What is essential services provided by a real estate professional

The Internet has changed many aspects of daily living and real estate is no different. Imagine the days of old where a home buyer had to go into the agent's office to look at all the houses on the market. The agent would pull out a big, 3 ring binder and tell the prospective buyer, "Go through this binder and let me know if you see anything you like then we'll go look at it." Fortunately, those days are long gone!

Today's buyer begins the home buying or selling process very differently. They begin with a common search engine like Google, Yahoo, or Dogpile or maybe by going to Realtor.com, REMAX.com, Century21.com, or Homegain.com. This process helps the home buyer or seller to begin defining the housevalues in their local area. Now a few months or sometimes even a year or more have past and this savvy Internet buyer or seller decides it is time to get serious about the process. The fiscally conservative buyer (and I think everybody should be fiscally conservative - some say, "cheap" - but those talking are probably broke) rationalizes I will save money if I continue the process with out the use of a professional real estate person.

Well in my opinion, this is the stage that the otherwise savvy buyer or seller makes their big error in judgement. You see the problem is that they've not developed a personal relationship with a professional agent since all of the initial stages of home buying or selling started in the privacy of their home or office. This consumer is rightfully feeling very confident about this real estate process as they've navigated the Internet with great ease and skill. Part of an Internet mindset is "secrecy" - "privacy" - no one knows who I am, therefore this cat and mouse game is played out in real life as the home buyer or seller enters into the world of "brick and mortar". What's the choice - maintain the fantasy or come out from behind the curtain. Oh, never reveal thyself! Yes, this is the pitfall.

They've avoided that uneasy feeling of the probing questions from a "hungry" real estate salesperson looking to receive a commission for driving around looking a home after home - just hoping this buyer would make up their mind. So the problem lies with how can a buyer or seller receive good solid assistance from a professional real estate person without all the rest of the garbage?