Agents who are leaders in their field will tell you their number-one goal is customer service — working for you. Below are some qualities and services an agent can provide you.

A great agent will supply you not only with statistical information about a home and area; a quality agent will know the vein of the community and be familiar with it to answer questions that are important to you.

Is there a Little League in this town? A major bookstore? A fishing hole nearby? Each agent will know his geographical territory extremely well. He can provide information on property taxes, schools, neighborhoods, recreation facilities, and so on. Use his knowledge to help you choose among towns and from one neighborhood to another within a town. (See Chapter 11 for more on choosing a neighborhood.)

One of the greatest strengths an agent has in finding properties that match your requirements is the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). The MLS is a listing of homes for sale. It lists nearly all the properties for sale in a given community by price, with pictures and all pertinent sales information. Agents can narrow the list by searching for features you want (price, number of bathrooms, location, etc.). Your agent will give you a printout or show you the list online. Go through the listings; you may see something that interests you the agent may not thought would.

One of the best services an agent can provide is knowing prices of similar properties that have sold. Agents can pull what is often called a comparable market analysis (CMA) of a particular neighborhood. It shows both the asking and selling prices of houses that sold recently. This should help you make smart decisions in the negotiating process and prevent you from overpaying.

You can expect your agent to have inspected a property before showing it to you, although that is not always possible with brand-new houses or with one that came on the market half an hour before you walked into her office. The agent will be able to answer your questions about the neighborhood, the lot, the floor plan, and so on. After she has been working with you for a while, she will know your preferences and will be able to eliminate undesirable properties without dragging you out to see them.

If you ask, most agents will give you a street map of the local area. That will be invaluable for drive-by tours without the agent and for poking around surrounding regions. Many local nonprofit organizations (like the Newcomers Club, the library, or the League of Women Voters) leave flyers and news-letters in real-estate offices. Take them home and read them — they will give you a more personal insight into the area that interests you.

Your agent will be there to answer all of your seemingly endless questions about the buying process. He is your one constant contact during the homebuying process, and you are likely to turn to him often. The agent has helped many people before you — many of them probably even more nervous than you are — through sales, and he is accustomed to smoothly handling the stumbling blocks that sometimes crop up along the way.