Comments on: SERIES: Helpful Real Estate Sites – Realtor.com http://www.josephsangl.com/2009/01/05/series-helpful-real-estate-sites-realtorcom/ Personal Finances Blog Personal Finance Tools Dave Ramsey David Bach Robert Kiyosaki Debt Relief Investing Compound Interest Saving Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:15:28 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Tim Wade http://www.josephsangl.com/2009/01/05/series-helpful-real-estate-sites-realtorcom/comment-page-1/#comment-221004 Tim Wade Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:36:27 +0000 http://www.josephsangl.com/?p=945#comment-221004 I too found my home using Realtor.com. In fact, we pulled up not less than thirty of forty listings and because of all that the site was able to show us were able to eliminate several houses from our list without ever having to leave home. I don't know if you talk about this on your website, but a couple of tools my wife and I have learned to use when buying a home are the free online tax records available through the county tax office. We often compare the assessed taxable value of comparable homes with their asking various asking prices. Also, through GIS maps we compare lot sizes, and heated square footage. Through these comparisons we have been able to determine a homes actual value and how much it will appreciate -or sometimes depreciate. When we did our search for the home we are now in, we quickly discovered that our it was at the top of the scale for our neighborhood. And while not likely to appreciate given the market, it would probably hold its value, even though some of the surrounding neighborhood wasn't aging too well. We found other homes in other neighborhoods that were larger, newer, or less expensive, but when all the varibles were in place, a little bit of dollar cost averaging made it clear that the home we have now offered the best bang for our buck. Great website. I look forward to reading more. Tim Wade I too found my home using Realtor.com. In fact, we pulled up not less than thirty of forty listings and because of all that the site was able to show us were able to eliminate several houses from our list without ever having to leave home.

I don’t know if you talk about this on your website, but a couple of tools my wife and I have learned to use when buying a home are the free online tax records available through the county tax office. We often compare the assessed taxable value of comparable homes with their asking various asking prices. Also, through GIS maps we compare lot sizes, and heated square footage. Through these comparisons we have been able to determine a homes actual value and how much it will appreciate -or sometimes depreciate.

When we did our search for the home we are now in, we quickly discovered that our it was at the top of the scale for our neighborhood. And while not likely to appreciate given the market, it would probably hold its value, even though some of the surrounding neighborhood wasn’t aging too well. We found other homes in other neighborhoods that were larger, newer, or less expensive, but when all the varibles were in place, a little bit of dollar cost averaging made it clear that the home we have now offered the best bang for our buck.

Great website. I look forward to reading more.

Tim Wade

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