Real Estate Agents
When you start your home search, most start on the web. A fast Google search will produce 1000s of homes for sale in your area. If you find a home that you like on a real estate website, you can almost always view the photos online.
It is even becoming more common to take a virtual tour or see a video tour of the home. If you have bought a home before to finding out the worth of the home is not too difficult. You can inquire what the current owner purchased it for, check the real estate taxes, or have an knowledgeable real estate agent run comparables. Basically, they compare what has sold in that community that is of comparable specification and can tell you with great accuracy what this home should sell for. While the ease of the internet is suitable and useful, often times you can be lead off target. The amount of details and difficulty of verifying its accuracy is a barrier many would prefer a professional to handle. With so many websites to use online a home buyer will get overwhelmed with data that is often incomplete.
Even from the most respected websites the data is often outdated within days. Real estate agents must secure a license in every state. A licensed real estate agent has access to information that regular people do not. The most accurate data on every home in their area. This information the real estate agents use must be maintained up to date by all partaking agents and brokers or they will be fined. Often times they hold real estate information that has not even been submitted yet. This frequently occurs inside of big brokerages where many agents work together to make sure their buyers get the best properties in their area.
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 number of residents of those areas. The primary 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 data is often available through other websites on the internet. often, there is no need of third party sites to maintain their information updated and accurate for most situations, 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 properties can be difficult to find, although internet savvy FSBO houses are able to get the word out on their house nowadays.
What is a Realtor?
Oftentimes real estate agent and realtor are used interchangeably. However, they are not technically 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 comply with a strict code of ethics and behaviour. Often real estate agents now have their own sites with their area MLS information displayed. Along with non-real estate websites that offer data on FSBO, foreclosure sites, county assessor sites, and valuation and marketing information sites. The abundance of real estate information on the web makes sorting through and properly understanding harder than ever before. Despite the flood of real estate data available, most houses are still purchased through real estate agents listings on the MLS. With the rise of the web the houses listed on the MLS are there for all to see. Gone are the days of print advertising. With so much real estate information existing it can be hard to choose the best real estate agent for you. Most agents specialize in a type of sale or in specific demographic. Picking the one that best fits your needs will allow for a easier home buying experience than with a real estate agent that you don’t connect with. All established agents will have reviews available online for you to read through as well.