How To Tell When House Goes up for Sale

[Anonymous]

Is there a way to be notified when a particular house goes up for sale, whether or not it is scheduled in the immediate future?

[Anonymous]

You could set up some kind of search within a particular zipcode and refine that search by specific criteria, like size of house, number of bedrooms, etc.

Otherwise, you can just be like me, and obsessively check on a particular house

[Anonymous]

Realtors talk among themselves, and in my experience, they know at least a couple of weeks in advance of a listing in the MLS. If there is a firm that has most of the listings in your area, talk to a realtor from that firm and ask them to keep an eye out. They are likely to work a lot harder for you if you have a signed agreement for them to represent you as a buyer's agent, of course.

[Anonymous]

I don't think there is a way to be notified if a house is going to be put on the market soon unless you already know the agent who is listing it.

I would do what the PP suggested - set up a specific search criteria and save it. FranklyMLS is great for this - you might even be able to put the exact house number in and then the site will email you when the listing goes up.

[Anonymous]

If you are interested, I would just approach the owner, or have an agent approach the owner. No sense beating around the bush if it's a house you want. The worst they can say is no thanks, we aren't selling.