Useful Web site for home buyers, sellers, and owners

Want to search for your next home without ever getting out of your pajamas? There is an Internet site for that. Do you want to know how much the mortgage payment will be for certain types and sizes of loans? There’s a site for that. Do you want to know the relative values for homes in your neighborhood? Yes, there’s a site for that, too. And once you move into that new home, there are sites to help you find local schools, restaurants and even your next dentist.

Here’s a list of some favorite websites for people interested in buying or selling a home, remodeling their existing residence, or just looking for local information on their new neighborhood. There are countless websites, of course, and we don’t claim to have the ultimate list – these are just ones that we have found can be very useful for homeowners and those looking to become owners.

• Colorado Homes.com Coldwell Banker’s consumer web site offers a myriad of tools for home buyers and sellers, including advanced search engines, tips on buying and selling, relocation information, and even community facts, figures and links.

• Realtor.com In that same vein, Realtor.com is also a good consumer web site, especially for those thinking about relocating to other regions or want advice on buying or selling, as well as hiring an agent. There are articles on the market, consumer tips, and even suggestions on gardening and remodeling.

• Coldwell Banker Colorado Table Talk If you’re looking to get your real estate feet wet, start with blogs such as this one from Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. They give great tips, are easy to read and are updated frequently. This site also has 50 other real estate blogs: http://bankling.com/2009/top-50-real-estate-blogs/

• Fort Collins Coloradoan Our local newspaper’s web site offers the latest news, sports and business, but also good restaurant and movie reviews, job search engines, and valuable community information and links for all homeowners, including open house ads and realtor guides.

• Bankrate.com Now that you’ve decided where you’re going to buy, this site will help you figure out how much you can afford. This is one very popular financial web site because it offers mortgage rate comparisons, links to lenders, and literally dozens of different types of calculators to figure it all out.

• Local Yahoo So you’re ready to move into your new home. Now what? Go to this site to find a plethora of useful links and information on everything from local restaurants and coffee shops to city offices and police departments to public utilities to get the water and gas turned on.

• Yelp.com Another great site for newcomers to an area is Yelp, which features customer reviews and ratings on every imaginable local business. Sure there’s the usual restaurant ratings, but you’ll come here to find favorite dentists, veterinarians, gardeners and yes, even real estate agents.

• Service Magic.com For those homeowners planning to remodel or just looking for a contractor to do some routine work, this web site can be quite useful. Service Magic prescreens a wide variety of contractors and also incorporates customer ratings in order to provide a list of recommended businesses.

• Home Tips.com Run by Don Vandervort, a host on HGTV and well-known author of do-it-yourself books, this site – as you might guess – specializes in articles on how to maintain and remodel your home. One of the favorite search engines helps the weekend warrior figure out how to do a wide variety of repairs and save money.