How much of my own research should I do?

It is pretty much accepted that about 80% of the people looking for a house to buy use the internet to help identify a house. I would like to convince the remaining 20% of buyers why they should do the same. Buying a house is a huge investment for most people. Before you decide to buy a particular house you should be sure that you understand what equivalent houses are actually selling for. Information that used to be hard to get is now easily accessible. Search tools are available that can pull information directly from the MLS data base. The advantage of linking directly to the MLS data base is that the information you get will be as fresh as it can be. I want my clients to have as much information as I can possibly get to them.  As unbelievable as it may sound I’ve actually run across agents who give their clients information about the features of a home but initially withhold the exact address to make it difficult for the client to locate the home by themselves. If you know how to do your own searches you will quickly be able to tell if you are working with a knowledgeable agent. One last closing thought. Once you have identified a property you want to make an offer on ask you agent to put together a summary of equivalent houses that have recently sold. Your agent has easy access to that kind information and if an agent is not willing to provide it to you should really ask them why not. Having information on comparable sales will help you decide what a reasonable offer might be.