You’ve noticed I don’t currently have a “Search for homes” function on this blog.
Yeah, I know 90% of Bellingham real estate shoppers start (and continue) their search for a home online.
They use real estate search engines like:
- www.Trulia.com
- www.Zillow.com
- www.Redfin.com
- www.REMAX.com
- www.Realtor.com
- www.Johnlscott.com
- www.Homes.com
- RealEstate.Yahoo.com
and more.
And everyone migrates to their personal favorite search engine within the first 5 searches, I’ve read.
Then they stay there. They use that search engine, exclusively, until they find their home.
Wonderful!
Personally, I think those sites are awesome, and they have monstrous budgets, and ridiculous traffic, which allows them to fine-tune the user interface.
And whichever one you love, I love it for you too, and encourage you to stay there.
All you need to do when we’re working together is send me the address, or NWMLS # of the listing you’re interested in.
I’ll look it up directly on the main database that feeds ALLLL those sites with their listings: www.NWMLS.com.
But I am curious, so please leave a comment with your answer:
What real estate search engine do you use when you’re shopping specifically for Bellingham real estate?
What do you love about it?
I use craigslist mostly, search “must sell” …. used to be pretty good search, but lately it’s dried up..
after that i usually use windemere’s site but I’ll try some of your links.
For wisdom I use NWWAYOFLIFE.COM
BOOM!
Another site, in the ” downer ” camp I like:
Patrick.net
I like Zillow and Redfin…neither are perfect, but get the job done. What works best for me is to provide the agent with the parameters of what I’m looking for and then they set up an automated email that comes to me when properities hit the market that match my criteria.
I forgot to mention that the email I receive is generated from the NWMLS.
Hey Tim, Good to hear from you! Buy anything sweet lately? Yeah, the auto-emails are the only way to go, and none of the search engines I mentioned have the detailed parameters that the NWMLS has itself. Who’s your Realtor?
Thanks for the tip on http://www.Patrick.net, Downer! Lots of good content there!
That’s why I love you, Downer! Always willing to share your strategies, and always ready with a compliment. By the way, my “return” to full time real estate turned out to be a great move: I’m having the best December/January (in terms of sales volume) of my entire career. Just in time for our departure to Baja for 6 weeks.
You guys wanna come?