Chat Plus

Real estate editor Maryann Haggerty and columnist Elizabeth Razzi respond to a question adapted from a recent online chat.

Q: Silver Spring: My husband and I just started working with a real estate agent. But given the amount of information on the Internet these days, I feel as if I'm still doing a lot of the work myself. How do I best use the agent at this stage, the finding stage?

A Elizabeth Razzi: A good, proactive agent can save you a lot of time at this stage if he or she has a good understanding of the type of home you really want and can truly afford. Agents can set up their computer systems to automatically send you alerts on new listings that might interest you. The agent may even have toured some of those homes already. In the best scenario, an agent can give you a heads-up about homes he or she has heard will hit the market soon, perhaps because the agent or a colleague has already been invited to make a listing presentation.

Maryann Haggerty: And even in this slow market, sometimes it helps to know about a listing quickly. I recently saw a "for sale" house I adored, but obviously I wasn't the only one. There was a "sold" sign up four days after the open house.

E.R.: Some agents enjoy working with buyers more than others do. If you're fortunate, you've found one who really likes to flush out great finds, even in an overstocked market.

M.H.: The Internet is a great way to save time and gasoline in the early stages. You can say good-bye to driving past 50 houses in a weekend and never even walking inside most.

But a good agent should be able to tell you about houses that are better or worse in real life than they are in the photos.

The next Real Estate Live chat will be at 1 p.m. Feb. 15.