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Going to Open Houses (no agent yet)
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Anonymous
| DH and I are going to start looking to buy a home (first time), and we've yet to find an agent. Though I've been "hunting" for homes for some time online, I know of course you need to get out there to actually see things to self-educate. Is it ok to do so on our own, without yet having agent representation? I know anyone can show up, but I'm wondering if there are any strong downsides to doing this. |
Anonymous
| I don't know that I've ever gone to an open house with my agent. In fact, we found our last buying agent through an open house that she held. If it was quiet, we'd chat up the agent and see if we liked them. It was a good way to shop around. |
Anonymous
| absolutely. shop away. in fact, I think it's better to go look at a few before engaging an agent. That way you can tell them more about what you are looking for, and you wont feel like you're on someone's clock when you're just doing your research. BTW, agents will usually prefer to take you to see houses at times when they're not open (evenings, saturdays, etc). |
Anonymous
| My DH and I have been doing the same thing for a month now...as others have said, it is a great way to shop around for areas, housing styles, and agents! |
Anonymous
| realtor here. I had an open house today with many new buyers who were shopping for a house -- and an agent. This is exactly what you should do. Also helpful to talk to your friends and colleagues for a referral to an agent. Most of my business is done this way, and I have great buyers and sellers. |
Anonymous
| thanks everyone, great support! |
Anonymous
| I've heard that that is why agents have open houses -- to find new clients. |
Anonymous
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If you are seriously considering buying I would take the time to secure a loan. That will take some time and research.
You'll be taken much more seriously when going through open houses when you have your loan/finances set and ready to go. |
Anonymous
This is completely unnecessary at OP's stage. Sure, get your precertification once you're ready to take the next step, but this can be done very quickly. Like many others, DH and I found our last buyer's agent at an open house he was holding. The house we were looking at was nice but about 75K more than we could really pay. We told him we were just nosing around but would be looking more seriously later on. He gave us a lot of his time that afternoon (like, an hour!) talking to us about how to buy, what to watch out for. He knew we weren't going to buy the house he was selling but I'm sure he thought we might consider him in the future. We did, and we bought a lovely house with him. |
Anonymous
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We go to open houses ALL the time. For a while we did it because we liked seeing what people did with the old houses in our neighborhood (Capitol Hill). Then when the time came to seriously househunt, we knew exactly what types of things were out there and we were able to make a quick decision on a house without second guessing. Now we are househunting again in northern VA and we're doing the same thing. We ask our agent to show us houses that don't have open houses or to give us a second look if we like something, but there is no reason to drag him around so we can check out neighborhoods.
Feel free to go to as many open houses as you want. The OP who talked about having financing in order is way off base. I promise you there is not a realtor in the world who is going to ask about financing at an open house. Look away! Just a word of warning--if you don't want to get ailliom callow from realtors, use a fake phone number when you sign in. |
Anonymous
| I have an agent that I have used for ten years. I don't bother him until I am serious about something. I go to open houses all the time. |
Anonymous
| Going to open houses is a great way to educate yourself about the market and the value of different homes, options, and areas. We went to open houses for over a year before we were ready to buy. Because we had seen lots of homes in lots of neighborhoods, we actually put an offer in on the first house we were shown after we found an agent and were preapproved. We loved the house, but if we had not been "looking" for a long time, I think we really would've hesitated to put an offer in on the first house we saw. But since we knew the neighborhood, knew the various lay outs, knew the options that were/were not in most of the homes, we were able to make an educated decision very quickly. |
Anonymous
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I absolutely would not take an agent with me until my DH and I agreed on the basics of what we were looking for. Who needs a witness (especially one with a goal of selling you a house ASAP) until you know what you want?
I would give agent my email (my "junk email") address - sometimes you learn something from what they send, and if you ignore them, they eventually back off. |
Anonymous
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There is however one disadvantage of looking at houses without an agent lined up. If you find a house that you like, there could be an issue about commission for the agents. Strictly speaking the agent hosting the open house is entitled to the commission as both the buyers agent and the sellers agent if you decide to buy a house that you see through the seller's agent's efforts. There have at times been lawsuits over stuff like this..... you do not have to bring you agent with you to an open house but if you do not want to use the same agent to represent the buyer and the seller (and you do not) you need to be clear on the sign in sheet that you are already working with someone.
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Anonymous
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