Husband and I actually found an open house in the area I want. Someone bought it a few years ago for an investment and did a horrible remodel for a flip. Of course the price reflects the so called remodel. What a shame! The setting of the house is real pretty with lots of mature trees and tropical foliage. I think the house was built in 58'. The bedrooms are small but ok, it has a fireplace and pool, patio, two car garage and a nice layout. The agent is one of the popular ones in that area. I gave him my scoop about our future listing and what we were looking to buy as well as our emails ect. The guy was very honest with me when I asked for the new listings to my email before they hit mls online. He said he had a lot of investors that he deals with. I said I would like a crack at the listings they get (thanks Lukk for arming me). He made some sort of comment to the affect that they are priority. I said, you mean I come after them? He said, well lets see, I have five to seven regulars that I get repeat cash sales so what do you think? Me,...here we go again! I'm going to have to do some serious aggression to get a house in that area and get one that was not destroyed with eekkk remodel. That's ok though because I have no shame when it comes to muscling in. I know a little about HUD. My son just bought his townhome through HUD. It took him six months to close. It took the whole family working daily to keep it on track and deal with all the paper work. I think part of the nightmare was due to the 203k (?) loan with the repairs wrapped up in his mortgage and one of the few mortgage companies that did that sort of loan. What a mess, son went through three different people in charge of his case and two managers. They all kept leaving for Wells Fargo. We helped him look and it took over 6 months just to get a crack at something in his price range. Like I said above the only reason he got it is because of the stipulation in the neighborhood where you have to live there a year before renting it out and the fact that it was HUD. Investors didn't have a chance at that one but there were close to 200 people interested. We got the listing fresh off the press by mistake when a realtor we were dealing with sent it to his investors lol. My son put in a bid $5,500 over list and got it. Don't get me wrong, there are deals to be had everywhere down here. Just not in the very best areas unless you have a connection and cash. Or, you want to pay top dollar. Although places are appraising rather low now so that part could come out in the wash. A connection is key though. About the other house husband loved the look of in a near by to my fav neighborhood. Well, it was about a hundred thousand more than he waned to spend. I then made him drive around in neighborhoods in "his" price range. No way he would live there. I'm making progress. Really though, I too want to find a deal so I'm not looking to go crazy. I do want something I can make nice in a decent area though. Ollie, I'm with you on established neighborhood with trees!!! Some of the roads I'm hoping to find a little house on in my preferred neighborhood are not necessarily the nicest roads. However, the reason I like some of those roads is because they have an abundance of natural tropical foliage and trees with older homes. I love the old Florida feel. There is not much of that left around here and I pine for it.

There are going to be some REA's on here that don't like hearing this but here goes.... Realtor's and Brokers don't sell homes. They facilitate all the paperwork, process and people involved in a home sale. But in an internet-driven, mostly buyers market, the internet and the buyers use of same is driving more showings than is a Realtor or broker. If you aren't getting showings, its because of one or more of the following: -Your home is priced too high relative to competing homes/comparables in your market. Price drops, even minor ones, push you back to the top of the search engines as "changed" and signal potential buyers that you are motivated to sell. If you are NOT motivated to sell, then keep your price where you are and wait for a buyer with deeper pockets to come along. -Your home doesn't look good on the MLS and portal sites. Colors may be off, perhaps its empty and/or needs some staging, not enough pictures, too many pictures, low curb appeal...tons of reasons. See above...if you add/change pictures, it usually triggers a refresh in the MLS database and the sites will filter you back to the top as a changed listing, giving you temporary visibility again. -Ditto for MLS listing descriptions. While I personally don't read them first (I am looking at pictures and features like 3-car garage, bedrooms, baths, etc.) I have seen some that are outright deal killers. I saw one here just the other day that literally led off with this sentence. "Back on the market due to failure to perform by prospective buyers and no fault of the seller." C'mon, that just sounds like a childish agent/owners having some beef that the former buyers couldn't obtain financing and/or the appraisal came it below contract price. Stuff happens, be professional and if you put it in writing, it better be positive and genuine. Likewise, the text description shouldn't sound like the freaking Sham-Wow commercial guy or that's an equally bad turnoff. Accentuate the positives without screaming out every superlative you can squeeze into the 1000 character limit. You know the drill. -Your home may be absolutely great, but your lot/location is less desirable than your competition. I can't tell you the number of times I've decided AGAINST a showing on a home because I simply hit the "view on Google maps" button and noticed that the home backed up to a busy street, had little privacy between me and my neighbors, etc. It used to be that you really had to go visit a house to get a feel for its surroundings and this is simply not true any more. Doesn't matter to me how nice the home looks in pictures, if I can see my neighbors from my back deck, I'm not even going to consider it. Keep also in mind that with both Google street views and birds-eye satellite views of your home, it may be showing something less desirable than your perfectly-staged MLS pictures. For example, I once found a great home with a nice piece of property but noted that my neighbors on both sides of me had really poorly maintained yards. Big open areas of erosion, holes/ruts from something, etc. I passed on the property entirely. This was just visible from the Google maps views, not from the MLS pictures. I guarantee you that I'm not the only genius using this technique. I'd say that the reputation/demeanor of your broker/REA is the least of your concerns as they are the least of your influences to get a showing. The buyers most likely won't even interact with your REA until they submit an offer, and by that time, who cares what they think about the broker/agent? You are in offer stage if that happens. Today's home sellers need to recognize that the rules have changed. Buyers are more informed, and more empowered, to pick and choose what homes they want to see and less reliant on a broker/REA to make that decision for them. Doesn't mean REA's are worthless...quite the contrary. But it means they have far less influence on obtaining/pushing showings than they once had. This post was edited by Tony2Toes on Tue, Apr 2, 13 at 16:19

