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Thursday, August 28, 2008

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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Home Buying Tools Online - A Home Buyer's Paradise   by Brandon Cornett

The Internet has made the home buying process a lot more efficient. At least, if you know where to go for the best home buying tools and services.

But for many home buyers, the Internet is a vast and confusing place with enough real estate websites to make your head spin. To a certain extent, this is true. There truly is a dizzying array of home buying websites online these days. But once you narrow down your list of web-based home buying tools to a half-dozen or so, you can harness the power and efficiency of the Internet without being overwhelmed in the process.

I'd like to help you achieve this by offering a short list of some of the most popular (and useful) real estate sites online today.

1. For Requesting Your Credit Reports

Yes, I said credit reports, in the plural sense. Did you know you actually have three credit reports, one for each of the credit-reporting bureaus? It's true, and lenders will review all three of them (or a composite score) when considering you for a mortgage loan.

So one of the most important steps in the home buying process is to request copies of your credit reports and scores so that you can (A) review them for errors / inaccuracies and (B) see where you stand in terms of good or bad credit.

By law, you are allowed to obtain your credit reports for free once per year. There are hundreds of websites online that offer your free credit reports, and the choice can be confusing. But here's the big "secret" ... most of these websites, if not all of them, pull your report from the source. In other words, they all get your credit reports from the three bureaus -- Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.

So I way, why not go straight to the source to request your reports. The three credit-reporting bureaus have actually set up a website where you can request all three reports at once, and that website is the first on my list of top home-buying tools online:

* AnnualCreditReport.com

2. For Home Shopping / Property Listings

Here's the thing about websites offering property listings. Most of them get their data from one of two places -- either from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), or from the real estate brokers themselves.

In the past, you really only had one or two places to go online for property listings. Realtor.com was one of these sites. And while it's still a good place to go for home listings, there are quite a few other options as well. In fact, this is an area that has really exploded in recent years. These days, there are hundreds of websites that compile property listings and then allow people to search those listings by area, price, etc. Here are some of the more popular sites:

* Redfin.com
* Trulia.com
* HomePages.com
* RealEstate.Yahoo.com

These are some of the major / national websites with real estate listings. Obviously, you can also get local property listings from real estate agent websites in your area, as most agent websites tap directly into the MLS data.

3. For Finding a Mortgage Online

Okay, now we are getting into an area that has seen a lot of shuffling (and disaster) over the last couple of years. Many of the online mortgage companies were affected by the subprime mortgage crisis that came to a head in 2007.

For example, at the time of this article writing, the Ameriquest home page has a message that basically says, "We are closed until further notice." On top of that, Countrywide Home Loans (another of the larger web-based mortgage companies) was recently sold to Bank of America.

With that said, there are still quite a few websites online where you can get mortgage quotes from multiple lenders at once. Obviously, this can save time and energy, as well as giving you a broader range of mortgage products to choose from. My advice is to stick with the names and websites you know, if only to ensure that your private information is protected.

Here are some of the websites left standing after the mortgage lender shakedown:

* LendingTree.com
* Eloan.com
* Ditech.com
* QuickenLoans.com

4. For Tracking Foreclosures Online

We just talked about the mortgage crisis that came to a head in 2007. Going into 2008, we are still feeling the effects of this fiasco, and we probably will be for a couple more years. As a result of the subprime mortgage meltdown, there are more foreclosure properties on the market than ever before. These foreclosures represent opportunity for the savvy real estate investor.

You see, when a bank forecloses on a home, they want to sell it off as quickly as possible. Banks are lenders -- they are not property managers. So they will typically sell the foreclosed home as soon as possible, often through a real estate auction. At a property auction, the smart real estate investor can often get a home for less than market value.

Of course, you have to know about foreclosure properties before you can evaluate them and possibly bid on them. That's why we have seen a rise in the number (and sophistication) of foreclosure-tracking websites. These web-based services will keep track of foreclosure activity in your area and send you notification emails about new foreclosures.

In this area, there are a couple of giants and a handful of "lesser" websites. Here are the giants:

* Foreclosure.com
* RealtyTrac.com

(There's also a Foreclosures.com, with an 's' at the end. But don't be confused ... the first one listed above is a much better service with more data, at least in my experience.)

5. For General Home-Buying Information

All of the websites listed above are specific in nature. That is, they pertain to one aspect of the home buying process -- such as ordering your credit report, shopping for a loan, finding a home, and tracking foreclosures.

But what about the general information websites?

Fortunately, there is not shortage of these websites either. Actually, there are hundreds of websites online that I would label as "comprehensive" in terms of the information they provide. Here are a few of the most useful and informative sites:

* HUD.gov/buying
* HomeBuyingInstitute.com
* Homebuying.About.com

Conclusion and Summary

So there you have it, my list of the most helpful home buying tools available online today. Of course, with the rapidly evolving nature of the Internet, new websites come online all the time. But the ones listed above are a great place to start! Good luck with your real estate experience.

Source:

Our Home Buying Site:
Brandon Cornett is the publisher of another helpful realty website that offers a variety of tools for home buyers. You'll also find city resource pages with more specific information, such as this guide to Las Vegas home buying information. Learn more by visiting http://www.armingyourfarming.com/realestate

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