Springs, Col. – Nicole Lee of the Ashford Group, a real estate team with the Masters Real Estate Group in Colorado Springs, has launched a new website with powerful search features for Colorado Springs homes and real estate for sale or rent.

She says the Ashford Group, which handles both real estate sales and rentals as part of its Colorado Springs property management business, wanted to greatly simplify the home search process.

“We’ve tried to drastically reduce the number of clicks for users to search for Colorado Springs homes for sale. With our front page quick search box, it’s possible to search by city and price range in one click.”

Another advanced feature of the site is that it focuses on each of the major cities in the Colorado Springs area right on the front page, providing one-click access to real estate searches for specific types of listings. She says buyers love the short cuts to find the exact type of Colorado Springs homes they are looking for.

“Our clients tell us that they love being able to quickly browse property listings right from the front page of our site in various categories. They can find real estate searches for homes by city, luxury homes, foreclosure and distressed properties, and even Colorado Springs homes for rent.”

Lee says that the easy home search tools are particularly useful for military families who are moving to the Colorado Springs area and who may not be familiar yet with all of the neighborhoods.

The map search is just one example of that, according to Lee. She says that military families from out of the area can find where their base is and search for homes in their price range – whether they are buying or renting – right on a Google map in real time.

“A big part of our business is from the many military personnel stationed here because we understand their unique needs and provide real estate tools and expertise to make their lives easier.”

Search for Portland Homes on the Apple iPhone

Portland, Oregon – David Somerville, a Portland, Oregon area REALTOR® covering real estate in Portland, Lake Oswego, West Linn, Beaverton, Hillsboro, and Tigard, has launched an iPhone application to make it more convenient for buyers to search for Portland homes from their mobile phones.

The app, which is available for download in iTunes or from Somerville’s website, http://www.maxwellsinclair.com, is offered free of charge to home buyers to search Portland’s real estate listings by entering activation code 2370. He says users just need an iPhone and an iTunes account, and they can be browsing — and bookmarking — available real estate listings fast.

Somerville says that searching for Portland homes is made significantly easier with this new technology.

“The iPhone is naturally a perfect tool to search for homes online, because the browsing experience on the small screen is so near the desktop experience. The ability to take it with you when you’re out driving around Portland neighborhoods makes it very useful.”

The application makes this browsing experience even easier, because it provides an easy to use tool to help buyers drill down with detailed search criteria to find the perfect property.

With half of all mobile web browsing performed on the iPhone, he says it made sense to offer this application first to reach the most home buyers. But he said that plans are underway to offer more mobile real estate search applications to search for Portland homes on other mobile operating systems like Android and Blackberry.

“We’re very excited about this new tool to offer our clients. Purchasing a home can be a difficult process without the right tools and experienced, friendly people to make it happen. This is just one more way we’ve tried to use technology to make the home buying process a little easier — and more enjoyable — for our clients.”

Mount Washington, Los Angeles, CA. – Raphael Guerin, a Los Angeles real estate agent specializing in Northeast L.A. homes, says that among the neighborhoods he covers, Mount Washington homes generally have strong property values as a direct result of community involvement to keep the neighborhood nice.

While nice may mean different things to different people, Guerin says Mt. Washington residents have been overwhelmingly successful at maintaining a desirable image for their community, primarily through communication and coordination of efforts.

“The Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance has been instrumental for many years in bringing the community together to achieve great results. Just the fact that there is a voluntary association of Mt. Washington home owners shows new residents that people here care about their homes, land, and community.”

He says the Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance provides a wealth of resources to prospective home buyers, including oral and written histories of the neighborhood from long-time residents.

“When a community cares enough to pass on its history, you know that’s a place you can truly call home. There are some Los Angeles neighborhoods where the sense of community is lacking, but Mt. Washington certainly isn’t one of them.”

Guerin says that Mt. Washington consist only of custom homes, making each home unique in that are no tract homes.

“Varied architecture and beautiful views are the norm for residents lucky enough to live here. When you add the fact that Mount Washington is a short commute to downtown Los Angeles employers, the neighborhood has a lot going for it.”

He notes that home values, like all real estate nationwide, have come off their highs to reasonable prices for new buyers to come in and discover the Northeast L.A. lifestyle. But while prices have become reasonable again, he says he doesn’t expect them to come down much more.

Guerin says there is a limited supply of homes available for sale in the neighborhood, so for those who want to have a selection to choose from, it’s important to find out about listings as soon as they come on the market.

