How to Search Smarter on Dealin: Filters and Saved Searches Explained

Scrolling through hundreds of listings looking for one decent second-hand couch or a half-reasonable rental is nobody's idea of a good afternoon. The good news is you don't have to. Dealin's search tools are built to cut the noise fast, so instead of wading through everything on the site you're only looking at what actually fits what you want. Here's how to get the most out of them.

Start With the Right Category

Every search on Dealin starts with picking a category and it matters more than people think. Dealin runs six main categories — Marketplace, Jobs, Motors, Property, Services and Business For Sale — each with its own sub-categories underneath. Motor splits into cars, motorbikes, boats and motorhomes and campers. Property splits into residential, commercial, housemates and retirement. Marketplace goes further still, breaking down into home decor, baby products, mobile phones and dozens of others.

Choosing the appropriate classification in the initial stages is more labor intensive than is often realized. A generic search for a keyword on the entire site returns a random assortment of loosely related results. If you are looking for a specific type of property and, more specifically, a specific sub-type of property, the result of narrowing to a category, then a sub-category, is that all the listings you view are a match for what you are looking for. When it comes to a used car, go directly to Motors > Cars rather than enter a generic search term and wade through job and services listings that coincidently include the term car.

Filter by Location

Location filtering is where Dealin earns its keep as a local classifieds site rather than just another marketplace. Because most trades happen in person — someone picking up a couch, a tradie quoting a job nearby, a renter viewing a property before signing — knowing where a listing actually is matters far more than it would on a site built around shipping things across the country.

Dealin allows you to search by suburb and state and even has sub-sites for all of the major cities Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Gold Coast, Darwin and Hobart. If you're based in Perth, and only want to see Perth listings, simply click onto the Perth city page or simply click the filter button within your category to keep everything local. Plus, it eliminates the tedious e-dialing and e-mailing a homeowner only to discover that they live three states away and had no plans to post nationally.

This applies to all sellers. When people search by suburb/city, they will only ever view your listing when you complete your listing details – so double check the location details before publishing.

Set a Price Range

Price filtering does the obvious job of keeping results within budget, but it's also one of the fastest ways to trim an oversized results list down to something manageable. Categories like Marketplace and Motors can run into hundreds of listings within a single sub-category and setting a minimum and maximum price knocks out everything outside your range in one go.

It's worth being a little generous with the range rather than locking it down too tight. Sellers price things differently — some round up, some round down, some leave room to negotiate — so a range slightly wider than your ideal number often surfaces better options than one that's razor-precise. Hunting for a laptop under $400? Setting the filter to $250–$450 will usually catch worthwhile listings that a strict $0–$400 cutoff would miss, simply because a seller listed at $410 expecting to talk it down.

Combine Filters for Sharper Results

The filters aren't meant to be used one at a time. Category, sub-category, location and price all stack together and the more of them you use, the tighter your results get. Someone looking for a two-bedroom rental under $500 a week in Melbourne isn't served well by browsing all of Property — they're served well by Property > Residential, filtered to Melbourne, with the price capped at $500. That's four filters doing the work a single keyword search never could.

The same logic applies on the selling side. A tradie posting in Services > Trade Professionals with their suburb filled in accurately shows up in exactly the searches that matter, rather than getting buried under every other listing in a broad, unfiltered category.

Keep Track of Listings You Like

Not every good listing gets acted on the moment you see it. Maybe you want to compare a few options, check with someone else, or just think it over before messaging a seller. That's what Favourites is for — logging in and adding a listing to your Favourites keeps it saved in one place, so you're not relying on memory or scrolling back through search history to find it again. It's a small thing, but on a site with this many listings across six categories, it's the difference between losing a good find and pulling it straight back up when you're ready to act.

Recent Views works alongside this in a similar way, quietly tracking what you've looked at recently so half-remembered listings are easy to find again without redoing the whole search.

A Few Habits Worth Building

This doesn't take a lot of effort once it becomes a habit. Begin at the right level (category), then use sub category (if available), and use a location filter (if you care), and a price range (but don't be exact). Favourite anything worth a second look. Do that consistently and searching on Dealin stops feeling like scrolling and starts feeling like actually finding things.

It also works in favor of the people advertising listings; not simply the people looking at them. When buyers are searching, it is the right filter category, location and reasonable listing price that will get them to show up on their search results — which, at the end of the day, is the whole point of listing it in the first place.

Ready to Find What You’re Looking For?

Skip the endless scrolling and search smarter on Dealin. Choose the right category, narrow your results with location and price filters, save your favourites, and find listings that actually match what you need.

Start searching on Dealin today and find your next great deal faster.