I want to say that I didn’t go into this blindly, or at least I felt I had done my homework, on how to find a good agent to help me buy a house. I read all the blogs I could, articles, checklists.. so when the time came for me to start seriously looking for a home I thought I had all the tools I needed to make a good choice on which agent to go with.

Boy was I wrong.

One of the things I did was look for agents in my area. I made some calls and found that my budget of 450,00.00 actually turned agents off. I don’t know if it was because the prices of home were absolutely sky high so my price range was just chump change to them or what, but had agents tell me that my price range was lower than they typically sell and they weren’t interested in helping me find a home.

I started looking for agents who seemed to sell a range of homes. From parcels of land to 1,000,000.00 homes and everything in between. I don’t know why, really, but I think I wanted someone who just worked with all people regardless of budget. What I should have been looking for first, was someone with experience in the town/s I was looking in. I’ll explain this when I share our first home offer.

After many, many calls and feeling pretty exhausted from just searching for an agent I finally landed on someone I thought seemed like a good fit. I checked out her social media and it seemed at least a few times a week she was sharing a post with SOLD and her name on it, and really seemed to interact with the people who commented on her page. She had a lot of likes and 15 years experience and that all seems like a good combo, right? So I reached out to her.

Now before I go any further, and I am embarrassed to even disclose this, but if it saves one person, it’s worth it: I had no idea that agents use an automated feed that will pump out those social media posts with home listings. The posts will include everything from tips for homebuyers and owners, to listings that have been sold in the area. While clever marketing, it feels quite misleading. I have since learned that Zillow will tell you the agents involved in a sell on some homes, and that is a good resource to see how busy they really have been if it’s published. I can not recommend enough that you check reviews, do a license search and just basically spend some serious time seeing how well respected the agent you are considering to use, and trust yourself.

*I have included an example of one of these posts with this entry*

I feel it’s important to say that not all agents are bad. They are not. I have met some amazing ones who have been very sympathetic and disgusted by my situation. They are well-respected and are not only involved in community, but make you feel like community. I just somehow managed to get the perfect mix of the worst, on top of bad mixed with some awful. I joke that perhaps the house was built on piece of land that was the resting place for a cursed charm of some sort. Maybe Jumanji is buried there. Maybe that necklace Greg found in Hawaii is buried there. Maybe someone got into a fight in the 1800s and screamed a curse at the owner of the farm and cursed his land for all time forever and ever and then ever again. I have some theories and while none of them are likely, I kinda of have a mental BINGO card going on, because as you will find as my story unfolds that one of those can be the only explanation.

Jumping back to where I was, I think it’s a safe assumption at this point that yes.. I did call her. I explained my situation about my journey to buying this home, what it meant for us and how long I worked to save. I explained to her why I was doing this; so my adult disabled children would always have a home of their own and housing security. She seemed so eager to help and jump onboard to help us have that dream and the perfect home for us that would fit in our modest budget….

….

I should have swiped left.