How to Search for Your Dream Home Online

It took my wife and I two years to find our dream home, and we made all the mistakes common among first-time homebuyers: engaging in bidding wars, ignoring huge flaws with homes (e.g. high taxes or a leaky roof, a $15k investment), and not understanding how to get the best mortgage rate (by putting 20-percent down, having a 720+ credit rating, and three year's worth of tax returns at the ready).

The first error we made though was not properly searching for homes online. We quickly realized we couldn't count on the advice of our local brokers, who ostensibly worked for us but were only interested in pressuring us into closing on a deal. They'd show us homes that simply didn't meet our criteria, and we'd always wish we'd done more research online first. So take it from me, before you hit the pavement or walk through the doors of a realty broker, start here...

1. Find the Freshest Listings

Chance are, if you've begun your search for a new home you've found RE/MAX (remax.com), an international broker with more than 100,000 agents worldwide-and more importantly, a Web site with the most comprehensive list of properties for sale and rent in the U.S. No matter where you live, RE/MAX likely has listings in your area. You've probably run many dozens of searches at this site already, but there are a few basic tricks you should know.

First off, if you know the zip code of the area in which you'd like to buy a home, simply enter it into the main page search field to kickstart your housing hunt. Using something called MLS, or the Multiple Listing Service, the site can quickly identify the homes available by brokers, and homeowners conducting their own sales, in a given area.

Second, when a list of homes pop up in a given search, click the "Advanced Search" tab to hone in on the type of home you desire by using such criteria as "Price," "Bathrooms," "Bedrooms," "Year Built," "Acreage," and my personal favorite, "Listing Added or Updated." That last filter lets you zero in on only those homes that have been added within last three days, week or month to ensure you're not seeing the same ol' listings every time you return to the site.

Finally, when you're searching for homes, consider looking at properties just above your price range. Yes, it sounds counterintuitive. But the truth is, no reasonable person in this market expects to sell his or her home at price, which means those reach homes are likely reachable after all, and will probably sell for thousands less than the list price. A friend of mine recently scored his dream home for $70k less than the advertised price! Some buyers are more desperate than you think.

2. Study a Bird's-Eye View of the Property

Think you've found "the" home online? The photos look incredible? You're ready to drive 40 minutes to see it? Not so fast. Every time a home's price seemed too good to be true, we discovered it was the result of a single factor: poor location. Before you visit any property, go to Google Maps (maps.google.com) first and enter the address of the home so that you can zoom in on it from above. Click the "satellite" button in the top right of the results screen and use the scroll bar on the left side to zoom in. In some areas, you can actually enjoy a curb-side view of a property by dragging the little man icon from the scroll bar onto the map! Study the surrounding area. Is the home located next to a shopping mall? Adjacent to a highway? Alongside a train track? Still interested in this property? Move onto the final step...

3. Find Out What the Seller Paid For His Home

Before you even cross the threshold of a home, arm yourself with the most valuable bit of information available online: the seller's original purchase price of the home. At sites like Zillow.com, this info is occasionally available. But when it's not, go to PropertyShark.com. Sign up for a free basic account, which will help you determine when the seller bought the home, and for how much. This is key when it comes time to bid, as the house price help you to understand the mindset of the seller. Are they selling at a loss? Within a year or two of buying the home? If the answers are yes and yes, it's likely a major life change is forcing the sellers to exit the house in a hurry: maybe a job relocation, job loss, or worse, a death in the family. It's time to make a deal!