Hi everyone,

I am a long time reader of Philly Blog, but this is my first post. My boyfriend and I are interested in looking into property in the Queens Village, Bella Vista area and are looking for realtor recommendations. A little background:

We are currently renting in Society Hill and this would be our first home purchase. We are not interested in buying tomorrow, so we are looking for a realtor that will be patient with us. We will probably buy in the next year to year and a half. Our last realtor was really pushy and I am just not interested in that. We are pretty low maintenance considering we track new listings every day online. We really just need someone to show us houses, guide us through the process, be nice and helpful!

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for the help.

Realtors earn a living on the commissions they make selling or renting a house. Most, if not all, will avoid what is basically your guided tour of Queen Village, and most of the homes you view in the next couple of months will not be available (hopefully) when you are ready to buy.

Given the economic downturn and that it will probably get worse, you may find yourselves with the advantage of getting more house for your money in a year and a half. I suggest you print out open house listings and visit those homes by yourselves on weekends to give you perspective on what's out there and save the realtor his/her valuable time for when you are ready to make a purchase.

Hope I'm not coming across harshly.

I would recommend both Jessica Pongracz with Coldwell and Lauren Acker with Prudential, Fox, and Roach.

Good luck.

I'm going to second the comment regarding going to Open Houses instead. We're selling our house right now and it takes about 2 hours to prep it for a showing (dust, windex, clean up dog/cat fur, sweep, etc). I also spend about $25 on flowers twice a week so they're fresh for showings. Neither the home owners nor the realtors are going to be very patient with people who aren't CURRENT serious buyers.
Many realtors will also ask for a pre approval agreement from your bank before they begin investing time in your search.
Your best bet is to wander the area you're interested in for a few Sundays. We used to do this just to get an idea what our money could buy us without wasting anyone's time. When people hold open houses - they're assuming that a large percentage of people coming through are "snoopers" and you can be honest and say you're looking to buy in about a year. Naturally, you can't compare what's available now to a year from now either.

Thanks for the recommendation, Claudia! I actually got married in the fall, so it is Jessica Modica now...still with Coldwell Banker, though!

Socks, you are a little early in your timeline to be actively looking at homes...properties on the market now won't be (if they are even remotely reasonably-priced, that is) available to you in 12 to 18 months. For now, concentrate on figuring out exactly where you want to be, even within QV and BV, get your financials in order (saving, cleaning up any credit issues, etc), and keep going to open houses on Sundays and watching the online listings. That way, when it comes time for you to start actively searching, you'll know exactly where you want to live, how much you can afford, and you'll be able to spot a good deal from a mile away!

A typical home search will take about 1 to 2 months of getting out at least once a week to see houses with your buyer's agent. (With pre-approval in hand.) Then, once you find a house to make an offer on, there will be about another 30 to 60 days from the time the seller's accept your offer until the day of settlement. During that time you will be having your inspections, applying for your mortgage, etc. So, count on starting your active search about 4 months before you will be ready to move.

But, even though you are 12 to 18 months out, I'd be happy to sit down with you and your boyfriend to go over the buying process with you and answer all of your questions, and make sure you are comfortable with the process.

You can reach me at jessmodica@gmail.com.

__________________
-Jess.
jessmodica@gmail.com

I second Lauren Acker. She is fantastic.

Thank you for all of the replies. I should make it clear that we do already have a pre-approval on a mortgage and we are willing to move on buying if we find a place we love. So maybe my initial post was a bit misleading. Sorry about that.

I definitely agree with going to open houses, which we do. The problem is that many of the properties we are interested in are not the properties that have open houses often (at least what we have seen). We are in the price range of about 200-250K and not really interested in a condo.

I do check the listings everyday on phillyliving.com. I am really looking for a realtor so I have someone to answer specific questions I have about certain neighborhoods and properties.

I hope that makes sense. The last thing I want to do is waste anyone's time. If anyone has any additional websites and other places to look for listings and open houses, please share. I'd be happy to hear it. Thanks.

Definitely also check Craigs List and Zillow. Zillow.com is actually a great site because you can view maps of the area and see what the houses are actually being settled for (sold) as well as what they're listed for. The sold price is key as so many are inflated so you can realistically see what the market is accepting at this point. You can also check the BRT property site on line - it will show what the latest sale price was of a home so you can better understand the pricing in certain neighborhoods.