15 of the Best Real Estate Websites of 2024 for Buyers, Sellers, and Renters

Best for renters: Apartments.com

With rent prices starting to soften nationwide, now is the time to start looking for your next place. A site like Apartments.com, which makes it easy to search for a wide array of rental listings, is a godsend.

The site has detailed information on over one million available rentals. The team that powers the website makes thousands of phone calls each month to apartment owners and property managers; this helps them verify details including which units are available, the most up-to-date rates and fees, pet policies, and more.

In addition to including an extensive list of search filters such as washer and dryer hookups, patios, fitness center, and whether a unit has a balcony, one of the site’s most helpful features is the drawing tool, which lets a renter define their search area with precision.

On top of professional photos, many rental listings include video and 3D tours. Users can filter for listings that include a digital walkthrough of some kind.

Moreover, the “Travel Time” feature lets you search according to the commute time, which you can set to any mode of transportation. If you want to make sure your commute to work is 15 minutes or less via bicycle, this tool eliminates the guesswork.

Best for home value estimates: HomeLight’s Home Value Estimator

It’s the question every homeowner wants to know: How much is my house worth? Whether you’re doing some back-of-the-napkin math on how much equity you have or are curious to see how the housing market is performing in your area, it’s possible to get a lot of helpful information about your home’s value online.

We add an extra layer of information to our estimates using a short questionnaire. Tell us a few details about your home, such as:

• How much work does it need?
• What type of home is it (single-family, condo, townhouse, or other)?
• Roughly when was your house built?
• Are you planning to sell soon?

Using these insights, we’ll provide you with a preliminary estimate of home value in under two minutes.

Think of any online home price tool as a starting point — and recognize that the data used may be limited. What’s nice about HomeLight’s tool is that if you want to get even closer to your home’s true value, HomeLight will connect you with a top real estate agent near you as a next step.

Local real estate agents can physically view the property; they list homes like yours every day; they know the neighborhoods; they know what’s trending; and they can call out unique characteristics on the property. You’ll be hard-pressed to find an online tool that can do all of that, so HomeLight can guide you to the next logical step if you want a professional opinion.

Best for home searching: Realtor.com

In the era where remote work is here to stay, homebuyer preferences are only getting more specific. People want a house that has it all — a place to focus and take conference calls but also a patio to relax outside.

These days, it’s a lot easier to browse your options from your mobile phone or computer from lots of different sites, but one that stands out is Realtor.com and its “keyword search” tool.

With this dropdown, homebuyers can filter their search results by whatever features are most important to them, whether it’s a fireplace, pool, length of commute, waterfront, basement, gated community, pond, lake view, or anything else.

Best if you need to sell fast: Simple Sale

Sometimes life changes unexpectedly and you need to sell your home fast for health reasons, a sudden job relocation, or to spend that year in Paris you’ve always dreamed about.

According to the latest data from Ice Mortgage Technologies, conventional loans are taking an average of 45 days to close, which isn’t always a feasible timeline for a seller in a hurry. And the demand for a faster process has meant that options to sell your house for cash have increased in recent years.

To request a cash offer from Simple Sale, enter the address of your home and answer a few quick questions about it. We’ll provide an all-cash offer within a week.

Simple Sale is far from the only program out there that facilitates cash offers for homes, but it has a few advantages over most alternatives.

When you request an offer, you’ll have the option of getting matched with an agent to learn more about how much you could get for your home on the open market.

This allows you to make an informed decision about your home sale, whether you want to go with the speed and convenience of a cash offer, or potentially make a higher profit selling the traditional way with an agent.

In addition, some cash-for-homes companies will only buy properties in a certain price range or within limited markets. For example, iBuyers typically only buy homes in fairly good condition and tend to operate in markets that contain somewhat homogenous housing stock.

Because Simple Sale has a network of cash buyers on its platform, partner investors have a wide range of investment strategies, including fix and flip and buy and hold, all over the country. This enables Simple Sale to provide cash offers for a large array of properties in different locations.

