Real Estate Agents
When you start your home search, many begin on the internet. A fast Google search will produce 1000s of homes for sale in your location. If you discover a house that you desire on a real estate site, you can almost always view the pictures 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 value of the house is not too hard. You can check what the current owner bought 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 similar specification and can tell you with great accuracy what this house should sell for. While the simplicity of the internet is suitable and helpful, frequently you can be lead astray. The volume of details and difficulty of verifying its accuracy is a hurdle many would prefer a professional to deal with. With so many websites to use online a home buyer will get overloaded 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 up to date information on every property in their location. This database the real estate agents use must be kept up to date by all participating agents and brokers or they will be fined. frequently 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 homes to other agents when they find a buyer. The MLS home information is often accessible through other websites on the internet. Although, there is no requirement of third party sites to keep their data updated and accurate for many situations, for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) properties cannot be straight uploaded to an MLS, because the owners is not a paying member of the local Realtor association.
FSBO houses can be difficult to find, although internet savvy FSBO homes are able to get the word out on their home today.
What is a Realtor?
frequently real estate agent and realtor are used interchangeably. often, 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 have to comply with a strict code of ethics and conduct. Many real estate agents now have their own websites with their local MLS data displayed. Along with non-real estate sites that provide data on FSBO, foreclosure sites, county assessor sites, and valuation and marketing information websites. The excess of real estate information on the web makes sifting through and actually understanding harder than ever before. Regardless the mountain of real estate data available, many homes are still purchased through real estate agents listings on the MLS. With the rise of the internet the homes listed on the MLS are available 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 home or in specific demographic. Picking 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 connect with. All established agents will have reviews available online for you to read through as well.