Tucson, Arizona boasts a real estate market that is as varied as Tucson’s culturally diverse community. While some Tucsonans scour the Sunday paper in search of the perfect home for sale, others rely on their favorite realtor. Another option available to research homes currently for sale on the Tucson real estate market is the MLS listings. MLS (Multiple Listing Service) is a database of local homes for sale. You can search the Tucson MLS database at www.tarmls.com. The following tips will take you through a search, step by step, in a manner that will help you find exactly the type of real estate you are seeking.
Start at www.tarmls.com by clicking on “Public Search” in the upper left corner. (Later, when you are ready to look at homes you can find a realtor in Tucson by clicking on “Find an Agent”.)
The first search option is “Property Types”. Here is where you can select from several categories. If you are seeking a home for sale in Tucson, you will select the box next to “Residential”. Once you have selected this box you will note that several subcategories appear. Choose one or more of the following categories: single family residential, single family new construction, manufactured home single family residential, mobile home, townhouse/condominium, and townhouse/condominium new construction. It is important to know that if your search turns up more than 400 homes you will be asked to revise your criteria in order to narrow down the number. (You can click on “Preview Count” to see what number you are at in your current search.) Try to make choices based on what you are seriously looking for, not on what you’ll settle for. You can always go back and search again later!
The second search option on the TAR MLS site is the address search. This option is handy for those times you are out driving around Tucson and you see a house for sale but there are no information flyers available. If you know it, you can type in the precise address of the home for sale you are researching. For example, let’s say the address of the house you saw for sale is 6534 West Vinca Rose Drive. In the box marked “Street #” you would type in 6534. The next box, “Street # Thru”, you would leave blank. In the drop down box marked “Direction” you would select West, under “Street Name” you would type Vinca Rose, and in the drop down box marked “Suffix” you would select Drive. If you forgot to write down the specific address, don’t worry. This search is very forgiving! Let’s say you think the address of the house you saw for sale was 1999 McDonald. Or was it 1900 McConnell? And you have no clue whether it was North or South, Road or Drive! No problem. In the “Street #” box type in 1000, and type 2000 in the “Street # Thru” box. Skip the “Direction” drop down, and under “Street Name” type in MC. Make sure you have a dot next to “Begins With”. Hit search and you’ll get a listing (most with photos) of houses that are on a street beginning with MC with addresses in the 1000 – 2000 range. Ah, so it was 1990 S. McConnell Drive!
Now on to the third search option. Next to the box labeled “Cities” you will click on the search icon (it looks like a magnifying glass). Another box will pop up and you can either type the desired city name in, e.g. Tucson, Vail, or Sahuarita. Alternately you can click on the link that says “Click here to display all cities” and select anything from Ajo to Benson to Corona de Tucson.
Your next search option is “Subdivisions”. This search is quite similar to the “Cities” search. Most people searching for a home for sale on Tucson MLS will not use this search feature. But perhaps you have friends or family who live in a particular subdivision and you’d love to live closer to them. This option will allow you to view any homes for sale listed on the MLS in that subdivision. If you would like to search by subdivision, use the same steps as listed in the “Cities” search. Otherwise simply skip this feature.
The next three features are generally quite useful. “Areas”, “Zip Codes”, and “School Districts” will allow you to search for houses for sale in the areas of Tucson you desire.
For the “Areas” option, click on the search icon. In the pop up box, select the areas of Tucson you find desirable. Some areas will overlap, so this is a time you may want to broaden your options. For instance, if you are looking for a home for sale in Northeast Tucson you should select both North and Northeast Tucson in the search box.
For the “Zip Codes” feature, type in Tucson Zip Codes that are in areas you’d like to search for houses for sale separated with commas. You do not have to type in Zip Codes if you have already selected areas in the previous box, but you may if you want to narrow your search.
And for the “School Districts” feature, if you wish you can select “Elementary”, “Middle”, or “High” as the type of school. Then you would either type in the name of school you desire, or you can search using the search icon.
The next search is very important to most people searching the Tucson MLS for a house for sale. This is the “Price” feature. Simply enter your lowest desired price in the first box (or leave blank) and your maximum desired price in the second.
For the “Year Built” feature you can enter the earliest construction year you are willing to look at in the first box and the most recent in the second box.
The “Bathrooms” feature allows you to search by number of baths in the homes for sale. You can enter a minimum and maximum number of total bathrooms, or narrow your search by entering ½ baths, full baths, etc.
The “Structure” feature allows you to search by minimum to maximum square feet. You may want to simply enter the minimum square feet you desire in the first box and leave the second box blank. Same with the “Lot Size” feature.
The final search feature is the “Listing Number” feature. You will use this if you have seen or heard about a house for sale in Tucson and you have acquired the MLS number for that home. If you have the MLS number you do not need to enter any other information.
Once you start playing with all the helpful search features on the Tucson MLS website you’ll find that you are a pro before you know it! And in no time you will have found the house for sale of your dreams!
