Real Estate Agents and the Internet -- How to Purchase and sell Real estate Today

[Asad shaikh]

Then and now

A decade ago, a search for real estate would have started at the office of a local real estate agent or by just driving around town. At the agent's office, you would spend an afternoon flipping through pages of active property listings from the local Multiple listing service (MLS). After choosing properties of interest, you would spend weeks touring each property unless you found the most appropriate one. Finding market data to enable you to assess the price would take more time and a lot more driving, and you still might not be able to find all of the information you needed to get really comfortable with a reasonable market value.

Today, most property searches start on the internet. A quick keyword search on Google by location will likely get you thousands of results. If you spot a property of interest on a real estate web site, you can typically view photos online and perhaps even take a virtual tour. You can then check other Web sites, such as the local local assessor, to get an idea of the property's value, see what the current owner paid for the property, check the real est taxes, get census data, school information, and even check out what shops are within walking distance-all without leaving your house!

While the resources on the internet are convenient and helpful, using them properly can be a challenge because of the volume of information and the difficulty in making sure its accuracy. At the time of writing, a search of "Denver real estate" returned 2, 670, 000 Web sites. A good neighborhood specific search for real estate can easily return thousands of Web sites. mortgages With so many resources online how does an investor effectively use them without getting bogged down or turning up with partial or bad information? Believe it or not, understanding how the business of real estate works traditional makes it safer to understand online real estate information and strategies.

The business of Real estate

Real estate is typically bought and sold either via a licensed real estate agent or directly by the owner. A large proportion is bought and sold through real estate brokers. mortgages (We use "agent" and "broker" to refer to the same professional. ) This is due to their real estate knowledge and experience and, at least in times past, their exclusive access to a database of active properties for sale. Access to this database of property listings provided the most efficient way looking for properties.

The LOCAL MLS (and CIE)

The database of residential, land, and smaller income producing properties (including some commercial properties) is normally referred to as a multiple listing service (MLS). In most cases, only properties listed by member realtors can be added to an LOCAL MLS. The primary function of an LOCAL MLS is to enable the member realtors to make offers of compensation to other member agents if they find a buyer for a property.

This purposes did not include enabling the direct publishing of the LOCAL MLS information to the public; times change. Today, most LOCAL MLS information is directly accessible to the public over the internet in many different forms.

Commercial property listings are also displayed online but aggregated commercial property information is more elusive. Larger MLSs often operate a commercial information exchange (CIE). A CIE is just like an LOCAL MLS but the agents adding the listings to the database are not required to offer any specific type of compensation to the other members. Compensation is negotiated beyond the CIE.