eBay: The Missing Manual

Selling Real Estate Online

It might sound crazy to buy real estate over the Internet, but more and more people are doing just that. According to a 2005 survey by the California Association of Realtors, nearly two-thirds of first-time home buyers used the Internet to find their new home. In addition, Internet home buyers had higher incomes and made the decision to purchase faster than traditional home buyers: while traditional home buyers averaged seven weeks to find the home they ultimately bought, Internet buyers took the plunge after just two weeks of looking.

If you have real estate to sell, you can reach a wide audience of eager home buyers and investors through eBay. Real estate is a fast-growing category on the site. On any given day, if you check out eBay Pulse (http://pulse.ebay.com), which tracks the 10 most-watched auctions on the site, you're likely to find that a couple of those top auctions are for real estate.

All kinds of real estate sell on eBay, from time-shares to single-family homes to investment properties. People have used eBay to sell castles, former schools, converted churches, vacation homes, motels, apartment complexes, RV parks, factories, hunting camps, B&Bs—just about any kind of property you can imagine.

Note

In late 2004, eBay bought Rent.com. Rent.com's Web site (www.rent.com) matches up landlords and tenants. People looking for an apartment can use the site for free. (In fact, Rent.com has offered a promotion giving tenants a $100 gift card when they ...