i found my most recent agent to be more of an impediment than an asset in looking for a house. i found things before she did. she was not as aggressive in pursuing good properties as i would have been. i was always wondering if she prioritized certain houses for another client. i never felt she really "got" what i was looking for. she was always steering me away from properties i thought would be a good fit because she didn't want to waste company time showing them to me, rather than let me decide for myself. the couple of times she pushed me hard to make an offer they were for houses i really didn't like. they would have been good investments, though.

when i still lived in the same town, during a house hunt over 20 years ago, i often found much better properties through word of mouth than my then-agent found. now there isn't much of that kind of thing going on any more. the bidding wars mean that a seller would be leaving money on the table if they sold through word of mouth.

going forward, if an agent wants an hourly rate to find me a house, i'll just go it alone. or maybe buyer's agents will just get a lot less lazy and then it could be worth it.

I’ve looked at one house here (we are not seriously wanting to move, but I check out the horse properties). I just called the sellers agent and asked for a showing. That is probably what I would keep doing.

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Originally posted by jodi:
I’ve looked at one house here (we are not seriously wanting to move, but I check out the horse properties). I just called the sellers agent and asked for a showing. That is probably what I would keep doing.

jodi, we've looked at a few houses in town right where we live, and since we haven't been working with an agent here, I've just used the Zillow service to connect us with a buyer's agent to show the house. It has worked out very well--we've met a variety of agents who we may, at some point, choose among when we are ready to move into town. Some of them have been very highly regarded in the community, which we only discovered after meeting them.

if i thought there was a chance i might actually buy the house i'm looking at, i definitely wouldn't call the seller's agent. that isn't a good position to be in when it comes time for negotiation.