Houses for sale are often posted by the owner before they are listed with a real estate agency. There are several places you can look for your next home, and some of these places are rather uncommon. Here are three less-common advertising places you should search when you are house-hunting.

Auction Sites

Property auctions have websites that list all of the current properties that are about to be sold via auction. Usually, you can make private bids online on these sites if you establish a bidder's account first. Otherwise, the properties listed may have live auctions onsite at each property, with an assigned day and time for the auction. Some auction sites will also accept "earnest money" if you want a particular property bad enough, and then allow you more exclusive opportunities or "dibs" on the bidding when it starts.

There are also sheriff sales and county auctions that are listed online. Depending on where you live, these may be "online only" auctions where you have to log on and bid, or they may be "site only" auctions where an auctioneer appears the day of the auction and starts the bidding for all of those present. The deals may be really good too, since most of these houses are foreclosures. A few rare properties are homes or land belonging to the county and state that are being auctioned off to raise funds for something else.

Craigslist

Many homeowners now use Craigslist to advertise their homes for sale. Since the listings are free (so long as price is not mentioned), many people offer up their homes with pictures this way in the hopes of drawing more interested parties. It can be a very inexpensive and effective way of selling one's house, as well as inexpensive to the buyer who is still in the stages of "window shopping" for a home.

"For Sale By Owner" Apps

Real estate agencies have their own apps, but so do homeowners. "For sale by owner" apps for your mobile devices allow sellers to post their own listings, and allow buyers to browse at their leisure. It also provides a safe platform for buyers and sellers to communicate, set up viewing times for the houses you are interested in, and strike a bargain with the homeowner whose house you are most interested in purchasing. These apps are typically free and easy to download from any app store.