I’m about to move out of my apartment and I’ve been on the hunt for where I will end up next. With work and school, I haven’t had a lot of time to drive and look around for a new place but I have been able to check out a lot of places via the web.
Here are the tools I’ve been using:
Craigslist
If you haven’t heard of Craigslist by now, you’ve probably been living under a rock. Craigslist is an online provider of classified ads. The website lists items for sale and purchase from cities all over the world. I’m looking for another apartment so I’ve been searching http://reno.craigslist.org/apa/ for something within my price range.
Google Street View
When I find a place I like on Craigslist, I pop the address into Google Maps and pull up the street view option to get another perspective on the property and its surroundings.
Twitter
You never know what opportunities your friends may know about. I have been reminding my followers on Twitter that I’m looking for a new place to live and have had a few people respond with available options in their neighborhood.
Zillow
If you’re looking to actually buy or sell a house or condo, Zillow provides you with a few handy tools. First off, they provide an interactive map via Microsoft Virtual Earth that allows you to interact with properties that are currently for sale or have sold recently. The map shows estimates for each of these properties and can help in valuing your property. Second, Zillow can provide you with a Zestimate, which is a valuation of your property based on the data they have on similar properties nearby.
Keep in mind, while there are a lot of cool resources online, you can find some pretty cool deals out there the old fashioned way by hopping in your car and driving around.
