It is a buyer's market!

I wanted to give you a little insight into what we do before contacting "our" real estate agent. Yana and I look online at Ziprealty, Trulia, Realtytrac etc. for houses in our range. We narrow the list down by price, location (the usual stuff). Out of possibly 80 listings we may find 15 or so we are interested in.

We look them up by address on the Orange County Tax appraisors site for information such as taxes, purchase price etc. We then drive by the ones we are interested in and if they are vacant, we stop and peek in the windows. Out of that list, we usually send 3 to our agent to schedule a look inside.

To put it more plainly, we do as much research as we can before we even get to the house. We believe that we are performing, in corporate speak, due diligence. And how easy is it for the agent? Show up, unlock the door and nod!