First off great thread! One I need to read whenever I get time... but I don't right now, but just some experience I've had with family, and some things I'm hearing about the current market.
Even if you get an agent, don't quit looking yourself! At least if you have the time. I know my parents were looking for something very specific (enough land to have what I call a small farm, them being farmer kids, call it a large garden)... but it had to have enough land to farm, had to have a source of water for the plants, be above the flood plain, but also not too much land where it cost a ton in taxes and buying it. Plus you know, a house with space and was a nice house.
But they kept looking where everyone was tired of looking, I think the agent was ready to give up, my parents then try to settle and even bid on some houses that I don't think they would of liked as it clearly had some items missing that they really wanted.
It took forever, but my dad finally found one, a bit more out in the country, told the agent about it (the selling agent was the same company)... and it was their property of their dreams (other than it was multi-levels house with stairs but that hasn't been a problem so far).
Also the agent told us, there is absolutely no way they're going below the list price (I smelled BS, and was wondering if one or both of the agents were just trying to maximum the offer)... anyways my dad of course offered a price under a good bit under their asking price and they accepted the first offer (which shocked everyone). But the home owners were tired to waiting, and I guess they had two home mortgages out on the house.
Points being
[list] Know what you want Know what you need to be happy Keep looking until you find it, don't settle Look yourself, even if you get an agent, you might like something they don't notice Don't always trust the agent when they say things like they won't go down (might be true, but it also might not be) Always check flood plains and other factors[/list]As I said, they wanted something above the flood plain and good thing too, as there was a massive flood... and they didn't have much of a problem, but sadly a lot of people did. One of my former co-workers, sadly basically had all their stuff destroyed in the flood.
Also it's not just floods, earthquake areas, lime stone, land moving, other natural items to keep on the look out for. One house my parents liked and I thought they might get, shocked me, but I guess the land was moving? The entire house was a couple inches or feet over one way than it was supposed to be over a decade, and while it might not be a problem, the bank didn't trust it, as the house was no long 100% on the foundation. Sounded like still over 95% was, and probably continue to be over the next decade, but land moving isn't good.
I know where I grew up, when the news got slow, they would go cover people complaining about airplanes doing damage to their houses, as commercial developers bought and built houses in a Millitary airport potential crash zone, and sold it to people whom didn't know the airport was so nearby. Of course the house was sold to them without anyone telling them it might be a problem, and then when they move in, they suddenly have extremely loud low flying planes going over their houses. Which sometimes does damage either to the windows or vibrating things, until they become loose and fall.
Current MarketBased on news reports in general, it sounds like it's a red hot seller's market.
Where sellers are getting more than what they're asking for, and so much so, they buyers are skipping the professional home inspection.
Never skip the professional home inspection! They'll catch important things you wouldn't think to test... the main house I grew up in, looked great! But the roof in one spot was horrible, where an extremely thin 18 year old literally fell through the roof... to the floor. Lucky it happened in slow-mo like quicksand, and he was able to grab onto something that held him before purposely letting go and dropping all the way. The roof looked GREAT... it wasn't... but it looked that way.
But right now, in this current seller's market, you're probably going to have to over pay to get a house. And if you're cool with that, then no problem, or it's the perfect house, then maybe that's no problem. But if you want a better value, you also might want to wait until the market cools off a bit and becomes more equal (maybe). Of course, you never know these things for sure, when, where or why different changes might happen.