How to find a good Realtor and Home Inspector

Looking into buying a house, as all the calculators I'm looking at show it is cheaper than renting for my time frame, assuming that the house doesn't depreciate more than 1%.

So how do I find a good realtor? I have no idea other than word of mouth.

After that, how do I find the home inspector that, in SvRex's words:

... is a home inspector that Realtors hate. He's know as "Deal Killer", because he writes 30 page detailed reports that always look scary, but include every paint drip and minor issue. He's arrogant, and not a very nice guy. He scares buyers, and kills deals.

Wow! I got quoted!

Word of mouth is it. Ask around, talk to a few and see how you feel about them.

The top agents in an office sometimes means something.

Ask bankers, and other real estate professionals.

I know this is circular reasoning, but ask home inspectors. They know who has been hiring them.

Keep in mind, sellers want realtors to tell them their house is worth more than it is. Some of them get good at telling people what they want to hear. Look for realtors who close a lot of deals.

Buy the way, as a buyer it sort of doesn't matter. They all have access to the MLS, and they all work for the seller.

Find someone who is hungry, and will listen to your needs and show you stuff that fits. If you tell them you want such-and-such, but they show you something completely different, move on.

Word of mouth for the inspector as well?

Yes.

But I'd ask realtors. Tell them you are not buying, but looking for someone who can give you a detailed assessment of a property you are inheriting. Tell them you want someone who is really tough and detailed, and don't need someone who can make a sale go smoothly. Tell them you are trying to settle detailed disputes within the family to settle the estate, and you want to make sure to catch all the details. You might even mention the name "Deal Killer".

If you ask 4 different realtors, I'll bet 3 of them name the same guy.

I would agree that realtors can help you sort out the home inspectors really quickly. I might ask for someone tough and detailed but avoid the "deal killer" based on a local inspector here a few years back. He was tougher than needed, particularly with first-time home buyers. He would nitpick, exaggerate, or even flat out fabricate problems to become the 'savior' to the potential buyer, and having scared them off that house he would offer to inspect others they might find to help them avoid more pitfalls. He did it to drum up repeat business, not to accurately report on problem areas. He has since left the area. Hopefully his type isn't too common or too likely to stick around long, but just a word to the wise.

As for realtors, ask around town and have some of them show you a few places. If he/she doesn't listen to your feedback and quickly start showing you stuff you like more and more, move on. As SVRex said, good realtors work hard for their commission and realize that making sales means serving you to help you through the process. So-so ones will hope to luck into a sale rather than working to make it happen.

Yeah, you should be able to get a feel pretty quickly...

When we bought this house, we were still out of state, so we set up a weekend to come and look at houses to buy.. I had talked to the realtor at length on the phone, but meeting up to go look at these houses was the first face to face meeting. After about 6 houses, he started crossing things off the list he had for us going "Nope, you won't like that one at all, the location isn't right" and by the second day, all of them were winners. That guy was earning his money.

SVreX wrote: Buy the way, as a buyer it sort of doesn't matter. They all have access to the MLS, and they all work for the seller.

Not true as a blanket statement. Only when hired by the seller does the inspector work for the seller. When hired by the buyer, they work for the buyer.

A genuinely good home inspector is worth their weight in gold. Finding a genuinely good one for the particular property you are looking at can be challenging.

As a buyer there is no good reason to sign anything for a realtor. Some want you to agree to use/pay them in writing even before they show you the first house. Signing something doesn't usually get you better service.

foxtrapper wrote:

SVreX wrote: Buy the way, as a buyer it sort of doesn't matter. They all have access to the MLS, and they all work for the seller.

Not true as a blanket statement. Only when hired by the seller does the inspector work for the seller. When hired by the buyer, they work for the buyer. A genuinely good home inspector is worth their weight in gold. Finding a genuinely good one for the particular property you are looking at can be challenging.

Also not true as a blanket statement. I was trying to keep it simple.

Realtors have a legal and fiduciary responsibility to represent the seller, regardless of who "hires" them.

Since the listing agreement has already been signed by the seller, they have ALREADY been hired by the seller.

In SOME States, under SOME circumstances they can also be a buyer's broker, with a separate agreement to also represent the buyer. This is a messy arrangement no matter how you slice it- it gets very close to conflict of interest.

Most buyers think (especially new buyers like the OP) that the realtor works for them if they called them and "hired" them. Not true.

While I agree with what you were trying to say, there really wasn't any point in muddying the waters. For simplicity's sake, it is much easier to caution new buyers to understand that (generally, and in the vast majority of situations) realtors work for the seller.

