WASHINGTON, 13 June — Looking for a new home in the Washington area? No need to hop on a plane, or contact a realtor. Now you can find the house of your dreams on the Internet, and buy it online.
The ebay Real Estate went online two years ago, and dealt in residential homes, timeshares, foreclosures, and plots of land and commercial real estate. It was open to homebuyers and real estate agents for both buying and selling. Now, real estate property sales have jumped and eBay sells a property every 30 minutes, according to eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove.
Earlier this year, eBay created a partnership with Builder Homesite, a consortium of 30 of the nation’s largest homebuilders to create a new marketplace of individuals and real estate agents to buy new homes.
Beazer Homes, one of the Washington area’s leading home builders, will list its new homes in Manassas, west of the DC area, in a first-ever auction of new homes for the website’s real-estate division.
The houses were listed on www.ebayrealestate.com for buyers to preview on June 3. Bidding on 130 new homes in 18 markets across the country will open June 15 and close July 4. This auction will be the first auction of new homes on eBay Real Estate. After the inauguration of the new homes auction ends, other new homes are already lined up to be listed on eBay. Beazer homes said it plans to continue working with eBay in the future after the auction of its first homes, and the company expects the online auctions to grow in popularity.
“Online auctions are one way that the real estate industry uses information technology to offer services and meet consumer demand,” said Steve Cook, vice president of public affairs of the National Association of Realtors.
“Home buyers are showing an increasing comfort with using online resources during their new home search,” said Tim Costello, president and CEO of Builder Homesite. “With 85 percent of new home buyers using the Internet during the home-buying process, now is the time to create a new channel that actually allows consumers to ‘transact’ online, not just shop and browse.”