Real Estate Agents
When you start your home search, many start on the internet. A fast Google search will produce 1000s of homes for sale in your area. If you find a house that you desire on a real estate site, 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 home. If you have purchased a house 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 similar specification and can tell you with great accuracy what this home should sell for. While the simplicity of the internet is suitable and useful, often times you can be lead astray. The amount of information and strain of verifying its accuracy is a hurdle most would prefer a professional to handle. With so many websites to use online a home buyer will get overloaded with data that is often incomplete.
Even from the most respected websites the information is often old 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 property 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. Often times they hold real estate information that has not even been submitted yet. This often happens inside of big brokerages where many agents work together to guarantee their clients get the best properties available.
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 be contingent on on the number of residents of those areas. The first 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 data is often accessible through other websites on the web. often, there is no need of third party sites to keep their information updated and accurate for many situations, 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 properties can be difficult to locate, although web experienced FSBO houses are able to get the word out about their property nowadays.
What is a Realtor?
Oftentimes real estate agent and realtor are used interchangeably. often, 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 area MLS information shown. Along with non-real estate websites that provide data on FSBO, foreclosure sites, county assessor sites, and valuation and marketing information websites. The abundance of real estate information on the internet makes sorting through and properly understanding harder than ever before. Regardless the flood of real estate information available, most houses are still sold 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 data existing it can be difficult to choose the best real estate agent for you. Many agents specialize in a type of property 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 look through as well.