Talk to your agent. If they are part of a Multiple Listing Service that covers the geographic area you're looking to buy in, then you can be sure you're seeing every home for sale. If your agent is not a member of the Multiple Listing Service that covers the region you're looking in, you need to find an agent who is. Your agent may be able to help with that referral.

Properties that your agent shares with you are most likely coming from a MLS, which means their details and status are usually much more accurate than other search sites, which often pull data from all sorts of sources across the internet.

If the price is coming from a MLS, the price is accurate. The rules are that any data displayed online needs to be attributed to the source (the Big Sky Country Multiple Listing Service) that it is coming from. If you don’t see a data source attribution on a listing, it might not be accurate.

Again, look for the MLS attribution on the data you're getting. If it's not attributed, it may not have come from a MLS. You can count on MLS data to be the most accurate out there because it's regulated by a set of industry-accepted standards, controlled by the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO).

Only real estate agents can get direct access to the MLS — so that sensitive and private information (things like front door codes, lockbox combinations, and times of day when the home is vacant) stays in the hands of professionals. In some markets, a MLS may maintain a website buyers can access too.