Go to local open houses and watch the real estate market.

“Internet. We looked off and on for a year in a particular neighborhood, and the first few months of that search was going to open houses to gauge what was available in our price range. We got to know the main brokerage firms working the neighborhood and bookmarked their websites to check during the week for new listings. We also did a weekly NY Times real estate section web search to find ads for FSBOs and smaller brokers with less of a web presence. When our house popped up on a small broker's website, the listing put it high on our must-see list. We saw the place at its first advertised Sunday open house, revisited Monday or Tuesday, had an accepted offer Friday and a signed contract within a week of that.”

“We started going to open houses as soon as we started thinking about buying our first house. We just told the realtors that we were in the beginning stages of looking and trying to get a feel for the market. When we were ready to buy we knew exactly what houses were worth and it made the process much easier. We also got to 'interview' real estate agents that way and found great ones to work with doing that.”