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The National Association of Realtors (NAR) estimates that 23% of potential home buyers now search for homes online. Besides generating leads, the Internet helps home buyers compare prices, research neighborhoods and even take virtual tours.
Here's what you need to know to get started:
Browsing the Listings
If owning a home is the American dream, knowing what other people's homes look like — and how much they cost — is the prevailing American curiosity. Thanks to the Internet, you can peep into dozens of homes a day, and the owners will never even know you were there. Most of the home-listing sites work the same way. Prospective buyers screen by location, cost, house size and so on. Then you get a list of properties and contact information.
Realtor.com is by far the most extensive site. It claims to have 1.3 million current properties, which is about 90% of the properties on the U.S. market. The site, which is run by NAR, is updated daily. Not all listings provide photos, but they do have detailed features of each property (carpeting in the master bedroom, professional landscaping, vaulted ceilings and so on).
If it's a "virtual tour" you want, check out Homeseekers.com. Within specific listings, shoppers can click on a room they're interested in and watch a 360-degree scan of the entire space. Other sites that display homes, with varying degrees of sophistication, include
Homes.com, RealEstate.com and
CyberHomes. If you're looking for something less expensive,
TowerAuction.com is a directory of mostly low to midprice properties that have been foreclosed. And don't overlook brokers' own sites: Century 21 and Coldwell Banker both have their extensive listings online.
All of these sites can save you a lot of energy for homes that are inappropriate, especially if you're looking for a place out of town. Even if the specific listings don't satisfy your requirements, you can get the names of some of the area's most active agents.
But at a minimum, Internet home shopping will give you a feel for the marketplace and the name of a broker that sells the type of home you prefer.
Making a Reasonable Offer
Before placing a bid on your dream home, you'll want to make sure the price is realistic. After all, you don't want to overpay. But you don't want to lose the house either. Here's where the true power of the Internet is evident. With just a few clicks, consumers have access to information that just a few years ago would only have been available through a realtor or a trip to the county clerk's office.
At iOwn.com, which is primarily a mortgage-brokering service but also has home listings, select the option "Check Recent Sale Prices." By entering the town and state where you're planning to live, you can get a list of the prices of recent home sales in the vicinity.
Other sites offering similar services include Yahoo! Real Estate and
RealEstate.com.
Taking Care of Business
Finding a home is one thing, financing it is a different matter entirely. So, to avoid becoming disappointed, you should estimate what you can afford before you start shopping for your new home. You can even prequalify for a mortgage, which is something sellers like to see.
Once you're ready to shop for a mortgage, use our Mortgage Calculator to figure out what's the best for your situation.
For estimates on closing costs use our Closing
Cost Calculator.
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