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I used a realtor to buy my new home and I sold my previous home to Zillow. The process of buying my new home flat out sucked. The entire process was slow, outda

I used a realtor to buy my new home and I sold my previous home to Zillow. The process of buying my new home flat out sucked. The entire process was slow, outdated, and frustrating. However, working with Zillow was incredibly easy and not at all frustrating. We reached out; they inspected the house; they provided an offer; we accepted it; and then they took care of absolutely everything else. They kept us in the loop, set everything up for us, and we ended up with the money in our account and the old loan paid off all the while charging us 1.5% whereas a Realtor would have been closer to 6-8%. We made out like bandits and I am disappointed I cannot recommend them to anyone else until they come back into the market.

soylentcola 5y ago
I also had a less-than-stellar experience dealing with a realtor on my first purchase a few years ago. The guy barely did anything useful except provide his credentials for access to tools. He didn't do much to find properties for me. I had better luck searching open databases of listings that didn't seem any quicker to show properties than the janky search used by the "pros". Basically the realtor set up a search for me on his tool and it sent me new listings that met the criteria. But I couldn't edit this search or browse anything so it was mostly useless. So I ended up just emailing him lists of properties I found on my own so he could set up times to check them out. And as I was looking for places that were decent but in need of some updates/minor work, practically every single place was sold to developers/flippers for cash before my realtor could get an offer in. After a year or so looking, I ended up lowering my standards quite a bit because I was getting sick of renting a temporary spot. And of course you sign a contract with a realtor so you can't just shop around for a better one. I was basically stuck because the guy seemed decent in the beginning. But like a car salesman, he lost most of his interest once I was locked in and he realized I wasn't gonna be making him any massive commissions.

soylentcola 5y ago

I also had a less-than-stellar experience dealing with a realtor on my first purchase a few years ago. The guy barely did anything useful except provide his credentials for access to tools. He didn't do much to find properties for me. I had better luck searching open databases of listings that didn't seem any quicker to show properties than the janky search used by the "pros". Basically the realtor set up a search for me on his tool and it sent me new listings that met the criteria. But I couldn't edit this search or browse anything so it was mostly useless. So I ended up just emailing him lists of properties I found on my own so he could set up times to check them out. And as I was looking for places that were decent but in need of some updates/minor work, practically every single place was sold to developers/flippers for cash before my realtor could get an offer in. After a year or so looking, I ended up lowering my standards quite a bit because I was getting sick of renting a temporary spot. And of course you sign a contract with a realtor so you can't just shop around for a better one. I was basically stuck because the guy seemed decent in the beginning. But like a car salesman, he lost most of his interest once I was locked in and he realized I wasn't gonna be making him any massive commissions.