Nearly everyone enjoys searching for things to buy on the web. It’s a great place to search for hard to find items and to compare items that are exactly the same. It’s also convenient to find real estate on the web. Buyers are able to find homes for sale in the Charlotte North Carolina area, all over the US, and the world.

But, unlike finding a water filter for a refrigerator or a pair of diabetic socks for grandma, finding a home by searching the web is only a place to start; not stop. There are so many details that just can’t be put onto a computer screen.

Pictures and virtual tours are great for seeing a home. But please remember that they are created by an agent that is trying to market the home in the best possible light. Having a buyer’s agent that knows a neighborhood can help you understand why that home with beautiful pictures is $40,000 less than other homes in the neighborhood. Maybe that home is by a large draining ditch or a major road.

A local Charlotte North Carolina agent can also help you with area specific websites that can help clue you into more information about the home. Some of these sites are rather obscure and don’t readily come up on Google or Yahoo searches. If a buyer is not in town, a tech-savvy agent can also help by previewing a home for a buyer and taking a video of a home and emailing or posting it to YouTube.

I’ve sold many homes in the Charlotte North Carolina area to buyers that didn’t see the home before they bought it. A home search may start with the web, but it needs to end with an experienced real estate agent.