Foreclosures right now are exploding with interest because people are finding out it is a better, safer, and more secure way to make a living. It’s no secret that foreclosures are at a 30-year high. Why? Some may feel the economy is to blame. Still others say it could be due to unemployment. Yet others speculate that it could be the leniency in the lending business. Whatever you choose to believe, the fact still remains that foreclosures are at record highs. This is wonderful news to the investor. This just means there are plenty to go around and several to search through so you can find that “diamond in the rough”.

As I mentioned before, many of your potential buyers may be from out of the area. You can beef up your chances of receiving bites on your property by adding information about the area and its surroundings, such as the commute time to downtown, to area school districts, to local shopping areas, and area attractions. You also might want to include information on the school districts as well as links to the districts for review, some of the activities in the area for children, and any other family- or pet-friendly community activities you know of in the area.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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