Real Estate Agents
When you start your home search, many begin on the internet. A quick Google search will generate 1000s of homes for sale in your area. If you find a home 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 house prior to finding out the value 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 amazing accuracy what this home should sell for. While the simplicity of the internet is convenient and useful, often times you can be lead off target. The amount of details and difficulty of verifying its precision is a barrier most would like a professional to deal with. With so many resources to use online a home buyer will get overwhelmed with data that is often bad.
Even from the most trusted websites the information is often outdated within days. Real estate agents must obtain a license in every state. A licensed real estate agent has access to data that regular home buyers do not. The most up to date data on every home in their location. This database 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 frequently happens inside of big brokerages where many agents work together to guarantee their buyers get the best houses 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 be contingent on on the population of those areas. The primary purpose of an MLS is to allow participating real estate agents to make offers on houses to other agents when they find a buyer. The MLS home information is often accessible through other sites on the web. Although, there is no requirement of third party sites to keep their information updated and accurate for most occurrences, for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) houses cannot be directly added to an MLS, because the owners is not a participating member of the local Realtor association.
FSBO houses can be tough to find, although internet experienced FSBO properties are able to get the word out about their house 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 subscriber of the National Association of Realtors. Realtors have to abide with a strict code of ethics and conduct. Often real estate agents now have their own websites with their local MLS data shown. 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 internet makes sorting through and actually figuring out harder than ever before. Despite the mountain of real estate data available, most homes are still sold through real estate agents listings on the MLS. With the rise of the internet 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 available it can be difficult to pick the best real estate agent for you. Many agents specialize in a type of home or in specific client. 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 connect with. All established agents will have reviews available online for you to read through as well.