Note: While this learning module is related specifically to listing items on eBay, many of the principles it contains also apply to listing on www.bid4assets.com as well as through other selling methods.
The Mechanics of Selling on eBay:
If you have decided to sell your property on eBay, go to EBay’s homepage (www.ebay.com) and click “Sell”.
Then choose “Browse for Categories”.
Choose a Category:
You will need to choose a category (which will be Real Estate) and a sub-category (you will choose residential, land, commercial, etc. depending on what your property is).
Login (if you weren’t already logged in).
Auction Title:
You will need to choose a title for your auction. The keywords you choose for your auction are VERY important. Think about it from a buyer’s perspective. In order to find your listing, they will likely be typing in keywords that will help them find what they are looking for. In fact, eBay studies show that more than 80% of buyers look for items by typing in keywords rather than by browsing categories. So the vast majority of your buyers will find your auction by typing in keywords. Hopefully you can see how critical it is that you choose the best keywords for your title. The “best” keywords are the ones they are most likely to type in when looking for a property like yours.
A good exercise for each of your listings is to list 10-15 keywords you think apply to your property, and then prioritize them based on which ones are more likely to be searched for by someone looking for your type of property. Then include as many of them as possible in your listing title.Include in the headline the name of the city, state, & size of the lot. Then any major cities that are near by. Then any other key words that you think people will search for when looking for property in that area. (Land, lot, property, home site etc.)
Example: San Diego California 2.5 acres near Los Angeles *Land* CA
Use a Subtitle:
Using a subtitle is optional, but I definitely recommend it. It doesn’t cost very much ($.50) to add it to the listing, but it can create a lot of interest.
Keep in mind that the subtitle does not use keywords like the title does. The title gets them there, and the subtitle draws them in.
So with the subtitle, you are trying to say something that will get the person to click on your listing to find out more. So get them excited.
Use phrases like, “No reserve”, “Close to the beach”, “Luxury homes surrounding property”, or other things that will get people to click on your listing and want to find out more.
Example: Beautiful Lake Front Property. No Reserve!
Selected Property Information:
You will then be asked to enter some general information about you and the property. This will include:
· Your State of Residence
· Property Address
· Type
· Zoning
Area Acreage (acres)
These will be toward the top of your listing in a box that will make this information easy for your potential buyers to see when they open your listing.
You can also choose the following options if you would like:
Allow users to see a map for this location
Allow users to see a neighborhood profile for this location
I suggest doing so since this is information most people looking at your listing will want to know.
Pictures:
You can choose to include one free picture and additional pictures for $.15 in this section. However, I suggest that you put them in your HTML listing (we will discuss this in another module in detail) instead. And it’s not so much for the cost because $.15 per picture isn’t a lot. It is more for the layout and structure of your listing.
I also suggest getting a free account at www.photobucket.com to store all of your property photos and organize them. It is very easy to add these to your HTML listing.
Gallery Picture:
I also recommend that you use a gallery photo. Again, the cost is minimal and eBay studies show time and time again that if you use a gallery photo, you are much more likely to sell your item and also much more likely to sell it for a higher price, sometimes substantially more.
If possible, use an actual photo of the property as your gallery photo. Otherwise, use a photo of something in the area.
Describe Your Item:
This is where you will give all of the details of your property. Instead of using this eBay function to do it, I recommend that you use an HTML editor (again discussed in detail in another module) to create your item description. HTML is a computer language. An HTML editor allows you to create the property description in a format that you can easily understand (it is very similar to using Microsoft Word or similar programs). The HTML editor I recommend is SeaMonkey. You can download SeaMonkey by going to www.mozilla.org.
You will want to open SeaMonkey and create your item description. Once your description is complete and translated into HTML, you will want to highlight the HTML code and copy it. Then switch to the eBay listing, and click on the HTML tab at the top of this “Describe Your Item” section. Put your cursor in the box and paste the HTML code you copied.
You can preview your listing by clicking on the “Preview” icon in the lower-left hand corner of this box.
***Important Note: There is a lot that will go into your item description and you will need to know this information very well. I have chosen to include all of the details of the item description in the module on creating a listing using SeaMonkey. Refer to the notes for that module for what to include in this section.
Optional Features:
The listing designer and visitor counter are optional if you would like to use them.
Choose How You’d Like to Sell Your Item:
When you list on eBay, you will most likely want to list your property as an auction and not as a classified ad or as a fixed price real estate listing, especially if your goal is to sell the property quickly.
Starting Price:
I suggest that you start the bidding for more the amount you paid for the property PLUS your minimum profit margin. This ensures that you make your minimum profit as long as at least one person bids.
Buy It Now Price:
If you would like to, you can choose a “Buy It Now” price. This means that if someone wants to buy your property at any time during the auction and not risk it getting bid up too high, they can do so at whatever amount you have chosen as your “Buy It Now” price.
Keep in mind that as soon as someone bids on your property, the “Buy It Now” option goes away and then it turns into a highest bidder wins scenario.
Reserve Auctions:
A reserve auction is one that you can start at any minimum bid, but you are not required to sell the property unless the bid reaches at least the minimum amount you have selected – the “Reserve” amount. The reserve amount is known only to you and the auction site unless you disclose it in your item description.
I recommend that you do NOT do auctions with a reserve because this puts off many potential buyers. Many of them will just skip your listing completely instead of going through the guessing game of what your reserve price is. Consider putting the words “No Reserve” either in the sub-title of your listing or prominently in your listing description so people are drawn to it.