Best for finding your next investment: FlipScout

Arguably the biggest challenge in real estate investing is finding the right property. This is true whether you plan to rent out or flip homes. FlipScout by NewSilver is a free tool that uses data and intelligence to identify the most profitable investments wherever you’re looking to buy.

For recommended properties, the site provides quick stats on the estimated after-rehab value, the estimated return on investment (ROI) after construction, as well as cap rate and gross yield. It allows users to search for foreclosure properties and auctions in addition to on-market listings that have a low price or have recently had a price reduction.

Best for finding a real estate agent: HomeLight

According to 2023 data from the National Association of Realtors®, 89% of sellers and 89% of buyers enlisted the services of a real estate agent in their journey.

However, with there being over 3 million active real estate licensees in the U.S., it can be challenging to know who to hire.

In the past, the main way to find a quality real estate agent was to ask for a referral or call different real estate offices. However, companies like HomeLight have made the search for a top-rated real estate agent or Realtor fast and easy to do online.

HomeLight’s agent-matching platform is 100% free to use and it’s not pay-to-play, so agents can’t pay to be listed or appear as one of your matches. The company analyzes over 27 million real estate transactions and thousands of reviews to determine which agent is best for you based on your needs.

The difference between a so-so agent and a great one can have serious ramifications. Imagine being disappointed that your agent didn’t notify you about the perfect listing in a hot market, so you lose out to another buyer.

Or what if you undersell your home dramatically due to bad advice? Our internal transaction data shows that the top 5% of real estate agents sell homes for 4.8% more on average.

Best for FSBO listings: Zillow

About 7% of recent home sales were for sale by owner (FSBO), meaning the sellers did not enlist the services of a real estate professional in the process, according to the National Association of Realtors®’ 2023 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.

Some sellers choose this route to avoid paying agent commissions, though it’s been shown working with a top agent can help you maximize your sale price, helping to offset or exceed what you’d pay in commission. NAR data indicates that the typical FSBO home sold for $310,000 in 2023, compared to $405,000 for a home sale administered by a real estate agent.

Whatever the reason for going solo, FSBO sellers still need to put together a quality listing and post it online unless they already know their buyer. And for that, Zillow is a popular option.

Usually, an agent would take care of this step by adding the listing to the appropriate MLS (multiple listing service), or the database where brokers share data and information about properties for sale. Listings in the MLS then get syndicated automatically to major listing websites.

However, absent this assistance from an agent, a FSBO seller can post their listing for free to Zillow and include video and unlimited photos. The post will appear on Zillow and Trulia to reach a large home buyer audience. You can also opt for a flat fee MLS listing to get your property on the local directory.

Best for market research: U.S. News and World Report

The real estate section of U.S. News and World Report offers a wealth of interesting information about what it’s like to live in different places around the country.

The site analyzes 150 of the most populous metro areas of the U.S. and has detailed pages for each city. Curious about the average annual salary in Philadelphia? What about the weather in Albuquerque? How about the best places to live or the top cities to retire in?

You can access it all via U.S. News and World Report, along with written commentary from local experts. Plus, you can also find a top real estate agent in your area with the U.S. News agent recommendation tool powered by HomeLight.

Best for neighborhood-level data: AreaVibes

Whenever you move to a new place, it’s helpful to scope out the area before making a final decision about where to live. AreaVibes uses what the site calls a “Livability Score” for cities and neighborhoods that takes into account amenities, cost of living, crime, employment, housing, schools, and user ratings (a rating of 100 is the highest an area can receive).

The site provides statistics comparing how affordable or expensive a community is compared to the broader city. It also features comments from real residents about the perks and drawbacks of an area, so a user can get the inside scoop firsthand.

While some other neighborhood data aggregators offer similar or even more in-depth information, what sets AreaVibes apart is that it’s free to use while still providing heaps of information about a particular locale.

Best mobile app: Trulia

Trulia offers a great mobile experience to shop for homes on the go. Earning 4.8 stars on the App Store and 4.7 stars on Google Play, the app touts several map overlays including demographics, schools, local shops and restaurants, traffic volume, and natural disaster risk. You can also use the map’s draw feature to refine your search to a specific area.

