Working with realtors and the house hunt

[Sarah T.]

Question for you experienced rehabbers out there that work with realtors... I found a couple of realtors that look promising, but am worried that looking at such a large amount of houses won't be cool. I read about the "100 house" thing in J. Scott's book, and I want to look at as many as possible, but won't a realtor get pretty angry if you're dragging them to look at tons of properties and having them write up multiple low offers for home after home until one is accepted.... I mean they work on commission, I don't think I'd like that if I was a realtor... I think I'm going to just get my license eventually, but must work with a realtor for my first couple of deals.

So is there a workaround for this? I plan to drive my farm area once I move, get a feel for things, but aside from stalking houses alone and not getting to see much of the inside, how do those of you who work with realtors deal with this? I know it must be an issue...

I thought about contacting listing agents directly for some properties, but then I learned I'd run into a legal catch-22 where the listing agent would expect to represent me, etc... 

Thoughts? 

[James Wise]

You can have a Realtor put you on an auto feed from the MLS.

You choose the criteria

• Zip codes
• Sq footage
• # of baths
• # of Beds
• Price range
• REO/Short sale/Owner owned etc.

Then every property that fits your criteria is automatically sent to you. From there I would do external views, you can tell a lot just from the outside of a house.

That will greatly narrow down the possibilities.