How do you do detailed house searches in Austin and surrounding burbs? (Atlanta: days on market, sales)

[NC to Austin]

We have a lot of details we want to find in our house search. Without currently having an agent, what websites do you find the best to do detailed house searches in Austin and surrounding burbs?

[FalconheadWest]

You can't do a "detailed" search without an agent. The sites online are for general searches with basic information of bed, bath, garage, size, price, ect... "details" are in the control of the ones who pay to be a member of the board holding the information, us, the Realtors.

[fil]

There are a bunch of good sites, but have not needed to use them since we moved to Austin in 2006.

I recommend Austin House AlmanacModerator cut: DM info, do not include in post

Texas square footage records are accurate, so a little Internet research will get you a long way. What's missing are the intangibles that are not listed in house sales, but I'd focus on the Average Days on Market (ADOM) as an indicator of how appealing the house is.

We bought with this in mind and are now about to test the approach in the worst economic times in our history since we are listing our house and are moving back to Atlanta.

Our house is in the shifted center of Austin (in-between the Arboretum and Lakeline Mall) off of 183 and right next to a great family park that has a gazebo, bathrooms, huge play scapes, baseball/soccer fields, tennis, and basketball courts). Although the footage coincides with the "price per sqft", with the park across the street, proximity to all of Austin, and the house owned by a Botanist (everything is beautifully landscaped and has a gorgeous pool) and owned by high tech people over the years has upgrades that give it the extra appeal beyond just curb appeal.

The house has been occupied by 4 families with ADOM 3 days, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that we bought correctly and also maintained and then upgraded as required.

Good luck!

[spelrod]

Could also take a gander at http://www.austinhomesearch.com/

[Dr.Mom]

Don't forget that you can also go to googlemaps.com for the street view of the house you're interested in. You can also scroll up and down the street to give you a bit of a feel for the neighborhood.

[NC to Austin]

Originally Posted by FalconheadWest

You can't do a "detailed" search without an agent. The sites online are for general searches with basic information of bed, bath, garage, size, price, ect... "details" are in the control of the ones who pay to be a member of the board holding the information, us, the Realtors.

We have sites where we live now that do very detailed searches, without being an agent. Anyone can use them. But they are just local.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by NC to Austin

We have a lot of details we want to find in our house search. Without currently having an agent, what websites do you find the best to do detailed house searches in Austin and surrounding burbs?

austinhomesearch.com is the austin board of realtors site it has the most accurate information but a very weak map based search. I use Moderator cut: send info via DM, austinhomesearch is the only non-commercial link allowed for real estate and Trulia to do my map based search then double check on austinhomesearch.

You will find it much easier to do a map based search.

[SickOfCalifornia]

Don't forget Zillow - very useful!

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by NC to Austin

We have sites where we live now that do very detailed searches, without being an agent. Anyone can use them. But they are just local.

You won't find that here. As I said, you can do basic searches, yes, even with a map, but all the map shows is the different areas which I wouldn't consider a "detailed" search... but if you want things like acres, 1 vs 2 stories, island kitchen, flooring type, other things of "detail", you will not find any Austin site online that allows those details. Just the basics.

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by SickOfCalifornia

Don't forget Zillow - very useful!

Texas is a non-disclosure state, so you won't find any accurate sales data on Zillow, just a decent mapping system.