Comments on: How Far Will You Go?

By: Mana Tulberg

Mana Tulberg — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:33:36 +0000

Hi Paula, I am not comfortable working in areas that I am not familiar with either. My county is not a large one, but there are a few area 30-40 miles from home that I know pretty well and have served.

By: James Bridges

James Bridges — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:47:00 +0000

Paula, yeah it’s reallly too bad how far agents will go. I just don’t think it’s doing the client any service. If you can’t know good streets vs. the bad streets you just shouldn’t do it. I mean, you don’t see the Podiatrist doing Brain Surgery just so he could work in another surgery do you?

By: Elaine Reese

Elaine Reese — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:52:12 +0000

Paula, funny you mention the IN/OH agent. I did have an agent from Dayton do just that. She and clients (family) were sitting in front of my listing and would I please come let them in. I happened to be 25 min away and told her ‘no can do’.

By: Paula Henry

Paula Henry — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:25:40 +0000

Teresa – I find many agents don’t put as high a price on their time as they should. I do go outside of my chosen area also, but NOT outside of my MLS.

Jay – Maricopa must be the largest county in square miles than any place I have worked. There’s a big difference between listing a home in a Glendale subdivison versus a horse ranch in Cave Creek. Honestly you could list a home in Payson, but would it be wise? Believe me, it’s not

I’m with you – I don’t have hard boundaries, except if I don’t have sufficient data to properly represent my clients, that’s the boundary! Like Teresa said, we also have to consider our time and cost of gas.

By: Paula Henry

Paula Henry — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:14:11 +0000

Ginger – Good for you! If I don’t feel comfortable, I won’t do it either. There are some neighborhoods where you just can’t find decent comps or information. I say, let someone who knows the nuances of those neighborhoods do it. I love our downtown and would love to work there, but the Historic Neighborhoods are completely out of my realm of expertise. Being competent is as much as about knowing what you don’t know as much as it is about what you do know.

Elaine – LOL!! Jeff would be proud!

It’s the keypad not working which was the basis of this post. For instance, one of the agents was licensed in Ohio and Indiana, because she lives close to the border. She could just as easily call you in Columbus to let her in one of your listings. But, should she?

I do love my TomTom, though and use it regularly. It tells me when to turn when I am talking with clients or not paying attention. It really does help on those County Roads, too.

By: Paula Henry

Paula Henry — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:03:36 +0000

Vance – I will go outside of my local area if I believe I can access enough data to provide my clients. I’m talking local suburbs here! I won’t go outside of my local MLS area, where I don’t have a clue. I have turned down both buyers and sellers who wanted me to list/sell a home in a recreational area where I have never been.

Matt – I would love to say I know all the details of every neighborhood where I have listed homes. I don’t! We have many neighborhoods with custom homes, where the builder has long since retired and production builders who have gone out of business. With enough data though, I can competently advise my clients. If not, I don’t go there.

By: Paula Henry

Paula Henry — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:54:25 +0000

Todd – I sure could and don’t mind assisting agents who bring buyers for my listings or buyers who want to buy my listings.

I’ve tackled more than my share of newbie agents who needed help and answered questions for both buyers and sellers who were not my clients.

I will always do what is in the best interest of my client. I just don’t happen to believe representing a client outside of my MLS is in the best interest of my client, since I have no way of determining value, comps, tax data, etc., unless I want to go to the county courthouse for records. (Most of Indiana sales are not online.)

Just for fun – here’s the Zillow page for one of my listings –

http://www.zillow.com/homes/map/12583-Saltford-circle_lb/46037_rb/

Not much help at all! Zillow’s zestimate for this area is $222K-232K. That info doesn’t tell you this home is a short sale, currently priced almost $100,000 less than it was purchased for a few years ago. From the info here, you would guess my listing is overpriced.

Somehow – I don’t think that is helpful to the buyer or the agent.

By: Jill Wente

Jill Wente — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:51:37 +0000

I am definately boundary driven. I had a potential client call me the other day and ask for recommendation of areas in Houston to look for multi-family homes. I said 1) Houston is the 4th largest city in the US and I would be doing a disservice to attempt to recommend various areas because all I know about some of these areas is how to spell them. I specialize in Northwest Houston and Spring Texas specifically that is enough territory for me to cover. and 2) I only deal in single-family residential homes. I am not familiar nor want to become familiar with the multi-family homes market.

Its all about not chasing the dollar and focusing on what you know.

By: Jay Thompson

Jay Thompson — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:31:05 +0000

In my MLS area, it’s roughly 100 miles from the SE corner to the NW corner. With about 5 million people and 50,000 listings in between those points. There is NO WAY I can give buyers the support they need across that area.

We’ll go further for listings than we will for buyers. With proper research and discussions with the seller, we fell we can effectively market a listing that’s a little far. We do keep in mind though that we need to be available for potential showings from “stumble upons” or the proverbial “I love this house but my agent is too busy to show it to me” call. So we can’t go too far out for listings.

We don’t have any hard boundaries — they are sort of “fuzzy”. We’ll go where we know and understand the nuances of the neighborhoods. Where it gets tricky is when we get calls like this:

“Hi, we’re from Canada and we want to buy a home in Phoenix. Will you help us?”
“Where in Phoenix?”
“Oh, we have no idea.”

There are ways to whittle down the area pretty quickly. It’s unrealistic to try to get 6 or 7 agents from different parts of town to collaborate on one client. Sometimes you have to do whatever it takes.

By: Teresa Boardman

Teresa Boardman — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:15:43 +0000

I pay attention to boundaries but it is about time and gasoline. I hurt my business and limit my opportunities if I spend too much time in my car. I live in a densely populated urban area and unless it is for friends, family or past clients I pretty much stay within 5 miles of my homes, mostly within 2 miles. When I need to go outside the boundaries to help someone, I do so with no hesitation