Five tips for online house hunting
Terri J. Bridgwater, Contributing Writer

When Tom Perry moved to Columbus, Ohio, for a new job as a senior programming manager at Compuserve, his wife Ruth stayed in west Texas to sell their house. Despite being 1,400 miles apart, they were still able to look for a new home together by using Internet real estate sites.

"I'd be online checking out the sites and find something interesting, and I'd tell Ruth about it by e-mail or AOL Instant Messenger," Perry says. "I'd send her the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) number so she could pop it in the search and go right to it."

In Perry's Internet search, he says, "we basically used the ZIP code of the area we wanted, our price range, and a requirement of a minimum of four bedrooms for our search. We looked at hundreds of homes."

The Web puts about 30,000 real estate-related sites and more than a million Internet-listed homes at your fingertips. A prospective home buyer can easily visit homes in the next county or in the next country. Numbers like that can be a little mind-boggling; that's why Kathleen Sindell wrote The Unofficial Guide to Buying a Home Online.

"There's so much out there, it's easy to get overwhelmed and lost in cyberspace," says Sindell, a consultant in Alexandria, Va. "But, people shouldn't be intimidated. Anyone with the most basic computer skills can find a home using the Internet. Home buyers can shop … 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Searching online lets the buyer do lots of research before they go out to look at homes, adds Christine Hanson, a Century 21 real estate broker in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "That makes my job easier because after the buyers have done some basic research, they know what they like and what they don't," she says.

Hanson and Sindell agree on five basic tips for home buyers using the Web to find a new home:

Step 1: Determine your price range

"Figuring out your price range is a very important step," Hanson says. "Many people get started looking at houses on the Web and think they can afford them. When they sit down and actually look at the paperwork, they realize they can't."

Bankrate.com has a calculator that helps home buyers figure out how much house they can afford.

Prepare for this step by getting paperwork and documentation organized, Sindell says. "A buyer is going to need income tax records, check stubs, credit reports, etc. It's important to gather this paperwork early and keep it organized."

Step 2: Figure out what you want … and what you don't want

Do this by creating a reasonable "wish list." Have the entire family participate in making two lists: one for the amenities you must have and another for the things you'd like to have. "It's important to evaluate your current lifestyle as well as the lifestyle you expect to live five years from now," Sindell says.

Step 3: Don't buy a house you've seen online without seeing it in person

Web sites supply lots of positive information but hardly ever any of the negative information, Hanson says. A buyer needs to stay objective and investigate the property in person.

Perry recalls: "This was a five-bedroom home with a four-car garage that looked beautiful from the outdoor photos posted on the web. It was priced comparable to the other homes in the neighborhood. When we walked in the place, I almost fell over. It was like the movie Animal House. I haven't seen trashed green shag carpeting since the 1970s, and I've never seen appliances that old."

Step 4: Check out local and national realty Web sites

The Perrys used local realty sites to get specific information about schools and Realtor.com for all the other information. "Realtor.com is great. It's got it all: crime statistics, cost of living comparisons, and a breakdown of suburbs and regions within the city."

For more recommended real estate sites, see the links at the bottom of this story.

Hanson says, "Buyers should also keep in mind that not all homes for sale are online. It's still important to choose a Realtor and work with them through the MLS listings."

Step 5: Increase your buying power with loan pre-approval

Buyers can go to Web sites to find the type of mortgage best suited for them and the best mortgage deals. Buyers can also save about 1 percent of the mortgage amount by applying online, Sindell says.

She says loan pre-approval is essential. "If, in a hot real estate market like San Francisco, a buyer with loan pre-approval stands on the doorstep of a house they like along with another buyer without pre-approval, whose bid do you think will be accepted?"

A buyer who has good credit (an A rating) can get a loan pre-approval from an online lender right away. A buyer can print off the pre-approval notice and take it along while looking at houses.

Other advantages

The Perrys weren't comfortable getting their mortgage online, but they chose their homeowners insurance that way. "I went to InsWeb, put in the house information and within an hour I had the best quotes from local agents," Perry says. "It was great."

Perry was able to look at 30 or 40 houses in an hour on the Web. If he'd been touring neighborhoods with an agent, he might have been able to see five houses a day.

Finally, the Perrys found some homes they were interested in and went to look at them in the flesh. He recalls: "I had major déjà vu when we'd go into houses that we'd seen in a virtual tour on the Web."

Virtual home tours provide a 360-degree view of the house interior and let your point of view actually move around the room. Perry loved it. "I think it was well worth the minute or two it took to download the scenes. I really felt like I'd actually been in the houses."

Perry and his wife purchased three homes the traditional way before using the Web for their fourth purchase. "It was great. I'd absolutely do it again," he said. "I think this is the way [a real estate search] should be done. It's convenient and efficient. Why waste your time if you don't have to?"

-- Posted: May 18, 2000