Real Estate Agents
When you start your home search, most start on the web. A fast Google search will generate 1000s of homes for sale in your area. If you discover a home that you desire on a real estate site, you can almost always see 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 difficult. 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 area that is of comparable specification and can tell you with amazing accuracy what this house should sell for. While the simplicity of the internet is convenient and useful, often times 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 resources to use online a home buyer will get overloaded with information that is often bad.
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 data on every house in their area. 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 hold real estate information that has not even been submitted yet. This often occurs inside of big brokerages where many agents work together to guarantee their clients 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 place in the United States has an MLS. While some MLSs cover more or less area depending on the number of residents of those locations. 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. Although, there is no requirement of third party websites to maintain their data updated and accurate for most occurrences, for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) homes cannot be directly uploaded to an MLS, because the owners is not a participating member of the local Realtor association.
FSBO houses can be tough to locate, although internet experienced FSBO houses are able to get the word out about their property today.
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 member 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 sites with their local MLS data shown. together with non-real estate sites that offer data on FSBO, foreclosure sites, county assessor sites, and valuation and marketing information sites. The abundance of real estate data on the web makes sifting through and properly figuring out harder than ever before. Regardless the flood 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 homes 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 difficult to choose the best real estate agent for you. Many 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 connect with. All established agents will have reviews available online for you to look through as well.