I guess I'm looking for different expertise. I wouldn't trust them to have any building knowledge. I want them to know the local market. I bought a house in

I guess I'm looking for different expertise. I wouldn't trust them to have any building knowledge. I want them to know the local market. I bought a house in Los Angeles a few years ago. Because everything is so expensive we were fairly open to different areas in a radius around our jobs. It was easy to overlook neighborhoods that were a good fit just by looking at a map of house sales. I reached out to a few realtors in different parts of town. They could help answer questions about schools (and charter schools), what was low and high for the neighborhood, and other things I could find out myself, but would take too much time if I did it for a dozen neighborhoods. They also were really helpful in scheduling walkthroughs before the house would go on the market, and scheduling all of the inspections--they also offered to be on site if I couldn't make it. I also think they keep the sale rational when either side can get too sentimental. After inspectors found a few, minor things, the seller only offered to address them after adding another 5k onto the price (at no point was 'as-is' mentioned). This was after a few other petty things from the seller and I considered walking away. The house had been in escrow with no backup bids before we showed up. So I wouldn't be surprised if that happened last time, too.