Let mouse help find new home

ALBANY, N.Y. — It wasn't so long ago that seeing a prospective house or neighborhood meant jumping in the car, driving to the locale and laying your very own eyeballs on your potential new crib.

It might even have meant heading down to a government building to research the deed and purchase history of the home or the houses nearby.

Today, an array of Web sites have done much of that work for you. From the comfort of your desk chair, you can see nearly every home for sale in your area. You can peep at a home's deed or tax appraisal history, at least in some jurisdictions.

James Ader, executive director of the Greater Capital Association of Realtors Inc., a Colonie, N.Y.-based trade group, says nearly every buyer-to-be now conducts online research before contacting an agent or venturing out to see actual properties.

The result, he says, is a home-buying consumer who is far more educated and aware than buyers were in past years.

But there are some caveats to all that online data.

The first applies even if you aren't selling your home, or looking to buy another. Simply put, if you think data about the value of your home is a secret, think again. It's all there online for anyone to access.

The second caveat applies to the quality of the information you receive. Web sites that estimate home values do just that: estimate.

Consumers should realize that values are in constant flux.

Still, the Web sites can be amusing, interesting and useful. So limber up your typing fingers and enjoy the virtual journeys provided by this sampling of Web sites.

Zillow

--Address: www.zillow.com.

--What it is: Zillow provides home values for entire neighborhoods and lists some properties that are for sale.

Trulia

--Address: www.trulia.com.

--What it is: A real estate search engine that includes area demographic information, for example, school test scores and crime rates.

Google Maps, Street View

--Address: Go to http://maps.google.com/maps, then click on the Street View tab.

--What it is: Street View allows you to take virtual walking or driving tours of about 30 U.S. metropolitan areas. (None of the available Street Views is in South Carolina.)