Real Estate Disaster...

[Bunk]

The main purpose of a Buyer's agent is to search the MLS for you, and to open the lockbox when you look at a place :).

Most agents with decent websites will have an IDX search feature. They may require you to register first (which guarantees you six years of junk mail and follow up calls, if its a successful agent), but it will give you full search access to the MLS.

What they don't tell you, is that every listing on the MLS has two versions - the public version, and the Realtor's version with all of the additional details they don't want you to know.

The absolute best way to search for a house is to find a Realtor who is a good enough of a friend to let you have access to their MLS login. Most won't though, as the MLSs are extremely nasty about this.

[Goumindong]

The absolute best way to search for a house is to find a Realtor who is a good enough of a friend to let you have access to their MLS login. Most won't though, as the MLSs are extremely nasty about this.

In Richmond they charge $5,000 the first time someone other than you gets your password. Its unlikely you're going to get anyone to do that for you

[shiznitz]

The buyer's agent is definitely more for the time strapped where I live. If you are going to do all the research yourself then you might as well take the real estate exam (any moron can pass it) and take the buyer's agent commission for yourself.

In November 2001 when we needed to move out of NYC by the end of January, there were just too many houses to choose from so our agent (a family friend) took my wife to 10 houses one weekday, got a feel for what she did and didn't like and then took her to ten more another day. That was a huge help. There were too many different styles in Westchester county to just search MLS. If you are just buying a condo and have a specific town in mind, then an agent like that wouldn't add any value.

Like most major life decisions, buying a house gets easier the more you do it. Even though millions of people have done it before you, there is no way to transfer all that experience. You have to go through it and learn to avoid all the leaches waiting to suck $100 to $2,000 from you along the way.

[Salamok]

The absolute best way to search for a house is to find a Realtor who is a good enough of a friend to let you have access to their MLS login. Most won't though, as the MLSs are extremely nasty about this.

In Richmond they charge $5,000 the first time someone other than you gets your password. Its unlikely you're going to get anyone to do that for you

Yes the national association of realtors know that the only real value realtors offer to their customers is access to MLS database as such they have lobbied extensively to prevent it's unrestricted use by the public.  There are online only real estate brokers that are mostly automated that will serve as your buyers agent for a reduced fee (usually 1% instead of 3%).

The biggest cockblock with the IDX/publicly accessable version of the MLS is that it strips out all of the contact information and leaves you with just the phone # of whatever agent you are going through to access MLS data (if you are lucky you will also get the sellers agents info).

[Sky]

When I was searching, I was using several sources, including three sites that plugged into MLS databases. All publicly available. All had only part of the picture, but definitely enough to make most decisions on. Learn what resources are available for your market and you can do well. Of course, being in a podunk market works both ways: we have less overall resources, but they're more available because there's less incentive to hide them.

[Grimwell]

I just bought a house this year myself and had a wonderful experience with my buyers agent. She helped us  research homes (and we did an f'ton of our own research, but she still found more properties that we wanted to see), she helped us on multiple offers (that part sucked balls, but it wasn't her fault), she worked actively with my loan guy to make sure our offer process was smooth, and when the seller's escrow company started getting stupid she took care of it. She earned every penny she received from her work in the sale.

...and she's getting a nice Christmas gift. I've also sent her two other clients who have bought houses in the area. She deserves the business... but is probably an exception. :)

Short sales... don't bother to be honest. We wanted to bid on a few but the extra time it puts on getting a home is horrible. It's not a solid thing either, the bank that holds the loan does not even have to agree to the idea before the house is listed. So you are looking at someone who is desperately hoping to find a way out of a bad situation. While it would have been nice to have helped someone in that boat... they aren't on firm ground and you have to put a lot of energy into hoping that when they go to the bank and say "This is better than just closing us down!" that it works.

It's stupid for the banks not to do it, as the foreclosed homes end up going for less... but that's the rub. I bought a foreclosed home, as have both of my referrals to my agent. Who rocks. Did I mention that?

[HaemishM]

We had a pretty good experience with our buyer's agent as well. He showed us plenty of properties, and we put down on offer on one house in our price range. The owner came back demanding that we pay all the closing costs - every single bit. He tried multiple times to talk her out of that bit of retardery and when he couldn't, he recommended we just walk away from it, which we did. Fuck that noise. All along the way he explained stuff to us, was extremely patient when my wife continually pestered him about all sorts of stuff (our mortgage broker was a bit annoying, in that he kept giving us a nondefinitive answer as to whether we got the loan or not). I'd most certainly use the buyer's agent again.

[Hoax]

The buyer's agent is definitely more for the time strapped where I live. If you are going to do all the research yourself then you might as well take the real estate exam (any moron can pass it) and take the buyer's agent commission for yourself.

This.

Also if you are going to pay an agent and you are buying...

Be mean.  Be cruel. Work with one from every major broker and a few desperate indy types.  Send them all out looking on Sundays and demand whatever you want.  The one who needs the $$$ will get you what you ask for.  The others can fuck off.