My daughter's trying to sell.

He was looking at houses with a realtor.

At one, as soon as he walked in the door he was ambushed by hundreds of fleas.

As he ran away, the realtor shouted after him: "Don't you want to see the rest of the house?!?!"

I lucked out.

In a seller's market, this works.

Pick out a neighborhood or two you like in your price range. Have your agent send a letter to the whole neighborhood stating he/she has ready willing and able (and prequalified) buyers and a ball park of what you're willing to pay to live there. Add a short bio and why you want to live in their awesome neighborhood and your requirements (beds/baths/size etc)

Drive the hood and pick out a few that aren't for sale and make an offer contingent on inspection. Have your agent do some comps first so your offer price is reasonable.

Its a proven fact that one out of ten houses will sell in the next 12 months. You just need to be there with the right offer when the seller decides it's time.

PM me for buyer letter templates and if your agent isn't willing to do this, get another agent. I can help with that too.

I'm a third generation Realtor, licensed in three states, I've seen this work, even in West LA.

PS I see you're a veteran, are you using a VA loan? This a is a deal breaker for lots of sellers for reasons too complicated to go into here. I have a work around for that too.

Seriously PM me if you want help. I eat this stuff up.

We found the perfect house eventually. Or one that would be perfect after we replaced the kitchen and other sundry projects.

On the other side of the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

When I was house hunting (and even now for fun), I checked out houses on zillow.com and realtor.com. You can narrow down house size, neighborhood, and many other things you do or don't want in a house. Then tell your realtor what houses you want to look at.

Several times a day. I visit those almost more than any other page now.

We just went through that process under a year ago. Checking realtor every morning, calling the agent to get there now. Finally found a place, put in a offer then the VA appraisal wouldn't go high enough. Ok, took the bid down , had them pay the closing cost and they accepted 24 hours later.

It's kind of fun, but not. Took us around 3 months to find what we were looking for. Sold our old home in 48 hours, had 3 bids and 2 people writes us letters. Took the highest, cause ..yeah.

The market is crazy right now! We were house hunting from 10 hours away, went up and looked but didn't find anything. Came home, found a decent house online a 10 minute walk from hubby's new job. Made an offer over asking price without ever stepping foot in the place, which had multiple offers but we ended up getting. Came up and looked at it during inspection and luckily we like it I love looking at houses online but I'm over the home buying process. This is our 4th house in 7 years!

Best of luck to you in your search!