I honestly don't know if I feel insulted or amused.
I really want to escape California and move to a red state. I like north-eastern Texas. So as an exercise in planning, I started looking at real estate in Cass county.
HOLY SMOKES ! $50k buys you a good size home on land and $90k buys you a mansion !! After seeing that, I even managed to convince my DH that it might be a good place to move to. Cass county is two hours outside of Dallas, so I looked at Dallas metro too. It's a little higher, but doable.
Dallas metro raised some questions, something only a local could answer. Like-- are there areas in the Dallas metro area you should avoid? If we went 60 miles out (up toward Greenville, or east out I-80) how is the commute? Is it clear for 60 miles? Or is it like Los Angeles (we live 45 miles from LA) which takes you 2 hours to get there? Stuff like that. The earliest we would go there is next summer anyway, so we've got time to do recon.
Oh, did I mention we'd likely pay cash for a home, since I am dead set on being debt free?
So I contacted LDSAgents.com, a network for LDS real estate agents. If there's a similar group for Baptists, somebody let me know. I figure, not that all real estate agents are honest/dishonest, but better I throw easy money at someone I feel I can trust, since we are out of state. And at this point, I just had some general questions I wanted answered (I guess I'll get them from my homeschool moms.)
The webmaster for LDSAgents refuses to refer a realtor to anyone who is not willing to spend at least $100k on a home. To be fair, their website actually says that, but I figured it didn't hurt to ask, especially since at this point, I just want my general questions answered.
NOPE. Even the statement that we would be paying cash didn't move the needle. A cordial (they are southern after all), "thanks but no thanks" without even a "what questions did you have ma'am?" was the response I got.
I wonder if the realtors in that umbrella know that the webmaster turns away business on their behalf? I find it odd that a profession, which is so network dependent, would tell you "you are better served by going to trulia.com, zillow.com, finding a house on there and making your offer direct". That's just plain weird. Maybe there's something different about buying a house in Texas.
I'm open for ideas and input if there's anyone out in Dallas metro or Cass county who wants to give me a holler !!
UPDATE: I've moved past insulted and amused and gone directly to pity. I pity the lazy fools who "don't have time to answer questions of people who are just fishing for information" or "who aren't willing to spend at least $100k" or "who don't have a definite move date within the next three months." I did take Bob's advice (the webmaster) and find a non-Mormon realtor. She was exceptionally helpful and provided a lot of insight during our 10 minute conversation. I look forward to working with her. Word to the wise: steer clear of LDSAgents.com if you actually want to accomplish something.
I think the issue here is that LDSAgents exists to make money, and it makes money by selling contact information to agents in the area you are headed to ... for that they get at least a fee - or perhaps a percentage of the sale - it used to be 0.25% of the sales cost. I know that was the case many years ago when I was looking to purchase my first house.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment(s) Icelander! I totally get that LDSAgents is a referral business. I don't have a problem with that. I have a problem with them REFUSING to refer you to an LDS agent UNLESS you are willing to commit to spending more than $100k on a home. We've been working with the above mentioned non-Mormon realtor for a while now. For what we are seeking (enough of a homestead to be self sufficient) there's no reason to spend more than $100k....and there is almost too much inventory meeting our parameters in the $75-100k range (nice problem to have!)
ReplyDeleteNot my problem...just don't understand why they are so shortsighted; and unwilling to even have a conversation.