Does The Sq Ft In Zillow Include Garden Area

If you're like most people, how you search for homes online 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 flats or undeveloped land in the boonies. For serious moves, you're probably highly focused and searching on a daily basis.

Whatever your reasons, we're here to offer you tips and tricks to help you make the most of your time on Zillow.

Focusing your search

If you haven't already, the first thing you should do is set up a search on Zillow . Type in your preferred city or neighborhood — or draw a boundary around the area you want to search — and then select the kind of features that are important to you so you can hone in on the homes that are more likely to appeal to you.

Zillow home search filters: bedrooms, bathrooms, home type, and max HOA.

Listing type: You can search all listings or narrow results to see any combination of existing home, new construction, 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." You'll also see the price and sales date for comparable homes. If you only want to search for homes with open houses, you can do that, too.)

Any price: Set a minimum and maximum price to fit your price range. (This calculator can help you determine what you can afford.)

Number of bedrooms and bathrooms: Look for a studio, a mansion with more than six bedrooms and baths or anything in between. You can even use this field to see what two-bedroom, two-bath homes are selling for in your preferred neighborhood or metro area.

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.

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 or avoid in-person tours altogether if you have health concerns.

More: Hone your search with filters for a host of other things, including views, amenities such as air conditioning, upcoming open houses, square footage and the like. You also can search based on how long homes have been listed for sale, and, in some markets, you can search for Zillow-owned homes that are move-in ready.

Pro-tip: If you're looking for specific features that are not part of the list — for example, a fireplace, high-end finishes or a craftsman-style home, you can type in the words 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.

Saving and sharing searches

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, hit "save" so you can find it easily the next time you log into your Zillow account.

Zillow home search tool: saving and sharing homes.

Sharing 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.

Pro-tip 1 : The more you use the filters — especially when you favorite a home or share it with someone — the more the recommendations become fine-tuned to what you prefer, and the more useful the tool becomes in helping you find a home you love.

Pro-tip 2: You can remove or edit saved homes and searches through the "settings" connected to your account.

Get alerts for new listings

Saving the entire search gives you the option to be alerted via email or once a day when homes that meet your preferences come on the market. Also, when you save a search it further refines the selection of homes that Zillow recommends that fit the criteria for any given search.

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

Special rental features

Pets, laundry and more: In addition to the search features above, rentals include other important categories for renters, including whether a home has in-unit laundry and or is considered a pet-friendly unit (designated by the type of pet allowed).

You also can filter based on units that accept applications online through Zillow Rental Manager, which allows you to apply for unlimited rentals for 30 days for a one-time fee.

Help for newbies

If you're brand-new to home searching, here are some key features that can help you navigate the housing market and gain the kind of knowledge that can help you determine whether a home is right for you. Happy hunting and dreaming!

Going mobile: Using the Zillow Real Estate App lets you take your search with you.

Driving through a neighborhood and imagine yourself living there? Use the mobile app to search for homes near your location.

Draw search feature on Zillow home search tool.

You also can search by typing an address into the search bar or draw a custom region on the map. And you can arrange to receive notifications when new listings hit the market, when a home you saved drops in price, is sold or has an open house.

Find out a home's Zestimate using Zillow's home search tool

The Zestimate: Many for-sale homes on Zillow include a Zestimate , 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 also incorporates a home's facts and features.

The Zestimate is not an appraisal, but rather 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 whether a home's estimated value has changed in the last 30 days and by how much.

Some of the data on which the Zestimate is based are reported in a home listing, including 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 this listing and how many people have saved it.

Find out a home's price history using Zillow's listings home search tool.

A home's sale history: Each for-sale home page provides information on price history — date and price the home has been offered and sold previously — and on property tax and assessment history.

Use Zillow's home search tool to find out a neighborhood's walk score and estimate home values in the area.

Neighborhood info: For-sale home pages provide a quick view of your desired ZIP code. You can see the median Zestimate of homes there, how hot or cold the market is, the foreclosure rate compared to the city and country, how walkable or car-dependent a neighborhood is, and whether Zillow predicts home values in that neighborhood will rise or fall.

Nearby schools: Incorporated into home listings is a list of public and private schools nearby, and their proximity to the home. Public schools are accompanied by a rating by GreatSchools.

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