If your are planning to purchase a home of your own, you are likely to be interested in the best places to look for homes for sale online. Buying a home is a major financial decision for every person and it is unfortunate that most home buyers don’t have much of an idea of where they should be looking for homes for sale. For instance, websites that provide information on the national level are often not advisable because they obtain their information from various sources and the information may be misleading and unreliable. These sites may get their information from lists of homes that are in pre-foreclosure status. Unfortunately, by the time you get to read about that particular home being available for sale, the owner might have already made the necessary remedies after having fallen behind on his payments so that the home is no longer for sale. Furthermore, some websites are also not the best places to look for homes for sale because they fail to update their lists in a timely manner. Thus, you might think that you have found the ideal home but it might have already been sold.
Other sites to avoid when looking for the best places to look for homes for sale are those that allow real estate agents who are supposed to specialize in a certain area to post their listings to advertise. The problem is that these sites that charge real estate agents to post their listings often appeal to brand new real estate agents. Once again, the information you find may not be accurate enough for your needs.
Best Places to Look for Homes for Sale Online:
As mentioned above, you don’t want to go to websites where the information may not be updated in a timely manner. Fortunately, there are sites that always have fresh information on homes for sale. These are sites featuring the multiple listing service (MLS). MLS databases are updated instantly once a particular home is sold or a new home for sale comes in.
Thus, when looking for the best places to look for homes for sale online, we need to go to websites that feature listings that are updated as fast as possible. These include:
- Homefinder.com: Here, the listings are subdivided into specific categories, such foreclosures, brokers listings, new construction, rentals, and classifieds. It also offers guides for buyers so that they feel like they are being guided every step of the way in buying a home.
- Realtor.com: This site gets information from more than 900 MLS services in the US so that you are guaranteed to get fresh information on homes for sale all over the country.
- Homes.com: This site has a list of more than 4 million homes for sale. Mobile search options are available for smartphones. Information comes directly from MLS services, brokerages and agents, and public records.
- Trulia.com: This site also offers a mobile app. Users would be able to view the listings in list format, map format, or photo format. You can also get a lot of related information on the homes and the neighborhoods they are located through crime reports, school reviews and price trends.
- Zillow.com: This site boasts of more than 100 millions homes listed, but not all of them are for sale. This is to allow users to check on market trends and pricing. Google Earth views are also provided.
The above are just a few of the best places to look for homes for sale online. You may be able to find more as long as you make sure that their data comes from MLS services and other resources with information that are updated as fast as possible.
