Directons on Using the Real Estate Search Tool.

To your right is a sampling of houses in Santa Monica. They are in order of most expensive and as you scroll down and go from page to page they will become less expensive.

If you would like to clear these houses and do your own search please click on “New Search” button above and read the instructions as follows:

Property Type

You can click more than one type but understand the wider range you make the more listings that will come up and the harder it will be to pinpoint the listings you like. I have found that by doing one type at a time I can key in on the type of properties I am looking for and then go back and look for something else. Just a point of information: townhomes are listed with condos.

Status

You can choose both active and pending or just active. Pending means that there is an accepted offer and it usually means it is in escrow. They continue to look for offers in case the deal falls through. What it also means is that even if you submit a higher price than what the buyer accepted unless something goes wrong they cannot accept this higher offer. Once again I do not like to clutter the listings so I usually leave out the pending.

Listing Price

Pretty self explanatory but what I find that works well is to start with a narrow range of what you would like to pay. For example you would like to find a home for $750,000 but may go to $800,000 if the house is right. So the first search I would do would be $750,000 to $800,000. If I did not find many listings I would expand by going to 700,000 to 825,000. Do not fall into the mistake, that sure I would pay as high as $800,000 but I would love something for $500,000, what you will get is a lot of listings that you will have no desire to live in. Stay around the price point you would think you would want to pay for a house that you would like to buy as if you were the seller.

Area, Address and Zip Code

What I usually do is pick the area I like and leave out the zip code and the address for the first search. Depending on how many hits I get I would narrow the search by zip code. I do not use the address unless you have the exact information on a house that you know about. You can put in multiple areas; each computer is a little different how to highlight multiple lines. The link to the MLS map is helpful but when you first pull it up you will not be able to read it. In the bottom right hand corner you can increase the size until you can read the name and numbers. The numbers that are listed are not zip codes, this you will have to look up. Once again if you need info on this drop me a line.

If you are interested in sales please let me know by sending me an email at bob_schmalz@wlaregroup.com This e-mail address is protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

With all that said, happy hunting!!!