Really, who thinks about great BBQ and goes to Thia Town for brisket? Not the well informed. By the same notion, if I'm thinking Real Estate, I don't go to YouTube or Facebook, I would go to places that are known for selling homes.
Yes, there is certain to be someone on EBay who bumps into a home. What percentage of home buyers would this represent? Don't you think this buyer will go to other web sites for researching your home? This doesn't sound like a real marketing plan...BUT IT"S CHEAP I heard someone say.

Prospering real estate professionals have multiple portals for reaching active buyers, for networking with other buyer enterprises, interactive tools for informing and guiding buyers, and syndication to be positioned in the 1,000's of places a buyer might be browsing...like hmmm...Trulia. E-bay migjht be good but if it's the only resource you are using to market your home, you have elected to limit your home marketing to a very limited audience.
The question needs to be asked, "What in addition to E-Bay will be utilized to get the price you need for your home?"

I have attended Lydias ebay class and found it extremely powerful. Over 70 percent of people start their home search on the internet; people who aren’t using the web are getting left behind. eBay is a very inexpensive way to advertise your property and create a buyers’ list if you are an investor or an agent.

Both my parents were real estate brokers, so I am not anti-broker, HOWEVER, I can see that real estate agents are going the way of travel agents. Only the best and most professional will be left standing. People have discovered that finding a good real estate agent, especially in Florida where they seem to hand out R.E. Licenses along with the orange juice at the Welcome Rest Station, is a difficult task. In a market like this, you want an agent who has been around for about 25-30years -- someone who went through the down market of the 80s and understands seller financing and how to structure deals. A large difference between this down market and the 80s market is that the internet wasnt around in the 80s. We now have access to a global marketplace. Many of our buyers will be coming from overseas where their money is strong against our declining dollar.

A good agent is a treasure, but I still don’t sign listing contracts. I pay the agent who brings me the buyer. With 19,000 listings on the local MLS and about 700 sales, I think I would rather take care of my most important asset myself. And that means that I do everything I can to sell the house -- ebay, 5 day auction method, co-marketing, postcards, owner financing, incentives for the buyer, websites, all the free listing sites on the net. People who are afraid to leverage technology are going to be left in the dust. And any agent who is not using all the means at their disposal to sell their listings is doing their clients a grave disservice. If $997 is too much for you to spend to educate yourself -- well. Try to calculate the cost of ignorance.

http://www.fts-online.com/, Mark Wilson specializes in processing short sales. $195 for the paperwork and negotiations, $2500 on closing. He's very good at it. Lydia Trotter, believes that there are many potential clients on ebay, and has proven that by selling homes that way. Just another new concept.

By my own estimates, 1/3 of actively licensed agents sell 0 properties each year. Listing property on websites is about 3% of what you need to know to buy or sell properties.

I have sold over $10 million and would never even think of selling a home on Ebay. That would be like selling an airplane or a yacht there.
I guess you could do it, but I would never take anyone seriously that did that.

Unless you own the property, it is against the law of FL for the unlicensed to offer for sale real estate.
If it is your own property, go buy a book on selling R E on e-bay for $25. Use the $950. you save to market your home.
Remember even in the sellers market of '04,'05 only 32% of FSBO's were able to sell their own property.

Beat of luck!

Ines Alvarez
ialvarez@prutropical.com
813-784-2702