Jo, I've been thinking about you this afternoon. Here's a few suggestions (use them if they seem worthwhile & toss them if they don't!): 1.) Start building relationships with every lender in town. Stop by & ask to meet with the head of lending. Residential lending is so automated today that processors & closers (unfortunately) don't have the cloute they did ten years ago. Since they are not the decision makers they used to be spending your valuable time building relationship with them is not productive. Rather, meet with that head of lending. Tell them you are new. Ask for their business & tell them why YOU will work harder to move their REO inventory. It's a good place & opportunity to learn to ask for "The Close"...something every salesperson has to learn. Also, REO business is easier, IMO. Then, follow-up on your visit with a written note & a dozen of your cards. If you haven't heard from them in 3 months...call again & this time invite him/her out to lunch. Ask the lender who they prefer as a title company, law office, inspector, appriser, etc. After speaking with half a dozen lenders, you'll start to get a snapshot of who's who in town. Then, spend your energy building relationships with those firms & leave the others for later. 2.) Builders...residential builders are really fun people. They were my favorite part of the real estate industry. They, however, are notoriously disorganized & rather poor at anything other than building. Get to know all of your SMALL, local builders (not the big guys...that's a waste of time, IMO, for you in the beginning). Go in with knowledge of their products & a plan to help them market. Keep your name in front of their face even if they currently have nothing to sell. Your building relationships at this point not trying to actually get a listing or make a sale. Builders love, love, love to bu##sh#t so allow a full half-day to meet with one of them! lol You'll learn more about your town's real estate industry in 3 hours from a local builder than six months in your office! 3.) Immediately begin attending the monthly Homebuilders's Association meetings in your area. This was absolutely THE best networking I ever did. 4.) Personally, I did not enjoy the monthly Realtor's Association dinners nearly as much as the builder's. But, you'll need to attend every month & force yourself to meet 3-4 new realtors at every dinner. More relationship building... 5.) Title companies can be tougher. But, I'd still recommend stopping by every one in town & dropping off your cards (probably won't get past the receptionist so leave them with him/her). 6.) My DH is an attorney as well as head of lending at a major financial institution. He works in NY. In NY, attorneys play a fairly large role in real estate. So, find out who specializes & go meet them with a dozen more cards. ASK for his business! He's got lots of clients who'll someday need to sell/buy a home. Also, then when you meet again across a closing table from each other it's easier to negotiate. 7.) Pick a FSBO (or two) & attend their Open Houses. Offer to prepare a CMA. Assure them there's no strings attached. Hope if they don't sell...they'll remember you. Leave 2 cards with them. 8.) A couple things I did over the years when I had a subdivision with a lot of homes I needed to sell in a single community... a.) I made arrangements to reserve the local community center for an evening. I prepared a speech on "Getting Ready To Purchase Your First Home". I advertised the heck out of my little speech (sponsored by my bank but you could ask your broker for sponsorship?). I had lots of hand-outs, coffee, soda, & cookies. I used the overhead with big color glossy pictures of smiling young couples holding little kids in front of their new home. I greeted everybody at the door & gave out business cards. Mostly, what I did was try to get those first-time homebuyers motivated to buy a home feeling that I'd land a few of them at my subidivison I needed to sell & it got my card in hundreds of hands! b.) I realized that I had to learn how to speak up at church, at the "Y" when I was swimming, at the grocery store as I stood in the check-out line, etc. & ASK for people's business. That's tough...the asking part. It a set-up for rejection & as humans we're resistant to it. You've got to lose any fear of rejection you may harbor down way deep inside. It's easier to start with people you don't know too well (like at the grocery store?). Seriously, learning to ask for the close is going to be a make or break skill for you so practice whenever & whereever you get an opportunity. I had many people call me at the bank asking if we had any REO inventory for sale. I'd make an appointment with them & ask about what they were looking for. Then, I'd show them one home I knew they couldn't afford, one I was pretty sure they'd hate, & one I wanted to sell them. Most of the time...it worked. But, I had to ASK for the close! Practice on your family with mock-up situations...unless this is something that just comes naturally to you it's going to be where you need the most work. If you're a natural saleperson...then you'll know when to ask for the close. Good luck...you've made me giggle tonight remembering all of the properties I've sold...like the one near a "babbling brook" with the mushrooms growing on the basement walls! Sold it to a realtor who thought I was a luney-tune for selling it so cheap...thought she could wring the place out & flip it for a nice profit...guess who had the last laugh? hahahahahah Or, the one I sold to an "80 Something" single gent who rode around the neighborhood on his motorcycle wearing nothing but a loin cloth...made his neighbors very upset. I received many threatening phone calls at the bank. Wow, who knew? He seemed so nice at the closing! hahahahahaha It's a fun industry. You'll have a good time. Well, you'll have a good time IF you're a people person. If you don't love people then you'll be miserable. It's not about the houses...it's all about the people. Remember that & you'll do great. Tricia

I find the wide angle photos to be useful. I hate having to flip back and forth between several partial-kitchen photos, trying to understand the set up of the room. Let's see, the fridge is to the left here, so the sink must be on that side, and the cabinet photo was taken from the opposite direction, so the stove is to the right of... ugh! People that are familiar with photography can visually "correct" the wide angle photo to get an idea of the actual size. It is much quicker than playing with the jigsaw puzzle that is missing half of the pieces.