SEATTLE (AP) -- Years ago, Molly Bolanos looked for a home the old-fashioned way: She spent hours driving around in her real estate agent's car, hoping for the best and girding for the worst.

One recent morning, the process went like this: Bolanos and her fiance were alerted to a new listing online. They checked out the pictures on the Internet, then drove over for a real-life look and, within hours, were preparing to make an offer.

"It can be 24 hours — as quick as 24 hours that you're out making the offer — and it's because of the Internet," the Seattle resident said.

Add real estate to the list of industries being forever changed by the Internet.

Home listings — once printed out in books available only to real estate agents — are obtainable to everyone online, accompanied by increasingly sophisticated photographs and virtual tours.

Now, a growing number of online services are also cropping up to help people do things like judge house prices, survey neighborhoods and evaluate school districts, long before they ever snap the seat belt in their agents' cars.

With the nation's housing boom expected to cool in some areas, experts say such offerings will only increase. And ultimately, the fact that consumers on their own have more power than ever to do some of the work of real estate agents could even help further drive down agents' commissions. Many also expect online tools for house-hunters to become more creative and sophisticated.

"The full impact of the Internet has not been realized, primarily because business has been going up each year," said Steve Murray, editor of the trade magazine Real Trends in Littleton, Colo.

Already, the industry is dramatically different than it was a decade ago. Besides viewing listings online, Bolanos now regularly visits Zillow.com, a new Web site that provides quick, anonymous estimates of home values based on county records and other data. Although the site, which is in test form, isn't always completely accurate, Bolanos said it gives her a good barometer for judging a home's worth.

Less than a month old, the advertising-supported site already has become fodder for office gossip and dinner party chatter, in part because it gives people a voyeuristic look at what their friends and neighbors might be able to get for their homes.

The company's chief executive, Rich Barton, said his goal is to give people information that can improve their position when they sit down with a real estate agent or consider bidding on a house.

"My motivation, I guess, is kind of power to the people," Barton said.