Do you have pajama footies? Do they have clouds or maybe little lambs on them, or something more macho like Superman or tigers? Whatever you have on your footies, and we all know you have them, you can be sure that you'll be well dressed to shop for your next home and mortgage.

In some areas shopping on line has almost overtaken bricks and mortar stores, and while you probably don't want to purchase a property strictly from an on line posting, you can do a lot of the leg work before you put on your walking shoes. To help you there are many ways to access real estate information on line, all of them free. These are some techniques you can use to get information on properties for sale as well as the value of properties.

The gold standard in my opinion, and the one I use almost daily, is Realtor.com. Realtor.com is active in every state and the apps work on desktop computers as well as smart phones. The site is sponsored by the National Association of Realtors and has access to multiple listing services nationwide, but does not contain for sale by owner at this point. There are a variety of ways to sort information, new properties, selling price, location and it is updated every 15 minutes.

Zillow.com also is available on most devices and updates every 15 minutes and pulls from the multiple listing services nationwide as well. They do have historical trends available and of course you can get a Zestimate of your property or another. There is also a recent book published by Zillow called "Zillow Talk" written by Zillow's chief economist and their CEO. The book contains some interesting insights relative to real estate buzz words like cute and quaint as well as the best neighborhoods to buy into.

Trulia.com like the other two provides most of the same property listings but they also focus on the area's lifestyle like stores, restaurants, crime statistics and transportation. They have a "walk score" to assess how easy it is to do errands but does not provide home value estimates.

Finally redfin.com covers 75 metropolitan areas and will connect you with a salaried Redfin buyer's agent. Redfin is more of a virtual realtor then strictly an information source.

Another good source of information is you're old buddy Google. I find that if I put in the address of a property I may have driven by or one with a for sale sign I will most times get a hit that takes me to a realtor website and the price. Also every multiple listing realtor has a website that will give you the ability to search the local multiple listing service. In addition, our local realtor board, the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee, has multiple listing properties on their website.

And if you're still in your footies after you found a home and want some mortgage information no need to change. Big mortgage lenders and banks all have websites that will give you most of the information you're looking for and even the ability upload the necessary documents like W2s, 1099s, bank statements, tax returns, etc. Wells Fargo even has a loan tracker feature; however, you will still need to show up in person to sign the forms per the federal regulations.

So sit back relax and dress or not however you want. Like the Yellow Pages advertising use to say "let your fingers do the walking" or in this case your mouse.