15 Best House Sites to Find Your Next Home

Ready to enter the hunt for your first—or next—home? The internet makes it easy to get started. Find out about 15 of the best house sites below. Then start your own research to find your dream home.

What Are the Best House-Hunting Websites?

The best house sites are those that meet your needs and help you find properties you’re interested in. We’ve compiled a list of 15 potential sites. Check out the summaries below to determine which might be right for you. 

1. Realtor.com

Realtor.com is an official site of the National Association of REALTORS, making it a particularly credible place to start your search. You can view homes for sale or rent and see homes that have recently sold to understand what properties are going for in a certain area. Realtor.com provides listings that include existing homes for sale as well as new construction, and you can take advantage of articles and checklists that provide education on buying a home.

2. Homefinder.com

This site provides a variety of listings you can sort by location, price range or type. You can also search off-market properties—those that aren’t actively listed for sale—to find opportunities for even better deals on real estate. With resources on its blog, several guides, and professionals available to chat, Homefinder.com walks you through the process of buying a home step-by-step.

3. Trulia.com

Trulia is a user-friendly site that lets you view listings in photo, list, and map formats for the utmost browsing flexibility. Users can get the inside scoop with school reviews, price trends, crime reports, and even reviews from local residents. Trulia has a Find an Agent feature, so you can reach out to a real estate agent in your area if you’re ready for professional help, and you can search homes for sale on the free Trulia mobile app as well.

4. Homes.com

Homes.com provides an easy way to search for the basics, including homes for sale, places for rent, recently sold home values, and local professionals such as real estate agents. Demographic information for neighborhoods is displayed in graphs that are easy to understand, making this a great place to browse if you want to make a data-backed choice.

5. Forsalebyowner.com

This site is pretty self-explanatory. You can find listings of homes being sold without a real estate agent. You can search homes on the market, list your own home for sale, and find resources for buyers and sellers. Resources include guides, checklists, and important information to make sure you don’t forget anything if you decide to sell or buy a home on your own.

6. Zillow.com

Often used by homeowners to check their property’s value, Zillow boasts more than 100 million listings with Google Earth views. It doesn’t just list homes that are for sale. Its Zestimates—estimated market values—provide insight into a home’s worth using publicly available data, and users can ask questions and participate in advice forums in the online community.

7. Lotmix

Sites like Lotmix are a good option if you’re hoping to build a new home. After you create an account, you can match floor plans to available land from leading builders. Get quotes, site plans, and offers and organize them in your account. The site recently launched in Australia and has plans to expand to other markets. If you’re interested in building a house, consider looking into construction loan options.

8. Neighborhood Scout

Neighborhood Scout offers a service that helps you find the ideal neighborhood before you start hunting for a home in that area. You can “Create” a match search by entering some information about your ideal neighborhood. Neighborhood Scout mines its databases, using those data points to create maps that help you understand where you might want to look for a new home.

You can create basic matches for free as a personal user. Investors looking to buy and flip or rent real estate can pay for a pro subscription for more report options. 

9. Apartments.com

You may not be ready to buy a home, and that’s okay—taking time to save up for a down payment and making sure you can afford the home you buy makes good financial sense. In some cases, you may need to move to a new city for a job, which means renting a place as you work on buying your dream home. Apartments.com is a great place to start when looking for rentals—you’ll find more than 1 million listings on the site covering apartments, townhomes, condos, and single-family homes.

10. Redfin

Redfin is a broker-backed site and app that lets you browse for homes to buy, list homes for sale, find rental options, get home estimates, and begin the mortgage process. The app pairs buyers and sellers with local agents to help them through the process, so this may be a good option if you want to browse on your own but work with an agent when it comes time to take action. 

11. Estately

Estately presents data and listings about homes for sale direct from the Multiple Listing Service. That ensures a fairly comprehensive set of listings that are highly accurate. If you find a property you like through the app, you can quickly request a tour, and Estately connects you with a real estate partner in your area. 

12. Auction.com

If you’re looking for a good investment property or your dream home is a fixer-upper you get for a steal and can turn into anything you want, Auction.com might be the right home-buying site for you. You can find information about foreclosure sales on this site, leading to a potentially great deal on your next home.

13. Homes for Heroes

This service helps heroes find and buy their next home. The site defines heroes as firefighters and EMS, law enforcement, military service members, health care professionals, and teachers. If you fall into one of these categories, you can complete a contact form to find out what type of hero rewards and home-buying help you might qualify for.

14. Foreclosure.com

This is another site where you can find foreclosure deals across the country. Sites that provide foreclosure listings are especially helpful to investors looking to buy properties cheap, fix them up, and flip them.

15. Facebook Marketplace

If you’re on social media, you might start there with your home search. Many people list homes for sale or rent on Facebook Marketplace, and you might be able to find local real estate groups you can join. Agents and others often provide insider information in such groups, so they can be a great place for research into an area or home.

What House-Hunting Website Is Most Popular?

Perhaps the most well-known house-hunting website is Zillow. But other sites, including Realtor.com and Trulia, are also well known. Our list of house-hunting sites above goes beyond the popular to provide a list of numerous sites where you can find homes for sale.

Do You Have to Pay to Use Real Estate Websites?

The majority of the sites on this list can be used by home buyers and sellers for free to list homes or browse real estate for sale. You may run into some fees, though. For example, some sites charge fees for premium listings, and a few sites on our list are subscription-based services.

Arm Yourself with Buying Power

By using these house-hunting websites, you can save time and energy in your home-buying adventure. It can be a long journey, but if you arm yourself with the right resources, sealing the deal on your new home can become a reality.

Found the perfect home for you online? Make sure buyers take you seriously when you put in a bid. Get preapproved for a mortgage online so you’re ready to buy and in a more competitive position when bidding against others.

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