The latest research by the National Association of Realtors, or NAR, shows that 77 percent of home buyers in 2005 used the Internet in some capacity to search for a home, compared to just 2 percent in 1995. Further, when the buyers surveyed by NAR were asked where they first learned of the homes they bought last year, 24 percent identified the Internet, up sharply from 15 percent the previous year and overwhelmingly from 2 percent in 1997.

A few or the more popular for-sale sites are ForSaleByOwner.com, Realtor.com, Owners.com, Craigslist.org, Byowner.com, Fsbo.com, and Hometoursonline.

Sometimes, it’s all about marketing. The more quality pictures you can provide these sites, and the more vivid descriptions and selling points you write, the better. And the more space and services you use, the more you’ll pay, naturally. It helps to be very handy with a digital camera or to know someone who is. Many of these sites offer virtual tours that give potential buyers a 360-degree view of your home’s rooms. That photography generally has to be done by a professional.

One of the biggest advantages of a Web listing, by the way, is that it gives out-of-market buyers a means of looking over a home from afar — an important consideration in our ultra-transient society.

NAR, which is also a Realtor-advocacy organization, says the majority of Internet buyers and sellers still use an agent in some capacity to help shepherd along these Web transactions.

Sellers who choose to go the for-sale-by-owner, or FSBO, route can list their homes on their market’s official Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, for a flat fee that ranges from $200 to $500. The price often includes peripheral listings of their homes on the sites of local newspapers and other media, as well as on FSBO Web pages, etc.

More and more home buyers are also using the Web to enlist mortgage services and other real estate services, as well as to research pertinent data about school districts, tax rates, crime rates and community amenities. One Internet tool you might find useful in pricing your home is the online valuation service. The new Zillow site, for example, offers valuations of your home and area, illustrating them with satellite images of your home and neighborhood.