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Buying Real Estate On Ebay
If a seller is asking for money early on, you may want to think twice about buying the property. Never give anyone your hard-earned money without first verifying that he or she is the legitimate owner of the property. You need to see the property first-hand, and you need to have a real estate attorney look over the attendant paperwork first.
buying real estate on ebay
The moral of the story: always verify that the seller is the legitimate owner of the property, or a legitimate representative (i.e. a real estate agent). This is one of the best ways to avoid getting scammed when buying property through an online auction or classified ads site.
By the time auction site eBay was five years old, in 2000, it was already fighting off accusations that it was a \"mature\" company that had seen its best days. The solution? Move into high-price markets including autos, real estate, electronics, and sports equipment.
The bright spot in eBay's high-end auctions has been auto sales. In 2002, eBay Motors generated $3 billion in sales. By contrast, it's not clear that eBay's real estate sales are growing quite as well. The company doesn't break down its real estate revenue (the first hint that the company may not have anything to brag about), and it doesn't disclose how many real estate transactions occur as a result of eBay's auctions.
But even if property sales are sluggish, the scrappy company essentially built a bustling real estate portal from scratch, which has proven an invaluable (and cheap) place for real estate sellers to advertise. There were 144,000 real estate listings on eBay in 2002, and an average of 1,000 people see each listing.
There is a good reason why eBay's real estate sales are dragging behind auto sales, and it's largely due to the nature of real estate sales in general. Real estate sales are inherently complicated transactions, and in many states it is illegal for property titles to be transferred through an online auction.
YOUR VERY OWN ZIP CODE: Bridgetown's buyer will own his or her own zip code – 95526 – as well as the building (pictured) that the U.S. Postal Service leases in the town. Photo: bvsales.comby JACK LYNE, Site Selection Executive Editor of Interactive Publishing"You get an entire working town, with shops, woodworking, plumbing, glass and electrical. . . . With the proper development, Bridgeville can become an economic powerhouse with the potential for generating a large cash flow."- eBay ad to sell the city of Bridgeville, Calif. BRIDGEVILLE, Calif. – Talk about adaptive reuse – not to mention Internet clout in real estate: After long languishing unwanted on the traditional market, the tiny northern California town of Bridgeville has been sold by online auctioneer eBay (www.ebay.com) for a cool $1.78 million. And this wasn't some major metro that was plucked off the cyberspace auction block. Located roughly 260 miles (416 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco, Bridgeville has only about 25 residents – at least in the 82-acre (33-hectare) section that was sold. The hamlet's total inhabitants have steadily dwindled since its economy took a sharp turn south some 20 years ago, victim of another real estate vagary – the evaporation of the lone industry that supplied its lifeblood. Now, Bridgeville will apparently become another kind of one-company town - owned by a company of one, a still-anonymous Los Angeles businessman.LITTLE PINK HOUSES: Only a few of the "10 houses and four cabins" that are part of the online buy (one of which is pictured above) are occupied by some 25 renters. Humboldt County has declared some others uninhabitable. Photo: bvsales.com The salient point with this deal, though, is the Internet's power, which was dramatically underscored by the seemingly well-heeled gent's willingness to bid $1.78 million online. The Lapple family, which has owned Bridgeville since 1972, had made numerous attempts to sell the town through traditional brokerage channels. All had failed. So this time the Lapples took the online route, listing Bridgeville's asking price on eBay as $750,000. And they ended up getting more than $1 million more than that.Broker-Speak? 'Entire Working Town' Not Quite Entirely Working
Of course, the value of a property is only as good as its location. You could get a deal on a spacious 3-bedroom house with marble floors and two gardens, plus plenty of parking space, but if it's located in an undesirable area, no real estate agent would be able to get your money back.
Whether youre a first-time homebuyer or an experienced land-seller or house-flipper, the ins and outs of real estate can be complex. You may have an experienced realtor by your side, or you may be going it alone; either way, its a good idea to have some of your preferences in mind before you begin to look. As youre looking across the country of Australia, you want to first narrow down by type of real estate, and then further narrow down by area. Once you have this in mind, you can further filter your results by type of land, number of bedrooms and baths and other amenities.
Shopping by area is perhaps the most important thing you can do first. Once you have children in the school system, area becomes more important than ever, and you may make decisions based on schools rather than other amenities (close to forests, close to water, etc.). When it comes to Australia, youll find results narrowed down to three overall sections and locations: VIC real estate, NSW and QLD real estate, meaning Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Once you have your area picked out, its next time to think about types of real estate.
So, what should a consumer do?Obviously, be very careful. We believe it's a lot safer to buy vacant land through a licensed real estate agent. While you might wind up paying a bit more, at least you'll know what you're buying.
When it comes to real estate, you usually get what you pay for, so be very careful buying vacant land on eBay. Otherwise, it's likely you'll wind up feeling like you've just fallen for the latest eBay scam.For more on eBay and other online auction scams, click here.Do Free Credit Reports Include Your Credit Score?We got a lot of great feedback on last week's issue on getting your free credit report. If you haven't seen it yet, you can read it here.
Before buying and selling on an online auction site, look at its reputation. You can usually find real reviews on social media sites like Reddit or Facebook. Legitimate auction sites offer privacy, security, and dispute resolution.
When you contact them have the eBay item number, your order number and the seller's username ready. Explain that you bought a camera that was falsely listed in the Specialty Services category, to avoid MBG protection. You will need to provide ebay with your real name, the email address you use for ebay, and possibly your phone number.
The eBay Money Back Guarantee covers most transactions on eBay. Excluded items are specifically identified as exempt and generally fall into categories like motor vehicles and real estate. If there's a problem with an order, the buyer is eligible to get a full refund from eBay for the full purchase price plus any shipping charges the buyer paid. Most of the time, the buyer also needs to return the unsatisfactory item to the seller. 041b061a72