Real Estate Agents
When you start your home search, most begin on the web. A fast Google search will generate 1000s of homes for sale in your location. If you discover a house that you desire on a real estate website, you can almost always view the images online.
It is even becoming more common to take a virtual tour or see a video tour of the home. If you have purchased a home prior to finding out the value of the house is not too difficult. You can check what the current owner bought it for, check the real estate taxes, or have an knowledgeable real estate agent run comparables. Basically, they compare what has sold in that area that is of similar specification and can tell you with amazing accuracy what this home should sell for. While the simplicity of the internet is convenient and helpful, often times you can be lead off target. The volume of information and strain of verifying its accuracy is a barrier many would like a professional to handle. With so many websites to use online a home buyer will get overloaded with data that is often incomplete.
Even from the most trusted websites the information is often outdated within days. Real estate agents must secure a license in every state. A licensed real estate agent has access to data that regular home buyers do not. The most accurate information on every house in their area. This information the real estate agents use must be maintained up to date by all participating agents and brokers or they will be fined. Often times they have real estate information that has not even been submitted yet. This often happens inside of large brokerages where many agents work together to guarantee their clients get the best homes available.
The database that real estate agents use is called the Multiple Listing Service or MLS for short. Every location in the United States has an MLS. While some MLSs cover more or less area depending on the population of those areas. The first purpose of an MLS is to allow participating real estate agents to make offers on properties to other agents when they find a buyer. The MLS home information is often accessible through other sites on the web. often, there is no need of third party websites to keep their information updated and accurate for many occurrences, for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) houses cannot be directly uploaded to an MLS, because the owners is not a participating member of the local Realtor association.
FSBO houses can be difficult to locate, although web savvy FSBO houses are able to get the word out about their home nowadays.
What is a Realtor?
Oftentimes real estate agent and realtor are used interchangeably. However, they are not really the same. A Realtor is a licensed real estate agent who is also a subscriber of the National Association of Realtors. Realtors are required to abide with a strict code of ethics and behaviour. Many real estate agents now have their own websites with their local MLS data displayed. together with non-real estate sites that provide data on FSBO, foreclosure sites, county assessor sites, and valuation and marketing information websites. The abundance of real estate information on the web makes sorting through and properly figuring out more difficult than ever before. Despite the mountain of real estate information available, most houses are still purchased through real estate agents listings on the MLS. With the rise of the internet the homes listed on the MLS are there for all to see. Gone are the days of print advertising. With so much real estate data existing it can be difficult to choose the best real estate agent for you. Most agents specialize in a type of sale or in specific client. Choosing the one that best fits your needs will allow for a smoother home buying experience than with a real estate agent that you don’t get along with. All established agents will have reviews available online for you to read through as well.