If you're like many modern homebuyers (or sellers), you may wonder whether you need to work with a real estate agent. After all, in an age where you can easily access photos, tax information, and even a 360-degree home tour from the privacy and comfort of your own home, you no longer need an agent to track down suitable homes. However, there are still many benefits to using a real estate agent that may not be immediately apparent. Learn more about some of these benefits and how an agent can work for you.

Accessing Hard-to-Quantify Information

Agents are intimately familiar with the neighborhoods (and neighbors) of the properties they manage. And while you can sometimes get an idea of the "vibe" of a neighborhood by driving or walking through at several different times of day, it can be much harder to know if one neighbor tends to have loud parties on Saturday nights, someone has unleashed dogs, or someone is the neighborhood busybody who keeps tabs on the comings and goings from your home.

Your real estate agent can fill you in on this hard-to-quantify information so that you won't be taken by surprise after you move in and discover that a certain neighborhood wasn't quite what it seemed.

Easier Access to Homes

In today's quickly-moving real estate market, there are far fewer vacant homes that have keys left in lockboxes. Instead, if you'd like to take a personal tour of a home, you're going to need to schedule this with the homeowner so that they can make arrangements to be out of the house. Doing this without a real estate agent can be a challenge since few homeowners are willing to allow strangers to walk through their homes without the security that comes from having an agent chaperone this process. 

A Hiccup-Free Closing

If you don't use a real estate agent and take advantage of their standard offer and acceptance forms that have already been vetted for use in your state, you're likely to need an attorney to handle the closing process to avoid any snags in the title documents or loan processing. In the long run, this can be more expensive than using a real estate agent, and you won't have access to many of the other benefits that come from using a real estate agent to manage your home buying or selling process.

If it's time to move, learn more by contacting local realtors.  

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