When you're shopping for a home in Northern Utah, or in 2014 anywhere in the world really, the internet is certainly where to start. Certainly shopping is what you're doing right? Buying a new home isn't what you do until you've found the one you want to live in and pay for, right?
I can't speak for how any multiple listing service (MLS) works other than the one I subscribe to, so for agents in other areas that work differently please comment and let us know how yours works.
Most agents have what we refer to as an IDX - Internet Data Exchange - feed from the MLS to our own site. This allows you to be on our website and search for all of the acitve properties for sale in the area we service. Our MLS happens to cover pretty much our entire state, and in that regard I understand we're pretty lucky.
You can tell if you're seeing everything available, just that agent's listings or the listings for the brokerage.
When you search from our site, YourUtahDreamHome.com, on the list of homes that shows up there is a line of text at the bottom - you can see this listing is courtesy of Keller Williams Success Realty - that's our brokerage. If you were searching on our site and saw ONLY that line you'd know you aren't seeing everything. This usually means an agent has not paid for the IDX. Every agent does their business differently - and providing access (or not) to all the listings is sometimes a business decision an agent chooses. We like to provide all of the listings because as you search you can select your favorite homes, and from there make an appointment with us to see the ones you select - all without actually speaking to us first if that is your preference.
Even Zillow will show you who actually owns, and therefore can answer your questions about the listing. You have to scroll all the way down on the listing, but this is what that looks like
Every other agent you see on the screen is buying your information, and may or may not actually be in the local area you happen to be shopping.
I'm making the assumption, of course, that you will be using an agent to buy your house. I'm not sure why you wouldn't since a buyer's agent is free to the buyer.
If you're concerned about talking to the agent who already represents the seller this blog about a real estate team may ease those concerns as well.
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