Access to sandicor is probably a very small part of the topic of whether to work with a real estate agent or not.
We’ve had a number of discussions about using or not using agents, and for what it’s worth, this is what I’ve come to conclude:
Regardless of whether you work with an agent or not, it is really up to you to get educated, particularly about the neighborhood you are interested in, and for you to be the driving force in any and all negotiations. The agent can be a big help with the logistics of the transaction, but only you can drive the deal to get a good deal, and more importantly, the right deal for you. All too often buyers are too trusting, and don’t educate themselves enough. Also they too often allow themselves to get emotional about the process and this clouds their decision making.
In general, you have three choices for buyers agents. Full service, which will keep all the buyers agent commission, discount, which will rebate back part of the commission to you (typically half to two thirds of commission back to you) or no agent. In the last case, typically the listing agent will keep the buyers commission. In some cases where you approach the listing agent with no agent of your own, you can get the listing agent to rep you and rebate the some of the buyers commission back to you. (Although that is at the discretion of the listing agent.)
My personal feeling is that if you go with full service, you should really expect something from that agent to justify their getting the full commission. But if you are willing to do a good bit of the research and educate yourself, and go to open house, etc, (which as I mention at the top, you should be doing anyway) then a reduced commission agent is a good choice. Lastly, going in without an agent is a tough call. Only if you have really done your research and learned a good bit about the transaction process should you even consider this. Usually, going in with no agent brings you no benefit over at least using a discount broker. The commission will not be reduced, so you won’t get a better price. The only possible advantage is that the selling agent may be inclined to present your offer in a positive light, since they would get the full commission, but I’m not sure that’s that strong of an influencer to get you a significant price reduction.
As always, there are exceptions to these general rules, and every person’s situation needs to be evaluated individually, but I think these general rules are important.
Note however, that I don’t think that access to sandicor is particularly valuable or important. In rare cases you might learn something of value that you wouldn’t find on SDlookup or other sites, but I think that’s the exception, not the rule.
Likewise, working with an agent that is active in the area you are looking might occasionally result in a lead on a house before it hits the MLS, but in this market, not so much.
