Useful Online Tools for Home Buyers

Whether you are moving to a new home or looking to buy a second home, choosing the ideal location can be an overwhelming task. Fortunately, with the advent of "media rich" websites, house hunters have a wealth of tools at there disposal to make the job less stressful. This post will cover some of the key tools available for house hunting online.

When starting out it's key to remember that one of the most important factors determining a home's value, is the area it's in. Building a profile of the area, based on social and economical indicators, makes it easier to identify suitable neighbourhoods. Indicators include crime rates, school performance, and the provision of amenities and transport links. Additional aspects to check include school catchment areas and flood planes. For example, even if your offspring are outside of school age, its a no-brainer to check where school catchment areas cover, as they typically push prices up. The following sites help users to gain a perspective of possible areas, using a variety of approaches.

1) The Land Registry

Aside from publishing a monthly average house price index (HPI), The Land Registry (TLR) also issues information on singular sales. Completion figures for all properties sold in England and Wales since January 1995 are available here. Got your eye on a specific property and want to know how much it last sold for, and the extent to which the area's been affected by the recession? The Land Registry has the details!

Alternatively, sites such as nethouseprices.com and ourproperty.co.uk offer a free basic price search function!

2) Oneplace.gov

The Government owned Oneplace site compiles information on crime, education, the environment, health and housing in individual assessments of 152 areas across England. Information gathered by six different inspectorates, is used to rate various indicators for each area on a performance scale of 1 to 4. It's a useful service if you want to compare your current area with surrounding areas or the national average.

3) Environment Agency Information

As mentioned above, it's a good idea to check if an area is vulnerable to any environmental factors. Handily, the Environment Agency provides maps indicating areas at risk of flooding, as well as a number of other maps illustrating local environmental factors such as landfill locations and pollution rates.

4) Google Street View

Arguably the most innovative and indispensable tool available to house hunters is Google's Street View. Offering a 360-degree navigable mosaic, Street View enables you to see a location as if you are there in person. Originally launched in March 2009, as of March 2010 Google Street View covers the majority of the UK from Shetland to Penzance.

5) Housing Portals

Once you've identified a possible area,  housing portals such as Newhomesforsale.co.uk are a good next step. Offering details of existing and upcoming properties as well as contact details for developers and estate agents, property portals are now a  key resource when house hunting. Some sites now also offer mobile phone applications for searching properties on the go.

The tools mentioned above are not an exhaustive list, but an introduction as to what's available online. Whilst there is no substitute for sampling your chosen area in person, these tools make drawing up a short list all that much easier.