Top 10 Ways People Start the Home Buying Process

This list comes out every year as part of a larger survey, the National Association of Realtors Survey of Home Buyers and Sellers.  Year over year the methods used for finding a home don’t change much but the percentages of people using each method has seen some changes.
As you could guess, as the internet became more widely used over the years and web sites appeared making it easy to shop for a home online, this method of finding a home grew like a weed.  One interesting fact about this years list is that while the internet is still the #1 place home buyers start their search, the percentage dropped from 91% last year to 88% this year.

Here is the 2011 list of first steps taken during the home buying process, in rank order from most used as a first step to least used. More ....