The consumer advocates from the nonprofit National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents warn home-buying consumers not to trust the Internet for real estate market information.
PHOENIX (PRWEB) January 28, 2022
With the so-called “Spring Market” coming soon in most parts of the United States, many prospective homebuyers will have questions regarding the real estate market. The biggest question is where they will get their advice.
Last April, CNBC reported that the number of google searches for the phrase, “When is the housing market going to crash?” skyrocketed 2,450 percent. “Why is the market so hot?” searches doubled over one week. Some industry observers thought consumer inquiries signaled a bubble. “How much over asking price should I offer on a home in 2021,” searches spiked 350 percent.
Dedicated real estate buyer agents from the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (NAEBA) encourage homebuyers to carefully choose where they obtain their real estate advice.
“Online information is not always current or even accurate,” said St. Petersburg, Florida-based Eve Alexander of Buyers Broker of Florida. “Only an exclusive buyer agent that is knee-deep in the trenches really knows what is going on, and they are always willing to give the good, the bad, and the ugly of what is happening in their local real estate market.”
Information online often does not provide all the details needed for a prospective homebuyer to make an informed decision. “If you only search online for real estate market information, you’ll only get part of the story,” said Justin Graham of Globella Buyers Realty in San Diego. “The best way to get the whole story and truly understand your hyper-local real estate market is to partner with an experienced buyer’s agent who you feel confident will provide you with trustworthy advice.”
Like politics, all real estate is local, and it’s seasonal in some regions of the country. “The best times to buy … depends on what part of the country you live in, it can also depend on what your price range is,” said Mike Crowley of Spokane Home Buyers in Spokane, Washington. “There are thousands of resources on the Internet for buying and selling real estate, but when it comes to your own personal investment, find an experienced local real estate broker who will listen to your specific needs and address them.
While agents who represent sellers list most properties on their local multiple listing service, also known as the MLS, some homes for sale are harder to find. “Searching only online can restrict homebuyers from learning about off-market properties,” said New York City-based Gea Elika of ELIKA Real Estate. Elika added that inventory in new developments is not always made publicly available. “Also, due to the lack of inventory, exclusive luxury properties in sought-after New York City buildings are often solicited off-market by buyer’s agents on behalf of their clients.”
Homebuyers also need relevant and local real estate market data. “Statistics about the median price of a home or the number of homes sold throughout the United States are meaningless for someone who wants to buy a home in a specific community or neighborhood,” explained NAEBA President Rich Rosa of Buyers Brokers Only, LLC in the Boston area. “An exclusive buyer agent will happily provide a homebuyer with detailed local market reports.”
ABOUT NAEBA: Members of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (NAEBA) believe in a better way of working in the real estate industry. NAEBA members voluntarily dedicate their careers to exclusively representing home buyers, providing fiduciary-level duties to protect home-buying consumers.
Exclusive buyer agents are 100 percent loyal to home buyers 100 percent of the time and work at real estate brokerages that do not ever represent home sellers. NAEBA members are true buyer agents.
NAEBA members do not accept listings, advertise properties for sale, or represent home sellers. Its members avoid the conflicts of interest common at traditional real estate companies, which attempt to represent buyers and sellers in the same transaction.
Consumer advocates created NAEBA in the mid-1990s to fill the void faced by homebuyers and start a professional association that would provide home buyers with a higher standard of ethics.
NAEBA also matches home-buying consumers with its members around the country for no additional cost.