BY PERRY BROTHERS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Manu and Dawn Rattan's relatives were troubled, thinking the couple moved too fast when they bought their first home this spring. After all, the young couple toured only about 15 homes.
But during their search, they saw hundreds of homes, Mr. Rattan explained, on the Internet.
"It helped out a lot," said Mr. Rattan, 25. "Now, on the Internet, they have in detail what the house is like, the square footage, pictures of the rooms. It really helps you narrow down which houses you want to go look at."
Agents once feared that home listings on the Internet would allow potential clients to skip hiring a buyer's agent, but now "Are you wired?" is one of the first questions many agents ask prospective clients.
Home shopping on the 'Net
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To search Internet listings, get advice or learn more about the real estate business, here are some web sites to start with. Each site has links to other companies' and real estate organizations' web pages:
The Cincinnati Enquirer real estate classified ads: homefinder.cincinnati.com
Cincinnati area multiple listing service (MLS): www.cincymls.com
Northern Kentucky area MLS: www.nkymls.com
National Association of Realtors: www.realtorads.com
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"I've been in the business for 23 years, I definitely when it first came out was not pro-Internet," said Bob Mahoney, president of the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors. "Fortunately, our business has begun to adjust to the needs of the public. If anything, I think we have more qualified buyers because they have more information."
Aside from a home's amenities and specifications, prospective buyers can learn the asking price of comparable homes listed in the same neighborhood.
Realtors have access to more-detailed multiple service listings (MLS) -- a centralized inter-company list of all homes listed for sale by agents in any given region nationwide -- than the information consumers can double click to. And the basic Web site is updated slightly slower than the agents' service.
But the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky MLS sites allow consumers to customize searches based on their priorities. Want a three-bedroom with a two-car garage in Anderson Township? Point and click. If such a house is listed, it will pop up on the screen.
Jot down the MLS identification number tagged to the listing and call your agent. Or call the listing agent directly.
Mr. Rattan said he and his wife regularly fed new MLS numbers to their agent, Remax Unlimited's Poochi Kakkasseril. Ultimately, one of those MLS numbers from the Internet led them to the four-bedroom, two-story home in Springfield Township that they now share with their 5-month-old daughter, Maya.
"You still need an agent," Mr. Rattan said, "because if you want to go out and see the houses, she can get access to all the agents, plus she also had some other houses to show us."
Some web surfers do contact the listing broker directly. Typically, the listing broker becomes the buyer's broker in what's called "dual representation."
Steve Tucker, a sales associate with the Crestview Hills (Ky.) Coldwell Banker West Shell, has benefitted from this type of situation many times.
"I think now what were seeing is that it's just a tool to help us sell houses," said Mr. Tucker, a veteran agent of 14 years who also heard the fears of other agents at the advent of Internet listings. It's more tricky for agents representing buyers, he said.
"You have to have a loyal buyer who you know is going to call you when they see something," Mr. Tucker said. "But I think agents are getting pretty comfortable with it."
