[Hellopaul]

Is there one? Like rightmove.co.uk (all the agents, all the houses, the whole country) or forsalebyowner.com (fantastic website, great search facility, the whole of USA - but no estate agent sales). MLS.com seems to claim to do it, but then takes you to some random estate agent with a sickly-sweet name and a vomit-inducing photo of them, with a search facility that presumably only shows the properties that they or their colleagues are selling.

I'd just like to do a search exactly like forsalebyowner.com, but showing ALL properties - does such a site exist? I hope so!

Cheers,
Paul

[Trixie_b]

try www.realtor.com

[Trixie_b]

another interesting site is www.zillow.com

by punching in an address you can see an estimated property value, recent sale prices and property taxes.
Be warned that the value of a property can' not acuratly be estimated by a computer, however it's a good start.

[Hellopaul]

Ta very much...will give it a go!

[avanutria]

Originally Posted by Hellopaul MLS.com seems to claim to do it, but then takes you to some random estate agent with a sickly-sweet name and a vomit-inducing photo of them, with a search facility that presumably only shows the properties that they or their colleagues are selling.

MLS stands for Multiple Listing Service and it's not only the properties represented by the agent's webpage. It's all properties matching your search parameters. We used LiveinEugene.com to find our property and while the site did belong to the agent whom we are using as our buyer's agent (HIGHLY recommended lady, btw) the site showed us properties that were represented by her and also represented by everyone else in the area - in fact, the house we ended up going for was for sale by owner, though we found it on her site.

[fatbrit]

Originally Posted by Hellopaul estate agent with a sickly-sweet name and a vomit-inducing photo of them, with a search facility that presumably only shows the properties that they or their colleagues are selling.

It doesn't work like that in the US -- an agent can sell you anyone's listed house. And unless you're going for a FSBO, you might as well have one as your first buy is a free pop.

Realtor.com lists them all.

[Tarkak9]

Most MLS's will have a public site to surf through.. depending on where you are searching of course. Contact the local board of realtors to find out the web addresses of the local MLS's.

whomever it is - Realtor.com, zillow etc etc etc all operate from an IDX feed and are lead generating sites and you will be contacted by someone if you enter your information. Some are more accurate than others with regards to current information. Try to find a site which has an IDX and you don't have to "register" if you don't want to be hounded by people and emails.

[MsElui]

the mls system is good. YOUR realtor can show you ANY property listed - then both realtors share the commission. Means you explain once what you want to your choice of realtor and they run around and do all the legwork negotiating. You can search all the MLS listings too and then send your realtor off with the reference number to find out more/get a viewing etc. all you have to do is find a local site that has a decent search engine of the mls system.

I used to browse one here even though i have never spoken to that realtor - as it was very easy to use, and save searches etc. anything promising i passed to my realtor. My realtor also sent us list of numbers that fit the requirements we gave him (school region, bedroom, size, price range etc) and we could just look their number up and see the photos and fuller description!

[Giantaxe]

Originally Posted by Trixie_b try www.realtor.com

If you're in their coverage areas, redfin.com and trulia.com are superior imo in that they are map-based and you can do things like saved searches.

[mayhemuk]

Originally Posted by Giantaxe If you're in their coverage areas, redfin.com and trulia.com are superior imo in that they are map-based and you can do things like saved searches.

Second the redfin since it also brings up history data on the listed property so you can see and price adjustments made and pulls recent comparable sales.