Do you need a realtor?

When you begin the search for your home you have three choices:

• You can go it alone and do all of the legwork of finding homes by looking in the newspaper, searching online, or simply asking around.

• You can call a real estate agent and ask them to show you homes.

• Or, you can sign a contract with a buyer's agent.

If you're like most people, you probably weren't even aware of that third option.

There are some very fundamental differences in these three options. In the first instance, going it alone, you may miss out on a lot of potentially great properties. You will also find that you're not saving any money because the seller pays the commission to the agent based on a percentage of the sales price. In the next section we'll discuss finding a real estate agent.