Buyers generally have a few factors in mind when hunting for a home. They want to get some of these factors out of the way to help them narrow down the search or to assure themselves that where they are looking at is right for them. We have compiled a list of general search subjects and where the information can be easily found, in order to make the path to buying a little smoother.

• What’s available?: Maybe you already have your general area for buying picked out, so what is the next step? You have to find out what is available.
• With Trulia.com, you can enter a city/town name or zip code and see all homes listed for sale. To better help you, these results can then be sorted by type of home, price, #bed bath, address, etc. You can also get a few more specific details: current duration on the market, photos, similar homes for sale, recently sold homes/prices paid for them, average sales price for the area, etc.
• This same information can also be found on Zillow.com, which also adds the extra feature of allowing you to make offers on homes that aren’t even listed yet. Who knows, maybe if the offer is good enough the owner will leap at the chance. Don’t let not being listed, detour you from your dream home. 
• The inside scoop: It may be pretty, but is that only surface deep? What is going on near the home? What do the locals think?
• Two great sites that assist in providing potential buyers with the above are StreetAdvisor.com and RottenNeighbor.com. With these, you can read neighbor reviews, and scores given to area by residents based on: night life, cell reception, cleanliness, night life, noise/traffic level, and available public amenities. With RottenNeighbor, you can also see if there are any pesky or difficult neighbors occupying homes nearby.
• Health Friendly? If you are going to be living there for a long time, there are several important environmental factors to think about.
• In these days and ages, circumstances such as drought, forest fires, and toxic waste are being more of a common problem. With DroughtScore.com, once you enter a zip code you can see a chart of the drought levels for the past 13 months for the area in question.
• The Environmental Protection Agency also has a site, EPA.gov. Click on their Where You Live icon and check out all levels of air/water pollution, hazardous waste dumps, and toxic chemicals releases by county, city, or zip code.
• EcoBroker.com helps you locate energy and environmental friendly homes.
• EnergyStar.gov, part of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Dept. of Energy, gives you lists of builders that meet the government’s energy standards for efficiency.
• Last but certainly not least:  News, Crime, and Schools.
• If you already have or are planning to have children, it might be a good idea to see what schools are in the areas you are thinking of moving to. GreatSchools.net provides a list of schools per area as well as data on: statistical ratings, parent feedback, ethnicity ratios, student-teacher ratios, funding and spending per student, discipline policies, etc. While GreatSchools provides the above info on public and private schools, another site SchoolMatters.com is available for public schools only.
• What are the latest happenings in the area?  What are you getting yourself into? Is it safe?
• YourStreet.com can be used to find recent news and blog commentaries about any given area. FamilyWatchdog.us has a complied history of the address and photos of registered sex offenders, as well as handy email and cell alerts if a registered offender moves into the neighborhood. www.AreaConnect,com/crime is also useful, giving comparison data on crime for over 8,000 U.S. cities.