Buying a house is so frustrating!

[Brian Elfert]

Yes, I have an agent. My agent doesn't have time to look through all the listings to find the ones with an outbuilding large enough. I end up going through all the listings online and looking for outbuildings on the aerial view.

My agent set up a search for houses with outbuildings listed in MLS. The problem is most selling agents don't fill in the outbuilding field in the MLS listing even when there is an outbuilding. Other agents put stupid things like garden sheds in the outbuilding field. All of the agents are extremely busy right now with it being prime buying season so it isn't always possible to see a house before it sells.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

You're not alone Brian! We have been house hunting for 4 years now and have lost out on three Short Sales we were locked-in to for 6-12 months only to get bumped just prior to closing when much higher offers came in. We were outbid by cash buyers by over $10k on two other homes.

We have to factor in acreage for the livestock as well as RV access and shop space. Most of the listings we have looked at have land covered with trash or the homes have been very neglected and need a lot of updating and are way over-priced for what they are. After losing out on yet another offer 2 weeks ago, we started looking at building again. We found some acreage that we are researching now. Drilling the well and installing the septic are not going to be cheap. Many of the wells in that area are 60-200' deep, but the 4 closest properties surrounding it all have wells that are 308' to 375' deep. Ouch.

Like you, we have a fantastic agent who grew up in the area and knows practically everyone, but it's the other agents that don't seem to know the difference between a garden shed versus a real shop when they list it on the MLS. Using google earth comes in very handy!

Good luck.

[Brian Elfert]

I can't really afford to build although I'm looking at that as an option too. My absolute top dollar I want to spend unless I find a "10" home is $250,000. To build on a 1 acre lot with septic and well with a 1,200 square foot home would put me right at $250,000. That includes no garage. The garage I want that is 40x50 and 14 foot clearance is another $40,000 on top of that that I can't afford. I can buy a decent pre-owned house that needs a few repairs for a lot less than $250,000. If I am willing to wait a few months I might even find something with the right outbuilding for $250,000. Outbuildings are few and far between to start with, but the 14 foot clearance is the killer.

I could certainly qualify for a much higher mortgage probably as high as $400,000, but I don't want to be "house poor". I wouldn't really call my agent fantastic. I think she is already sick of showing me houses.

[Roger Feeley]

Whoo boy. Where to begin when ranting about sellers agents. The listings are terrible. I truly don't understand why sellers put up with such poor listings written by agents. Some of my personal favorites:

-- The lead picture on one listing was of a filthy toilet.
-- The description that shows up on the listing in MLS is basically a tweet. One listing used that text to warn about a vicious dog.

[Greg Portland]

Yes, I have an agent. My agent doesn't have time...

Get a new agent. You're paying them 3% on a $200k sale for ???

[Brian Elfert]

Get a new agent. You're paying them 3% on a $200k sale for ???

All of the real estate agents I know are very busy right now. I can't realistically expect an agent to know what I want and to take hours out of their day looking at aerial photos of houses to see the sizes of outbuildings. If you were an agent would you rather spend two or three hours looking through home listings for a buyer with very specific needs, or take out other buyers who aren't as picky and won't spend three months trying to find the right house? They all pay the same commission.

There is a house I am very interested in, but I didn't notice it is cash only until my agent told me. Even though it is cheap (for good reason) I don't have enough cash to buy it. The sellers seem very motivated as they have dropped the price by over 20% already.