The Lehigh Valley Association of REALTORS® (LVAR) has introduced a new one-stop site to provide consumers with everything they need to know about real estate in the Lehigh Valley. The site, LVRealEstateCentral.com, provides a direct link to homes for sale, open houses and LVAR’s publications: Lehigh Valley Real Estate Weekly and Commercial Corner.

“Through the years we’ve developed several web sites to provide information to both our membership and the general public,” says Rosemary Scardina, CEO of the Lehigh Valley Association of REALTORS®. “We have now created a site specifically for the public that gets them the information they need immediately, instead of navigating through information that is of little interest to them.”

Homebuyers may click on the link to “Homes for Sale” and enter the county, area, price range, school district, number of bedrooms and bathrooms and other criteria in order to get listings of only the houses they would be interested in viewing. The listing includes photos as well as pertinent information on pricing, taxes, water and sewer systems, size of the land, square feet of the home, etc. “It’s a perfect way to glean the information homebuyers need to decide if they are interested in the house,” says Scardina.

According to the National Association of REALTORS® 2008 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, “For one-third of homebuyers, the first step in the home-buying process was looking online for properties.” The study also found that eighty-seven percent of all homebuyers and ninety-four percent of homebuyers age 25-44 used the Internet to search for homes. “When we see statistics rising on Internet use, we need to ensure that we are making access to information as easy as possible for homebuyers,” adds Scardina.

LVRealEstateCentral.com has a direct link to open houses that allows homebuyers to input specific criteria in the homes for sale section but also includes an area for the dates. According to Scardina, if homebuyers know they will spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon touring open houses, they can set the criteria to get a list of the open houses of homes matching their requirements.

Current and past issues of Lehigh Valley Real Estate Weekly may also be found on the site. The publication is currently distributed at over 700 locations in seven counties throughout the Lehigh Valley and New Jersey and may be found at local REALTORS® offices, convenience stores and in bright blue boxes outdoors.

LVRealEstateCentral.com will also feature current and past issues of Commercial Corner for business professionals and investors to review online.

“Of course, your REALTOR® is always the best source for the most current information,” says Scardina. “The Lehigh Valley Association of REALTORS® is hosting our new site as a convenience for the general public, allowing them access to information around-the-clock. Although we are providing all of the information we can as an Association, personal contact with your REALTOR® is always the best.”

This article is provided courtesy of the members of the Lehigh Valley Association of REALTORS^®. Visit us at www.LVRealEstateCentral.com.