|
|
 |
|
|
Buying and Selling Real Estate on eBay. So You Think You Want to Buy or Sell Real Estate on eBay... One of the best parts of selling real estate on eBay is that you are marketing it to the world, not just your local area. eBay exposes the property to 70 million potential buyers. Open houses aren't just on Sundays; they are 24 hours a day, seven days a week! If you are a real estate broker, eBay makes it easy to get the competitive edge over other area brokers. Your sellers want to choose a broker who can really maximize their properties exposure to the market. There are several ways to sell the property on eBay, including by auction or by "classified ad". Most important perhaps is the fact that eBay real estate auctions are very cost effective. For example, for residential and commercial properties, for a 30-day auction listing or a classified ad listing, there is a $150.00 insertion fee (to get the auction or listing up and going) or a $300.00 fee for a 90-day ad listing. And unlike most eBay auctions, there is no final value fees or commissions on the completed sale of residential and commercial properties. As a buyer, the sky's the limit! All sorts of residential, commercial, land, timeshare, and properties await. You might just find that new home or investment you've been looking for. So lets see if we can shed some light on the big mystery of real estate buying and selling at eBay Real Estate. So, lets get into some of the details for the sellers. First determine the type of property you are trying to sell and read the basic eBay selling guides: Timeshares, Land, or Selling your Home. Then you should read the eBay rules for selling real estate. For real estate sales on eBay there are basically four different approaches, each with their pros and cons, and all with different price structures and listing requirements. The classic eBay sellers' sales approach is, of course, the online auction. You collect bids on the property and sell to the highest bidder, in a given amount of time. Also, in an auction, you can put in a "Buy it Now" option, where you sell the real estate at a fixed price (which is gone after the first auction bid is placed). This works great for those that don't want to wait for the auction process. Real estate auctions may run 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, or 30 days. For residential, commercial, and other real estate (except timeshares and land) 1 to 10 day listings are $100.00 and 30-day listings are $150.00. On timeshares and land sales, 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10-day listings are a $35.00 insertion fee, and a 30-day listing is $50.00. Unlike all other eBay real estate listings, on timeshares and land there is a $35.00 "Final Value Fee" added at the end of the auction when there has been a successful bid. Your next option is to set a fixed price for your real estate, so buyers can purchase it outright, where no bidding is done. The length of the set price auction is the same as a "regular" real estate auction, and the fees are also the same. Your final option for eBay real estate sales is the "Real Estate Ad" format or "classified ad". This approach lets real estate sellers make contact with lots of interested buyers and doesn't involve bidding. There is no "contractual" or other obligation for potential buyers who make contact with the seller. This kind of listing appears in the appropriate category of the eBay real estate section. Thirty-day listings cost $150.00, and 90-day listings are $300.00. An important point about the "Ad" listing is that there is no "Final Value Fee" added for ANY kind of real estate sale including timeshares and land. The first thing sellers decide is whether their property is Land Property (no structures on it), a Timeshare (1-2 weeks), Residential, Commercial, or something else. eBay provides extensive information that helps answer questions about what just exactly these properties are such as timeshares. The basic property for sale is land. Within the land category, the U.S. State or Canadian Province is stated. A minimum to maximum acreage range is given (e.g. 5-10 acres) and then the zoning is given. In the case of a land listing this could be residential, mixed, commercial, or industrial. The category most listings fall into, of course is residential. In this category the state or province is chosen. The city may be chosen. If it has structures (i.e., more than land) the number of bedrooms and bathrooms may be chosen or left on the default category "any." If it has a home, the residential sale type may be "any", "existing homes", "foreclosed homes", or "new homes." In all real estate categories there is a keyword search function available. What should you sell your property for? Well, that is where we can really help. You can look at some of our suggestions below for buyers on how to research the market in the area of your property, or you can use our Sell-It Price Finder tool to find the average price for similar listings and the success rate of such listings. So, how do you handle the property transfer? Well, eBay has teamed up with the First American Corporation to provide this service to you and your buyer. You can get a free quote from them and offer this service as part of your eBay auction or ad. They also explain why title insurance and escrow services are important and provide valuable Property Report information. How do buyers find the kind of real estate they want, where they want it? Buyers should start at the eBay Real Estate page. From this page, buyers select the type of property, the location of the property, and more choices to help narrow down the