I'm trying to make a move from California to Kentucky.  I've been trying for months now to find a good realtor that will do some searching for a home for me and I've had no luck at all. I made a trip there to see a listing I found on the internet and was told by the realtor that they'd line up more places for me to see.  When I got there they said they hadn't gotten around to finding other homes for me to see.  They gave me a real estate magazine and told me to try to find something.  So I spent the entire week searching instead of looking at homes.  Every realtor that I've found wants me to do the searching and then they say they will set up a showing for me when I find the place.  The problem is that's hard to do when I'm 2000 miles away.  What I need is a realtor that will line up several places for me and then I'll make a trip to see them.  I've been looking in the Harrodsburg / Danville area and would possibly go as far south as Somerset.  I'm not really set on one area in particular.  Does anyone know of a decent realtor in the Central Kentucky area?  

John

pilot, good luck on your search. the harrodsburg / danville area is a nice area, i used to work over that way about ten years ago.
don't know too much about somerset, i live near bowling green.
can tell you about that town and the surounding counties since that's where i live.
did you contact the "big" realtors in the area?
(century 21, remax, etc)

let me know if i can help.

bill

I was looking at homes in the Harrodsburg area earlier this year.  In that area there are really only 3 main realtors and all are online.  What type of property are you looking for?  City/Country.  Frame house or modular?  Lots of land/ no land.  If you will settle for a modular home you can end up with quite a bit of land very cheap.  For example one house I looked at was a modular home on 26 acres with an asking price of $69,000.  Another was a modular home needing a lot of interior work on 7 acres for $25,000.

Here or some of the realtors in the area.  The top three are the major players.

http://www.sexton-realestate.com/listings.htm
http://www.lindawilsonrealty.com/
http://www.realestatebynet.com/harrodburg/index.html

http://www.freemanauction.com/
http://www.sellwithhale.com/listing.html

There is also http://www.lbar.com which is the MLS listings for Kentucky.  They have a detailed search but most of the homes near Harrodsburg aren't listed in the MSL.

The magazine that you want to get is the Kentucky Homes magazine for that area.  That's were almost all the houses for that area are listed.

Thanks for the information.  The realtors I've tried to deal with so far in that area are Wayne Stratton at Stratton Home Town Realty in Harrodsburg, and two agents in Danville, one from a Remax office, the other from Caldwell Bankers.  Stratton has lots of listings in the Harrodsburg area but it's nearly impossible to get him to send any information out.  I'll try the links you provided.  KY homes is a good magazine, I picked up a copy last time I was in the area but unfortunately they are hard to get when you are out of state.  One of the realtors promised to send a copy but it's been several weeks now and I haven't received anything.  
I'll be getting married in the near future so I need a home for myself and my wife.  I also care for my mom and grandma so I need a place for them.  We were hoping to find a place with either two houses on it, a place with one home where another could be built, or a larger home with walk out basement that's set up with seperate living quarters in the top and bottom.  My mom and grandma are both handicapped so at least one home or level needs to be accessible without having to use stairs.  If I need to build a ramp up to a porch or something like that for them then that can be done.  I'd like to get some acreage if possible.  I've been looking at any where from 5 - 50 acres depending on price and location. I'd also like to have enough level land to put in a fairly large work shop / garage, around 1200 - 1500 square feet probably.  I found a place in the Harrodsburg area that might have worked for us, it was 12 acres but there wasn't any land close to being suitable to build the garage on.  
John

I forgot to mention that a modular is fine or one house and a modular.  We've thought about finding a place in the country with one house and putting a modular on the property if the zoning there allows you to do that.  We'd like something in the country but not too far out.  My soon to be wife works in Versailles now.  If we were to live in the Danville / Harrodsburg area she'd keep her present job and she was hoping to keep the drive down to 45min - 1 hr.

John

Forget the realtors, it sounds like they want you to do the work and still pay them their 7%.  Try looking online for the town's newspaper and searching for the "for sale by owner" properties.  You can also do an online search for other "for sale by owner properties."  If you really want to use a realtor, the big website that realtors all over the country use is www.realtor.com.  It really is a great site with a lot of filters to find just the kind of house you want.  I hope this helps.

i agree, those Realtors are piss poor.

but [b]pilot[/b] wouldn't incur the cost of using their services unless he signs a contract with one on a fee-for-service basis [i]or[/i] there's a major difference in the way KY does its real estate business.  buyers don't pay the realtor fees.  and no, it's not built into the price of the house.  if you doubt me, consider FSBOs.  they put their houses on the market at the same "market value" as the houses that are listed with agents.  the difference:  FSBOs get to keep the money in their pockets and not have to pay the realtor.  in other words, buyers are going to pay the same general price for any given house, regardless of whether it's FSBO or listed with a real estate company.

also, in most cases, especially large market areas, the internet (www.Realtor.com) is not the main source for house hunting among Realtors.  the fact is that Realtor.com is for the buying and selling public, not the Realtors.  most areas have a local organization that acts as a clearinghouse/database for listings in the area.  that's the MLS (multiple listing service) number associated with listings online.

[b]pilot[/b], check you IM.

Hey pilot4x4

One of the board members lives in the Danville area. He hasn't been to active on the board lately. I will drop him an e-mail, sending him to this thread, to see if he can add anything to your search.

I hear you on the searching from 2000 miles away, I lived in the Santa Clara area and moved to Louisville. It's a PITA! [:D]