The last time that we wanted to buy a house, we had to rely pretty heavily on our real estate agent. This time around, I can do a great deal of the legwork myself and I enjoy it.
I monitor zillow.com, trulia.com and realtor.com so that I can see houses as they arrive on the market along the 80 mile search area. I can get into any house with as little as 24 hours notice just by filling out a form on Zillow and making a (blind) date with a New Agent.
One such event occurred in the same town that I was already having doubts about. We met a very nice New Agent at a house that looked mostly empty. It was a short sale (don't let the name fool you, it was the result of a foreclosure) and the current owner was still living in the residence (although I think she must have been sleeping on the couch as there were no beds in the house). We were in the house about 30 seconds when another agent burst in and began a hard sell speech.
He was the Listing Agent, and he was going to preside over the open house. Keep in mind that until that moment there was no advertised open house and the New Agent (NA) who had agreed to show us the house had left three unanswered messages for the Listing Agent. Listing Agent (LA) entered in full rapid-fire-information-sharing-mode as if we had been in the middle of a conversation with him before he walked in the door ("and my finance guy will be here in about 15 minutes" and "I've got your flyers and cost estimates ready to go"). He followed us outside and talked about the particulars of a short sale. He seemed genuinely surprised that I knew the basics already (short sale only means that the bank who owns the mortgage and the property will be getting less money that is owed on the property once the home sells). The fact that the deck he was perched on was shaped like a giant sack and penis was lost to him. (The house foreclosure was apparently the result of a lengthy divorce; the design of the deck gave us some real insight as to why the marriage failed).
LA stood on the deck and talked at length about the long drawn out process that a short sale can become. Despite his need to hear himself talk, this was interesting to us because we aren't ready to put our house on the market yet and so having several months to move forward sounded potentially very good.
The house had some real potential; it was larger than our current house and the backyard had some privacy. The carpets all needed to be replaced, but there were some surprisingly neat looking nooks and crannies that we didn't expect to see in a tract home. The kitchen was pretty nice as was the general layout. The price wasn't bad and the deck could easily be replaced. NA had some good advice about upgrades and potential strategies for making an offer. We talked to one neighbor who had nice things to say about the area, but the best part of the day was the live band playing down the street.
The music was loud, but not painful, and it was so well done I swore it was recorded, but Joe insisted it was live. He was right. Upon further exploration, we found three guys hanging out in a garage playing the drums, guitar and bass. They were playing a Stevie Ray Vaughan song ("Couldn't Stand the Weather"), and other blues/rock music. We also followed a nearby road to a portion of Lake Sonoma right over the hill that had breathtaking views. The music, the weather, the views, the quiet of the neighborhood and the price were all enough enticement to lure us back to the house for one more look and some serious consideration. NA had already departed, so we went in alone and were set upon immediately by LA and his Loan Guy (LG).
We managed to take one more quick tour before being locked in a battle of wills with LA and LG as we tried to exit. This time LA focused on how quickly short sales can go and that we really needed to find ourselves a more experienced agent than NA if we wanted to purchase this house. LG was insistent that he could get us a better interest rate than the mortgage company we are currently working with (and who have treated us like family). So they bad mouthed everyone we talked about and when LA said, "What is keeping you from making an offer on this house?" I should have answered truthfully with, "YOU." But alas, I didn't, and we simply allowed them to chase us out the door.
We stopped by the only grocery store in town for sandwiches. My bread was stale.
I'm not moving to that town.
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