Real estate and MLS - just beginning to understand

We don't know if we will ever get a chance to return to US. We have decided to buy a place of our own instead of renting, if we ever return in future. Owning a house and renting are equally expensive. It depends on your personal requirements and many factors. While searching for potential residential real estate recently, we have found that websites which enable easy listing by the state, range of minimum to maximum price, number of bedrooms, are indeed good websites that cover basic criteria in a home search. We happened to chance upon Austin Real Estate and it has got some of these basic search criteria for home-hunters. It has also got Austin mls (MLS means Multiple Listing Service) which is also a useful record of home listings in specific neighbourhoods.