Cold weather, or summer heat, is on the way, and you need a domicile to protect you and yours from the elements. You've assessed your family's needs for space, and your financial limitations, you know approximately what will be required of you as a home buyer, and now the fun begins. You are about to embark on a search for that special edifice which will be the place where you set down roots for the foreseeable future. Where do you begin?

The obvious answer is, of course, with the local real estate listings. And you'll find them not only in the Sunday classifieds; you'll have several options and should organize your approach to make it as efficient as you can.

See A Broker

The real estate brokers in your area will be helpful in giving you a handle on the houses available in the neighborhoods you like, and their approximate selling prices. They can also direct you to real estate listings of new developments, as well as homes which are currently unoccupied and crying out for a new family to love them.

You can also get in touch with local real estate developers of newly completed projects n and ask for their most recent real estate listings. They also have real estate listings for their unfinished developments, and by speaking with them directly you may get a sense of what one of their homes will bring once it is put on the secondary housing market.

While many new homes in developments are sold out before they are even completed, if you settle for a pre-occupied home in the same development, you may get it at a better price and with improvements like landscaping.

The Old-Fashioned Way

Most Sunday papers now have supplemental real estate listings on of both new developments and preoccupied homes. Many developers will advertise their newest projects in the Sunday real estate listings, and you can spend an afternoon with the family visiting the various building sites to see if your future home is there in some stage of completion.

By going from development to development, you'll also get a fairly good idea of how much band each builder is willing to provide for your home buying buck. For more info see http://www.1realestatehelp.com/Articles/Real_Estate_Agency.php on Real Estate Agency.

The Internet

Finally, the Internet is rapidly becoming a world unto itself in the real estate listings business. Hundreds of Realtors now have websites offering the particulars on all their listings. The Internet real estate listings are ideal for those who will need a new home in a different area of the country, and some of them are even sites on which sellers advertise their homes directly, so that you may be able to get a home for a lower price because the seller does not have to pay for a broker's commission.