Home on the Web

Home Office Computing,  Feb, 1998  by Robert J. Hawkins

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THE INTERNET PLAYED A MODEST ROLE WHEN my wife and I attempted to sell our house a year ago. At the time, I regularly searched the online real estate listings of the San Diego Union Tribune's SignOn San Diego (www.uniontrib.com). Occasionally, I found a potential new house to buy in its searchable data abase of homes, but my wife and her real estate agent had inevitably already investigated the prospect. In our real estate wheeling and dealing, we relied on agents' multiple listing services (MLS).

Then a couple from Philadelphia came to view our house out of the blue. Before moving west, the man had gone to the National Association of Realtors' Web site (realtor.com) and selected a dozen houses in San Diego that fit his criteria. Armed with the addresses, he had then gone to Mapquest (www.mapquest.com) and created custom maps with printed directions from house to house-to house. A little computer legwork gave this man instant leads and directions to ease the old-fashioned method of driving around to find houses-all before leaving Philadelphia.

Even though I was already well-versed in technology, this shopper inspired me to poke around and find a better way to sell or buy a home on the Web. If I were in the market for a house again, I'd make sure to turn to the Web first. Here's how I would approach the sale or purchase of new digs today.

The Sale

Step 1. To ensure that I set a realistic price for my home, I'd head to Experian (www.experian.com). For $7.95, this company provides information on five comparables (similarly constructed and priced houses) within a one-mile radius of my house. I'd also spend $4 more to work up a profile of my neighborhood, which is a terrific marketing tool. The right numbers-crime rates and community information, including average income, education level, and occupation-impress buyers.

Step 2. I'd search such sites as the Government Information Sharing Project (govinfo.kerr.orst.edu/index. html), which has Census data organized for 15,274 school districts. In my case, the San Diego City Schools also has its own Web site (www.sdcs.k12.ca.us/sarcs) where I can download the School Accountability Report Cards for every school in the neighborhood. All schools in California are required to produce such report cards annually and some post them on the Web. Good schools sell homes.

Step 3. I'd insist that my agent's MLS be on the realtor.com site, which carries 1.03 million of the 1.2 million U.S. homes listed by the National Association of Realtors at any given moment. Buyers can search using any of 80 distinct criteria. In November, consumers previewed 33 million home listings at this site. In the last year, realtor.com has become the essential selling tool for an agent.

Although few sites can match realtor.com's breadth, I'd include my listing on a couple of others. I'd have my agent place an ad in Yahoo's real estate classified section (realestate.classifieds.yahoo.com/ resources/realestate.html) and at US Home Exchange (www.ushx.com), to attract even more buyers.

Step 4. In a super-hot real estate market, I might also try selling my house myself I'd place my own classified ads and build my own Web site. However, I'd be cautious about my chances for success. Bruno Novi and Ginger Julian of Santa Barbara tried to sell a house they owned in rural Lakeside, California. They created a Web site for it and positioned it well on search engines. It showed up as pick number eight of 738,100 hits on AltaVista search engine when I queried for "San Diego, real estate." Was there much response? "Very little," Julian told me.

The Purchase

To buy a new home, I'd use many of the same tactics that I've devised for selling one.

Step 1. I'd check out CyberHomes (www.cyberhomes.com), HomeScout (homescout.com), and GlobalHomes (www.globalhomes.com) to find houses not listed with the National Association of Realtors, but mostly I'd rely on realtor. com. Many of that site's listings include at least one color photo and a map to locate the property. Just the act of selecting search criteria would force me to make decisions early on in the process. As I zeroed in on a property, I'd again turn to Experian for a list of comparables, just to make sure my offer was in the ballpark.

Step 2. Moving into a house does have its special requirements. Fortunately, numerous Web sites now collect all the tools that I'd need to make my purchase and relocation go smoothly. Movequest (www.movequest.com) lets me order cable TV hook-up in addition to providing a link to rental listings at www.rent.net--in case I couldn't move into my new home right away. Here in Pacific Bell's territory, the phone company offers a free site (www.pacbell.com/products/residential/totalmove/ index-jump.html) that helps me find a mortgage broker, insurance agent, and house inspector. It also includes a change of address kit so the post office knows my new destination.

I'd also return to realtor.com, which has a relocation center that includes an online mortgage calculator, searchable crime statistics, an insurance helper, and a moving wizard to put me on a timetable. By the time you read this, the site should include education performance data for neighborhood schools.