If you’re dreaming of that perfect home; maybe one with privacy, space, horse stalls, acreage, space between your neighbors, or within a certain distance from Fort Gordon or SRS - you’ve probably run into a common problem: limited search results.

Today I want to show you a simple truth, or really a hack, to find more homes tailored to what you are looking for. Online search engines like Zillow, for instance, only know to give you the data you tell it to give you. Many buyers search by city names like ‘Homes for sale in Grovetown’ or 'Homes for sale in North Augusta', but homes on the outskirts, in adjacent towns, don’t always appear because of how maps are scaled or filtered. Horse properties are not limited to Aiken alone. They spill over into neighboring towns and areas, and your search filters might be keeping them out and you don't even realize it. In fact, many realtors do not always think this through. Even more surprising, some homes that are located in the city you are searching do not appear in your search due to unique boundary lines already automated by the search engines. A typical reaction to this would be to remove the city, but doing that shows ALL homes available on the market in the area. This will leave you either overwhelmed by the amount of homes or discouraged by the fact that all the homes you are looking at are not the perfect home you've been searching for. 

Hack #1: There are fabulous new construction homes in the Lakes and Streams neighborhood which is located in North Augusta; however, due to the unique and automated boundary lines on search engines, if you search 'New Construction Homes In North Augusta' you will not see any of the many homes on the market. The system actually shows this neighborhood outside of the 'North Augusta' line causing them to not appear on the list, even if you move your map around. There is a solution, remove the 'city' and only have 'New Construction' as your only filter then you can move around on the map and see different neighborhoods you may not have seen before.

Hack #2: Are you looking for an easy commute to Fort Gordon, but yet just far enough away? If you key in 'Homes within 30 minutes of Fort Gordon' it will automatically put up boundary lines. Instead, try taking off the 'city' and it will automate for you and put 'Fort Gordon' as your keyword, you'll have an entire new set of homes to look at.

Hack #3: Say you are looking for a large home with privacy and maybe even horse stalls. You type into Google 'Homes for Sale in Aiken County with Horse Stalls' and you click on Zillow. Take a look at this search, now if we remove the city filters and then add or adjust the keyword and type in 'stalls' for instance then start moving around the area you'll start to notice more homes in your search and likely homes you haven't seen before like this amazing home at 116 Jackson Road with 3 horse stalls available - if you didn't change the search you could have missed this home.

Hack #4: Looking for a home with a little space between neighbors, maybe a home on 1-5 acres. Looking to have privacy, start a garden, mini farm or walk on your front porch and be surrounded by nature. You will not find that home randomly looking up 'Homes for Sale' or 'Homes with Acreage'. Try typing in different keywords like 'No City Taxes', 'No HOA', 'privacy' and so on. I recommend going onto my website Shannonr.com type in the city you are thinking about, then add in the minimum lot acreage you are looking for and you may only have 8 search results BUT we will automatically provide other options below in surrounding areas with the amount of acreage you are looking for. For instance, 184 Deer Springs is actually 'Clarks Hill' yet just on the outskirts of North Augusta, so you wouldn’t have found this home by just searching North Augusta.

Rare homes don't have to be rare - when you look a little wider and tailor your search, you'll find more out there - don't be afraid to think outside the box. My team and I are on standby 7 days a week ready to help you take the smoother road to sold. Let us help you find the home that checks off the right boxes.