Prospective homebuyers have many options today in regards to how to locate their "dream home." Some of these are:

Driving around looking for signs. O.k., let's examine how effective this really is...

Some available homes don't have signs in front of them and by the time the sign does go up, every home buyer on Steve's Hot List already knows about it and has had an opportunity to look at the home.

How about the cost of gasoline? At today's prices you could practically burn up your life's savings driving up and down every block in the neighborhood looking for signs.

Free time? Plan to give that up if you want to catch every new "For Sale" sign the day it goes up!

Lastly, when you drive around trying to locate "For Sale" signs, you will find that many agents do not put sold stickers on their signs (that keeps their phones ringing with calls from prospective buyers like you). If the home is still available you may find that the house does not match your criteria or is just simply not in your price range. So, several gallons of gas and many wasted hours of time later, you are back where you started from being no closer than you were before to finding the right home!

Homes Magazines. Fun to look at but effective?

It's nice to look at the pictures but did you know that these homes have already been on the market for weeks and sometimes months! In addition, because the ad copy must be submitted to the publisher weeks in advance, many of the homes featured in the magazines are already sold by the time you find them! You'll never find the newest houses on the market that are in the best condition and priced to sell fast this way!

Newspaper Classified Ads. Ditto!

Searching for homes on the Internet. The Internet in theory is a great place to search for homes that are available for sale. Unfortunately, a great deal of the home listing information available on-line is not kept current. Some of the home listing search sites actually keep home listings on their web sites long after they have been sold and closed (sometimes for several months past a closing). Besides, why spend all your valuable time looking for homes when you can have someone else make the process so much easier!