I booked a hotel room once with expedia and would never,book anything again with them--- or travelocity. As someone mentioned above, they are giant online travel agencies, bad ones at that because you have no relationship with anyone there. I find fares through ITA, kayak or, occasionally, skyscanner, then book directly with the airlines and hotels. You can get a the same or better deal that way without the additional incompetent bureaucracy if a conflict arises. Those services can book a multi segment flight on the same airline in two different segments (if the cost is lower) which means the airline is not responsible for getting your luggage checked all the way, or for finding you the first available flight out should you miss a connecton or a flight is cancelled. The terms of carriage between the passenger and airline are complicated enough without inserting a faceless agency between me and whatever protections those terms provide. ITA is the program travel agencies use that enable them to find routes and connections a mere human would never find, Ten years ago ITA software was only available to people with a travel agent's booking codes, which you could "rent" on the internet for a specific search. The current google traveler version is different (not as full featured as the agent version) but the price by calendar views and flight time by bar graphs are good visual decision matrices. But you would still actually book through the airlines. Here is a link that might be useful: ITA software

"Somebody set the standards how to appraise, and everybody follows, right or wrong" Fannie, Freddie, & FHA set the basic rules for mortgages they will purchase, and these quickly become the 'standard' so that the secondary market can function. From the OP "When an appraiser comes up with comps, for a lender, are there statistics, other than actual recent sale amounts, to truly compare homes? For example, a house with original kitchen/bath vs one with remodeled rooms. Or quality replacement windows vs rotting wood single pane and aluminum storms. Or a large brick patio vs 10x10 cracked and weathered concrete. Or a green, trimmed lawn and nice landscaping vs a mostly dead weedy patch of vegetation. " An appraiser should be making adjustments for all these things, but they are NOT going to be a fraction of the cost of the improvement. "clearly that if he used the cost of building method of appraisal it would be x (higher amount) and then gave us a low appraisal based on one sale in our subdivision where a builder sold very low after months on the market," 'Cost of building' is not normally used for single family houses. What you spent to build has little to do with market value of the final product. The builder sold a brand new house at a 'fire sale' price to get out from under it. Regretfully that becomes a cop for the area. Wiling seller, willing buyer. Appraisers adjust for all sorts of things all the time. It is part of the process to understand how to adjust for lot size difference, finished square footage differences, etc. Many things done to 'upgrade' a house have little value except to the owner. Plumbing is expected to work. Electrical is expected to work. HVAC is expected to work. The roof should be waterproof. Upgrades to basic functionality have almost zero value. A new roof may result in a faster sale, but unless the old one was actually leaking it is of very limited value to a purchaser.

kashka kat, Thanks for starting this conversation. I am in the same boat. Interested in a small neighborhood that has gotten hot in recent months. Red hot. This (little) market is moving so fast that properties never make it onto Trulia or Zillow or the MLS feeds. And the listing company doesn't even get a picture up on their own site, nor a sign in the yard. I have informed several agents we are cash buyers, no mortgage or appraisal contingencies, flexible on closing date, etc. Tip me on a property and you can show it to me, but if I find it myself I will deal directly with the selling agent. Last Thursday morning a realtor tipped me on a new listing but she couldn't show it to me until the next day. When I walked by there was an agent at the property fnishing a showing & willing to show it to me, but I declined out of loyalty to the agent who tipped me to it. The place went under contract that night, so I missed out. As with one a few weeks ago, I probably would have made a better offer than the llc flipper had I had the chance to see the place and make an offer. I don't see how committing (written contract) to one buyer's agent would help in this situation. Properties don't seem to get outside the listing agency before they are snapped up. A buyer's agent wouldn't know about 'in house' listings except in their own 'house', right? So that won't help. Hmmmm. I'm thinking it's best to just keep being clear with as many agents as I can what I am looking for and that I am a ready buyer. Am I missing something?

DH and his brother use a travel agency and traveled with Globus tours. Never had a problem and they are well know especially overseas. They used AAA for some and some special Asian agency in Los Angeles CA for the China tours. Regardless who you use, be sure and get complete travel insurance, including medical. That is very important. Oh yes, be sure that any hotels that you do get booked actually work with the agent/company that does the booking.. We were at a hotel in AZ several years ago and a couple went to check in and the hotel said they had no record of the reservation. They told the couple they had to check it out because the hotel did not have access to any records from that agency. It was a company that both the hotel and myself had never heard about. And the hotel was full. The hotel refused to help them at all, and they had helped me because I had booked directly with the hotel using the AAA card and a CC. Just a thought to check out. This post was edited by marie-ndcal on Wed, Oct 22, 14 at 15:46