House hunting is a marketing effort as well

House hunting is as much a marketing effort than purely a finding process for the buyer. Start by telling your friends and family that you are in the market to buy a home, and describe to them with as much detail of your dream home as possible. This is your marketing task.

In effect, word of mouth will spread within your network that you are looking for a certain type of house. Given due time. your marketing efforts may pay dividends when a seller calls you to see if you are interested in viewing their house.