Studies show that 70% of buyers use the internet to find a home. Sellers also use the internet to estimate the price of their home. It’s a wonderful tool that realtors use too.

Come January 15, 2007 one public search site in San Francisco will no longer be available to the public. SFARMLS.com public access will be taken off-line. The thinking is that the very organization San Francisco Realtors belong to is competing with them by having such a search site.

What are the alternatives? Just about every brokerage has a webiste where you can search for listings. Some are better than others. From the buyers that I’ve talked to, two sites in particular come up: ZephyrSF.com and ZipRealty.com.

There’s also Oodle.com, Zillow.com, Trulia.com, and LiveDeal.com. They’re all ok, but I found them annoying by comparison and I haven’t met a buyer that uses them, regularly.

Most of my clients prefer Zephyr MLS Direct. This is an on-line search service that I subscribe to as a Realtor and provide to my clients. It’s easy to use, you can save your searches, you will be notified of open houses and can track your favorite listings as they progress from active to sold.

What’s the catch? You have to agree to work with the Realtor that invites you. Ask your Realtor if they subscribe, or contact me and I’ll invite you for a month with no obligation.

More next Monday…