If you are in the market as a buyer, today’s Miami Beach buyer tips should be timely. Probably you have seen a TV commercial or two speaking directly to you. The big online websites are in a huge battle for visitors and if you are in the market to buy a home, you are one of their key targets. They want you to land on their website when you start searching for real estate. Although we think it is perfectly fine to start with these websites as a reference point, you may get a little bit frustrated if you are trying to use these national (not local) websites for “real time data”. Unfortunately, a lot of the data can be old, expired and incorrect.

We have a completely separate opinion about that. But for now, there are a few things that you need to know if you are a buyer.

Miami Beach buyer tips about using online websites for finding property listings.

Miami Beach real estate buyer tips when using big online websites to find property listings:

1. If you want, you can use the big online national sites as a starting point but if you need on-demand data, ask your agent to give you a website that has a more local stance with a good data feed.

2. Hire an experienced local agent and get your data directly from them. **The MLS feed is the original source of the majority of the data that gets syndicated to these big sites. So a local agent should be able to get you the listings as soon as they hit the MLS.

3. Don’t get frustrated with your agent if a lot of the online listings are not available. They don’t control that data or the accuracy of it.

4. Even with on-demand data feed, properties can go under contract before they get updated in the MLS