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My Favorite Sites for House Hunting

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Every two to three years it’s time for us to pick up and move. Is it easy? Not quite. Is it fun? Sometimes. My favorite part of moving is the house hunting. I’ve never used a realtor, I’ve always done the search on my own. I’m sharing with you my favorite sites for house hunting. Depending on what our housing situation will be, the search can begin as soon as six months out -that being we have that much time before the move. We’ve been lucky that we always get ample time before the boxes start appearing. In this post I’m going to highlight the sites. I’ll go into more move prep in another post.

House HuntingThe first move our family made was in 2006. I had just delivered Big A so the hubs did the house hunting. He did good for our first “home away from home.” In 2009 after moving away from Fayetteville, NC while the hubs was deployed, I flew in to do some apartment searches. I was able to secure us an apartment to reunite the family after a 15 month deployment. It was still early in our moving adventures so we chose to live in an apartment. Back then the website I used was ApartmentFinder.com. It was simple, easy and a  great reference. We didn’t need a yard yet and school zoning wasn’t important. If you prefer to live in an apartment ApartmentFinder.com is a great reference and you can get school zoning information there as well.

When we moved to Tampa, Florida one of the things high on our wish list was a house with a yard. Big A needed a yard to enjoy and be outside. The main site I used was AHRN.com. I actually think this was the only site I used. It gave me houses within our basic allowance for housing (BAH) and within driving distance to the base. Really rocked and I found a great house perfect for our family. I can’t say enough about AHRN, it’s one of the first websites I tell people when they are looking.

The next move to San Angelo, TX, I already knew that I’d be using AHRN again and I did and it didn’t fail me again. AHRN.com for the win. -See what I mean!

This most recent move to Georgia, I had a few more challenges. In Georgia I found I wanted to be within a certain school district and we wanted a home with a fence. *Weird note, not all houses have fences here in GA. So I used a few more sites to help find our home.

Each of the sites as well as AHRN you have the option to find homes available for sale too, if you are on the market. Be warned that depending on the areas you are looking for you might see the same listings on each site; although you might get more or less info on different sites too.

Using the above mentioned sites you’ll surely find the perfect home at your new duty station. Also take note that if you are interested in a property, don’t wait to call. Set up an appointment to go check it out, it’s always good to have options.

If ever you have any questions feel free to send me an email: [email protected]  or [email protected]  I love house hunting and I’d love to help you or give you insight on areas you are looking at. If I’ve lived there 😉

Happy House hunting!

Candy

 

About Candy

On a fun adventure with her two sons and her husband. Learn about our military family life, our travels, entertainment, food and all of the fun we are having!

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Comments

  1. Robin (Masshole Mommy) says

    I have always heard good things about Zillow. I honestly can not imagine moving, though. It must be so much work.

  2. Natalie Z says

    We move every few years so we haven’t settled down just yet. I can’t wait to buy our dream home. We just keep saving money and searching trulia and zillow. I will have to check out your other suggestions!

  3. Tracy @ Ascending Butterfly says

    Shopping for apartments especially in the crazy city I live in, NYC, is always a chore, great to have extra resources to help with the process! I personally want to try the West Coast for awhile so when I am ready to make that change I will definitely check out ApartmentFinder.com.

  5. Theresa says

    We won’t be moving for years or so, but my husband does love to use Zillow. He’s always curious what’s on the market even if we aren’t buying lol.

  6. Brett says

    These are great resources! It’s hard to know where to start when house hunting. I’ve heard a lot of great things about Zillow too.

  8. Liz Mays says

    I’d love to look for a new place on these sites. I’d definitely have to cross reference each site to get the best info.

  9. Pam says

    We have looked and used Zillow in the past. We are just finishing up some major remodel and we won’t be moving any time in the near future. But I always like to look and I will check out these other sites.

  10. Jennifer E. says

    House hunting can be so difficult! I was looking for full day kindergarten and no one had a list with that information. So I created one! And I lived on Realtor.com

    • Candy says

      That’s so cool Jennifer!! and super helpful! You know others will be looking for that information as well.

  11. Marcie W. says

    We assisted my sister and brother in law in house hunting when they were in the market late last year. There was definitely so many sites to choose from and so much to see, so narrowing things down is a must.

  12. Heather says

    Thank you. We are in the midst of house-hunting and use all of these sites, but HotPads. Had never heard of it! Thanks again!

    • Candy says

      Hotpads is pretty cool because you get an idea of where the houses are located in certain towns. It’s definitely a good one. Happy hunting Heather!

  13. Jeanine says

    Great! We will be house hunting shortly. So I love looking where I can find what I’m looking for, it seems like such slim pickins right now. Hoping there’s a lot more soon!

  14. crystal says

    ZIllow is one of my favorite real estate sties. We aren’t moving any time soon, but it’s nice to check out the value of our home.

  17. Chrystal @ YUM eating says

    We have been working on getting things taken care of so we can move closer to one of my husbands jobs. He currently works in 2 different cities at the hospital as a respiratory therapist. One of them is 1.5 hrs and he stays with friends and the other is about 30 min. We want to move closer to the 30min one as he’s being taken off per diem and going part time with benefits with the hopes of being full time by the end of the year. Just thinking about this house and all the stuff he had in here before I moved it and trying to move it is stressing me out!

  22. Rosey says

    This is great info for my sister-in-law who just started looking for a new place to live. I am sharing it with her right now!

  24. Megan @ C'mon Get Crafty says

    We bought our house a year ago, but I still love using Zillow and Realtor.com to snoop the house sales nearby. I love looking at houses!

  26. Kelley says

    Hahaha!! I was waiting to see if you had realtor.com on the list! You know that one is my favorite for sure 🙂

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