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Marketing your property online

By Daniel Eaton

You may not even know it, you most likely already are! Buying your new home online, well, almost.

Get to know the players.

When selling or buying real estate it's hard not hear the term MLS bantered about. MLS stands for Multiple Listing Service. This is the database used by and for the exclusive use of licensed real estate agents. It contains a plethora of information including such details as room sizes, asking price, to how long the property has been on the market. Generally, this database is controlled by the local board of Realtors® and is serviced by a MLS system provider. For example, one of the larger real estate MLS is located in northern Illinois which uses Moore Data Systems software. Now Moore Data also operates a "public version" of the data called Cyberhomes. http://www.cyberhomes.com. There is one even larger public version at http://www.realtor.com. In order for your property to be included in these databases you will need to have your property "listed" with a real estate company. When you list your property you are entering into a formal agreement with the real estate company and who will receive a percentage of the sales price for their commission.

You don’t necessarily need to be listed to have your property available to online home buyers. If you are in a major metropolitan area, and you place a classified ad, you are most likely also buying some online exposure. Many newspapers today have new media counterparts. The Chicago Tribune has an online version of their real estate section. Some of the major newspaper chains are building networks of classified advertising such as the Knight Ridder with their HomeHunter Product. Even new construction is getting online with New Home Network by a consortium of newspaper companies including CNI, Times Mirror. Tribune, Gannet, Knight Ridder,and the Washington Post under a JOA called Classified Ventures.

There are a multitude of Internet startups looking for the home sellers such as Home Ad. Remember the old rule of real estate...
location, location, location. In the online community it’s traffic, traffic, traffic. If you plan to advertise on one of these startups, be sure get a good idea of how many eyes are looking at their site.