Websites for property research

[Patrick Allen]

I am sure this has been discussed ad nauseam in other forum links, but I haven't been using the site long enough to effectively use the search bar. Feel free to link me!

I am looking to make my first investment (OO MF, ideally a 4plex) within the next 9 months. I would like to poll the collective opinion on what is your favorite website for looking at multifamily properties? I am not horrendously picky as to which part of town I want (just that it is stable), so I'm having trouble narrowing down my prospects. Searching based on price or number of bedrooms, etc isn't super helpful because they show a lot of stuff not in my criteria (i.e. a ton of duplexes at premium pricing).

What are some of the better websites for researching multifamily? Which ones allow you to search by number of units? I have stumbled across Loopnet, Zillow and Homes.com, but haven't invested a lot of time to learning any one interface.

If it is a pay site: is it really worth it to subscribe? I haven't even seen a property yet!