How to Use Zillow to Find a Home You’ll Love

If you’re like most people, how you search for homes depends on whether you’re dreaming or getting down to the business of buying or renting a new home. For dreaming, you might float around the country looking for waterfront homes, urban lofts or undeveloped land. For serious moves, you’re probably highly focused and opening the Zillow app on a daily, even hourly, basis. Whatever your reasons, we’ve compiled a list of advanced search techniques and features — including an enhanced notification center — that can streamline your search and make it easier than ever to find a home on Zillow.

You can start searching for a home to buy or rent on your desktop or laptop any time. To search with your mobile device, try out the Zillow® app.

Now let’s explore ways to improve your search.

Customize your notifications

Zillow’s notification center allows you to efficiently manage your home search so you’re getting the information you want, when you want it. All your communication controls are located in one place for easy access. This allows you to personalize how you receive notifications about new listings that match your search criteria, time-sensitive updates on your saved homes (e.g., upcoming open houses and tour availability), market updates on your areas of interest, and more.

For example, if you’ve gone from casually to actively looking at homes to buy or rent, you can set your alerts to get instant notifications when a new home matching your search criteria hits the market, so you don’t miss out on homes that could be a great match for you. Or if you’re exploring new neighborhoods or cities, you can tailor your notifications to include market updates on those locales. And if you’re thinking of selling and want to keep track of what your home might be worth in the current market, you can set notifications for changes to your Zestimate®.  If you're already signed up for communications and want to tailor them based on location, price, or saved homes you care about, you can edit them in the notification center.

To set or change notifications, click on your account settings, then click on notifications. You’ll see a menu that allows you to customize your subscriptions, ultimately allowing you to fine tune your experience.

Filter your home search by monthly payment

Staying within budget is important, but keeping track of volatile mortgage rates and hidden monthly costs can be one of the most challenging aspects of the home search. Honing in on the homes you love based on list price can be a good starting point, but the list price doesn’t always perfectly align with your ideal monthly payment, which can fluctuate based on factors like your down payment amount, mortgage interest rates, and taxes and insurance.

Now, you can easily filter homes by a price point that takes into account all of your monthly costs* as well as current interest rates by calculating your BuyAbility℠, a tool powered by Zillow Home Loans. 

To use BuyAbility, you’ll need to enter a few financial details. The tool will then give you ongoing insights into homes you would likely qualify for and estimates of what you would pay each month to own those homes. To use the tool: 

1. Open the BuyAbility page on your web browser, and click on the button that says “Get your BuyAbility.” Or you can calculate your BuyAbility directly in the app by tapping the
   “Home Loans” tab.
2. Enter some basic financial information – your monthly payment target, amount available for a down payment, annual income before taxes, monthly debts and credit score. And that’s it. 

BuyAbility will show you a suggested target price for a home based on the amount of the monthly payment you established, along with the maximum amount you could qualify for with a lender, based on current interest rates. Those amounts will change as rates change and/or you adjust the details in your financial picture,

As you search for homes, those search results will stay within your BuyAbility budget.

More search filters

Listing type: You can search all listings or narrow results to see any combination of existing homes, new construction homes, foreclosures, homes coming to market soon, or homes for sale by owner. (Specific types of listings are in a drop-down menu. To view them, click on the downward arrow next to “For Sale.” )

Home type: Are you hunting for a house, a condo, manufactured home, co-op or townhome? Or are you looking for a lot where you can build a unique home? Pick any or see them all if you want to keep all your options open.

Number of bedrooms and bathrooms: Use this field to look for a studio, a mansion with more than six bedrooms and baths or anything in between.

3D Home tours: Set an alert for listings that include 3D Home tours, a feature that allows you to “walk through” a home digitally. By experiencing a home virtually, you can save in-person visits for homes you’re seriously interested in.

More filters: Click on the “More” drop-down tab to hone your search with filters for a host of other things, including views, amenities such as air conditioning, upcoming open houses and square footage. You also can search based on how long homes have been listed for sale, or whether they’re offering an open house.

Specific search terms: If you’re looking for specific home features that are not listed — for example, a fireplace, high-end finishes or a craftsman-style home, you can type in the keywords in the “More” drop-down menu and they’ll be included in the search.

The important thing to remember is that you control the search. If you want to look at every listing in the country priced under $200,000 or over $2 million, have at it. If you’re hyper-focused on any new listing in your favorite neighborhood, you can do that too.

* Currently available in the iOS and Android apps. Check back here for more information on desktop launch.

Three ways to narrow your rental search

In addition to the search features above, rentals include other important categories for renters.

1. Under the "More" tab, check boxes to search for specific amenities such as in-unit laundry. 
2. You can also filter by whether it's considered a pet-friendly unit (designated by the type and size of pet allowed).
3. Check "Accepts Zillow Applications" to filter based on units that accept applications online through Zillow Rental Manager. This allows you to apply for unlimited rentals for 30 days for a one-time fee.
   

How to save and share your house search

When you’re done selecting your preferences, the homes that meet your criteria will appear on a map as colored dots. Click on a dot to see information on that home. If you like what you see or want to revisit it later, tap or click Save so you can find it easily the next time you log into your Zillow account.

Saved your search? Take these next steps.

