The real estate business and the Internet have made a terrific match. Realtors have taken almost universally to using the web for presentation of their listings. As a result, if you're looking for a home you can get a long way into your search right there at your computer. By far the best resource for web house hunting is www.realtor.com. This site has become the principal nationwide resource for home finding and home listing. It is not the MLS, or multiple listing service on which agents are required to list all of the properties they have on the market, so you won't find every listing here.

What you will find is the huge majority of them, nearly all with at least one photograph and with a description of the property that includes the essentials: home size, number of rooms, age, size of lot, water and sewer systems, etc. Many will have multiple photographs and some will have "virtual tours" using video.

If you want further information on the house often you can go to the listing agent's site and often find additional photos and details on the home's interior, roof age, etc. Usually you can click to the agent's site from the Realtor.com page showing you the house. Some agents in rural areas still have no websites, but they are a minority.

Some realtors such as Coldwell Banker and ERA will send you to their national web site instead of the local office website and you have to continue your search through their centralized service. Coldwell Banker http://www.coldwellbanker.com/ and Sotheby's (high-end) http://www.sothebysrealty.com/ do this well. ERA and ReMax provide no real additional information. But with most realtors, you can get to a local web site and good realtors make maximum use of them.

Select a city, a price range, number of bedroom, etc. and search the listings. If you don't find much, expand the search area - the search engine will do that for you too. When you have zeroed in on some appealing properties, it's time to contact a real estate agent - not necessarily the listing agent on the property you want, but someone local to the area that will work with you. They will know of any additional listings in the area that meet your needs and aren't shown on the web.

One of the critical decisions you must make is what your maximum acceptable mortgage payment is. You should consult with the agent about closing costs, insurance and property taxes so that you know what your true total costs will be. You can also do a little research on these issues and more at http://www.realestateabc.com/. Make a detailed analysis of what you can afford. The agent can tell you how much house that will get you, and you should make it a point not to even look at homes beyond your range.