Westchester

Karen Goodwin Heimbach, a television production coordinator, and her husband, Jerry, a gallery manager in Manhattan, were recently inspecting houses that they found on various Web sites, including one in Ossining.
Photographs by Chris Maynard for The New York Times.

WHEN Charles and Lisa Woodward first stepped into their dream house in Ossining in February, they had the feeling they had been there before.

Their déjà vu was understandable because the Woodwards had already toured the house several days earlier, while sitting in their apartment in Jersey City and viewing a Web site called Homeman.net, which offers video tours of houses.

"We first walked in, and it was exactly the same," Mrs. Woodward said. "We said, 'Oh, there's the stairs, and those windows.' It felt like we were there before, and we kind of knew our way around. We didn't even need anyone to show us."

The couple fell in love with the 4,000-square-foot house before seeing it in person and were "80 percent sure" it would be their next home. They bought the house in May.

The Woodwards did most of their house hunting online, avoiding the 90-minute drive from Jersey City to central Westchester, where they wanted to move. In February, Mrs. Woodward had seen a listing for a Frank Lloyd Wright-style house on Homeman.net, a site owned by Mark Seiden, a real estate broker in Briarcliff Manor, which allows users to view videos of listings. By moving the computer mouse, she could see almost every corner of the house, from the vaulted ceilings to the parquet floors.

"I could tell from the video, even before going there, that the owners had really good taste and maintained the place well," Mrs. Woodward said.

House hunting online is not new. But while home listings were hard to find on the Internet several years ago, that is no longer the case. ationwide, more than 3 million homes were advertised on the Web in April, compared with an estimated 2.4 million listed by more traditional methods, like newspaper ads and real estate publications.

"Home buyers who look online, even if they don't find a house, are coming to the table much more informed when they finally call a broker," said Dennis R. Cronk, the president of the National Association of Realtors, who estimated that buyers who searched online generally visit half as many homes as those who do not use the Internet. "Listen, Realtors don't mind that one bit."

Mr. Cronk said that the initial apprehension has faded among brokers about the possibility of having online listings usurp their commissions, their exclusives and ultimately their jobs.

"Now most brokers see the Internet as more of an opportunity than a threat," he said. "Realtors who are grasping technology as a tool are spending much more time doing more important things, and their sales volume is increasing. The casualties are those who resist it."

Of course, not every buyer has had rosy results online.

Nancy Cooper looked at homes for six months online and found that many of the homes, when seen in person, fell short of their glowing descriptions.

"I realized quickly that you should never try to tell by the photos online," said Ms. Cooper, a 29-year-old senior production manager for Bloomingdale's by Mail who was living in Cliffside Park, N.J., when she was doing her search. "Half the time, they look nothing like the house. On the Internet, you have these color images and you can zoom in on them, and they tend to get your hopes up. Then you show up to some and say, 'Uh-oh, I'm not even getting out of the car for this one.' "

Nancy Cooper used the Internet to find a house in Pawling.

So she began using Web sites to obtain information. By researching neighborhoods in Dutchess County on Realtor.com, she found that she liked the profile of Pawling, including the income level of residents, the low crime rate and the large lots. She searched for the town's home page and then researched particular listings. She also used map sites, like mapquest.com, to find distances from a particular listing to the train station or the supermarket.

She also looked at listings in Pawling on Buynyhomes.com, operated by Irwin S. Balch & Associates Realty in Mamaroneck, and bought a three-bedroom house in Pawling last month.

"Searching online allows you to gather information on your own, at your own pace," Ms. Cooper said, "but there's no substitute for getting out there and seeing homes in person."

That ability to gather information, some brokers say, has given buyers more control.

"You can find the facts and make your own determination," said Marie Dulin, who recently bought a house in Croton-on-Hudson, "rather than get the hard sell and be influenced by people who drag you down there and have a lot riding on your decision."

Ms. Dulin and her husband, who lived in Brooklyn, drove through many towns around New York City in their search and found several houses that they liked. "But we had no information about the average income and taxes, municipal information and stuff like that," she said. "Then we realized we could get a feel for the neighborhood on the Internet, so we didn't have to keep making these trips."

Most larger Web sites offer information that brokers have traditionally cornered the market on. Besides listings, sites offer services ranging from movers to mortgages to neighborhood profiles with demographic descriptions.

Video tours are the latest online innovations. Homeman.net's simulated tours provide views of each room. The viewer can use the mouse to view every room floor to ceiling, like a camera slowly panning 360 degrees. But the fish-eye camera angles give the feeling that one has fallen down Alice's rabbit hole instead of stepping into a split-level ranch in Scarsdale.

Still, besides the "wow" factor, the tours can facilitate deals that might not work in person, said Mr. Seiden, who is a broker for the Coldwell-Banker branch in Briarcliff Manor.

One of his clients wanted to buy a house but needed the approval of her husband, who was stuck in Colombia, waiting for his United States visa. He inspected the home online and gave his approval. The couple closed on the house last month.

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