Adventures in Home-Buying, Continued: Finding a Realtor
Ok, so by this point you’ve been pre-approved and you’ve narrowed down your wants & needs as well as what neighborhoods you want to look at. What’s the next step? Well for us, it was finding a realtor!
There are many ways to find a realtor. You can visit open houses to connect with realtors there, call up real estate companies and ask to meet with someone, or take recommendations from family and friends. Or you can do what we did and meet your realtor through social media.
Yep, I met our realtor on Twitter. A savvy social media guy, he is—he noticed a few of my tweets regarding buying a home and started connecting with me. He answered some helpful questions and, after chatting it up a few times, he suggested we meet up for coffee so he could talk B and I through the home-buying process.
House #1: The Frontrunner. Picture blurred for owner privacy.
So who is he? Brad Koenig, of Your Local Home Team. He has been amazing so far and we are so happy to be working with him! From our first meeting, where he walked us through the process step-by-step (great for someone like me who gets really anxious about the whole thing), to now, when we’re actually seeing houses, I can’t tell you how awesome it’s been. This sounds like an infomercial I’m sure but we are really happy so far!
House #2: The Reject. Picture blurred for owner privacy.
Last night, we met up with Brad to see three houses. It was really fun. Instead of being a tour guide (like you see on TV), we just wandered the homes while Brad checked out things that might affect a home inspection or resale value. It was really great to utilize his knowledge and have him point things out to us like potential problems with roofing, electrical, etc. I’ll go more in depth about actually looking at homes in my next Adventures in Home-Buying Post!
House #3: The Maybe. Picture blurred for owner privacy.
So that’s where we stand now. If you’ve bought a home, how did you find your realtor? And if you’re in the Milwaukee area, be sure to check out Brad’s website and Twitter account!
See all my Adventures in Home-Buying posts here:
The Pre-Approval Process
The Beginning Stages of the House Hunt
I love that you guys found your realtor on Twitter. So savvy of him too!
We found our realtor last year through the rental services of our real estate company, when searching for a home to rent. We liked her so much that we’re using her again, and as a bonus, we’re getting a $1k credit toward our closing costs, since we’re considered a referral from their rental services department.
Looking forward to hearing about the houses you saw!