listings. So, You're A Buyer... What Are You Bidding On? In most eBay auctions its usually fairly obvious what you are bidding on, what its going to cost you, how much you are committing yourself to buy, and what you will own at the conclusion of the auction. Whether you are bidding on a pair of pants or even a car, the outcome is fairly clear. With real estate auctions, it just isn't that simple. On the other hand, just like all other eBay auctions a winning successful bid really is a negotiated sales contract. In the simplest real estate auctions the highest bid amount is the sales price, period. You will most often see these auctions on small rural land property parcels, or maybe on timeshare auctions. In most of these auctions, you need to read the fine print. There may be closing fees, title insurance, loan fees, etc. For timeshares there may be limits of use, monthly or annual maintenance fees, "swapping value" (i.e., belonging to a network of timeshares), etc. A lot of timeshares are managed by companies, such as GMAC International Properties, that are a known to provide timeshare services and referrals on eBay. Vacation properties are described through many of the common trip finders such as Expedia.com, HotWire.com, etc. You should compare prices with those found by our Buy-It Price Finder tool. You will find eBay to be a bargain hunter's paradise. Frommers.com and Tripadvisor.com often have traveler reviews of the properties that may assist you in finding out about the place or the management of the place. eBay also has forums, such as the one for timeshares that includes advice, input, and eBay community members that may have suggestions on selecting the right property for you. Inman News provides additional home buying, selling, and mortgage advice. Many real estate companies also provide such information. Bidding on the real estate's down payment is another format found on eBay. A set total final sales price is already established for the property (e.g. the ad says the final total price is $120,000). The bidding process is determining who wants to make the highest down payment against a set sales price. The seller has decided to sell to whoever is willing to put the most money "down" on the property. In some cases the sellers "starting" bid price will be the minimum amount "down" he wants to sell the property for. In some cases, there is a "reserve" price that hides this minimum amount and does not allow the auction to end successfully unless met or exceeded. Another approach is setting up an auction for what the monthly payment will be on a given real estate parcel, on maybe a 20 or 30-year note. In this scenario the seller is willing to carry the note ("carry back" the paper as the lender) for the duration of the loan contract. The buyer becomes the owner of record and has, of course, the tax write-offs, etc. The seller is collecting principal and interest for whatever period of time has been agreed to, at whatever terms are presented and agreed to, via the auction process. So, the point of this discussion is you have to read the details in the ad and know what you are bidding on and potentially making a binding agreement to buy. How do I find out the details about the property I'm interested in? Since you are potentially entering into a binding contract to buy a property, it's very important to know everything you possibly can about it, regardless of the property type. Obviously the first place to start is the sellers' ad. Read it very carefully, make notes, and jot down those questions as they occur to you. The item location is given in the ad. This could read something like "Cape Haze Peninsula SW Florida." If you happen to live in Florida, that might tell you quite a bit. If you don't, maybe it won't. Sometimes the total land acreage is given, sometimes not. This also holds true with the property situs (street) address. The seller may provide view information, whether the property situation is such that you may or may not ever have neighbors behind you (e.g., behind you is Bureau of Land Management national property). Also, maybe the seller has one or two adjacent lots he is willing to also sell you. Perhaps the property is zoned such that it is subdividable, and the seller may inform you of that fact. Sometimes they will not. If it is a bare lot (land) maybe the seller is a house builder and will also build you a home from their plans or your plans. On occasion the seller will provide land maps, plot maps, or topographical maps of the property either within the ad or on the sellers linked web page. When it is a land sale, often the seller will state water (e.g. well required), electricity, gas (e.g., propane only), cable, and telephone availability. Also distances to parks, golf courses, shopping, fire departments, and major cities are often given. To get more information than provided often the place to start is on a map like those from MapQuest. There you can find street maps, area maps, zip codes, etc. Often the zip code can be found on the bottom right corner of the first page of the ad. Or, perhaps, the seller has included a neighborhood profile. This profile includes a lot of information about the area and the zip code may be obtained from that profile. With the zip code in hand often a next step is to go to a real estate search engine such as Realtor.com. On this free information sites' cover page you can put in the address or zip code of the property you are studying to obtain comparable listing properties with prices in the immediate area. This may give you a general idea of what a given type of property is listing for. Sale prices are often within 5-7% of listing