A plethora of third-party online property search portals such as Realtor.com, Zillow and Trulia have empowered real estate buyers and sellers like never before. Most of these sites rely on the information entered into local Multiple Listing Services, as all properties in my areas of expertise – Jackson Hole, Teton Valley and Star Valley – are entered into Teton County Multiple Listing Service.

These sites are a great way to get an initial feel for inventory and values. The property search box on this page provides the exact same service.

However, these sites barely scratch the surface, providing only the publicly available information on “active” listings, even if they have in fact gone “pending” or under contract and are no longer available for purchase, which can be very frustrating.

As your search progresses and knowledge in a particular market increases, more vertical information is needed including the actual current status of a property, comparable sales (in Wyoming purchase prices are personal information and only available to Realtors), days on market, price changes, zoning details, neighborhood covenants, hard-to-find public records and much, much more.

That’s where the services of a seasoned real estate professional allow you to accelerate your research and make an informed buying decision based on all available data, and close that property as efficiently and economically as possible.