My husband and I were moving back to California in one month and I was desperate.

I was not a real estate agent or a mortgage person in those days. I was just somebody who had sold her Dallas house, and was R-E-A-D-Y to buy.

No one "researched properties" in those days.  How could you? You did what I did. You got on a plane and flew into town. Then you found yourself an agent.

Every buyer had to rely on information that was kept under lock and key by the real estate profession in those days.  The list of properties for sale only appeared in a big fat book.

The MLS book. And if you were a buyer? ACCESS DENIED.

It looked like a telephone book and featured little black and white pictures of houses. You got in the car with your agent (who had the book with her). She had already selected the 3 houses that she thought were the best for you, and had called the owners to make appointments.

 If those 3 houses didn't suit you, you started the whole process over the next day.

Can you see how hopelessly SLOW and how HIT and MISS this process was by today's standards? Today's buyers have cruised through 3 houses in 5 minutes via the Internet.

By the time my agent and I had rolled around for 3 days, and looked at exactly 9 houses, nothing struck my fancy. I was so desperate that my father begged, borrowed, (stole?) one of those old fashioned multiple listing books from a non-practicing real estate agent who was his friend.

My own Realtor would not allow me to look at hers. It was "against the rules".

I poured over it, only slightly guilty for viewing what was not meant for my eyes.

And then I saw it. "MY" house. Was it anything like what I had told my Realtor I wanted? Well....actually no.

Yes, I was one of those buyers who was also a liar. Or was I a buyer who just needed WAY more information to know WHAT I wanted?

I couldn't wait to unfold the old paper map (pre Mapquest), find the house, and drive by it. When I got there, I was so sure I wanted to buy it that I would have called the Realtor on the spot.........

But wait. There were no cell phones, so I had to drive back to my parents' house to make the call.

There was no voice mail so I left a long message with the secretary of the Realtor's office.  She carefully wrote it on a piece of paper. Nervously, I waited. And I waited.

When the Realtor called me back she told me she would not show me the house because:

1. It did not suit what I needed (what????)
2. It was too much of a fixer
3. There was some kind of financing issue
4. No one could figure out why there was no electricity to the house
5. Someone told her there was a rattlesnake cruising around the yard.

But she would show me 3 more houses. Tomorrow.

I hung up and called the listing agent. What else was I supposed to do? I could not convince her to show me the house and she could not convince me the house was a loser.

And I was desperate.

But when I met the listing agent at the property, he had a man and a woman with him and they were walking around the property having a quiet conversation.

I sat in my car for ages, steaming mad that he would make an appointment at the same time to show another couple "my" house. I almost drove away.

Luckily, I didn't. (To be continued tomorrow.)

Written by Janet Guilbault Mortgage Banker/Broker Based Out of the San Francisco Bay Area