Own Sweet Home

I had started writing this blog with a (partly) selfish reason of getting some writing practice in the process.

You see, for a very long time, I used to think that I have the ability to organize information and present it in a manner that is optimal for reading. I did do well on most writing assignments back in school as well on most tests that required a non-objective representation of my knowledge. However, ever since I got started writing software code, this writing "skill" that I might have possessed seems to have deteriorated rather significantly.

So, I figured if I force myself to write this way (blog) about things (investing, finance and software) that might interest me, maybe I might get a bit better at this. I digress enough, but one of the things I have been doing recently is listen to Grammar Girl's podcast which is pretty good.

I mention all that above just to say that even though my intention has been to "write", here is another post that is pretty much just a dump of some links that I have been saving in my bookmarks until I figure out how to effectively use them.

I keep coming across these new and cool house searching tools and websites:
http://www.zillow.com/
http://www.trulia.com/
http://www.redfin.com/
http://www.cyberhomes.com/

http://realestate.yahoo.com/Foreclosures - Search foreclosures by zip code

I haven't needed to use any of these because I had purchased a small home before the whole Web2.0 phenomenon hit the web. Nor am I looking into selling my place for a foresee-able future. I think it would be an interesting exercise to see how would I have done differently if I have these tools available. Maybe I should just look into buying an "investment home" with a much better arsenal of such resources?