The listing pages provide home highlights, an estimate of your monthly payment, open house availability, and a map and street view to give you a better idea of the property’s location. You can schedule a tour in-app and get driving directions to the property when you’re ready to see it for yourself.

There are additional tools for finding mortgage rates, calculating mortgage payments and affordability, and getting pre-qualified for a home loan. Trulia is owned by Zillow, and cannot be used to list a for-sale or rental property — you’ll have to go through Zillow to do that. That being said, it’s still a solid option for users looking to explore the neighborhoods they’re home shopping in.

Best for investor resources and networking: BiggerPockets

BiggerPockets has cultivated a massive online community for real estate investors and offers a ton of related educational resources to boot. While much of the content is free, the site also has three tiers of membership plans, ranging from $0/month to $32.50/month. The top tier, called Pro, provides unlimited calculator reports, unlimited forum posts, access to free software for property management, accounting, and off-market deal finding, and much more.

Users of the site can get a lot of value at no cost, too. For example, the Forums part of the site operates somewhat like a non-anonymous Reddit, where investors can ask anything to the broader community and connect through nested comment threads. Curious whether McAllen, Texas, or Chattanooga, Tennessee is a better place to invest? Throw it out to the forum and crowdsource the answer on BiggerPockets.

Best for first-time homebuyers: HomeLight Buyer Resource Center

Buying a home is an exciting but overwhelming process, especially for first-timers. so HomeLight created an entire hub of resources to help you navigate each step with confidence.

Get started with our guide on how to find a buyer’s agent, and brush up on some moving tips so you don’t lose your marbles in the transition.

Best for active military: MilitaryByOwner

MilitaryByOwner aggregates home and rental listings near U.S. military bases in addition to providing other housing resources for military members and their families.

The site was founded in 2000 by Dave and Sharon Gran. Dave, a veteran who served in the Marine Corps for 21 years, and Sharon, who worked in real estate, were the perfect duo to launch a military-focused real estate website. And with most of their staff and content creators being military spouses, MilitaryByOwner is well-qualified and uniquely positioned to serve their customer base.

Using MilitaryByOwner differs from other home search sites in that you can filter by state, and then by military base within that state. Any listings you pull up will then display how many miles the particular home is from the base in addition to other pertinent property details. They list for-sale and rental properties, including FSBOs. The site can be pretty laggy, so if you find that frustrating, AHRN.com is another good option for finding off-base housing and rentals.

Best for school district data: GreatSchools

The National Association of Realtors’ Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report found that the quality of the school district influenced purchasing decisions for 30% of buyers aged 33-42 and 23% of buyers aged 43–57.

Enter GreatSchools, a national nonprofit organization that provides a valuable tool for parents seeking out school district information in their search for a new home.

While AreaVibes, a site mentioned previously in this article, offers some education data, GreatSchools is an entire website dedicated to providing school ratings and resources.

With GreatSchools, a user can look up schools within a city and see each school’s summary rating. The GreatSchools rating system is on a scale of 1-10, where schools in the 1-4 range are considered below average, schools in the 5-6 range are considered average, and schools in the 7-10 range are considered above average.

The ratings factor in academic progress, college readiness, equity, and test scores. The environment tab highlights statistics like student-teacher ratio, the percent of of teachers with three or more years experience, student demographics, user reviews, and more.

Best for finding accessible rental housing: ForRent.com

Locating accessible rental housing can be a complicated and frustrating process. But ForRent.com, which is in the Apartments.com network, makes it easier by allowing users to filter listings by type, styles, and amenities. You can search for rentals with elevator or wheelchair access, or highlight specialties like income restricted or senior housing.

The site has also made an accessibility commitment and has optimized the website with voice commands, enlarged text and images, and the use of captioning and transcripts.

The best real estate websites offer a wealth of resources

It’s quite amazing to realize how much information about real estate is available online. Using the sites we just reviewed, you can find your next rental pad, investigate school rankings, and experience the beauty of a neighborhood you’ve never visited thanks to technology.

But if there ever comes a point where you get tired of the virtual world, you can always put away your screens and ask a top real estate agent for their professional opinion — you know, IRL.

Header Image Source: (Christin Hume / Unsplash)