Top 4 Real Estate Sites to Use to Find your Next Home

Updated 07/2024.

The real estate market is entering a brave new world, and if you guessed that it is due to the internet, you are right. National Association of Realtors revealed that 52% of buyers found the home they bought online, and that doesn’t include those who used a website at some point during their home search.

As useful as the internet is, not every site is created equal – including in real estate. So today we’ll compare the top four home search websites. We lay out their strengths and weaknesses and show you how to use them to best serve your home search.

4. Zillow.com

Zillow’s search feature has changed a lot since we originally wrote this post. Here are the latest updates:

Main Home Search Bar

Zillow’s text says you can search by address, neighborhood, city, or zip. I noticed that searching by county also works. However, there is no way I found to search by school, which is an important feature on most home search websites.

Sorting Home Results – Filters

The default filter is called, “Homes for You,” and it is a mix of days on the market combined with whether or not someone is paying Zillow extra to bump their listing higher in the results. Zillow does take a few other things into account in determining which home shows up first such as whether or not they have a 3D tour or open house. The filter options have improved since we last wrote this post to include a square foot and lot size range in addition to many of the basics you’d expect like pricing from low to high or newest on the market (though there is no oldest on the market filter, which I think is a mistake, as that is where the opportunities are).

Honing Your Search

Zillow’s extras are a little more streamlined than Redfin’s but still run the gamut. Their “must haves” include a basement, pool, A/C, waterfront, and a selection of views. Their “days on market” search option allows for more options. You can specify the number of parking spaces needed and if those come in garage form.

How You Can’t Hone Your Search with Zillow

Search by School
Search by 55+ Age (you can only exclude them, which is strange because if you’re trying to find them it proves difficult)
Search for foreclosures or short sales
Filter by best price per sq. ft.
Search for ADUS or extra living quarters
Filter by property taxes
Filter by multifamily unit count
Look for pending properties (perhaps to consider current comps for market pricing)

These are everywhere on Zillow and often clutter your search results and user experience.

2023 Zillow UI Remodel

In 2023, Zillow updated the look and feel of for-sale property listings to help make shopping simpler and more intuitive. The redesign provides a wider, single-roll format where key property information is found more easily, and an expandable media section is showcased at the top of the page for improved viewing.

Takeaway

Though Zillow has made some improvements to its site, it has dropped others (like the ability to search by school). Also, if you’re looking for it, Zillow removed the popular “what I love about this home” section.

3. Redfin.com

Main Home Search Bar

For your initial Redfin.com search, you can enter a city, address, school, agent, or ZIP to get started. The stand out here is an agent – an unusual choice for most perusing buyers. Redfin is likely using it to promote their own agents.

Redfin doesn’t mention that you can enter a specific address into the search bar, but it works. Similarly, you can search by county even though that is not mentioned.

Sorting Home Results

Once you put in your search, the default sorting result is “recommended,” showing Redfin listings first. Sorting has the usual suspects with price, newest, and other basic features. It does allow you to price based on sq. ft. price. In a lot of cases, you can sort in one direction but not the other, such as time on the market.

Honing Your Search

Redfin has a lot of options; we’ll give them that. Those options are also gathered into one place: the right side of the screen. Beyond the basics (number of bedrooms, square footage, etc., are par for the course for all sites), Redfin also allows you to select some “must haves”: garage, basement, elevator, waterfront, view, accessibility, and “green” homes. Additionally, they offer a “GreatSchools rating” filter option. You also can draw on the map to create a custom search set.

**How You Can’t Hone Your Search**

Search by 55+ Age (you can only exclude them, which is strange because if you’re trying to find them it proves difficult)
Look for pending properties (perhaps to consider current comps for market pricing)
Filter by multifamily unit count
Search for ADUS or extra living quarters

You’ll notice at least one ad per search result page taking a spot where a home would appear.

New Redfin Features

The company added a few perks in 2024. Its “Redfin Redesign” feature was expanded to homebuyers and sellers. A homeowner can now upload a property photo and use an AI-powered home design tool to apply different design and decor choices. Owners can explore popular design styles and provide generative AI-powered furniture and renovation recommendations.

Redfin also became the first brokerage to publish air quality risk data, and other competitors are following suit. The information is available for most homes on Redfin.com and the Redfin iOS app and will expand to Android later this year.

Takeaway

Redfin’s search engine is fairly simple to navigate and includes many options. The air-quality data is also an interesting feature; however, when it comes to the finer details, the site has gaps. Also, watch out for the fact that once you apply your filters, the default sorting mechanism is always “recommended.” Inevitably, this will steer you toward Redfin properties whether or not they are your best deal or match.

2. Realtor.com

Main Home Search Bar

In addition to the usual’s—address, city, county, and ZIP—Realtor.com allows you to search for schools and neighborhoods. I found their neighborhood feature works better than Zillow’s. Also, unlike Redfin and Zillow, Realtor.com isn’t map-based by default; instead, you have to select a map button to switch from grid results.

