Best real estate serach engines for San Diego? (for sale, apartments)

[whiteboyslo]

Sorry if it's been asked a million times before.

Does anyone have any good websites for searching SD Real Estate? I've tried www.realtor.com, which works OK but I KNOW there has to be more listings than what they're showing. I've used www.signonsandiego.com 's real estate feature, but it's not even showing the listings I can see on the 1st site. Craigslist is absolutely useless. Not enough info, no way to drill down, terrible pics, etc.

Looking for sites that don't require signing up because I'm not looking to be harassed by realtors yet.

TIA!

Mike

PS - Sorry for the typo in the thread name. Big pet peeve of mine. Argh!

[earlyretirement]

I use a combination of Search Homes for Sale & Find Real Estate Agents Who Put You First | Redfin and Shmoov recommended SDLookup.com | San Diego Real Estate & Homes for Sale which is helpful. Personally I really love redfin's set up as it has a lot of information on it including property tax information and it's just more powerful I've found. I might vet the properties on other websites like Realtor.com or SDLookup but then I almost always plug them into RedFin to really look at the property.

Redfin has the ability to add to your favorites list and it will show all the other properties similar in the area. I know other websites also have that but RedFin seems more user friendly and powerful to me.

SDLookup's ability to see the day's new status each day if you plug in a zip code is VERY powerful. I've found that SDLookup updates their information more often so it's more accurate. But the website overall is a bit amateurish compared to RedFin, in my humble opinion.

But between those two I've really been able to keep good tabs on the properties I'm interested in. And neither site's agents hassle you. I've emailed RedFin's realtor in the area with questions before and she is really quick to get back to me and offer to set up visits. You don't need to "sign up" but I've found both it's helpful if you want to take advantage of some of the features including price alerts. NO ONE will hassle you or send you spam.

Realtor.com I've found is not updated that often compared to these other two. SDLookup has a nice feature where you can be alerted anytime there is a price change below a set price you enter or %, or any status change with the property.

I've never used Craigslist for buying properties for sale. Between RedFin and SDLookup you should be good. I've been actively been searching the past year and used RedFin quite a bit and it's been great. Now, I look up daily changes via SDLookup to see if anything new hit the market or any status changes on properties in the zip codes I'm looking to buy in.

Good luck!

[cruitr]

In addition to the sites already mentioned, I use two more:
1. ZipRealty.com - emails daily listing changes by zip code
2. HouseRebate.com - shows properties currently in escrow by zip code

To get good info out of most real estate sites, you'll need to register. However, none of the sites mentioned so far have ever spammed or called me.

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by cruitr

In addition to the sites already mentioned, I use two more:
1. ZipRealty.com - emails daily listing changes by zip code
2. HouseRebate.com - shows properties currently in escrow by zip code

To get good info out of most real estate sites, you'll need to register. However, none of the sites mentioned so far have ever spammed or called me.

Thanks cruitr on the tip about these 2 sites. I've never heard of them... Always great to have more resources.

Also, another tip you can do if you're worried about spamming is just create a gmail account specifically centered on your real estate search. You can even make it so it doesn't use your real name if you're worried about realtors hounding you. That way you don't have to use your real email address or name. I do that with these sites. I don't use my personal or work email.

[htnspz]

Originally Posted by cruitr

In addition to the sites already mentioned, I use two more:
1. ZipRealty.com - emails daily listing changes by zip code
2. HouseRebate.com - shows properties currently in escrow by zip code

To get good info out of most real estate sites, you'll need to register. However, none of the sites mentioned so far have ever spammed or called me.

I love Zip realty's website and I know people like Redfin as well. I didn't have success using their relators and just handed my realtor the listings from there. I preferred it to the mls listings my realtor sent me via email.

[earlyretirement]

Yeah, I agree that I don't find that software that the realtors use all that user friendly. My realtor sends me lists vis Sandicor and it's a bit of a pain using it as it has all kinds of pop up windows and not user friendly.

[mlarsen23]

sdlookup.com is not perfect, but over time I found it to be the most useful and easiest to use.

[Mike Keller]

Check out www.sellingchulavistahomes.com it not only covers the South Bay but you can search all San Diego and get listing alerts every day

[HugoAgostinho]

i use Trulia

[url=http://www.trulia.com/]Trulia - Real Estate, Homes for Sale, Sold Properties, Apartments for Rent[/url]

[whiteboyslo]

Thanks for all the links, guys. Great sites!

Next dumb question: what does it mean if the price has a range?

Mike