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Buying and Selling Homes

What are the best sites to view homes??

17 years ago

I have been looking at realtor.com and for sale by owners but are there better sites to look at homes for sale without registering your name with the companies?

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Comments (14)

jpok
17 years ago
I think trying to get access to the MLS listings is the way to go. MLS listings tend to be WAY more complete than realtor.com, in my experience. After all, it is (supposedly) the system realtors use to view properties for their clients. The only problem is the different levels of accessibility to MLS listings in each area.

In northern CO, you can easily see the MLS listings on coloproperty.com.

In my current area in northern CA, I was able to access the MLS system by googling "MLS" and the city name. I found that there were quite a few realtor sites that had links to the MLS system through their sites, some with more capability to see what realtors would see.

Have fun! If you can call homebuying fun!
terezosa / terriks
17 years ago
The problem with Realtor.com is that it costs the agents extra to post more than one picture, so many of the listings don't have interior pics. I agree that your local MLS site should have the best information. That is where Realtor.com gets their info.
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mkt2le
17 years ago
Sometimes some of the major realtors in the area have good websites listing not only their listings but everyone else's, too. A large realtor here in Dallas, Ebby Halliday Realtors, has a great website with everybody's listings and tons of pictures, etc. (www.ebby.com) I'd bet other large cities have similar companies doing similar things.
quirkyquercus
17 years ago
Similarly, ERA I think has their own database. Remax used to also. That might not be the case anymore.
terezosa / terriks
17 years ago
If you are in the west Windermere.com is a good site to view homes.
arielitas_mom
17 years ago
In my area, ziprealty has all of the MLS listings and is the most up-to-date. Many of the realtors' MLS listings don't show addresses and realtor.com is not as current nor as complete.
behaviorkelton
17 years ago
I once subscribed (free) to "justlisted.com", and it was very quick at getting new listing to me.

I had a realtor and he would call me about houses that just came on the market, and I would often already know about the house... if not, I knew about it in a few hours.
sparksals
17 years ago
I second Zip realty's website. They have some nifty functions like telling you what you've already viewed, a place to put your own notes.
ma28
17 years ago
Depending on where you live, you can try:
www.weichert.com;www.remax.com;www.century21.com;coldwellbanker.com; and www.realtor.com

On realtor.com you do get a number of homes without pictures, but if you go to realtor's agent website, they might have photos for the interior of the house. I had seen homes on realtor.com with just the pict. of the house and when you log into their realtor's website they have 6 pict. of the inside of the homes.

Good Luck
whiskerz
17 years ago
After reading the posts about Zip Realty, I went to sign up as it sounds better than the site I'm using now. One paragraph in their Terms of Use says:
3.2 Client represents and warrants that he/she has not signed any agreement with a real estate broker or agent that would prevent the client from using ZipRealty as his or her sole and exclusive agent. Client does not have a contract or agreement with any third party that would interfere with ZipRealty's representation of client.
I didn't sign up after reading that as I do have a realtor - would you sign up anyway and not worry about it, or would you avoid them?
whiskerz
17 years ago
After reading the posts about Zip Realty, I went to sign up as it sounds better than the site I'm using now. One paragraph in their Terms of Use says:
3.2 Client represents and warrants that he/she has not signed any agreement with a real estate broker or agent that would prevent the client from using ZipRealty as his or her sole and exclusive agent. Client does not have a contract or agreement with any third party that would interfere with ZipRealty's representation of client.
I didn't sign up after reading that as I do have a realtor - would you sign up anyway and not worry about it, or would you avoid them?
berniek
17 years ago
"I didn't sign up after reading that as I do have a realtor - would you sign up anyway and not worry about it, or would you avoid them?"
If you sign up with them, what will you do, when you go under contract and they want part of the commission because they are YOUR agent?
Just because it's "only the internet", does not mean it's not a legal contract.
christian_2007
17 years ago
Webposted.com is a great site. You'll be able to advertise all properties.
Good luck!
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christian
shortykb
17 years ago
In the Washington DC area and surrounding counties use WWW.HOMESDATABASE.COM. They are fed directly from the MLS in the area.

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