Realtor who can spot a lemon vs a gem?

First thing I'll say is that all realtors are salespeople so you might want to come to terms with that. The second thing is that almost every house on the market around here has a lot of issues, some of which are disclosed and some of which are not. It's good to have a realtor who can help really look at them, and has a rolodex of construction professionals for you to use, because you will need them. However, if you feel like your current realtor is pushy and inexperienced, by all means, let them go and seek someone more seasoned and mellow, just know they also get paid on commission.

We found Sheri Madden to be exceptionally knowledgable, insightful, careful and communicative when we looked at many, many homes during our search. She is NOT a salesperson. She was like a fiduciary--she absolutely did not have an interest in making a sale happen for a commission but instead gave us loads of information, and several times kept us from making offers on unwise choices (ie I had an emotional attachment to/fell in love w a home, she would flat out tell me: Do Not do it. It has X and X...). Sheri has decades of knowledge, a great eye, many experts at her fingertips and most definitely has clients best interest at heart.

Highly recommend Laura Arechiga with Grubb. She patiently worked with us over a multi-year home buying process and is very knowledgeable & honest about the pros/cons of a given property. I believe truly has her clients best interests in mind and never tried to push us into paying more than what she honestly thought a house was worth. 

Loved, loved, loved Amy Ahlers w/ Eastside West (https://eastsidewest.com/agents/amy-ahlers). She sold our house and helped us buy another. She's great at her job, but she also is super attentive to the emotional piece of buying/selling. I felt like she held our hand for the whole process. Also, she was hypervigilant at looking at disclosures and explaining everything and making sure we got the house we thought we were getting. We really loved her. 

You don't say where you're looking specifically but in Oakland and Berkeley we've used Dalia to buy two homes and sell one and adore her. She's lovey and I'd highly recommend her. We never felt pressured to do anything and she has a great network of relationships with other realtors which has been useful for us. https://www.yelp.com/biz/dalia-juskys-red-oak-realty-berkeley 

We used Don Adamson with Red Oak. We were also first time home buyers and stayed in that house for almost a decade. When we recently moved we called Don again and he helped us buy our current house. The houses we looked at all had issues, but he was upfront about them and what they'd cost to repair. Additionally, he connected us with a contractor who did a small remodel to upgrade the kitchen. He's experienced and well connected. 

We recently bought our first home with the amazing and irreplaceable help of Linda Elkin (https://www.lindaelkin.net) She helped us understand disclosures and gave us super detailed notes on the disclosures from every property we were serious about. She really knows this area and truly goes above and beyond. There were a few properties I was interested in that she immediately noticed issues with that she wasn’t shy to point out. I can’t say enough positive things about her. I’m happy to answer more if you want to reach out. Good luck! 

We had a great experience with Lauren Kilbourne at Cush Real Estate – she was recommended to us by a former colleague. We looked at a ton of homes with her, and she would give us an honest assessment but never pushed us into anything we felt uncomfortable with and really respected our budget in bidding war scenarios (we never felt pressured.) As another commenter noted, a lot of homes here in the East Bay do have issues, Lauren was adept at helping us navigate what were minor vs. major, and has an amazing network of fast-responding specialists to help us understand whether issues were severe, and what it would cost to resolve them. (For the home we ended up purchasing, there was a foundation issue noted on the inspection report but within 12 hours she had a structural engineer there to assess it for us to confirm how minor/major it was and exactly what needed to be done to resolve it plus estimated cost. She also then helped us get an offer accepted below what we expected the home to go for to cover the cost of that work so that we felt confident moving forward.) https://cushrealestate.com/agents/lauren-kilbourne/

We worked with Megan Micco and she is fantastic.  She didn't pressure us at all and was so helpful in getting us into a house that was perfect for our family.

I would highly recommend Dave Adams (https://daveadams-northerncalifornia.sites.cbmoxi.com/) over at Coldwell Banker. We've bought two different houses with him. He doesn't pressure or rush your house search and he is very savvy when it comes to figuring out what faults in a house are easily fixable and what aren't. Plus he's super friendly!

We loved working with Zanna Knight, who had a very realistic take on every house we saw.  She let us know what she saw as the benefits and risks or drawbacks of each house, and then left it totally up to us about where to go from there.  She had a ton of wisdom to share about what to look out for, and when we decided we wanted to go for a house, she had exactly the right read on what to bid when.  We got our house on a preemptive offer that we credit totally to her!

Ann Arriola Plant has been our realtor for buying and selling for almost twenty years, and we trust her - she's honest and is very sensible.  She works hard!  Interview at least three realtors, and, whomever you choose, hire a professional house inspector.

