5 Reasons Why Real Estate Agents Are Still Relevant
Today’s technology makes dealing in real estate simpler than ever for buyers and sellers, so that leads us to the question: “Are real estate agents still relevant?” The answer is yes, and in this article, we are going to explore why these agents still matter.
1. Property Insight
Real estate agents can provide insight into aspects of a property that might not be included in the listing. Agents have legal and business incentives to disclose issues with a property they are trying to sell, or they may discover issues with a property themselves when scouting for a potential buyer. Listing sites may leave out some negatives about a property in order to sell it, but an agent takes away this concern by being legally required to divulge all information relevant to the sale of the property.
2. Real Estate Expertise
Along with insight into specific properties, real estate agents also provide expertise, something that a tech service cannot provide. Agents are fully enveloped in the world of real estate, and thus understand the climate of the industry more than any average person. This means that they have great knowledge of true property values, and can evaluate whether a property is actually as valuable as its listing says. This knowledge might come in the form of understanding the location and what that means for the property’s value, or they might have a better eye for the potential of a property.
3. Intermediaries
Agents can serve as intermediaries or proxies for buyers and sellers during the transaction process. Real estate technology today can handle most of a transaction, sure, but at some point a physical human will have to be involved in the process. This is where the agent comes in. The agent can take care of things like price negotiation, preliminary location scouting, or taking phone calls from prospective buyers about the property being sold. A buyer or seller might have confidence in their own ability to handle these things, but if they don’t, or if they just want less work to do, an agent can take care of it for them.
4. Legal Familiarity
The average person is not going to be familiar with property law, so it can be daunting to approach the legalese of all the different rules and contracts of real estate transactions. Real estate agents deal with property law constantly, and can be a great help in ensuring that buyers and sellers get through a transaction without any mistakes or penalties. For example, if an inspection were to turn up damages to a property, an agent can be useful in making amendments to a purchase agreement to ensure that the price reflects the uncovered damages. There’s a lot of paperwork involved in purchasing a property, such as disclosure documents or HOA agreements, but an agent has the experience to get their clients through it.
5. MLS Access
Agents have access to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which gives them information about homes for sale that may not be listed on commercial websites. Listing sites only show properties that have been registered on the website, so it is likely that there may be properties that are available but missing from their registry. Some properties may not even be publicly on the market yet, but they are listed on the MLS. Having an agent with access to the MLS gives an advantage to buyers and sellers.
Agents are also in communication with other agents, and can find out more details about listed properties, or they can use other agents as a pipeline for discovering buyers. A buyer might also have specific preferences for a property that they will not find on a standard listing, but agents can track down the properties that meet their criteria using the information channels that they have special access to.
Final Thoughts
Technology is making it easier for buyers and sellers to navigate real estate transactions on their own, but real estate agents still serve an important role in the process for the average person. It’s important to remember that agents work on commission, so they have a strong incentive to provide the best service possible to their clients. It may seem like technology is replacing the real estate agent, but new services and tech can’t replace a real person who is dedicated, incentivised, experienced, and has the access necessary to assist their client in dealing with real estate.
