Shop for a home from home

When it comes to something as important as buying a home, most of us need a real estate agent to look out for our best interests. But they can be very busy, and may not have time to keep up with all the homes on the market. You can view new listings and browse through pictures of homes online, in your own living room!

In Scioto County, you can't beat sciotohomes.com. This is a combined effort by many of the local realtors to make all properties available in one convenient location. Listings and websites for each office are linked, with photos, prices, and who to call for more information. This one is my personal favorite.

Based in Jackson, jangettlesrealty.com features homes in Jackson county and the surrounding area. This looks like a friendly, homestyle website.

Looking for MLS listings? Visit realtor.com. Set up your preferred search and their system will email you when new listings are posted which match your criteria. They list local properties, actually anything on the MLS service can be accessed there. Then just dial up your favorite local realtor to handle the rest for you!

Type in realtor.com/greaterportsmouth for Scioto County listings, or do a search for Jackson and Ironton for listings in these areas.

Hud.gov has listings for buying a HUD home, and current reposessions available for sale.

http://www.hud.gov/homes/homesforsale.cfm will take you to the links for all HUD, FDIC, IRS, SBA, customs department, Veterans and Army departments, and much more. Links to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reposessions are also right there. Quite often there are houses right here in Southern Ohio, which hopefully could be bought and remodelled by local people as rentals or starter homes.

Ohiorealtors.com is run by the Ohio Associations of Realtors. The consumer information section has a good article about what is a realtor, why do you need one, and how can they help you. There is also a feature called "locate a realtor". If you don't have an agent yet, you'll find several members right here in Scioto, Lawrence, Adams, and Jackson Counties to choose from. Maybe you're moving out of town and don't know anyone there to help you. People listed on this site are members of the association, and are recommended by them.

If you want to search all over ohio, try ohiohomesearch.com. They provide listings for

Columbus, Cincinnati, and most other metropolitan areas. Also buckeyehomes.com has Columbus and Newark area properties. Homeinfo4you.com lists Westerville and Northeast Columbus homes. Not to forget columbusohiohomes.com where you'll find Re/Max agency listings. Auctionohio.com lists King Thompson properties (the ones you see on TV early on the weekend).

Realestatewarehouse.com covers a larger area including central Ohio, but its most interesting feature is the free school reports and 69 ways to sell your home fast. Not just a link to homes for sale, this site offers free relocation packages and community profiles too.

General home buying tips and information are readily available at homegain.com. With an online real estate library, tools, and "moving center", this site has been well thought out.

The major players in the industry are also online, right where you'd think they should be. Century21.com, era.com, and coldwellbanker.com all have websites now.

And, for those of you who prefer to go it alone, 4salebyowner.com has listings by individual owners.

f-s-b-o.com is another less flashy site for owner listings, as well as fisbos.com.