Reply #30: I had a great realitor.

[salin]

I spoke to a couple - and told them the tale - i was looking to buy urban and inexpensive - I was looking to start aggressively investing/saving - and not via a mortgage (as I have spent most of my adult life as a student or working at nonprofits, that I hadn't yet had much opportunity to have enough money to begin investing towards retirement.) I said the price that I wanted to pay (outright with no work, or lower cost with that much left over for renovation.) I said this outright so that they would know that I wasn't going to bring in much money for the realitor. Wanted that outfront.

Got a couple of periodic calls from one guy - and another person had great follow up. His firm specialized in foreclosures at all price levels. He was also a local policeman - which was great since I was looking at some transitional neighborhoods - and not knowing the area could lead to more and less safe areas of such communities. I paid and rennovated for about a third of what I would have paid in one of the older (not as expensive) suburbs. Mine is a former HUD home as well as one in foreclosure.

Find someone who consistently brings you info on homes that meet *Your* criteria. Find someone who seems (by their actions) to understand *your* financial goals (esp price range) and find someone who responds positively to that (my guy thought it was great that I was buying low - so that I could save aggressively rather than buy as much as my current monthly paycheck could bare.) And when you get that groundwork set up - stay with the person keeps following up rather than only very episodically checks in. There are some realitors that really like matching folks up to their wants/needs rather than are just interested in making as large as a check as possible (and thus push more expensive properties than the buyer initially wants or expresses an interest in.)