearishgurl]

I’m not saying here that I think Clairemont is a bad place to live. All I’m saying is that a typical tract home there is not worth ~$700K, IMO.

[mixxalot]

Agree and I am not in a rush just looking at potential place to buy. If I decide to buy a home on private airstrip outside of California that might work out better since I am a pilot and work from home.

[joec]

If you talk to a lot of people who looked for homes, a lot of times, with a limited budget (pretty much everyone), you’re going to have to see what’s really important to you since the supply is so low.

I don’t think the agent or loan person is that important, but actually finding a home you actually want to live in is insanely hard, especially for older homes or areas…

When I was looking, every single damn weekend or day, it’s so tiring. After seeing like 20 homes, you’ll instantly know if you’d ever want to live in a place so if you do, you probably need to put a best offer or someone else will since ‘good’ move in or low problem homes seem much more desired.

HLS here on the loan side sounds reputable and some people here have used his help.

[mixxalot]

True which is why my first choice is an airpark home on private airstrip with large hangar outside of California. I see plenty in Arizona, Texas and Florida that are 3000 square foot SFA with massive hangar and acre of land for 300-600K. That buys little in San Diego. Add a plane and travel is easy within 500 miles.

[yuhtey]

[quote=XBoxBoy]

4) Shy away from any agent who wants you to sign a contract as an exclusive buyers agent.

Hope this helps.[/quote]

yes, you should rather sign on with a dual agency broker. WTF – can you please pass me some of what you are smoking?

[gzz]

–If I were you, and wanted to buy now, I’d look at new listings everyday. If you see something priced well, that you like, drive by, look at the outside, put in an offer immediately sight unseen with the listing agent.–

Good advice for both hot and cold markets.

This is what I did for my first house, used someone in the listing agent’s office as my agent after my short sale offer was accepted. Made my offer better than any other full price offer that way. And full price was underpriced by about 5-7% or I expected competing offers.

My second house neither of us used an agent. Paid $750 each to my mortgage broker to draw up the 278 standard form disclosures.

I have nothing against agents but the work to price ratio is not fair to customers buying/selling standard $700,000 San Diego houses.

[mixxalot]

True and since I am not in rush I can search daily. My first choice would be an airpark home with hangar and freedom to taxi to take off. For 400-500K that is easily found. San Diego RE inventory sucks right now.

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