Contact MargaretHow to Do an Online Home Search
March 26th, 2010 Categories: Real Estate
Over 80% of today’s home buyers begin their search online. If you’re looking for a home in Crofton MD, for example, you will probably click on the tab at the top of this page titled “Search for Homes” – or perhaps you’ll click the button at the end of this post.
LISTING NUMBER: If you know the listing number for a home (perhaps it’s identified in a print or online ad for the property), you can enter it into the space provided near the top of the search page:
STREET ADDRESS: Or you can go to the bottom of that screen to “Search by Street Address” if you’ve driven past a home with a sale sign in the yard and want information only about that home (or all the homes for sale on a particular street).
More likely, however, you want to do a general search – but not TOO general, because you want to find homes in the location and price range you prefer.
GENERAL SEARCH:
It’s actually quite easy to do an online home search using the “Search for Homes” tab:
- Specify the city(ies) or zipcode(s) you will consider.
- Limit the price range.
- Indicate how many bedrooms and baths you need.
I’m always amazed at how many people search only by zipcode, without any additional criteria – even price range. Here’s why you might want to limit the price range, bedrooms and bathrooms:
When I searched today for Crofton homes using the above parameters, I found 153 homes for sale. By fine-tuning my search to $300–$400,000 with 3+ bedrooms and 2+ baths, however, the list narrowed from 153 to 32 homes.
CUSTOMIZED SEARCH: But this is just the beginning. Now click on “More Search Options” to the right of the “Find Listings” button (see below).
This link is the key to truly customizing results to satisfy your own unique wants and needs. When you do that, you can choose specific features… a basement, garage, and fireplace, for example.
When I added those restrictions to my home search tonight, however, the results were “zero” because there were no homes with those features currently on the market in my price range… in my preferred zipcode.
At this point, I could change the features in my search or check another nearby zipcode for homes that meet my search criteria. If there were several homes in the results for this highly customized search, on the other hand, I may limit my search to a specific subdivision (or 2 or 3) or even add additional features.
Crofton home buyers don’t have to register to do a home search on this website or on MargaretWoda.com, but they do have to register to receive email updates of new and/or revised listings which meet their search criteria. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t know how to address the email updates!
Hundreds of people receive these every day, and I couldn’t call or email them even if I wanted to, so you don’t have to worry that your registration might be interpreted as a license for me to nag you. It just isn’t going to happen because I’m too busy helping people who ask for my help to spend my time tracking down those who are not yet ready.
By the way, you can un-subscribe or change your search criteria at your own convenience.
So what do you think… are you ready to get started? Just click on the little house at the bottom of this post – the one that says “Search for HOMES”.
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FocusOnCrofton.com is your one-stop source for information about Crofton, Maryland, and the surrounding area. It’s my way of keeping current residents informed about their community and real estate matters while also attracting relocating home buyers to the Crofton area (including Bowie, Crownsville, Davidsonville, Fort Meade, Gambrills, Millersville and Odenton). Please feel free to contact me any time for more information.
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