Set up email alerts to stay ahead of the competition

With a saved search, you can also set up a frequency for email alerts. Setting alerts to Instant means you’ll get alerts as soon as a matching home hits the market. This is great if you’re ready to buy now and looking in a competitive market. A Daily cadence is helpful if you’re just trying to get a feel for the market. You can also leave email alerts off.

Share your finds with a partner

If you’re co-shopping with a partner, the Zillow mobile app allows you to tag what you like about a home and share it with a partner via email alert.

Use filters to improve search results and check out recommendations

The more you use Zillow's advanced search filters — especially when you favorite a home or share it with someone — the more the recommendations become fine-tuned to what you prefer.

Refine or delete your saved searches

You can remove or edit saved homes and searches through the “settings” connected to your account.

Compare saved homes side-by-side

Once you’ve saved specific homes within your search, tap or click on Saved Homes, select the specific homes you want to compare side-by-side, then tap or click Compare. The Homes to Compare feature shows all details for each home you’ve selected in one place.

You can save as many searches as you need, which helps when you want to keep track of searches by neighborhoods or other characteristics.

10 Zillow advanced search features to know

As you get more specific with your search, here are a few Zillow advanced search features that will help you dive a little deeper.

1. Search like you speak

Searching for your home with Zillow is now as easy as sending a text to that friend who really loves to help. She asks what you’re looking for, and you say, “a three-bedroom house in Dallas with a pool and hardwood floors.” And within seconds, she compiles and sends you a list of options she knows you'll love. (“Check out that dreamy terrazzo tile in the kitchen!”)

Now, you can open your mobile app (iOS only*) and type your query directly into the search engine to see results populate on the page. Our new natural language search tool allows you to quickly enter search criteria for the location, price and home features you’re looking for, all without having to navigate filters. Here are a few other examples of searches you may do:

1) 'Las Vegas NV homes with a pool'

2) 'Chicago IL homes with hardwood floor'

3) 'Austin TX homes with backyard'

Be sure to save this search so that you can easily come back to it later and be notified when there are more home listings that match your criteria. More on how to do that below.

2. Search wherever you are — in real time

Driving through a neighborhood and imagine yourself living there? Use the mobile app to search for homes near your location. Just tap the arrow that points upward and right in the search bar.

3. Search a single address or specific area

You also can search by typing an address into the search bar or draw a custom region on the map. You can opt in to receive notifications when new listings hit the market in this region. Zillow also notifies you when a home you saved drops in price, goes off the market or has an open house.

4. Search by schools

You can shop for homes in a specific school attendance zone or school district on the Zillow app by typing the name of the school or district into the search bar. You can then select a school or district, and the app will display attendance zone boundaries on a map and show which homes are available within that zone. For schools without specific boundaries (like open enrollment, charter, or private schools), the app shows homes within a 5-mile radius.

5. Search by assumable mortgage

An assumable mortgage can be taken over from the seller by the homebuyer, usually with lender approval. They are not commonly available, but when they are, they can represent an opportunity for lower interest rates. Typically, the terms of the loan, like the interest rate and monthly payment, remain the same. When you assume a mortgage, you agree to make all future payments on the remaining loan balance.

To search for homes with assumable mortgages, reset the filters on the search bar, and then type in the area you want to search. Once you have results, go back to the filters and scroll until you see the section labeled “keywords.” Type in the letters “ASSUM,” and any homes with assumable mortgages will display in your area of interest. 

6. Use the Zestimate

Many for-sale homes on Zillow include a Zestimate® value, an estimated market value for the home that takes into account data from county and tax assessor records and direct feeds from hundreds of multiple listing services and brokerages. The Zestimate value also incorporates a home’s facts and features.

The Zestimate value is not an appraisal. It is an estimate of market value to give you a starting point to gauge whether the home is priced fairly. It also will give you an estimate of how much a home’s value has changed in the last 30 days.

Some of the data on which the Zestimate value is based are reported in a home listing. This includes the home’s value compared to similar homes in the town or ZIP code, how taxes on the listing have changed, how many people are looking at the listing and how many people have saved it.

7. View a home’s sale history

Each for-sale home page provides information on price history and on property tax and assessment history. You can check this data for irregularities, like gratuitous price hikes or recent sales that fell through.

8. Get more neighborhood information from each listing

If you’re still looking for a neighborhood you’ll love, every home’s listing page provides some quick stats about the home’s surrounding area. Look under the Neighborhood heading to see Walk Score, Transit Score or Bike Score, or scroll through listings of nearby properties. 

9. See your commute with Travel Time

If you commute somewhere on a regular basis, toggle on Travel times in a listing’s Overview section. Add the address, and Travel Time will estimate how long you’ll be in transit. You can see estimates for travel by car, transit, bicycle, or foot. 

10. Gauge interest in a listing

Three stats help you with this: Time on Zillow, Views, and Saves. Find them just above the listing description. A listing that tallies high views and lots of saves is likely to go fast. If it’s been listed on Zillow for a long time, you can dig further into the listing details to try to determine why.

If a listing is drawing very high interest,  Zillow will estimate that it’s likely to sell faster than a percentage of nearby homes. 

Ready to learn more? Find out what to look for when buying a house in our Home Buyers Guide.