Getting Real Estate Advice From the Information Super Highway
How most consumers got their information ten or twenty years is so different that what is done today. We shop for everything on the internet now; houses, clothing, cars, recipes, you name it. If you don’t know where to get something or how to fix something it gets Googled.
Web 2.0 has kicked in the doors to shopping for real estate to buy. Some 85% or more home buyers now search the web for just about anything real estate related. Buyers use the web for finding a home, learning about the neighborhoods, taxes, fees and to learn about local procedures. When’s the last time anyone has seen an MLS book?
With the good there does come some bad. Trusting with 100% authority data that could be wrong or offered by someone that wasn’t qualified to give it can get you in a bind.
There are dozens of websites that not only offer lists of homes for sale but also have forums, message boards and blogs. Consumer can post questions and answers are given by lenders and real estate agents. I subscribe to a few of them myself just to see what sort of data consumers are looking for and what sort of answers the professionals are giving.
The majority of the questions are just average peanut butter and jelly questions. Is this near the so-in-so school or how far to the beach from this condo? There are some questions that are more technical in nature and they really require skilled input from a professional in finance or law. Unless a mortgage broker or agent also holds a license to practice law or they’re a closet CPA they not only shouldn’t be doling out advice but you shouldn’t be listening to it either. What an agent can share with you are trusted sources. Contacts and names of professionals that are licensed to give the advice you’re looking for.
Besides professional legal or financial advice there are some pieces of information that a real estate agent simply can’t share with you due to fair-housing laws. This includes demographic statistics and some neighborhood characteristics, such as the quality of the school district, crime stats or any nearby registered sex offenders. This is where agents become the “source of the source”. Agents can provide websites or government contact information for you but not actually disclose the information to you without violating fair housing laws. I know I know fair housing for whom, the good guys or the bad guys? Hey, I don’t like it either so don’t shoot the messenger.
The good news is that if you’re utilizing web searches or real estate forums to learn real estate 101 the agent you’re interacting with should be providing you links to do your homework. Besides using your local county sheriff website, great sites like and www.Census.gov offer information about demographics and www.FamilyWatchdog.us has a sexual offender registry.
The internet is a fantastic resource but anyone can be anyone on the web. Giving out too much information or trusting answers to questions from someone who may not even be a licensee is a risk. Verify the identity of the people you’re interacting with by visiting their own website or their corporate site. You can also search an agent’s license at my www.MyFloridaLicense.com. If something seems fishy it probably is so just walk away.
Sometimes people are licensed real estate agents that are just a little too ambitious. You would also want to be skeptical of a person’s geographic location vs. where they’re giving real estate advice. Why anyone from Boise, Idaho would be answering Florida real estate questions in some of these forums is a mystery to me but I see it happen all the time.
Certainly anyone can hold a license in multiple states but are they skilled and know what they’re doing if they live three thousand miles away? All their license proves is that they had a spare $350 bucks laying around and seven days to kill in a classroom. They might not have their ear to the ground and be able to let you know about that new road cutting through your dream neighborhood in summer 2010.
So get out there, find your information on the web but verify the critical issues with people who are properly trained to help you and people who know what they’re talking about. While you’re at it make sure the agents that you’re listening to are the ones that are even qualified to be doing the talking.
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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area. Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor. If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.
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Tags: Bonita Springs, Bonita Springs Real Estate, florida, information, internet, mls, real estate, tips for buyers, website
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