The Next Generation of Real Estate Research on the Web

The internet has been a valuable source of information for potential home buyers for quite a while now.  The ability to search through listings, see photos, and even virtual tours of homes has changed the way people shop for real estate. The more information a potential buyer has, the better.  Buying a home can be a very stressful experience, knowing as much as possible going in can help alleviate a lot of that stress. Currently there is a new generation of websites that assist the consumer in finding out everything they need, or want to know when doing their research.  The following are just a few of those sites as listed in a recent article on RealEstateJournalcom.

Comparison Shopping on Trulia.com and Zillow.com

Both sites offer a variety of statics on home sales and available listings in a particular area.  Detailed information and photos are provided for currently listed homes and area information regarding recent sales is also available. 

There are also discussion boards, and users can arrange to have email alerts sent to them when properties within their search parameters are listed or sold. The site can also send alerts when the price of a particular house changes or the house is sold.

Users of these and other real-estate sites should keep in mind that the data the sites use can sometimes be dated. For instance, information on the number of bedrooms and bathrooms may not reflect recent renovations. And the census figures the sites use for demographic profiles may be years old, so they may not reflect recent trends in rapidly changing neighborhoods or towns.

The most valuable feature of  these sites is the availability of real-estate professionals to help interpret the enormous amount of information available

What the Neighbors Say on StreetAdvisor.com

Other sites are designed to give users a look at neighborhoods through the eyes of the people who live there. On recently launched StreetAdvisor.com, based in Melbourne, Australia, buyers can look for input from residents of a particular street about their neighbors, local services and more.

For instance, potential buyers looking at a home on

in Campbell, Calif., can read a review of life on the street written by Tom Huggett, who has lived there for 21 years. He notes that the first houses were built before World War II, and readers can practically feel the shade of the mature sycamores, redwoods, oaks and fruit trees he describes. The people range from infants to seniors, he says, and are "friendly but not nosey and helpful but not pushy." And he notes that it’s only about three blocks to a "newly vibrant downtown" with a lot of bars, restaurants and shops.

Reviewers also rate their street for its overall "vibe," which includes neighborly spirit and night life, among other factors; for its Internet and pay-TV access and cellphone reception; for its "health," which includes factors like cleanliness, noise levels and traffic; for the cost of living and real-estate values; and for services and amenities like public transportation, medical facilities, schools, child care, and parks and recreation. Users can post pictures and videos as well.

Again, while such sites can be useful, there is a caveat. There is no way for sites that depend on user-generated content to verify the vast majority of information that people post, and of course such comments are largely, and often entirely, subjective.

Environmental Freindlyness on Walkscore.com, DroughtScore.com, EPA.com, EntegyStar.gov and EcoBroker.com.

Several sites cater to house hunters’ concerns about energy efficiency and the environment. Walkscore.com, started by Seattle-based Front Seat Management LLC in July, rates the walkability of a neighborhood by the proximity of stores, restaurants, schools, parks, libraries and more to an address the user submits.

In the wake of a recent rash of brush fires, water shortages and other drought conditions around the country, Sperling’s Best Places of Portland, Ore., launched DroughtScore.com last month. By entering a ZIP Code, town or city, users can see a graph showing the past 13 months of drought levels in an area, based on statistics from the National Climatic Data Center.

For a broad view of the environmental conditions in a neighborhood, the best resource is the Environmental Protection Agency. At EPA.gov, house hunters can click on the "Where You Live" tab to learn about levels of air and water pollution, hazardous-waste sites and releases of toxic chemicals in a given city, county or ZIP Code.

At EnergyStar.gov, a joint site of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, users can find builders working with the EPA to build homes that meet the government’s Energy Star standards for energy efficiency. Another site, EcoBroker.com, owned by EcoBroker International, Evergreen, Colo., can also help users find homes with energy-efficient and environmentally friendly features.

Schools, Crime and News on GreatSchools.net, SchoolMatters.com, & YourStreet.com

Other sites specialize in information on school systems and crime statistics, areas that some real-estate agents aren’t inclined to talk about because of concerns that their comments could be construed as steering people away from or toward certain neighborhoods.

For Sergey Krasnovsky and his wife, planning a move to Seattle meant using GreatSchools.net to narrow their search to two school districts for their 8-year-old son. Only then did they look for a potential home to buy. "The site lets you analyze each school not only based on [statistical ratings] but also on real feedback from parents," Mr. Krasnovsky notes.

The site gives information for both public and private schools, including test scores, the ethnicity of students, student-teacher ratios and spending per pupil. In addition to written reviews, parents rate schools for principal leadership, teacher quality, extracurricular activities, parent involvement, and safety and discipline. The site is owned by GreatSchools Inc., a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco. Another site, SchoolMatters.com, a service of the Standard & Poor’s division of McGraw-Hill Cos., provides information on public schools only.

For a much broader scope, YourStreet.com, owned by San Francisco-based YourStreet Inc., lets users find recent news reports and commentary from blogs for any location in the U.S. The material includes crime reporting but also covers the full spectrum of community news. Users can also initiate or join discussions about local events. "We look at news as the foundation of what is really going on in a local community," says James Nicholson, YourStreet’s CEO and founder.

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