Apr 25, 2008
EBay has two selling formats for real estate. The first is the auction format, which is designed to sell items in a quick time period. You’ll use the auction format if you want or need to move your property in less than 30 days. Final auction results are binding. The second format is the classifieds. You’ll use the classified format if you are looking to sell your property in 30 to 90 days. A classified ad is non-binding for the buyer and is designed to be used as more of a bulletin board to collect lead information of people who are interested in your real estate. This enables you to collect the names of potential buyers, send them more information, or contact them to close the sale offline.
I’ve found that the classified section also is a great tool for lead generation for other properties I have now or that I might acquire in the future.
Apr 25, 2008
If you have more than one property to sell, list only one at a time and list the others on your storefront. Then, you can list the information about your other properties and a link to your storefront in your auction, and if people are interested, they’ll go there. You want to use eBay as your marketing site — as a great lead-generator.
Apr 25, 2008
Purchase a one-year Home Warranty. I’ve found that the average price is around $349, but that varies with location, and the payoff is worth it. For one thing, I believe that having the warranty helps to sell the house, and for another, it helps me sleep easier at night in case something happens.
For an additional $50, I always add coverage to protect the seller if anything happens between the listing time and the closing date.
Apr 25, 2008
I like to include links to the following sites in my real estate auction listings: Chicago Title (www.chicagotitle.com), Home Gain (www.homegain.com), and one of my lenders. These institutions may help to overcome some potential objections in the buyer’s mind, such as “I don’t know if I would qualify for a loan for that house,” or “I’m not certain where to go to find a title company.”
Chicago Title provides title and closing services nationwide; Home Gain is a valuation company that can provide a map and demographics of the area as well as values of comparable properties; and my lender can pre-approve them for loans. Make this process as easy as possible, and it may result in more people being interested in your properties.
Apr 25, 2008
Take your pictures with furniture in the house; doing so gives the house a warmer feel and helps potential buyers imagine how the house will look with their furniture in it. Furniture also helps to give depth and size to a room that you’re trying to show with a two-dimensional picture. Take a picture of four walls and carpet, and the size of the room would be indeterminable.
Houses sell better with furniture in them. But remove all the clutter, such as magazines, mail, toys, and clothes, when you’re shooting your photographs.
Apr 25, 2008
Take pictures from the front and rear of your property. Include views of the yard and landscaping, if they’re a selling point. Also, take pictures of the kitchen, master bedroom, master bathroom, and family room. Often, people looking at your property will be from out of town, but even if they aren’t, they will want to see as many different visuals and views as possible. Pictures sell. And the more pictures you have the better chance your property has of selling online.
Apr 23, 2008
One nice trick to control raw land is looking for 5 or more acres with a house on it so that the loan is easier to get. Raw land you often have to come up with 50% of the deposit whereas if it is 5 acres with a home, you are applying for a residential loan and can get 100% Loan To Value! This is a great site to find those deals:
www.4horseproperty.com
www.equineproperties.com
Don’t forget the government auction sites such as
treas.gov
usdoj.gov
For larger deals (commercial) I have also used
loopnet.com
Apr 23, 2008
The For Sale By Owner Sites are also good to go hunting for deals! Below are a few I’ve used:
Forsalebyowner.com
fsbo.com
buyowner.com
forsale.com
owners.com
realtor.com
Apr 23, 2008
Some counties have available public tax records that can be searched. One such place to look is www.netronline.com. This site allows you to select public record availability by county in each state. Specifically look for lis pendens listings. When a note holder begins foreclosure proceedings, this is what they must file with the public records office in that county. Now understand that there are other things that will fall under lis pendens, but this will help you begin to locate properties.
Also, consider federal mortgages and federally insured mortgages. Browse www.hud.com to see HUD mortgage foreclosure listings
www.hud.gov
www.homesales.gov
Apr 22, 2008
Some counties have available public tax records that can be searched. One such place to look is www.netronline.com. This site allows you to select public record availability by county in each state. Specifically look for lis pendens listings. When a note holder begins foreclosure proceedings, this is what they must file with the public records office in that county. Now understand that there are other things that will fall under lis pendens, but this will help you begin to locate properties.
Also, consider federal mortgages and federally insured mortgages. Browse www.hud.com to see HUD mortgage foreclosure listings.