I'm not a home inspector, but I get called in for second opinions on plumbing issues all the time. Usually it's for something that is trivial, but there are glaring omissions on the reports. I'm sure somewhere there are decent home inspectors, I just haven't met one yet. To me they are all washed out carpenters. One thing I noticed is they take notes then go home and make a "detailed " report, which consists of a generic report on a computer screen with a bunch of prewritten subject lines that they click on. Just saw one where the HI goes on about the roof shingles being only a couple of years old, but no mention that the plywood on the underside was rotted in spots and covered with black mold because the bathroom fan vented into the attic. When the seller had the roof replaced, the roofers never reinstalled the vent kit thru the roof. I went up there because there was concern about the HVAC system in the attic possibly needing cleaning, and a questionable gas connection. The sellers told me the HI never went into the attic, or up on the roof. So what started out as a gas call ended up with me cutting a hole in a snow covered roof.

Typically the realtor has an inspector they like. Mine did, and the guy was very thorough. He did have a long list of things, but most was insignificant things (like a small tear in a window screen, a nail backing out of a railing on the porch, broken handle on kitchen drawer, etc), so don't let a long list scare you. A single trip to lowes and less than $100 repaired about 75% of the things on my inspection list. Just read through the list and look for big things.

If anyone ever needs a good Realtor in the Baltimore region, the guy we used - Trent Gladstone - was top notch. I admit, I didn't think as a buyer it really mattered who we used as an agent, but a co-worker of a relative of mine recc'd this guy and he was awesome. Emails and texts were answered promptly, and he had a line-up of top-notch professionals on speed dial for everything from home inspectors to structural engineers to termite guys.

Trent worked with us for about 6 months, crawling through all manner of decrepit farm houses in Carroll County with us, putting offers on 4 or 5 different places, and ultimately holding our hand through a lengthy, painful short sale process. He was awesome. He was working for a Re-Max agency, but I believe he's opened his own firm now, as an affiliate of Keller Williams.

Interestingly, the agent we used to sell our old home (in South Carolina) was a Keller Williams affiliate. That experience was just the opposite, too: the K/W folks in Greenville were incompetent, lazy, and borderline illiterate. And they had the gall to charge 6.5%. The agent was late for everything- even the closing. I was chatting with the guy who ended up buying our house, and he told me they very nearly walked away from the deal, the K/W agent was so bad. In fact, the only reason the deal went through at all, I think, was because I met the seller man-to-man and we kind of hit it off (we're both car guys).

Educate yourself. Buying a house is a project, and like it or not, you are the project manager responsible for results.

I am not patronizing you, but these is no lack of literature available. Most people learn how to do this stuff by making mistakes that they don't repeat next time. Bit of pre-learning should help avoid stuff on the first go-round. If you buy 3 or 4 books and certain subjects keep repeating, then you might want to focus on those items when it comes to the report.

How to do a house inspection: http://www.wikihow.com/Perform-a-House-Inspection

How to pick a real estate crook:

http://www.wikihow.com/Find-a-Good-Real-Estate-Agent

Keep in mind that the real estate agent works for the home seller. You can hire them to work on your behalf, but it will need to be stated. The real estate profession is one huge conflict of interest that is smoothed over with BullE36 M3. Give some serious thought to taking advice from anyone who's income depends on you doing what they suggest.

I was lucky in that I did my house inspection with the contractor. Pictures were removed from walls, large amounts of toilet paper were flushed (he brought his own) roof was climbed, heat was turned on. Water damage was looked for. Some silly smoke generating wand was involved. He had some neat thermal scanner to impress me. Permits for suspected renovations were requested (none available) Property drainage was evaluated.

There was like a 200 item checklist and a note against just about every item was made, not just a check-mark. Ask to see the inspector's report template before you hire him. If it is just check-boxes, take a pass; he could fill it out sitting in a bar. If you are smart, you will have a few ringers from your walk though that you know should be on the report.

I was given a rough budget for living in the house for the next five years assuming that I dealt with a list of items deemed important.

I recall that the whole visit was around 2.5 hours.

House inspectors have no accountability for anything they miss or get wrong.

Arg! Sorry SVreX, I'd misread your post as having to do with home inspectors.

I don't know about all states, NYS requires a realtor to be licensed and there are varying degrees to that. The ones that have been in business for years are the one to go to. No comment on an inspector.

Realtor: Find someone that wants to find the best house for you, not that wants to maximize their commission.

Inspector: How handy are you? If you're handy and know what to look for while shopping for houses, the inspector isn't going to give you much in the way of news. Nothing "found" by our inspector has been an issue, and he missed some pretty critical things. They weren't deal breakers, but things I thought I was paying someone to tell me about.