Buying or Selling a Home/Home search website

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Expert: - 7/9/2009


Question
I live in Middle TN and have always loved looking at homes in my area that are for sale.  I use www.realtracs.com it's an extremely useful tool.  Now I am strongly considering moving to Desoto county, Mississippi and I have looked and looked for a site somewhere nearly as helpful as realtracs and can't find one.  Surely there are other property finder websites for other areas, do you know of any?  Maybe know what to search for so I can find a good website for that area?  I like realtracs because it isn't specific to a certain realtor and also because of all the search criteria.  I can't seem to find one that allows you to specify acreage or lot size or school zones.

Answer
Dear Brandi;
There are a number of good websites for home searches.  There is not an all-inclusive one since there might be some homes that are for sale by owner, along with independent non-mls members who have listings; but the closest thing to all-inclusive is the site: www.realtor.com. You can do a search by area, price range, size, acres, and all kinds of criteria.  It is tied into the MLS systems across the country making it up-to-date and reliable.  I think that it is the best of all of the search sites and the most useful. Many of my clients spend a little while searching on this site before they ever call me.  It helps them to understand the market in the area and to know what to expect once they go out looking at homes with me.  

I hope that this helps you.
Good luck and best wishes.
Jessica Bryan

Buying or Selling a Home

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Jessica Bryan

Expertise

buying and selling process such as:
General questions from first time buyers
How to market a home
Why choose a REALTOR
How do I find a REALTOR
Should I consider buying or selling without a REALTOR--how much can I save
Should I remodel or move
How much can I expect to gain by fixing up my home before selling
Helpful tips when selling
Helpful tips when buying
finding a good mortgage loan
what is the difference between banks, mortgage bankers, and mortgage brokers
Questions from the general public, people thinking about getting their real estate license, newly licensed.
Fellow professionals who have interests in networking and how to get started
What is a market evaluation and how does it differ from an appraisal what are the different loan programs
services a REALTOR can perform
when to use a lawyer
when to use escrow
what are the regional differences in the buying and selling process
what is the MLS and how does it work
how can the layman access information on the web--listings and other information
These are just a few of the questions. I can suggest that if I am unable to answer a question I will refer the inquiry to a source that can.

Experience

Anyone who is in this business and who dedicates oneself to professionalism has continued to take classes and along with it,additional credentials, awards and honors. I can list a host of them, but my greatest accomplishments happen to be those of getting first time buyers (who didn't think they could afford to buy a home)into a home of their dreams. The look on their faces when I hand over the keys is worth all of the hard work.

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