or, when you are getting ready to move, what is your process? What websites do you look at and what makes you want to see a particular house?

We just fired our real estate agent...he's a nice guy but just not willing to give our house the kind of exposure we need.

We are in the midst of an offer in Colorado and we have to sell our place here in MD asap. We will rent a place in CO until we sell this place, but I don't want a mortgage for too long.

So...opinions wanted...

By Cat on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 01:45 pm:

I'd find an agent in the area you're looking and tell him what you want in a house. How many bedrooms, how many baths, if you want a master/5 piece bath, how big of a lot, how many square feet, what kind of schools and neighborhood, etc and what price range and any other special considerations (do you need to sell your current house first, time frame you can move in and close, etc). If you know what kind of layout you want, that helps, too. Do you want a ranch or two story? Will you consider a split level? How many car garage do you want/need? The more info you can give the agent, the better. Also, what's negotiable and what's not? Like "we'd like 4 bedrooms, but if we can find three bedrooms and a loft or office that'd be okay." A good agent can narrow down what houses you look at. The people that bought our old house looked at 30(!!!) houses before ours. Our agent thought that was ridiculouse! (sp) Would you consider building? New houses are a lot of work (trust me--we've done it twice now!).

SO,,, ready to share WHERE in CO??? And when? If you're going to be close I can recommend a GREAT agent.

By Trina~moderator on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 01:54 pm:

Ditto Cat.

It has been 9 years since we've bought a new home, but I like to surf Realtor.com. Another site that is helpful is Domania.com.

By Mrsheidi on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 02:10 pm:

I guess what I'm getting at is... our agent (that was listing OUR house in MD) was arguing that national websites don't do anything for traffic. I begged to differ and he said that we could pay to have it listed on realtor.com (indoor pics). I told him that, if he stands to make over $6,000 on our house (minimum), that he could afford the $900 to list the indoor pics on realtor.com to lure people in. He refused so I fired him.

I really think our indoor pics are what's going to sell the house and get more traffic. And, sometimes people will go with that agent if they see them online, on a national website. Especially those who are out of state.

By Mrsheidi on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 02:12 pm:

Oh, and Cat, we're looking in the Broomfield/South Boulder area. We have a great agent who is the husband of a close sorority sister of mine. He knows that area well, but thank you anyway!!

By Dawnk777 on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 03:00 pm:

LOL! We didn't have access to the internet, until right after we bought this house! LOL! We moved here in July 1996 and didn't get on the internet until Jan 1997. We just had an agent show us houses and we looked in the newspaper.

By Tripletmom on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 03:06 pm:

WE used mls.com We used it to buy/sell our houses.

By Kaye on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 03:07 pm:

I only look at the local site, but our local site has everything. Take a peek at it..www.har.com.

Inside pics are a must, good outdoor pics, I personally love layouts if they are available. To me the more about the house the better.

By Tayjar on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 03:27 pm:

Hmmm...something is fishy here. I just listed my dad's house with a realtor and it was listed on realtor.com. It didn't cost me anything extra and it did include pictures. All of the MLS listings in my are on realtor.com. Mine told me the majority of her buyers have looked at the site and know ahead of time what homes they want to look at. I look at that website to see what is for sale locally. Good move firing your realtor. He was a dud.

By Cat on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 03:32 pm:

That's not too far from me! Littleton is about an hour, so just a bit more.

I do know of at least one person that when she moved from MT to TX she looked at houses online and picked two--just from the description and pictures and she ended up buying one of them, sight unseen and loved it! Not something I'd do, but I can see the advantage of putting the pics online. Another realtor will see your point of view. Good luck!

By Trina~moderator on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 03:40 pm:

Heidi, there are four houses on our street for sale and all four are listed at Realtor.com with pics. I don't know if sellers pay to have their homes listed, but I would have to agree with you on traffic. I check the site often just out of curiousity, but if we were looking for another home I would use Realtor.com to narrow down listings before it came time to actually look. This would be convenient especially if we were looking to move to another state/area.

By Amecmom on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 06:09 pm:

Ditto Tay ... Once it's MLS listed, it goes on realtor.com along with the mls.
We just listed ours on forsalebyowner.com They have a MLS/realtor.com option as well.
Good luck
Ame

By Kellyj on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 07:08 pm:

We recently bought a house and used the online listings to narrow down what we did and did not want to see. Inside pictures were very helpful and often if the houses didn't have inside pics it left us wondering if there was some reason they didn't post them.
I think that a national listing is a good idea. In our small area we know of one house that we looked at that had bids from out of state buyers. The house next door to us sold to an out of stater too. So it couldn't hurt to list it nationally.

By Mommmie on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 08:37 pm:

I think having your house online with pictures is crucial.

By Debbie on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 10:53 pm:

Well, we have moved 5 times in the last 9 years, and I ALWAYS go on realtor.com and look for houses. I also only look at the ones with pictures. We pass on the ones that we like to our realtor, so we can look at them when we are house hunting. It also gives our realtor a good idea of what we like. Every house that we have sold was in MLS and on realtor.com. We sold, all but one house, in less than a week. I think multiple listings with pictures is essential to selling a home.

By Mrsheidi on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 02:47 pm:

OK! We just switched agents and you guys are making me feel better about it. She is doing multiple pictures and is already doing outdoor pics today with indoor pics tomorrow. We're hiring someone to do some exterior painting and our new agent is wonderful and gave us some great ideas on how to "spruce up" the place.

Oh...and she is listing the indoor pics on realtor.com which, I agree, is essential in today's market.

By Mrsheidi on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 07:55 pm:

PS- Tayjar, the pics are "free" but the agent still pays to have it done. You just don't see the cost.

By Sandysmom on Wednesday, May 16, 2007 - 08:55 am:

I know I am jumping in here at the end, but I just want you to know that I hope everything goes well. It sounds like you definitely did the right thing. You have to be aggressive when you are a real estate agent. He sounded like a real dud! LOL! Good luck & I hope you see some positive results real soon.