“At any given time there are often less than a dozen Mount Washington homes for sale. So for those who are interested in living in this great little community I encourage you to talk to me so I can show you what’s available.”

###

For more information:

Raphael Guerin, Realtor/e-PRO, DRE LIC # 01381746
Discover N.E.L.A. Homes
Northeast Los Angeles Real Estate

http://discovernelahomes.com/

Seattle, Washington – As a Seattle Washington real estate agent, Shelly Hu has a lot of advanced tools at her fingertips for finding Seattle property such as foreclosures, condos, luxury properties, and waterfront properties. Now she’s making those tools available to her website visitors for free with the launch of her new real estate search website that gives users a wide variety of choices in how they search for Seattle homes.

According to Hu, the new website uses powerful real estate search engine technology along with advanced localization of search results for buyers in the Seattle market.

“It has never been easier to find Seattle real estate than it is now. I wanted to make as much information available to homebuyers as possible,” she says. “From the feedback we’ve received so far I can tell that people are really finding it useful. ”

She says that the map search is the most prominent feature, but there are many other methods available on the site to search for Washington real estate.

“Some people prefer the visual interactivity of the map search, because you can see clearly where properties are in relation to other landmarks in Seattle. Others people prefer the advanced real estate search tool, which makes available many of the search criteria that would normally only be accessible to real estate agents.”

As a result, she says, the site actually provides thousands of different ways for Seattle homebuyers to find the perfect property to meet their family’s needs. Hu suggests that visitors spend some time on the site to get familiar with it.

“The more you use the tools, the more you are likely to discover new techniques to find the kinds of properties you are looking for. One of the best ways to search is just to enter a keyword such as ‘Seattle foreclosures’ into the text box at the top right.”

But the most convenient feature, perhaps, is the property alert service that’s built into the site. After a user creates an account, searches and listings can be saved to come back to later. They can also sign up for Realty Watcher automatic email alerts to let them know when new properties come on the market that match their search preferences.

“If you are in the market for Seattle real estate, we definitely recommend trying out the site,” Hu says. “We believe this is the best way to search for–and find–Seattle homes for sale.”

Nampa, ID – As a real estate agent located in Boise’s Treasure Valley with access to the entire Intermountain MLS, Yuri Blanco has a lot of advanced tools at her fingertips for finding Boise homes, foreclosures, short sales, and other local Idaho homes. Now she’s making many of these advanced home search tools available to her website visitors for free with her new real estate search website.

According to Blanco, the new site uses powerful real estate search engine technology along with advanced localization of search results for buyers in the Boise, Nampa, Caldwell, and Treasure Valley market.

“It has never been easier to find Idaho homes than it is now. I wanted to make as much information available as possible to first time homebuyers as well as existing home owners looking to relocate to the Boise area,” she says. “Our clients say they are really finding the site useful.”

She says that the map search is the most prominent feature, but there are many other methods available on the site to search for Idaho real estate, including Idaho foreclosures and Idaho short sales, two of the hottest types of real estate transactions these days.

“Some people prefer the visual interactivity of the map search, because you can see clearly where properties are in relation to other landmarks in Nampa, Caldwell, Boise, and the whole Treasure Valley. Others prefer the advanced home search tool, which makes available many of the search criteria that would normally only be accessible to real estate agents.”
“We believe this is the best way to search for – and find – Idaho homes for sale.”

Because of the proprietary search methods, she says, the site provides thousands of different ways for Idaho homebuyers to find the perfect home that matches their family’s lifestyle. She suggests that home buyers spend some time on the site to get familiar with it.

“The more you use the tools, the more you are likely to discover new techniques to find the kinds of properties you are looking for.”

She says the most convenient feature may be the property alert service that’s built into the site. After a user creates an account, property search results as well as individual listings can be saved for later review. Users can also sign up for automatic alerts to let them know when new properties enter the MLS matching their search criteria.

“If you’re in the market for real estate in Boise, Nampa, Caldwell, or anywhere in the Treasure Valley, we definitely recommend trying out the site,” Blanco says. “We believe this is the best way to search for – and find – Idaho homes for sale.”

For more information:

http://www.idahohomeshop.com

http://www.idahohomeshop.com/id/short-sales/caldwell-short-sales.html

http://www.idahohomeshop.com/id/foreclosures/eagle-foreclosures.html

Yuri Blanco
(208) 899-3352