Liz Crawford will never venture from her couch for anything less than a two bedroom condo with a parking space, washer and dryer. In the same time, she continues her home hunting by scanning the list of Norfolk, Va., houses in her price range that is sent to her automatically from her real estate agent's web site. When she finds something interesting, her agent will get her the full listings and they rarely speak over the phone.

According to Crawford, it is really nice to be able to stay at home and do the searching; she says, "When it comes to searching a home it can be very tedious." These online real estate websites have become an established part, when it comes to home buying process over the past 10 years, but these sites are evolving to offer a wider variety of services, tips, and useful articles; in some cases it brings positive relationships among sellers, buyers and the real estate agents.