Last Updated on December 6, 2022 by ayan zaheer
There was a time when to buy a home you needed to drive through houses with “For Sale” yard signs. One other way was to go through the classified ads. While such methods helped bring buyers, sellers, and properties together, they weren’t as efficient as today’s online real estate market.
The best real estate websites can help you find, buy, or sell real estate easily. You don’t have to waste time anymore going through potential properties, which aren’t a good match. You can easily buy or sell a house taking help from the best real estate websites.
Questions to ask yourself to find the best real estate websites
One of the best tips for selling your home—the first step in selling your home is finding a real estate website that fits your bill. With millions of listings on real estate websites, your chance of finding the perfect property is way better. The best real estate websites bring buyers, sellers, property managers, renters, and agents together and make the process way more efficient than how it was done before. But such websites have some specific features. Below are some of the questions you must ask yourself to find one of the best real estate websites:
- What exactly does the site offer?
While most of the best real estate websites comprise a similar set of tools, not all have similar offerings. For example, some sites might just offer buying options and some just selling options, maybe filtered options for a particular type of property like luxury homes or investment properties.
In addition to offering you a listing, such sites offer various tools that can help you like mortgage estimators, valuation tools, etc. Also, you can list or search for properties on computers or using their apps.
The best real estate websites let you perform tasks on your own without you having to rely on agents. You can list a property, make changes, etc. on your own. Nevertheless, it might be a good idea to hire a real estate agent if you aren’t sure how to execute the home selling tasks.
- Does the site give me an option to filter results easily?
The best real estate websites give you a plethora of filters like location, price, number of rooms, etc. to narrow down your home search. They also might offer advanced parameters like square footage, school districts, amenities, and even crime data. With such a distinct set of parameters, you can zero in on your perfect choices of homemaking with just a few clicks.
- What tools does the site offer?
The best home buying and selling sites offer tools like home value estimators and affordability calculators to help you through the purchase process. A home value estimator can give you an idea of your house’s worth. There are also other tools like property management and tenant screening tools, which are specifically for landlords.
- Can the website help me find a real estate agent?
While you may have found a real estate agent before buying or selling your home, it is possible that you are new to the area and do not have that personal connection with a realtor. Thankfully, you have real estate websites using which you can find a real estate agent perfect for you. You can find an agent well-versed in your kind of property. However, in order to pick one good realtor from the bunch of options, you might have to reach out to family and friends for guidance and even vet each agent personally.
- Is the website easy to use?
Using an old and non-friendly website is unpleasant. Choosing a website with a good user interface is one of the tips for selling your home. As you would have to check the real estate website daily to check on listings, it’s important that you choose a seamless and user-friendly website. The best websites have features like navigable design and a clear layout. Most sites even have maps embedded with the listings for you to easily identify a property’s location. Also, the best real estate websites display listings with clear photos and information so that it is easy to read. You can even find the best real estate agents using real estate listing websites.
Now, let’s have a look at some of the best real estate websites in the US.
List of the best real estate websites
The best real estate websites have data about skilled and experienced realtors. The real best estate brokers offer you brilliant services and help you buy, sell or rent houses. They also help you understand the legal terms. Below is a list of the best real estate websites operational in the US:
- Houzeo
Houzeo is one of the best flat fee MLS real estate websites that offers its plans at a small flat fee that saves you tens of thousands of dollars. Also, in case your buyer is not represented by an agent, you save on buyer commission as well. The listings done on Houzeo are integrated with not just the local MLS but also Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, etc. Houzeo even has great social media sharing tools and is 100% online. Also, listing your home on Houzeo is way easy and you can update things as well using the Houzeo dashboard. The most important benefit of choosing Houzeo is that it has top-ranking, high-tech features.
You can check out Houzeo reviews for more information.
- Zillow
Zillow too offers cutting-edge technology and amazing tools to help improve the experience of buyers and sellers. Zillow has the largest online database with many sales and rental listings and it boasts of high site traffic. Its website has calculators, advertising, and other Zestimate tools. Zestimate is a good tool for users to find out how much their property is worth without taking the help of agents. Also, users get an accurate valuation.
You can even use the site’s home value comparison to compare a few specific listings. The real estate listings website can let you filter with price, baths, beds, home type, square footage, amenities, views, etc.
- Realtor
Affiliated with the National Association of Realtors, Realtor.com makes use of MLS listings sourced from about 580 regional databases. The site is considered the gold standard for quality listings and is one of the best real estate websites.
The Realtor app lets you search homes, view pictures, update listings, and compare neighborhood criteria. Moreover, you can simply draw a shape with your fingers on the map and see the properties in that geographic shape with the Realtor app. You can even contact realtors and use financial calculators with the app. The database on the website includes mostly only the MLS-listed properties. You can filter and search for homes in a school district and find a realtor easily with Realtor.com.
- Redfin
Redfin is an online real estate marketplace as well as a brokerage service provider. You can directly contact professional real estate agents with Redfin.
Established in 2004, Redfin is big on technology and more importantly connects you to qualified, vetted agents. Redfin keeps its agents on its payroll as opposed to offering them commissions. While Redfin agents can work with more than one client and may not be able to address your needs dedicatedly, if you want a hands-off process, Redfin is perfect for you.
Redfin even updates its listings every few minutes and so you get the most timely information about the company. Redfin offers tools like an affordability calculator, agent finder, home value estimator, and mortgage pre-approval.
Final word
Finally, the best real estate website for you is the one that fits your particular home selling or buying needs. It is important to learn more about different good real estate websites to find one site that is perfect for your real estate transaction.
