Home Pages

By Jeremy Caplan

It's still all about location, but these days the starting point for folks in the real estate game is increasingly online. Sellers can now click to see an estimate of what their home--or a neighbor's--is worth, while buyers can broaden and speed up searches with annotated listings and detailed digital maps. Whether you're in the market for a new place, marketing the one you're in or just daydreaming about a mansion on Martha's Vineyard, these online hot spots are worth a quick tour.

HOME AWAY FROM HOME

If you're hunting for a short-term getaway rather than a permanent residence, Homeaway.com which launched last week, might hit the spot. The easy-to-navigate site has 60,000 vacation-rental listings in some 90 countries--ranging from a rustic North Carolina cabin for $200 a week to a $45,000 Jamaican pleasure palace. Homeaway is free to search, and listings include owners' contact information so that you can call or e-mail to make a direct reservation as soon as you find a vacation spot that meets your needs.

MOVING PICTURES

Still in its formative stages, the video-heavy Inmanstories.com points to what a real estate search will look like when broadband reigns. Watch video tours of homes for sale and the towns they're in and see interviews with brokers to get a high-bandwidth picture of the place you're thinking of moving to.

MAP YOUR MOVE

Text-only classifieds render little of the feel of a home or its surroundings, but Trulia.com a new tool for buyers, brings fresh color to your search. Combining Google maps and listings from some 50,000 real estate sites, Trulia enables you to pick a city and drill down to a neighborhood, style of home and price range that appeal to you. You get pictures and contact info for following up. Still in beta, the site will go nationwide within months. A worthy alternative: Propsmart.com

WHAT'S THAT HOME WORTH?

Find out how much a home could sell for by plugging in your address--or anyone else's--at Zillow.com Based on past sales and nearby sales, among other factors, the site's value estimates are said to have a median error of just 7.2%--although any one estimate can be wildly off the mark. Ozzy Osbourne's house, below, is reportedly worth about $8.5 million. Zillow has estimates for some 48 million of the 85 million single-family homes in the U.S.

PICKING A REALTOR

Nine out of 10 sellers still use a real estate agent, and Homethinking.com launched in December, is a new broker-rating service to help sellers find the right one. Drawing on millions of home-sales reports and a new collection of client comments, the site tells you how agents have fared in the past. If you're seeking out a Web-savvy brokerage, Ziprealty.com has 360DEG photo tours of interiors and a price-tracking tool to identify sellers who have recently reduced their asking price. The site also features crime stats and school info so you can scout a neighborhood before moving.