We Try to Buy Real Estate...Again

On Wednesday we went to Phoenix to check out the place. We looked at 10 properties, didn't like any. In fact, we didn't like Phoenix at all. It's another big, smoggy city. Heavy traffic, no parks (that we saw), very jammed together. Tucson is much nicer, with plenty of open space and parks.

Yesterday we went to Coolidge, a small town in between Tucson and Phoenix. We saw seven properties, and were interested in three of them. They are pretty old and run down, but cheap! So we called a realtor, and arranged to meet him and see the inside of the three we found interesting.

The first one is a large mobile home permanently situated on two large lots. It has a nice shop building as well. The house is in pretty good shape, and has a kitchen Marlene likes. Unfortunately, it is surrounded by dumpy, garbage strewn, run down or abandoned properties. It is also not in town, but 8 minutes away. It's listed at $25000.

Number two is a 1000 sq. ft. house built in the 50's. We could not see inside it because the keys were mysteriously missing! The realtor called the listing broker, and was told there are many offers on the property already, and too bad about the keys! It's listed at $19000.

Number three is a 1200 sq. ft. house built in the 30's. We couldn't see this one, because the listing broker had failed to note in the listing that they have multiple offers and the bank has not accepted any. It's listed at $10000.

We have now learned that the games realtors play in Vegas are the same here. They leave enticing listings on the active list, when they know that they cannot sell them. They hope to use the listings to pull prospective buyers in for bait and switch. We are pissed off, as was the agent who tried to show the properties to us.

We are now done with realtors. Each time we've bought a great property, we've done it our own way, despite what the agents had all told us. We'll look for a seller who is just as frustrated with realtors as we are.

The search continues...