How I did it: We were recommended to an agent by friends and started looking at houses with her after our initial meeting.

In California, you can bid on more than one house at a time, so we bid on every house we liked because the housing market is very competitive in LA.

We bought our house as a short sale, and it took four and a half months from bid to keys in hand.

Lessons & tips: Tips:
-Meet with more than one agent initially. You have to look at many houses with this person. You need to like him or her. A lot.
-Patience. Our house took forever, and I was constantly worried we were going to get screwed out of it in the end. But -- there's always another house out there. There's no "The One" in houses.
-You're the boss. If you don't like your loan company or your agent, take your business elsewhere. Don't put up with crappy/condescending service. Our agent was incompetent and it made the process 10 million times harder than it had to be.
-Look on your own. Don't just wait for listings from your agent. Only you know what you're truly looking for.
-Know your limits. If you're stressed out by the process, take a couple weeks off from looking.

---

Jul 29, 2010, 01:14PM PDT | 0 comments | 3 cheers