Classifieds VS Realtor: Whats the best way to find a home?
SwellJoe: I will never use a realtor again.My girlfriend at the time and I dealt with two different realtors when looking for a home in Austin, and both of them encouraged really bad decisions.  The first was pretty new to the job, and was a bit heavy-handed in his tactics and advice, and I saw right through it.  The latter was much more subtle and good at it (she'd been a realtor for 30 years; we didn't stand a chance).  We ended up in the wrong part of town, much farther out than we intended to be (we weren't familiar with the area, and were driving 3 hours each way, on days off from work, for our excursions to look at houses, so we didn't know enough to know; we were also in a bit of a rush because our apartment lease was up soon), and in a neighborhood and house that was not at all appropriate for us, and not at all what we'd asked for.I've since read quite a few books about the sales process, and influencing peoples decisions, and I've realized that our realtor had used just about every single trick in the book to convince us to buy quickly, and from a seller that was associated with the same real estate company.  There are very few people on this earth that I have strong dislike for, but that realtor is one of them.  She was an extremely good sales person, but a pretty horrible person.The incentives are way wrong in that business, and the kind of folks, in general, it attracts are not who you want to trust.I'm sure there's an honest realtor out there somewhere (maybe even two or three), but I've never met one.  I consider it a very expensive lesson learned, and one I'll never forget.When we sold that abysmal house, we sold it ourselves, and we were completely honest about everything that was wrong with it (and in the time we'd been there we had fixed almost everything that the realtor-recommended inspector had conveniently failed to notice when we bought the place).  It sold to the first person that looked at it, and for a fair market price for the neighborhood and size.  And, I rented a place out here in the valley from an individual with no realtor involved.  Found it on craigslist, it was a good deal in exactly the location I wanted, the landlord is a nice guy, and he likes my dog.  No complaints at all.Anyway, I can't say enough bad things about realtors, in general.  I just don't see how there is any good reason to use one in a world with craigslist.