Real Estate Agents
When you begin your home search, many begin on the internet. A fast Google search will generate 1000s of homes for sale in your location. If you find a home that you like 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 house. If you have purchased a house before to finding out the value of the home is not too hard. You can check what the current owner purchased it for, check the real estate taxes, or have an experienced real estate agent run comparables. Basically, they compare what has sold in that community that is of comparable specification and can tell you with amazing accuracy what this house should sell for. While the ease of the internet is suitable and useful, frequently you can be lead astray. The amount of details and difficulty of verifying its accuracy is a hurdle most would like a professional to deal with. With so many websites to use online a home buyer will get overwhelmed with information that is often incomplete.
Even from the most trusted websites the data is often old within days. Real estate agents must obtain a license in every state. A licensed real estate agent has access to information that regular home buyers do not. The most accurate data on every house in their location. This information the real estate agents use must be kept up to date by all partaking agents and brokers or they will be fined. frequently they have real estate information that has not even been submitted yet. This often occurs inside of large brokerages where many agents work together to make sure their clients get the best houses 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 locations. 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 available through other websites on the web. Although, there is no need of third party websites to keep their information updated and accurate for most situations, for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) houses cannot be straight added to an MLS, because the owners is not a paying member of the local Realtor association.
FSBO homes can be difficult to locate, although web savvy FSBO properties are able to get the word out on their property today.
What is a Realtor?
frequently 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 member of the National Association of Realtors. Realtors are required to comply with a strict code of ethics and conduct. Often real estate agents now have their own sites with their area MLS data shown. Along with non-real estate websites that provide information on FSBO, foreclosure sites, county assessor sites, and valuation and marketing information websites. The abundance of real estate information on the internet makes sifting through and properly understanding harder than ever before. Despite the mountain of real estate information available, many homes are still purchased through real estate agents listings on the MLS. With the rise of the web the properties 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 pick the best real estate agent for you. Most agents specialize in a type of sale or in specific demographic. Choosing the one that best fits your requirements will allow for a smoother home buying experience than with a real estate agent that you don’t get along with. All experienced agents will have reviews available online for you to read through as well.