Technology Makes Home Buying Easier
My husband and I have owned three homes in the past twelve years. In those twelve years we have seen great improvement in the technological resources available to home buyers.
When looking for our first home in 1993, we relied on one-inch by one-inch newspaper listings with abbreviations like EIK (eat in kitchen) and LLFR (lower level family room). We then took many trips with our very patient realtor to look at houses that 'sounded good', only to find that they did not look very good!
When shopping for our second house in 1997, the fax machine was indispensable! Our very thorough realtor would send me multiple-page faxes each week with detailed listings based on criteria we had established. As these listings were straight from MLS, they were quite detailed, and cut down on the number of fruitless 'walk throughs'.
Better yet, in 2001, we made extensive use of the internet in our home search. Most realtors now have a website on which you can enter your criteria (such as town, number of bedrooms, number of baths) and get many listings to match. The best part is that many of these listings include a color photo of the home. Some have pictures of the interior, and some even have 'virtual tours'!
You will still need to visit the homes on your 'short list' as even a color photo on the internet won't tell you all you need to know. And, a good honest realtor is still a valuable part of the process!