--- title: How Do I Shop for a House? description: Thanks to the internet, shopping for houses is more painless than ever. Online tools make it find homes for your specific needs. authors: - name: timestaff url: https://money.com/author/timestaff/ articles: 459 covers: - Housing - Banking - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes former_staff: true published: '2014-05-27T16:36:22.000Z' modified: '2024-02-18T12:59:14.000Z' section: Housing tags: - agents - buying a home - Housing Market - real estate - relator - trulia - zillow canonical: https://money.com/collection-post/how-do-i-shop-for-a-house/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![How Do I Shop for a House?](https://money.com/img/logo-social.png) The vast majority of buyers, nearly 90%, [start the search](https://money.com/collection-post/what-are-the-steps-in-a-home-purchase/) for a new home online. The major listings websites allow you to search by city, neighborhood, or zip code according to a selection of filters such as home size, price, and style. For sheer number of listings, [Realtor.com](http://www.Realtor.com), sponsored by the national trade association for Realtors, is best; 80% of its listings are updated every 15 minutes. [Zillow](http://www.zillow.com) includes for-sale-by-owner and other properties not available through traditional agent databases. It also has “Make Me Move” listings: homes that aren’t currently for sale but whose owners have posted a price that would make them reconsider. Different sites offer different bells and whistles. For example, Realtor has a tool that allows you to search for homes within a specific school district, while [Trulia](http://www.trulia.com/) lets you set a maximum commute time to your work address. You can create accounts and save the homes you like, or save listings to [Pinterest](https://www.pinterest.com/moneymagazine/) or other social media sites. Sign up for new-listing alerts so you’ll know immediately when another home becomes available in your target area. If you’re not sure what kind of home you want, or even [where you want to live](https://money.com/collection/best-places-to-live-2015/), start with the Swipe app by Doorsteps, which allows you to quickly vote “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” on a stream of photos from Realtor’s listings. Once you’ve zeroed in on some characteristics, the app will paint a clearer picture of your likes and dislikes. Searching for a [foreclosure?](https://money.com/collection-post/should-i-buy-a-short-sale-or-foreclosure/ "Should I Buy a Short Sale or Foreclosure?") In addition to the major listings websites, try Fannie Mae’s HomePath, which offers residential buyers a 20-day head start before its properties are made available to real-estate investors, and Freddie Mac foreclosure hub HomeSteps. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/collection-post/how-do-i-shop-for-a-house/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Housing", "item": "https://money.com/housing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Home Buying", "item": "https://money.com/home-buying/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "How Do I Shop for a House?" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/collection-post/how-do-i-shop-for-a-house/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/collection-post/how-do-i-shop-for-a-house/", "name": "How Do I Shop for a House?", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2014-05-27T16:36:22.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/collection-post/how-do-i-shop-for-a-house/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/collection-post/how-do-i-shop-for-a-house/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-02-18T12:59:14.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "How Do I Shop for a House?", "articleSection": "Housing", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://money.com/img/logo-social.png", "width": 300, "height": 300 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "timestaff", "url": "https://money.com/author/timestaff/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/timestaff/#author" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2014-05-27T16:36:22.000Z", "description": "Thanks to the internet, shopping for houses is more painless than ever. 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