BANK on a BROKER

DESPITE ALL THAT DIGITAL HOUSE HUNTING DATA, REALTORS ARE MORE INDISPENSABLE THAN EVER.

- Chaz Muth

WHEN DANIEL KING of Parkville began shopping for a home in late 2017, he began the process on his own,figuring that modern technology had eliminated the need for a Realtor.

Since the internet has made it easy for consumers to comparison-shop for just about anything, King presumed websites such as Zillow, Trulia, and HomeFinder would make it just as simple to find and buy a house.

But that’s where the confusion began: Instead of quickly double-clicking on the perfect house, the married construction worker encountered misleading online information, photos with wide-angle lenses, neighborhoods past their prime, and wasted hours of driving to locations only to be disappointed by the property.

In other words, King felt like he just wasn’t getting anywhere.

“I needed answers to questions that didn’t seem to be readily available,” he said.

Then a friend recommended he speak with Jon-David (JD) Skelton, a Baltimore Realtor for Long & Foster Real Estate. And suddenly, the search became easy: King says Skelton brought focus, specificity, and sound advice to his search, leading to the purchase of his Parkville home in early 2018.

King is not the only homebuyer to abandon his Realtor-free search in favor of guidance offered by pros like Skelton.

“It’s easy to see why people try to do this on their own,” Skelton said, “and it’s also easy to see why they often chuck that idea and get a Realtor like me involved.”