There, at his fingertips, lay a universe of more than 1,000 homes for sale in the St. Louis area.  The sheer volume of the offerings might have made traditional house hunters throw up their hands and run for the nearest real estate office.  But Miller, a retired U.S.  Army lieutenant colonel, went to the CyberHomes Website and ticked off in military fashion exactly what the couple were looking for: a 10- to 20-year-old, three- or four-bedroom home on at least three acres.  It had to be within 20 miles of both Scott Air Force Base, where Marc was beginning a new career as a financial adviser to military personnel, and St. Louis, where Marion would be a tax specialist for KPMG Peat Marwick.  The couple wished to spend between $150,000 and $200,000.  Oh, and they wanted a fireplace. 

    In this manner, they narrowed their search to 15 homes.  Marc found Realtor® Rosemary Chiaverini of RE/MAX PREFERRED, O'Fallon, Illinois, who had a Web Site (http://www.ofallon.com/rosemary) and was quite comfortable corresponding by e-mail.  He sent her the multiple-listing service (MLS) identification numbers for each home, and she sent back any additional materials and photographs she could find.  In the space of one week in April 1998, just over a month after Marc first turned on his computer, the couple flew to St. Louis, winnowed 15 houses to five and made a bid on a property in Belleville, Illinois, just outside St. Louis.  "What made all the difference was that we were able to see what was out there and become familiar with the area, even though we didn't have a lot of time to house hunt," says Marc. 

    The Millers are part of a growing number of house hunters finding nests on the Net these days.  Just as the World Wide Web has paved the way for busy people to buy books and compact disks, it is also transforming the way Web-savvy consumers buy and sell real estate.  The Internet hosts an estimated 200,000 Websites related to real estate and mortgage lending, according to RealSelect, the company that produces the largest Web-based home listings site, Realtor.com.  Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass.  reports that realty-related companies are expected to devote as much as 20% of their advertising budget to online promotion in the next two years.  By the year 2000, their Internet ad spending will reach an estimated $59 million, up from $5 million in 1997. 

    Why the rush to online house hunting?  More than any other medium, the Internet seems tailor-made for selling real estate.  For one thing, you won't encounter any of those nettlesome abbreviations -- like gar (garage), 2sty (two-story) and wbfp (wood-burning fireplace) -- so prevalent in newspaper classified ads.  For another, the infinite space on the Internet allows sellers to offer a complete list of a home's features and costs, including the full asking price, maintenance and tax fees, a complete property description, exact street address, floor plans and photos.  Internet listings may also provide color closeups of amenities like backyard decks and patios.  On the better sites, brokers have even started using 360° video for virtual tours of homes.  "The Internet is all about putting control and information in the hands of the consumer," says Alfred Renna, senior vice president of Internet marketing at the Corcoran Group, a residential real estate firm in New York City. 

    The ultimate in control features, of course, is the ability to shop for a home at any hour and without any sales pressure.  "It's like buying clothing.  You don't want help from a saleslady until you know what you want and in what size," says Mollie Wasserman, a Holliston, Mass.  Realtor who has embraced the Internet as an aid to attracting and serving clients. 

    But perhaps the main attraction of home shopping on the Internet is the time it saves both buyers and brokers.  According to the Corcoran Group, the average Internet customer who uses the company's Website signs a contract on a house within about a month of commencing a search.  What's more, because they do their homework in advance on the Web, these house hunters need to see an average of only eight homes before settling on their final choice.  By contrast, the average traditional home buyer spends about three to four months with a Corcoran agent and sees 24 homes before signing a deal.  "When people find something they like on our Website, they call up an agent, go visit it and, 40% of the time, buy it," says Renna.  "That's a direct deal, and that just doesn't happen with print advertising."

    Yes, the Internet is convenient for both buyers and sellers and offers a wealth of information, but it can be difficult to navigate effectively.  Type in "homes for sale" on the Altavista search engine, and you'll find more than 13 million links.  One approach -- and a good one, especially if you are a first-time home buyer or a novice at using the Internet -- is to stick to one and only one Website to help you through the home-buying process.  Currently, there are two sites -- HomeAdvisor and HomeShark -- that offer a comprehensive guided tour of everything from checking your credit to finding a mortgage. 

    As inclusive as these sites are, if you are a proponent of mixing and matching to get the best of everything, then read on.  What follows is a step-by-step guide to buying a home on the Net.  In each section, we recommend the site or sites that offer the best advice, are the most user-friendly and provide the most valuable information.  Having spent weeks online researching Websites and interviewing brokers, buyers and sellers who've used the Internet to research real estate transactions, we make no claims to have exhausted every resource available.  We can, however, offer you the benefit of our hits and misses to guide you in finding the home of your dreams.
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