Web Sites Can’t Help With Sales Details

Regarding the Jan. 17 article headlined “Web Threatens to Push Brokers Aside,” there is a vast difference in both price and complexity between buying and selling books, travel or stocks and real estate.

Very few people are buying or selling hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of the first three. The consequences resulting from making a bad deal on a book, travel or stocks and a bad deal on a house are very, very different.

Having an experienced, reliable and ethical agent can make a great difference in the end result.

Sellers know neither how to best showcase their homes nor how to deal properly with the many disclosures required by law nor how to effectively negotiate the sales contract.

Buyers who may be able to obtain raw data from the Internet rarely have the know-how to view homes with a critical eye, to arrange for or choose inspections and financing or, most important to their financial well-being, to negotiate for a satisfactory price and terms of sale.

The vast portion of my time as an agent is spent in negotiations--from writing up and negotiating the contract to the many smaller items that have to be negotiated from the date escrow is opened until the day it is closed and sometimes after.

Very few buyers and sellers have either the experience or the time to successfully complete the complex task on their own. A good agent is truly your best friend in the transaction.

JAYCIE INGERSOLL

John Aaroe & Associates

Beverly Hills