Finding Love on the Internet — or at Least Your Next Home
It’s an online world—whether you are looking for a first date or searching for your dream home. While only three in 10 people admit to online dating, nearly 80 percent of home buyers use the internet to do a bit of home shopping.
What You Should Know About Finding a House Online
As with any kind of online shopping, house hunting from the comfort of your own home—especially in the days of a pandemic—has plenty of advantages. Looking at pictures of homes can help you dial into the features you want in a new home before you start house-hunting with a real estate agent.
Here are some tips for putting home search websites to work for you:
? Know what you want. Most home search websites have filters you can enable to search only those homes that meet your needs. Know your price range and desirable zip codes before filtering out the number of bedrooms, the style of the home, and the amount of land.
? Have a list of must-haves and nice-to-haves. Much like a relationship requires compromise, so too does finding your dream home. You are unlikely to find a house that has every single item on your must-have list—especially if you are limited to a specific price range.
? Check out more than one site. Most people who meet Mr. or Ms. Right online have put their profile on more than one dating app to improve their chances. Do the same when you are house hunting. Not every site will have every home listed.
? Contact a real estate agent when you are ready to buy. If you have preapproval for a mortgage and are ready to make a purchase, working with a real estate agent will make the process go more smoothly. This is especially true in competitive housing markets. Don’t let someone else beat you to your dream home!
Top House-Hunting Websites
There are plenty of house-hunting websites, and all have different features and information. As mentioned above, not all include all listings, so it’s best to use a few for browsing homes.
? Realtor.com. This is the official site of the National Association of Realtors. You can view homes for sale or rent here, and you can even see homes that have recently sold. This is a useful feature since you can see what homes are actually selling for—not just the price they were listed at.
? Trulia.com. This user-friendly site lets you view listings in photo, list, and map formats for good browsing flexibility. It also includes information on schools, price trends, and crime rates. There are also reviews from local residents.
? Zillow.com. Popular among homeowners who are interested in checking their property’s value, Zillow has more than 100 million listings with Google Earth views. In addition to listing homes that are for sale, it includes “Zestimates,” which is the estimated market value. This provides insights into a home’s value using publicly available data. Zillow also has an online community where users can ask questions and participate in discussions.
? Homes.com. This site offers users an easy way to search for the basics, including homes for sale or rent, recently sold homes and local professionals. It includes neighborhood demographics in graphic form, making the site a favorite among data geeks.
Using these house-hunting websites can save you a lot of time as you embark on your home-buying adventure with your real estate agent. Ready to make your wishes come true with the home of your dreams? Contact real estate matchmaker Sharon Held at Compass: [email protected].
This article was originally posted on Medium.com. You can find it here.