How to Get Around Online Property Websites
by j-nevil in Living > Life Hacks
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How to Get Around Online Property Websites
Whether you’ve just left University, started your new job, are in a new city or looking for a new family home or find yourself looking around your current digs and think to yourself ‘it might be time for me to move out now’. Maybe your current space is too small or you just want a change of scene. Once you get the feeling that it’s time to move on, move out or just find somewhere new, it’s a feeling you won’t be able to shake.
But How Do You Start Looking?
Nowadays there is plenty of opportunity for you to start searching for your new house or flat online. There are a number of real estate agents online that will not only be able to show you houses, flats and studios within your budget, but will also be able to offer you advice if you’re a first time buyer, looking to sell your current place or are genuinely just a little confused about the housing market, because after all, it can be a confusing place.
The most important thing you need to do when looking for your new place is get a couple of things sorted first, before you hit the housing market:
1) Where And How Do You Want To Live?
The first thing you need to sort out when you’re looking to move house or flat is where you want to live and what kind of standard of living you want. If you’re looking for a house in London then you’re looking at one of the biggest housing markets in the UK. So how do you want to live? Do you want to upgrade from a flat to a house or do you want a couple of more bedrooms or maybe even less bedrooms? It’s important to know what kind of house, apartment or flat you’re looking for
2) Budget
It’s all well and good to start looking for your dream home with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a beautiful garden and a lovely living room, but can you actually afford it? The biggest danger when it comes to looking for your new home is getting caught up in the romanticism of it all. You need to be practical and grounded when it comes to looking for your new place (boring I know) so that you don’t end up spending over the odds and moving into a place you really can’t afford, and in the end have to move out of. Take a look at your annual earnings, how much you’re spending on your current place and see what you can really afford before you hit the housing market.
The most important thing you need to do when looking for your new place is get a couple of things sorted first, before you hit the housing market:
1) Where And How Do You Want To Live?
The first thing you need to sort out when you’re looking to move house or flat is where you want to live and what kind of standard of living you want. If you’re looking for a house in London then you’re looking at one of the biggest housing markets in the UK. So how do you want to live? Do you want to upgrade from a flat to a house or do you want a couple of more bedrooms or maybe even less bedrooms? It’s important to know what kind of house, apartment or flat you’re looking for
2) Budget
It’s all well and good to start looking for your dream home with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a beautiful garden and a lovely living room, but can you actually afford it? The biggest danger when it comes to looking for your new home is getting caught up in the romanticism of it all. You need to be practical and grounded when it comes to looking for your new place (boring I know) so that you don’t end up spending over the odds and moving into a place you really can’t afford, and in the end have to move out of. Take a look at your annual earnings, how much you’re spending on your current place and see what you can really afford before you hit the housing market.
Now That You’ve Got the Two Big Issues Out of the Way It’s Time to Start Looking at Houses.
One of the best ways you can do this is by looking online. Depending on the situation you are in, different housing and real estate websites will better suit your needs. If you’re looking for a flat share or student accommodation have a good Google and check if there are any specialist letting agents that specifically deal in these kinds of lettings. The more information you have about what exactly you want from your new place the quicker you’ll find one. If you don’t have a very good idea of what you want then it’s more likely that you’ll get bogged down in looking for the wrong thing and having to trawl through any number of different letting, flat share or real estate website. This can be very infuriating and time consuming, so make sure you have a good idea of what you want before getting started.
Getting Around Real Estate Websites
The great thing about real estate websites is that you can really hone in on the type of house that you want. A good real estate website will have a number of different options to help you start your search. These options will usually begin with a city or post code you would like to live in. Simply input the town, city or region you would like to live in and start your search.
Now you will be presented with all the different houses, flats, studios, apartments, houses and extravagant mansions in the area that are currently up for sale or rent. So let’s tighten our search reigns so you can find exactly what you want.
Here are some of the ways real estate websites will help you find the right house for you;
Rent or Buy: Depending on whether you want to buy or rent a property this will show you the relevant property within you area.
Price Range: Use this tool to search for the price range in your budget.
Search Radius: This tool can help you designate how far out of the town center you want to live. So let’s say you want to find a place to live in Manchester. If you want to live in the city center you can lower the search radius to a quarter of a mile outside of the city center or wider if you want to live somewhere outside the center.
Number of Bedrooms: This tool can help you see the types of property with the number of bedrooms you desire and can be moved up or down depending on how many bedrooms you want. This can also be a useful tool to see how much you can get for your budget.
Property Type: Allows you to change the type of property you’re looking at. Change between flats, houses, studios, new builds, apartments, commercial property, land for sale and bungalows. A great tool for seeing what else is out there on the market if your first search yields few results.
Map: A map will be displayed when you click on a specific piece of property that’s up for sale or rent. This is really useful because if you have a little knowledge of the local area you can see how accessible the property is to the town center, bus routes and train station. Also useful when looking for houses as other properties on the map will be shown with icons.
Pictures: Really useful when trying to get a sense of what the property looks like. Although some of them will be poor quality, they do give you a chance to see what the property looks like before you go for a viewing.
Description: A description of the property will give you an outline of what the property is like. Good descriptions will give information about the size and height of the rooms, what local amenities are close by to the property, what bus and train links are close by as well as giving a description of the type of property and what it feels like. Is it light and airy or cold and cramped? This will give you a good idea of what kind of property you are looking at before you go for a viewing.
Key Features: This will be a list of what the house has to offer when you first move in. These will include the furnishing and fittings that the house will come with if you buy or rent the property.
Now you will be presented with all the different houses, flats, studios, apartments, houses and extravagant mansions in the area that are currently up for sale or rent. So let’s tighten our search reigns so you can find exactly what you want.
Here are some of the ways real estate websites will help you find the right house for you;
Rent or Buy: Depending on whether you want to buy or rent a property this will show you the relevant property within you area.
Price Range: Use this tool to search for the price range in your budget.
Search Radius: This tool can help you designate how far out of the town center you want to live. So let’s say you want to find a place to live in Manchester. If you want to live in the city center you can lower the search radius to a quarter of a mile outside of the city center or wider if you want to live somewhere outside the center.
Number of Bedrooms: This tool can help you see the types of property with the number of bedrooms you desire and can be moved up or down depending on how many bedrooms you want. This can also be a useful tool to see how much you can get for your budget.
Property Type: Allows you to change the type of property you’re looking at. Change between flats, houses, studios, new builds, apartments, commercial property, land for sale and bungalows. A great tool for seeing what else is out there on the market if your first search yields few results.
Map: A map will be displayed when you click on a specific piece of property that’s up for sale or rent. This is really useful because if you have a little knowledge of the local area you can see how accessible the property is to the town center, bus routes and train station. Also useful when looking for houses as other properties on the map will be shown with icons.
Pictures: Really useful when trying to get a sense of what the property looks like. Although some of them will be poor quality, they do give you a chance to see what the property looks like before you go for a viewing.
Description: A description of the property will give you an outline of what the property is like. Good descriptions will give information about the size and height of the rooms, what local amenities are close by to the property, what bus and train links are close by as well as giving a description of the type of property and what it feels like. Is it light and airy or cold and cramped? This will give you a good idea of what kind of property you are looking at before you go for a viewing.
Key Features: This will be a list of what the house has to offer when you first move in. These will include the furnishing and fittings that the house will come with if you buy or rent the property.
Conclusion
Using property websites is great for finding the perfect property for you to move into, whether you’re looking to buy a house, rent a flat, share a bungalow or buy a piece of land they are great websites for finding the perfect type of property to suit your every need. True, they can be a bit confusing and overcomplicated, but once you get the hang of it then you’ll be able to find your perfect house in no time.