It used to be that in order to sell your home you pretty much had to deal directly with a real estate professional as they had access to all of the buyers and the MLS system was about the only way to market your home other than putting an ad in the newspaper. Times have changed and now there are more and more alternatives for homw owners to use that they can market their home to buyers using many different on-line resources. But there are a few things missing. Even today most buyer looking for Realtors to search for homes and represent them in the transaction. That means that real estate agents are still a reliable and useful resource.