prices. If the actual property address is given in the listing (sometimes it is!) and if you get a good map, it is easy to find the property listings in the zip code quite close to the "subject" property. But, you have to be the detective! Also, Realtor.com listings are a great way to get additional "snapshots" of what a given area, and homes in that area look like. For example you would find that in the 97470 zip code (Roseburg, OR), most of the houses in southeast Roseburg were built in the 1940's and 1950's, and have small rooms, generally 2-3 bedrooms, fireplaces, and only one-car garages. If you are looking for a mansion, or horse property, this may not be for you. Another line of inquiry on any property listing is appreciation potential. If I buy it, how likely is it to go up in value? The more you can define where a vacant lot (for example) is related to major roads, highways, and the direction of major municipal area development, the more you know about appreciation potential. If you know a city is growing north and west and you locate a vacant sub dividable ten acre parcel eight miles northwest of town, on flat to rolling ground, it may be worth considering buying and holding, and waiting for all those urban homebuyers and developers to get out to where your property is. That is, if it is not in agricultural land that will never be able to be developed. So, where can you get this information? Well, many areas have City or County offices that have on-line planning and zoning information. In the State of Oregon, some County Assessors information on the owner, property value, zoning, structures, and aerial photographs are available. Check this information carefully! Call and find out if back taxes are due. Call and find out if the site can be used or developed, as you would like. Local planners can help you determine zoning and local plan regulations that may determine the projects benefits or pitfalls. Ask them if it is in a flood zone, has an earthquake fault, has contaminated soils, or a past use history… there is a lot to know. It is good to consider commute times for yourself, or if only an investment, other likely eventual buyers by looking at their areas of employment and distance to the home. How far are people in the subject property area willing to commute to get a quiet, more rural or possibly less expensive home property? Does weather play a factor? When you consider the drive home buyers make from their work in Los Angeles out to the inland desert (e.g. Palmdale/Lancaster area), it makes you realize this can be quite a distance if major infrastructure makes it possible. Topography and climate can make quite a difference too. Most people when they think of Oregon, for example, think of very wet, green, lush environment…if so, they are in western Oregon… the one west of the Cascade Mountains. But, a lot of the rural land property in Oregon on eBay is in eastern Oregon. East of these mountains it is actually a very arid, high desert area. So, it does not matter if the ad says "close to Portland." What you need to know is where in Oregon the property really is located. Again, pictures like on Realtor.com can tell you a lot, but that is only just a start. Finally, if you are going to bid on a property, you owe it to yourself to get out there to see it before you bid on it. If its winter, and the property is currently inaccessible, then think twice and do your homework…that is where buyer judgment comes into play. Don't be afraid to call a local real estate office or Chamber of Commerce for area information. If you aren't comfortable with what you still don't know, don't bid! Call, email, fax, or write the owner. Do a "Goggle" search if you need to, but get your answers to your satisfaction first. A title report might be available from the seller or a title company such as the First American Corporation endorsed by eBay. This report can tell you a lot about any "encumbrances" or limits on the land including mineral rights, claims, development rights, easements, etc. And, title companies insure the accuracy of their information. First American Corporation also provides a Property Report through U.S. Search that will provide more information. Their Questions and Answers will give you an idea of why this is so important to use. For a property with structures on it, you may want to hire a professional inspector or licensed contractor to check it out before you buy. For land, you may need to make sure it's a "legal" subdivision (not that "swamp land" in Florida). A licensed surveyor or Professional Engineer (PE) may be able to help determine the ability to divide or develop the site. Please, do your homework! A real estate contract is a serious commitment and some state laws dictate whom may handle the sales and how it may be transacted, so if in doubt, consult your state's Department of Real Estate. Armed with some useful background you can use our Buyers Tools to find the average price properties selling in the area that you are looking for or by the type you are looking for. Start with a very specific search, and then broaden it up if you are having trouble finding anything. Remember, things change by the minute on eBay! So how are you going to pay for your property?
Lenders such as Quicken Loans Happy Hunting!
Quick links mentioned in the article above:
|
|
|
About Us | Articles | Contact Us | Home | News | Privacy
Copyright © 2004 HR Enterprises. All rights reserved.
Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.
Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the Auction Bullet Privacy Policy.
AuctionBullet is not owned oroperated by eBay® Inc. Links all searches