Investment propertyCyberShopping For A New Home
Don"t have a lot of time to find a new home, but want to make sure you"ve
seen as many new homes as you can in order to make a confident decision?
Aside from grabbing the weekend paper and mapping out all the model homes,
there"s another great way to shop for a new home.
Why not shop for a new home in the comfort of your home in your old robe and
a cup of coffee? On the Internet, of course! It is said that there are more
sites on the World Wide Web having to do with real estate and mortgages to
buy them with than any other single topic. Taking advantage of this
incredibly interesting and informing medium has to be the place to "let your
fingers do the tapping" these days.
To get a handle on just how huge a pool of information is available to you,
you may use the customary "search engines", such as Yahoo, for example, choosing keywords such as
"new homes" or "real estate". Be careful here, though, as "real estate" will
generally give you hordes of re-sale homes that are listed through the various
listing services, before mentioning newly constructed homes. Also, the keyword
that will get you what you want quickly
one week may not work as well the next, as their arenas of quick access are
being changed constantly. If you know precisely what builder names interest
you, by all means type in the name and you may quickly be able to find the
builder"s site, saving you lots of time.
There are two places I have discovered are the most fun to surf for new
homes. The first, "
NewHomeSearch.Com" has been created by the
National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). It is a valuable site to
consumers, real estate brokers and builders as well. It"s an attractive and
interesting site, but maneuvering through it can be a bit time consuming, when
you just want to get to a narrowed-down search as quickly as possible. I
counted
anywhere from seven to nine clicks of my mouse button to get to a desired
home with the criteria I was interested in. Because this site is the
brainchild of a huge non-profit builder cooperative, however, you may search
by both builder and by community. The site is free to consumers, paid for by
advertising. Once you have selected a builder or community, a fax may be
automatically sent to the desired entity to generate a mail-out request for
information, or, if desired, a phone call.
The second site is newer, and, I am finding, much more user friendly, but is
still somewhat "under construction". It is called "NewHomeNetwork.Com",
and is supported by print advertising in about 150 different newspaper chains
throughout the United States. Each week, an advertisement anywhere from ш to
Ѕ page appears in hundreds of local newspapers" real estate sections, touting
this new and colorful site. I found that it took only about two to three
button clicks to get right to the homes that I was interested in. This is
because of different "click" options available on a single "page". For
instance, on the first page, you may choose both the market and price range
for the home you are interested in finding. The next options will let you
choose more options, such as bedroom and bath count. Again, builders and
other advertisers pay for this site, so take your time searching through its
great graphics.
The third way to search is by skimming the newspaper real estate ads for
specific web site addresses for specific builders. Most builders have jumped
into this medium all on their own and are constantly changing and updating
their websites to give consumers as much advance information as possible
about their new homes. These sites are usually much more in-depth than the
more generic sites listed above. They may illustrate not only floor plans,
but also elevations, site maps, school information, the "builder story", and
even a "virtual" tour of each plan right on your computer. The other
advantage to these individual sites may include more up-to-date pricing
information, inventory listings (homes that are ready for occupancy soon),
and any new floor plans offered by the builder, because they are individually
maintained by the builder themselves to attract buyers.
Whichever way you decide to shop for a new home, don"t overlook this terrific
way to save yourself time, tired kids, and tanks of gas in narrowing down
your search. Happy home cybershopping!
Real Times New Home News