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If you're ready to start house hunting, it's a good idea to come up with a plan for finding your dream home.

The first step is to find a good realtor to help you through the house buying process. There are lots of little details, and having someone to help you remember all of them is a great idea.

Your realtor should be able to provide you with the most up-to-date house listings. But, your realtor should not be your only resource to find houses for sale.

When buying our first house, we decided to look everywhere possible, and not just rely on our realtors. And boy, are we glad we took matters into our own hands! While we checked our email daily for more listings from our realtors, we also did our own searching ' and luckily, we found our dream home!

Where else can you look to find houses for sale in your area?

1) Realtor.com

The best place to look online is Realtor.com. This is the official sire of the National Association of Realtors, and contains most of the MLS listings (Multiple Listing Service, which most realtors use to list the houses they are selling). You can search different states, cities, and towns throughout the U.S., to find houses in your price range, your size range, and compare what is available.

There are dozens of other house listing sites out there ' but Realtor.com is considered the best (but feel free to look through the others, you never know where you might find your dream house!) Keep in mind, some of the houses may have been listed for a while, so if you find one you like, don't wait ' contact your realtor to visit the property as soon as possible!

2) For sale by owner

Typically, there are two places to look for houses being sold directly by the owner (without help from a realtor, which means they probably won't be listed on Realtor.com):

First, you should look at several 'for sale by owner' websites. Some of the most popular are ISoldMyHouse.com, ForSaleByOwner.com, FSBO.com, and you can search for more on the Internet.

Second, you should drive through the town you want to buy your house in, and look for yard signs. These days most people selling their own house will likely place an ad on the one of the 'for sale by owner websites' ' but not everyone has a lot of money to spend on advertising. So if you have the time, drive through some of the neighborhoods you want to live in, and look for houses that might be for sale. If nothing else, you'll get a good idea of exactly where you want to live.

3) Your local newspaper and homes magazines

These are two more great places to look for houses to buy. Smaller local realtors sometimes rely on newspaper ads to sell houses. You can also look for 'homes for sale' magazines inside your local supermarket or restaurants (sometimes located outside a shopping area in the display stands).

It can be time consuming to find the right house. And it is definitely easier to find a realtor, and rely on their expertise. But if want to give yourself the best possible chance to find your dream home, look in as many places as possible. You never know where you'll find the right match. Hopefully, these strategies will help you find your dream home.

Happy house hunting!