We worked with Bhima Sheridan at District Homes to buy our first house, and he was amazing. I think he has an engineering background and he owns a number of rental properties around Berkeley, so he was a fountain of info about how houses work (or don't work). He did a great job of pointing out issues and we ended up with a house that we adore. That's not to say that our house is perfect--after looking endlessly, I'm convinced that these cool old east bay houses all have their problems and its a matter of finding the ones that you can feasibly accept or repair. But I do totally trust Bhima and I think he showed a ton of know-how and integrity during our process. Good luck!

"Megan Micco is THE BEST. ( (www.meganmicco.com )
 

I owned a home staging company, and worked with dozens of East Bay realtors, so it should speak volumes that I chose Megan when my husband and I were ready to buy a house. I can't say enough good things about her- she is so, so smart, and so well respected by other realtors, which is hugely important- there is no way we would have gotten our amazing house without Megan. She fought for us, and we beat out seven other offers, and we somehow still got an amazing deal. She also has a great personality and has a great team working with her. 
 

We recently recommended Megan to close friends who were selling their North Berkeley house, and they were impressed with her every step of the way- from her amazing listing presentation, to how she presented and marketed the property, to the incredible offers she brought in and closed."

As a retired realtor, your query reminds me of when my husband and I were first-time homebuyers 40 years ago.

What you seem to be saying is that the buyers' agent you are working with does not understand your taste and your budget, and maybe won't listen to you or doesn't understand you.  And you don't trust them.  These are legitimate concerns, and fair reason for you to find a new agent.

That said, let's examine some facts about the real estate market.

'Fair market value" is the price that any one buyer is willing to pay for a certain property. 

"Overpriced", in the most simplistic terms, means the property is priced at above fair market value. 

In the hot sellers' market that we have known for the past decade or so, whether a given property is overpriced is usually determined after the fact:  if the property sits on the market with no full-price offer for a month or more.

Currently the market is slowing down a bit, so it takes guesswork.to know what price to offer.  

It is often shocking to hopeful homebuyers when they offer the list price of a property, only to be beat out by multiple higher offers in a bidding war.  "Aggressive underpricing", or listing the property for a very low price relative to comparable properties currently on the market, is the realtors' tactic used to elicit this bidding war.  Critics argue that the winner in a bidding war is often overpaying, and many such buyers end up remorseful.  But technically, the property they bought was not overpriced!

It is axiomatic for realtors that buyers want to buy a Rolls Royce with their Honda budget.

When my husband and I first started looking for a house, we decided the price we could easily afford.  Our first agent showed us properties at that price point.   

"Why is she only showing us dumps?" I wondered.  

Agents can also apply the formula that a lender would use, to qualify how much you can afford.  In our case, this was a higher price than we knew we could comfortably budget.  At the time, a friend was enduring a divorce, brought on by the couple having 'bought too much house" and consequently endured financial stress.

Right now the market is softening a bit, which will help buyers.

My advice:  be very clear and realistic as to what you can afford.  Be prepared to look at a lot of properties - more than 50, perhaps. If you find a dream house, be realistic about how much to offer.  Don't offer less than list price unless the property has been unsold on the market for one month or more,. Maybe hold back a small amount, in case you find you must make a counteroffer to compete.

 Stay calm! Good luck! 

So sorry about your experience! It's great you have recognized you deserve better and are choosing to move on. We had an extraordinary experience with Jamie Lawrence (https://jamielawrencegroup.com/). She is brilliant, ethical, communicative, funny, and exceptionally good at what she does. She has an unmatched eye for the details that show how well or not-well a house has been cared for. She is a great listener: because she understood so deeply what we were looking for in a home, she was immediately able to identify whether a certain house was a non-starter from the beginning, and she was always right! Over and over again, she could tell within minutes what a home would go for, and a few weeks later when the sale price was public, we'd see she was spot on. She used to be an attorney and takes her fiduciary duty to clients seriously. Her attorney training also gave her excellent negotiation skills and she helped us successfully navigate a multiple counter-offer situation to get our current home. We will not hesitate to use Jamie again if we need to sell our home or purchase a new one. I can't imagine having gone through the homebuying process with anyone else. We recommend Jamie without reservations!

Megan Micco is an amazing realtor. She is very knowledgeable about the market and is able to ascertain the condition of a home. We used Megan to sell a house and we have also asked her for advice when our daughter was buying a house in another area. She has excellent contacts in the industry if you need an inspection or repairs and she is highly consultative and takes a long-term approach to working with clients. She is a real gem. www.meganmicco.com