Home hunting the green way

August 10, 12:02 PMCentral Denver Real Estate ExaminerDonna Hansen

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Part of a Zillow screen.

You can start by previewing homes from your computer.

Watching your gas gauge but still wanting to shop for homes without driving for hours here are a couple sites to use to help you narrow your search before you get in the car to preview homes.

1. Where to start house hunting?

http://www.realtor.com
This a great starting point. For example, if you know the zip code of the school district you'd like to have your children attend you can search by zip code here.

2. What is the market paying for similiar homes?

http://www.zillow.com
Once you've identified some properties you want to see look up the comparable sold homes in the neighborhood to learn what homes are going for in the area.

3. What's the neighborhood like?

http://maps.google.com
After you've decided what homes you want to go see the inside of first check out the out side of the home using street view. It doesn't always have a view for every home under the sun but it can give you a great idea of what the neighborhood is like or if the house is on a high traffic street.

4. How easy is it to get there on a bike?

http://www.denvergov.org/Portals/482/documents/BikeMapPage1.pdf

Here's a bike map provided by Denver City and County. Get on your bike and check the neighborhood out. This is a great way to give you a feel for what the neighbors are like, how close the home is to places that are important to you and what your bike route to work could be.