*** Important Side Note: Make Sure You Earn a Profit
In order to make sure you don’t lose money because of the possibility of a low ending bid, you have to protect yourself by either:
· Starting the bid at more than what you paid for the property or
· Creating a reserve auction. A reserve auction can start at any amount, but you will only be obligated to sell if the bidding reaches a certain minimum called the “Reserve” (presumably the amount you paid plus the minimum amount of profit you want to make).
If your item doesn’t sell, then you have only lost your listing fees. It could be much worse if your property sold for less than what you paid for it.
Duration:
You will want to make your auction last long enough so that a lot of people see your listing. You will also want to give them long enough to research the property and find out everything they want to know about it to make them comfortable bidding.
Usually a 7 day auction is ideal.
Starting Time:
DO NOT HAVE THE AUCTION START IMMEDIATELY. ALWAYS CHOOSE A STARTING TIME.It is important to note that we are not so much concerned about the time the auction starts. But it is CRITICAL that we choose the ending time of the auction, as you will see in a minute.
In order to choose the ending time, we simply choose the starting time for exactly 7 days before we want it to end (day and time of day are important).
Most bidding on eBay happens within the last few minutes of the auction. This is because the people that are serious about buying your property want to be there in case they get outbid during the last few minutes. They can then submit higher bids.
But in order for you to take advantage of the highest bidding times, you have to make sure that most people will be able to be in front of their computer bidding during those last few minutes. This means that evening will be best since most people will be home instead of at work. Also, you want to take into consideration the time zones in the U.S. In order for most people from every time zone to be home to bid on your property, you will need to set the ending time of your auction for between 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time. This would make it between 9:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Try not to make it too late since some people on the East coast will go to bed if you make it too late.
I also recommend that you don’t make the auction end exactly on the hour or half hour because it might conflict with other auctions they are interested in bidding on. Make it for 5 or 10 minutes later than the top or bottom of the hour.The day of the week is also important. You don’t want to end on a Friday or Saturday night because most people are out having a good time, not bidding on property.
You also don’t want to end on Sunday. The highest traffic days for eBay are Saturdays and Sundays. You definitely want people to SEE your listing on Saturday or Sunday, but if you end your listing on one of those days and they didn’t see it until that day, they won’t be able to do any research the might have wanted to do. The county offices where the property is located will be closed and they won’t be able to get the information they want. Most likely, they just won’t bid.
So make your listing end on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday night. This gives people time to see your listing over the weekend (the highest traffic days), get any additional information they want from the county on Monday or Tuesday during the day, and be ready to pull out their wallets and bid up your property when they come home from work during the middle of the week!
Accepting Payment:
I recommend that you set up and account with PayPal for accepting payment from your buyers. It is safe and convenient for both you and the buyer. PayPal will allow your buyer a lot of flexibility in terms of method of payment. They can pay with their checking or savings account, or even by credit card (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, AND American Express)!!!
If you do set up an account with PayPal, make sure it is a Premier Account. This type does not have any limits on how much you can withdraw each month. The other account types limit you to $5,000 per month. But if you sell a property for $20,000, you don’t want to have to take money out for 4 months before you get it all.
When your buyer pays through PayPal, the money is transferred from your buyer’s account into your PayPal account. Once the transaction has cleared PayPal, the money is available for you to transfer to your own checking or savings account! Be sure to send the deed to the buyer AFTER the funds have cleared into your PayPal account.
Keep in mind that there are fees associated with using PayPal. You will want to know what those are and how much they will affect your profits. Be sure to build these fees as well as the eBay fees into the profit margin you have set for the property.
You can also choose to accept Cashier’s Checks or Money Orders if you wish. If you do, BE SURE TO SPECIFY IN THE AUCTION THAT YOU WILL WAIT UNTIL THE CHECK CLEARS COMPLETELY BEFORE SENDING THE BUYER THE DEED TO THE PROPERTY. Check with your bank to see how long this will be. It could be as long as a couple of weeks. NEVER SEND A DEED TO A BUYER WITHOUT VERIFYING THAT THE CASHIER’S CHECK OR MONEY ORDER HAS CLEARED!!!Accepting cashier’s checks and money orders is slower, but there are no fees like there are with PayPal.
Other things to know about listing on eBay:
When someone searches for your listing, they will only see 3 things: the gallery photo, your title, and your subtitle. This means that you really have only 3 seconds to communicate something that will make the person want to click on your listing to find out more. Take the time to make these three things effective.
Timing - if there are a lot of ads for properties in that same area, wait a week or two until there are fewer ads for that area posted. You can find out about this by doing a search for properties similar to yours before you create your listing.
Creating good feedback - People feel more confident buying from someone with 100% positive feedback. This is especially true when they are purchasing real estate. To create positive feedback for yourself as a seller, sell a few items around the house. This will also give you some great practice at creating listings. Be sure to be very honest and prompt in your transactions. This will create positive responses from your buyers.
After the sale:
Verify the buyer’s desired vesting information so that you can include it correctly on the new quit claim deed.
Fill out the deed, sign it, and notarize it.Make a copy of it.
Send the original deed to the county for recording.
Send the copy of the deed to the county with a copy of the plat map.
eBay Paperwork Suggestion:
Before the county auction, ask as many questions as you can to the county on how the deed will be transferred to you. Then when you need to do it, you just copy the process.
