New web site tools make home searches easier

NWHomePro.com, sister web site of FoothillsReport.com, has increased the functionality and tools available to NW Oregon home searchers, allowing them to get nearly all of the same marketing information that is available to local Realtors® in the Realtors® Multiple Listing Service^TM of Oregon, including addresses, photos, complete property descriptions, lot sizes and more. And all of it is available without charge or obligation.

The reasons that the most prominent real estate web sites can't do what NWHomePro.com does are varied and numerous. Sites like Realtor.com, RealEstate.com, Homes.com and JustListed.com are but a few of the major web sites that lure users with hopes of getting all of the available listings for free.

Using the major Internet search engines provides a list of these web sites and numerous others. What most Internet searchers don't realize is that virtually all of the web sites that get listed in the top of search engine results are owned by the same handful of large corporations, which pay hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars to corner the market for advertising space on the major search engines.

Unlike the days when consumers were just discovering the Internet, all of the major search engines today base their top placement of web sites solely on how much web site owners are willing to pay for that placement. Local web sites with the best, most relevant information fall so far down in the search engine rankings that they usually go unnoticed because so much useless information has made it into the top rankings. This has produced a frustration level so high among search engine users that most don't browse beyond the third or fourth page of results.

Unfortunately for consumers, the large corporations' business models aren't based on providing useful and abundant information to consumers. Their business models are based on a variety of practices that many times are not compatible with doing what's in the best interest of home buyers or compatible with getting home buyers what they want.

For example, RealEstate.com seems to allow users to search for property in all the communities across Oregon. What users don't know is that the only listings available are those from RealEstate.com's advertising partners. What becomes obvious if a user gets past RealEstate.com's prompts to submit the user's personal information is that the listings contain only the most basic property information: numbers of bedrooms and bathrooms and a very brief comment.

The property information that consumers find on most of these similar web sites often leaves a lot to the imagination. Partly due to the policies of local real estate boards or multiple listing services, and partly due to the practices of the web site owners themselves, the information published often lacks street addresses, property descriptions, lot sizes and a lot more.

The business model for the companies that run web sites like RealEstate.com and JustListed.com is basically to lure prospective real estate buyers to the company's various web sites in order to entice them to divulge their personal information, which the companies in turn sell to lenders and real estate brokers.

The companies' goals are not to help buyers find properties, but to help lenders and real estate brokers find buyers. The drawback for consumers is that there is no logical screening done of the lenders and brokers who receive consumers' personal information. Consumer information is provided only to the very small number of businesses that have partnerships with the companies. Meanwhile, most top lenders and brokers never are told about the consumers' needs submitted through the companies' web sites.

Now, however, consumers searching for any kind of homes, farms, ranches, acreages and timberland throughout the North Willamette Valley don't have to waste time rooting through the search engine garbage to find a web site that can provide them free and complete property information for the listings of all real estate offices. Listings are available for Oregon City, Molalla, Mulino, Beavercreek, Colton and all other parts of Clackamas, Multnomah, Washington and Yamhill counties, as well as parts of Marion and Polk counties.

What property information a searcher finds upon entering the NWHomePro.com site depends on what button the searcher clicks in the "Find Property" navigation menu in the upper left of each page of the site. All property search options allow users to narrow their searches by price, geographic area and property features.

Clicking "Homes For Sale" will take the user to a list of five or six featured listings. Scrolling to the bottom of the page, the user will find a button link titled "Search ALL Listings." Clicking this button takes the user to a page where he or she can access all listings in the RMLS database, as well as other listings from around Oregon, Washington and parts of several other Western states. These listings contain most of the information available for each property, including photos, general property information and some addresses.

Clicking "Dream Home Finder" will take the searcher to a page where he or she enters information about the type of property being sought, then submits it to NWHomePro.com. In response, the searcher receives an e-mail providing a list of all properties that match the searcher's criteria along with instructions for selecting one of three options for receiving additional listings: Option 1 - Request personalized service and receive automatic updates of new listings by e-mail; Option 2 - Provide minimal additional information about the user's home purchase and receive a link to a password-protected web site that allows users to conduct all property searches completely on their own and to receive by e-mail automatic updates of new listings as soon as they become available; Option 3 - Do nothing and receive no more contact.

The best part of using the Dream Home Finder is that the system is designed to prevent users' information from getting to third parties. Hence, providing a name and e-mail address will only help accomplish your home-buying goals, and will not increase the amount of Spam that arrives in your e-mail inbox. NWHomePro.com has a strict anti-Spam policy, and will not send unsolicited e-mail to users. Any e-mail that is sent will only be done with the user's expressed permission, in advance.

Check out the web site today (click here www.nwhomepro.com), and see how it works for you. Any feedback you send will be considered for future upgrades to NWHomePro.com's functionality. (While visiting NWHomePro.com, don't forget to enter to win in this spring's "Free Night Out" drawing.)

Example of property details available through Dream Home Finder