For Home Buyers
General Resources
Free online credit report: Obtain your free credit report annually.
Obtain your FICO score: This site charges a fee, but it might be worth it to have all your ducks in a row.
HUD Web site: This site provides information on housing basics, first-time buyer grants, and links to state and local offices near you.
Home Amenities
Freddie Mac: Web site of the government-chartered corporation that provides funding to lenders in the housing market. Click on Worksheets (Under Calculators and Tools) to view forms about needs vs. wants, appliance life spans, and other home-buying issues.
Remodeling Magazine: Click on the link labeled Resale Value of Your Project to see a comparison between the cost and value provided for most major home-improvement projects.
Zillow.com: See the value of various improvements and then play around with My Estimator to find out how improvements affect a home's valuation.
Condominiums
Community Associations Institute: Click on Publications and then Reading Room to access information on communal living.
Foreclosures and Fixer-Uppers
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: Primary government source on the ins and outs of foreclosure sales. Click on http://www.hud.gov/homes/ ... rsale.cfm for detailed information and links to specific properties for sale.
National Association of the Remodeling Industry: Click on the Home Owners button to access articles on everything from improving natural light to surviving a remodel.
Help with Negotiating
Department of Housing and Urban Development: A Web site maintained with the help of your tax dollars that has solid consumer-oriented information.
Motley Fool: This Web site has some good negotiating advice as well.
Zillow Resources
Comparables: Use comparables for the house you are buying to justify your offer.
My Estimator: Save and print out your own estimate of the home's value using things you noticed when you went through the house.
Help with Closing
Department of Housing and Urban Development: HUD has a complete guide to buying a home, including a 24-page booklet titled, "Buying Your Home, Settlement Costs and Useful Information." You can also download a set of HUD-1 forms to study.
Federal Consumer Information Center: This site has links to HUD information, but click on "housing" and "insurance" under Consumer Topics for additional sources.
Consumer Action Website: This site offers help on numerous subjects including housing and insurance.
For Home Sellers
General Resources
Learning about Title Insurance Costs: EasyTitleQuote.com
Preparing your home for sale: Ehow.com.
Mold information: See the EPA Web site.
Home warranties: See the Home Warranty page.
FREE E-Book on Strategies for Selling a Home: www.TopSellingSystems.com
Advice on difficult cleaning tasks: Try Heloise Household Helpline.
Zillow Resources
To see how remodeling projects pay off, check Zillow's Home Improvement Chart.
The My Estimator tool allows users to enter various improvements to see how it affects a home's valuation. Sellers can then make the improvements and publish the new valuation on Zillow, plus explain why the valuation changed.
More key Zillow resources for sellers are laid out here.
Finding an Agent and Alternate Options
USAA, a large insurance and financial-services company, is an educational foundation, with a form for interviewing real estate agents.
Ehow.com has several introductory articles on selling your home.
Effective for maximizing sales price, there are several sites which have information on selling your own home. Sometimes exposing your house in multiple websites will maximize exposure and provide you with a possibility of selling your house quicker. Below are some Free listing ideas, especially if you are selling by owner:
Zillow.com
Lowballoffers.com
Craigslist.org
Owners.com
www.elterre.com English/Spanish site
Setting the Price
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is a U.S. Government site dedicated to helping consumers in all aspects of home ownership.
The Appraisal Institute is an international membership association for real estate professionals, which contains information for consumers.
The Appraisal Foundation is a not-for-profit educational organization authorized by Congress as the source of appraisal standards and appraiser qualifications.
The National Association of Independent Fee Appraisers is an association of professional real estate appraisers, which also contains information for consumers.
American Society of Appraisers is an international society of professional valuers that appraises real estate and other disciplines such as gems and jewelry, businesses, and more.
AppraiserUSA.com offers a directory where you can locate appraisers in any state.
Appraisers dot com is a national real estate appraiser referral service.
Zillow Resources
Enter an address and get a Zestimate to use as a starting point for estimating the value of most homes in the U.S.
My Estimator is a free tool anyone can use to create their own, personal estimate on a home.
Negotiating
These two federally-maintained Web sites offer helpful consumer information, including sample forms showing line-by-line the information in a contract:
The Department of Housing and Urban Development
The Federal Citizen Information Center
Help with the Closing
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development site has information for home sellers, including some on settlement costs. The buyer’s site has a sample form showing what a hypothetical seller and buyer pay at closing.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency site has a complete guide to radon, including testing and mitigation.
The Internal Revenue Service has an online library of publications. See “Selling Your Home,” IRS Publication 523, a 32-page booklet that can be read online, printed, or ordered by mail. It contains helpful tax and record-keeping information.
The American Land Title Association Web site has a consumer section with information on title insurance, an explanation of the closing process, and an explanation of the HUD-1 settlement form.