{ Realtor.com – Trulia – Zillow }

Well, ever since George and I decided we were going to accept  his job opportunity in Western Iowa we have been searching for houses like crazy.

I think I now belong to – Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow, and MLS

{ Why so many? } Each site has a different information more or less that I need to know! And I need to know everything!

Realtor.com – Great for overall home searching. Comes up with the most listings when searching. Downside – They NEVER have enough pictures of the homes posted… the most you get sometimes is 4. Come on people you’re trying to get me hooked! I don’t like guessing what the kitchen may look like.

Trulia – GREAT PHOTOS & Virtual Tours! Always shows 10-15 photos of the home. Most have tours with them as well. Downside- Sometimes agents don’t list on Trulia.

Zillow- My go to when I can’t find what I’m looking for on Realtor.com or Trulia.

MLS- gives overall information, but my LEAST favorite search tool.

{  How is the Search going? }

Well searching is fun, but finding houses I love out side of our price range and area is not FUN! At this point we aren’t ready to buy. George is just starting to transition to his Iowa dealers and when he bought our current house he bought it under the “New home owners Act” which Obama tried to get the housing market to come up. George received an $8,000 credit towards the house but he has to own it for 3 years…. 3 years is in March so we can’t sell until then.

With my luck and situation I will end up LOVING a house and it will get snatched up before we can seriously go look at it and make a realistic offer.

{ Pros }

Its really exciting to pretend that certain houses I am looking at may be our future house! Can I envision myself living there… will we have a nursery in that house? Where can I put my garden. Craft room… have to have one!

{ Cons }

Getting really excited about a house and realizing its no where near where we want to live nor in the price we want.

Example: This past weekend George and I can across a wonderful 4 bed 2 bath farm house on 39 acres for a decent price in our middle range. It seemed at first that the house was just outside of Ames, IA where we hope to live and it had just come on the market. After searching on Google maps I couldn’t find the town of “Elliott, IA” any where near the Ames area… So I typed in the homes address and there it was… Elliott Iowa South West of Des Moines! That’s no where close to where we were looking! Stupid Realtor & Zillow you got my hopes up!

 

We truly would like to live as close to Ames as possible. My top five towns are in this order: Boone, Nevada, Stratford, McCallsburg, Maxwell

All the towns I just listed have houses that we like. Boone is my number one since I think it has the most potential for a house we both agree on, a community that is diverse, and it’s only 15 minutes West of Ames. The other towns are nice but all of those houses are out on dirt roads. Not that I don’t want to live in the country… I do. But there are major things to be said about living close to town when a storm hits, or you need groceries, the gym, PEOPLE….

For now though, if you would like to do some snooping of your own on Trulia or Realtor here is our house!

Click the picture to go to Trulia.com

Know anyone looking to buy in Mitchell, SD?