Wednesday, June 8, 2005

 

Selling your home in the 21st century

Your "home sweet home" may be your biggest investment, and selling it quickly, cost effectively and for the best price may be sweeter yet.

When it's time to sell, one of the best ways to maximize your return may be to use 21st-century technology such as the Internet.

Here are some tips from real estate experts:

• Create your own Web site. There are hundreds of places online where you can build and host a simple Web site to showcase your home. Personalize your site with photos and stories. An example of this service can be found at www.angelfire.com.

• Take advantage of your e-mail address book. Your e-mail list can be a valuable networking and marketing tool. Ask everyone on your list to pass on a link to your created Web site or digital photos of the house for sale.

• Use the Internet to lower the selling commissions. Real estate agents offer much-needed services to help you sell your house. However, realtor commissions are a cost of selling that you should try to minimize. With typical commissions between six and seven percent, selling a $100,000 house would cost the seller $6,000 to $7,000 in commissions.

Internet auction companies such as eBay have been pioneers in bringing competition and lower prices to the marketplace.

One way to find the best commission rate for a home sale is to visit www.hungryagents.com. There, home sellers post their information and real estate agents bid for those listings by negotiating their commission rate.

Homeowners pay nothing to post their home on this site and can reap significant savings on commission fees.

Since commissions bid at this site may be as low as three percent, using this site can save a homeowner thousands of dollars.

The site also provides realtors with an additional referral source for listings. Agents register with the site for no charge and pay a flat third-party referral fee when the property sells. This new way of doing business may prove to be a win-win situation for sellers and real estate agents.