How to find your ideal home with our search function
Searching for a new home is an exciting process but there’s a lot to consider. From location to room size, decor and the garden, at times it can feel like the options are endless.
With over 5,000 properties available on ASPC, finding that perfect home may seem a little daunting at times but when using our different search functions, narrowing down your list has never been easier.
In our latest blog post, CEO Lorna Coutts shares her top tips for finding your perfect home on ASPC.
Location search
“Searching for properties by location is a great way to build a sense of what a particular area is like based on the homes available, or to drill down in your search for a home if you have a specific location in mind.
“There are two ways you can filter your search for a property by location on our website. One is to navigate to the search field, enter a key term or location name and then press ‘return’. This will generate a ‘free text’ search and display all properties that contain the search term within their address.
“For instance if you use the search term ‘Stonehaven’, the results will include all properties that contain ‘Stonehaven’ within their address - even properties in surrounding areas such as Newtonhill, where Stonehaven is the postal town and as such forms part of the address for these properties. This technique can be particularly helpful if you are looking to recall one particular address or target a specific location.
“The second location search method is to start typing a key term and then selecting one of the options that become available on the list. This utilises the Royal Mail postcode file and is ideal for getting very specific with your search, finding properties on a particular street as well as towns or villages. If this method is used and a postal town (such as Stonehaven) is selected, then again, it will display every property available for the postal town area, rather than just the town itself.”
Area search
“Searching by area allows you to select from a list of local towns and villages, broadening your search from a specific location but refining it enough to a key range that you are interested in.
“These areas are organised across three different ‘tabs’ on our website– City & suburbs, Country, Other UK & international. On the ‘Country’ tab, you will notice that each of the main postal towns across our catchment area have a ‘+’ symbol beside them. This opens a sub menu, allowing you to select the full area or the town itself only so that you can narrow down the properties available based on your area preference.”
Map search
“Using the map search function is particularly handy if you have a definite area in mind, for example, to be near a particular bus route, school catchment or to make the workplace commute as short as possible.
“When the map opens, there is an option to search ‘visible area’ or to ‘draw a search’.
1. The visible area option allows you to zoom in and out over the desired area and shows results in the form of pins, with a number in the middle to indicate the number of properties in the vicinity. At this point you can click on the pin to show available properties, switching from map view to list view for ease. This is particularly useful if you are using a mobile phone, as the draw function can be a little trickier on small handheld touch screens.
2. The ‘draw search’ option allows you to draw a circle yourself (identifying the centre of your search, plus a certain radius) or a polygon (a shape to be drawn by the user, including & excluding certain streets/areas as necessary).”
Advanced search
“As well as the ability to discover properties based on location and area, our website’s search function allows you to refine your research to the core details of our available homes. Whether you have a specific budget in mind, or number of rooms you would like in your new home, you can narrow down the results to include these details in addition to your location, area or map search. This allows you to be as specific or broad as you would like in your search, using as many of these additional filtering options as you would like.
“Not only that, you can use the advanced search tool to filter your search even further, incorporating keywords such as ‘steading’, ‘bungalow’, ‘fireplace’, ‘kitchen island’ to find your ideal property with the exact features on your wishlist.”
“At ASPC, we want to help both buyers, renters, and sellers across the North East. Our team has created a range of insightful blog posts and information pages that will inspire, inform and guide you.
“Here are a few of our recent articles that you may be interested in: