In many ways, it is a glorious time to be looking for a house, the Internet provides wonderful tools to search, Trulia, Zillow, and others are easy to search, and useful for checking out properties, but they do have a downside.
Unfortunately, they are plagued with out dated information. Often houses you are looking at, and watching are under contract, or otherwise not available.
Additionally, it is impossible to determine if the house is a short sale or other distressed condition. So a place that looks fabulous suddenly looks like a pig.
Having a good agent is invaluable. They have access to details hidden from the public facing tools.
Fortunately, we have a great agent, and he has been super helpful. We haven’t found our house yet, but the search has become more interesting.
Yep, it sucks that the MLS has a monopoly on the inside track, but it is the state of the world.