According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Review Journal, crowd-sourced estimates are a growing trend in the real estate world. These estimates allow multiple agents to give their estimates on a home's value. There are other chances for the agents to make comments and give a virtual viewpoint without seeing the home directly. If this is something you have heard about, but aren't sure would be right for you as a real estate agent, consider these key points.

Viewing Properties Remotely

One of the advantages you may find as an agent is the ability to see the inside of the home instead of a value based on the outside of the home only. The potential seller would send you images of the home using a variety of apps. These images can be used to determine if there is anything that would keep the property from selling and see things that should be upgraded. It gives you more information to go on that will allow you to give a virtual estimate of the value of the property. This is a significant difference between other sites that simply show real estate values based on an outside viewpoint and that of the neighborhood's recent sales.

Finding New Clients

As a real estate agent, you have the possibility of being able to land the homeowner as a client in order to sell their home due to your appraisal. For example, several other agents may give their estimates of the home, but if yours is the best with the best information on what the seller can do to move their home through the sales process faster, that may influence the seller to choose your services. 

Promoting Your Business

If you are a real estate agent that is trying to expand their client list, this may be ideal. With crowd-sourcing estimates, you offer your viewpoint to people who may not want to go the traditional real estate route. These clients are usually working long hours, don't want their home shown to multiple agents at all hours of the day, or they simply want to limit their search for an agent easily without meeting several all at once. Through participating in crowd-sourcing estimates you can reach these people easily and gain new clients without much marketing effort on your part.

These are just three things you, as a real estate agent, should know about crowd-sourcing estimates. Consider the options and which one may be right for your business and the time you have to spend on the evaluations.