Sorting Home Results

Most of the results on Realtor.com will be based on whatever is newest on the market, but sellers who advertise on Realtor.com (like on Zillow) can push their listings toward the top. All the basic sorting options are here with a couple of extras: you can sort by upcoming open houses and recently reduced prices, both of which are helpful additions the other real estate listing portals lack.

Honing Your Search

Realtor.com has an impressive filter set. Their list of features you can search for ranges from disability access to horse facilities. The drop-down menu for “More Filters” itself contains drop-down menus for indoor features, outdoor features, etc. You can search specifically for foreclosures and 55+ homes. You can draw on the map to create your own custom set of search results, and their map has a ton of useful additional overlays like noise and heat you can apply.

**How You Can’t Hone Your Search**

Pending listings are included in the search results, but you can’t search for them directly, only exclude them which makes using them for price comparisons almost impossible.
Filter by multifamily unit count
Search for ADUS or extra living quarters
Filter by property taxes

Like Zillow, Realtor.com has advertisements everywhere, in the search results and outside of them.

New Features

In 2024, Realtor.com will follow Redfin’s lead by providing three climate risk factors for property listings: heat, wind, and air quality. This data will be combined with current data on fire and flood risk to provide a comprehensive understanding of a home’s risk.

Takeaway

Realtor.com is a solid, full-featured search option, and its newest features offer even more benefits to agents and sellers. We think it is the best home search site out of the national options. However, it still has some surprising gaps we already mentioned.

1. PortlandHomesForSale.com or any VestorFilter™ site.

Main Home Search Bar

You can search by city, county, neighborhood, school, ZIP, or address for starters. VestorFilter™ sites also allow you to enter an MLS number, which can be convenient since a lot of real estate agents use the identifier.

You can type in any word in the main search bar. For example, you could enter a zip code like 97213, then write in “pool” or “gazebo” or “garden” or “suite” or “vaulted” whatever home feature was essential to you – without limit – and the search would show you those homes that match both.

Unique Map Search:

● Icons change color based on the property type.

● Icons change size based on the home’s sq. ft. (really!).

● Icons change shade based on price. The darker the icon, the more expensive the home.

● At a glance, you can see what everything is, how big it is, and how much it costs. Truly revolutionary map search.

VestorFilter™also offers unique collaboration options in the backend. Like the other portals, users can save their favorite homes and save custom search criteria to receive home email alerts. VestorFilter™ sites allow you to invite any friend to collaborate on your saved dashboard and your agent too! When your friends save homes to your dashboard, it will be labeled as such, and the same for when your agent recommends homes for you. You will be able to work with everyone that matters to you in the home search process.

VestorFilter™ also has a unique smart home search email alert tool that allows sites to automatically email you homes that match the homes you favorite (hit the heart button). The more homes you save, the smarter the email alerts become.

Sorting Home Results

By default, listings will be sorted by the lowest price per square foot. But the sorting options don’t stop there. You can sort by best price per bedroom, acre, and biggest recent price drop. You can sort by time on the market, and distressed property type, and apply different smart filter overlays (smart fixer list, smart additional dwelling unit list, best-priced condo). Many of these filters are unique to VestorFilter™ sites and can’t be found elsewhere.

How You Hone Your Search

VestorFilter™ sites have all the big and small filter options of the other major home search portals. You can filter by open house, garage, single level, year built, HOA amount, and more, in addition to the basics like sq. ft., price, and bedroom and bath counts. VestorFilter™ sites also allow you to sort by pending homes, sort by multifamily unit counts, and search for properties with ADS and extra living quarter potential. None of the other big three search portals have those options.

No advertisements in the search results, but the sites are branded to individual local agents, teams, or Brokerages.

Takeaway

It is a lot to say that locally branded VestorFilter™ sites are better than any national portal, but the company has worked hard to ensure their sites have all the small and big search options of the national portals. At the same time, it adds innovation to the user’s collaboration dashboard, unique smart search overlays, and the custom keyword option to the main search bar.

The major search portals try to make changes each year to stay competitive, but the improvements are small. For the most part, the sites function the same, but VestorFilter™ sites offer more innovation for today and for the foreseeable future.

Home Search Websites Only Go So Far – Get a Trusted Agent on Your Side

The best thing you can do to make the most of your home search? Use a trusted website like Realtor.com or Portlandhomesforsale.com alongside a tried and true local real estate agent. Contact our top 1% buyers agents today, and we’ll get you access to the best listings out there.

If you need another reason, our local MLS rules do not allow coming soon listings to be shown on any of the above websites (not a decision we were apart of), only paying members (Realtors) of a local MLS can see coming soon listings before they hit the market (and share that information with their clients). All the more reason to stay in touch with a local agent.