Looking for that picture perfect home, in just the right neighborhood, in a comfortable price range, with the precise number of bedrooms and all the best amenities?
Try searching the World Wide Web.With a click of a mouse, buyers, sellers and browsers in Massachusetts and other states are perusing property listings on the Web.
Potential homebuyers punch in where they want to live, how many bedrooms and baths they need and how much they want to spend. They can also type in whether they want central air conditioning, gas heat, a swimming pool or a garage.
Using this information, the computer displays a list of available homes that most closely match the specifications. In many cases, an exterior photograph of the building accompanies the entry.
Community profiles - including details on local governments, regulations and schools - and home pages describing individual real estate agents and brokers are also online.
The Web page is updated when homes come on or go off the market. The Web site, however, does not list street addresses, so potential buyers must still contact a real estate agent to tour the property and arrange a sale.
The Massachusetts Living Network, which was launched last month by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, is modeled after the year-old Florida Living Network. Realtor associations in California, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wyoming also have or are developing similar Web sites.
However, the National Association of Realtors has found that its own Internet listing service is not profitable. That service, administered by a subsidiary called the Realtors Information Network, has listed nearly 400,000 properties in 77 cities and 31 states.
The association's board has authorized the Realtors Information Network to file bankruptcy proceedings if it doesn't reach agreement with some outside partner to manage, promote and market the site.
The association also recently voted to stop offering some private computer network services - including e-mail capability and public records - to its real estate members.
But if promoters have not always profited, home buyers using the Internet have found it helpful.
Charles and Christine Hausman found their dream home in Hampden, Maine, by searching online from Raleigh, N.C.
"For us the real advantage was we didn't have to make several trips up here to find a home or relocate and then have to relocate again," said Hausman, 33. "Neither my wife nor I had ever spent a lot of time in Maine, and it's a totally different world and a very different context in terms of houses."
Without leaving Raleigh, the Maine Living Network Web site let the couple get a feel for what was available on the market and pinpoint the types of houses they wanted to purchase.
The Hausmans narrowed down their selections and e-mailed them to their real estate agent. In one weekend trip to Maine, they saw as many as 30 homes.
Several of the homes they liked were already sold before they got a chance to look at them. But their real estate agent found something very similar, and the Hausmans closed on their Cape-style log cabin home in August.
"We couldn't be happier," Hausman said.
Young couples like the Hausmans are precisely the type of consumer the Realtor associations are targeting online, said John Tuccillo, vice president and chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. The typical homebuyers in this country are in their 30s who feel comfortable with computers and technology.
Cathy Whatley, president of the Florida Realtors Association, said the online service has been a boon to real estate agents as well as to customers.
Whatley, who owns a small firm in Jacksonville, Fla., said she got five new customers over the last year based solely on her exposure over the Web.