When Jeff and Andrea Johns went house hunting in Silicon Valley last year, the first street they looked at was the Information Superhighway. By surfing the Internet for properties and online mortgage services, "We could play what if and see the entire marketplace," says Johns, an Internet consultant for the real estate field.

Instead of baring their souls to a loan agent, the couple could browse through hundreds of lending options until they found a good fit. Then they could either submit an application on line, or ask a participating broker to call them.

"Online mortgage shopping is more anonymous and less intimidating," says Johns. "It takes away that pain of putting your entire financial portfolio in a folder, sitting across the table from someone you've never met, and asking whether you're worthy of getting a loan."

Initially, Andrea figured that the only way to get a decent home in Northern California's pricey Bay Area was with a down payment of 20 percent or more. But after some strenuous pointing and clicking of her computer mouse at quickenmortgage.com and homeshark.com, she realized that 10 percent or less was definitely in the ballpark.

The Johns spent the weekend browsing The California Network (living.com), a Website that Jeff developed and launched a few years ago for the California Association of Realtors. Living.com has real estate listings from more than 98 percent of the state's Multiple Listing Services.

After narrowing their choice to ten properties, the couple used online and paper maps to drive around to the various addresses. Once they found the house they wanted, they relied on a professional realtor to negotiate the contract and close the sale.

The Johns wound up putting $20,000 down on a three-bedroom, 1950s home for $249,000. Within 18 months, comparable houses were selling for $310,000, and the couple had managed to triple their investment.

The Johns, both in their early 30s, are part of a small but growing consumer population who prefer ATMs to live bank tellers, use money management software to take charge of their personal finances, buy books from online bookstores, and routinely email friends and business contacts. Roughly 23 percent of U.S. households are now on line. According to a recent study by Odyssey, a market research firm, the number of households making online purchases more than doubled in the past year.

"If I pull into a gas station that doesn't take my ATM card, I'll put in a dollar's worth of gas and go somewhere else," says Jeff Johns. "My generation was raised on computers."

Lawrence D. Elliott of Mulhearn TPA Realtors in Ontario, Calif. has several net-surfing clients who initially use email to get acquainted with a broker and screen out slick operators. Once there's an online meeting of the minds, a face-to-face encounter seems less risky to these electronically savvy buyers.

"Email gives people a feeling that they have some control over the process," Elliott says "They worry that if they walk into a pushy agent's office, they'll be shoved into a car, hustled through a few properties, and coerced into buying."

Relocating families can use the Internet to get a head start on their property search in another city or state. In addition to researching home styles and price ranges, they can find information on the quality of a neighborhood's public schools.

While the Web is a useful place to shop for property, it's a dicier place to shop for a real estate broker. "There's 's a lot of puffery and misinformation on the Internet," says William Johnson, Board vice president for the San Diego Association of Realtors. "You can't always tell who the good realtors are just by looking at their Websites. Internet expertise does not always equate with real estate skill and talent."

While the Internet provides a general understanding of the marketplace, it doesn't tell you what's pending or how long something's been on the market, says Johnson. Once a broker submits a listing to a major Website like living.com, there's usually a two-to-three-day lag before the listing gets posted on the Net.

In today's red hot housing market, many properties are handled exclusively by a single agency for several days and never appear in the multiple listings at all. Other homes continue to show up on the Internet–even though sellers are already entertaining several offers on them.

Realtor.com, the National Association of Realtors Website, has a search engine that helps consumers find new and resale homes. Coverage tends to be spotty, however, even in high-tech regions. Buyers who searched the site for realtors in Austin, Texas, last April received this message: "No Realtors® found that meet your criteria. Please check back as Realtors® are being added daily."

Some Web pages handle "For-Sale-By-Owner" and foreign properties. One such site, Internet Real Estate (www.internet-real-estate.com), has several listings for Tuscaloosa, Ala. Site owner Edward Todd, who charges the sellers for listing and advertising their properties, views rural and smallish communities as his niche. For now, he says, Realtor.com focuses on the larger cities.

The best use of the Net, says Johnson, is to gain an overview of the types of properties in various neighborhoods. If you're a first-time home buyer, you might decide that a new condo meets your needs better than a detached starter-home in the $150,000 range.

A few years ago, says Johns, "Everybody thought the Internet would be great for selling those mansions in Beverly Hills or La Jolla. But it's really good for selling typical homes." -30-

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