Home Search
I don’t have my own home search function on this site. All the data comes from the same place…the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Having this type of service on my own site seems really silly when the user experience I could provide you would pale in comparison to the bigger players. I’d rather spend the time improving my business and services for my clients. I would like you to have the best search experience possible, so I will save you from any lame attempt and refer you to the search tools I think are the best on the web. These tools, in many ways, are better than what we agents have to use. Crazy huh?
Regional Sites
www.johnlscott.com
Probably one of the best regional search sites out there. No more lists of houses and then have to map them to see where they are. You search by map and it plots where all the houses are for sale and recently solds.
www.windermere.com
Their Property Point search is pretty much the same thing as John L. Scott, but they’re in this “beta” phase. Probably just means they have bugs to still work out. Still cool though.
National Sites
www.zillow.com
Zillow broke onto the real estate scene with their automated home valuation system. They are gradually introducing new services and I really like the direction they’re in.
www.trulia.com
Trulia is a competing service to Zillow. There’s lots of similarities between the two, but I still like them. Their Trulia Voices section is pretty popular.
www.redfin.com
I have issues with their corporate ego and their we’re-the-savior-of-the-industry attitude. However, they do have the search thing done pretty well.
