Archive for December 28th, 2009

How to Advertise Your Vacation Rentals for Free?

 

Thanks to the internet, tourists are now finding it easier to look for alternative accommodation for a traditional hotel stay through the search engines. Vacation Rentals are the most competitive alternate for traditional hotel rooms. It is very much suitable for traveling with a group and it is much cheaper too!

Are you an owner of vacation rentals? And tiered of spending too much money on advertising your home on the internet to getting few inquiries for the money you spend? Advertise smart in free sites and get more inquiries for no cost.

Most homeowners choose to sign up with sites which are getting considerable traffic. The number of visitors to the site per day is important as it increases the chances of getting more inquiries and renters. The greater number of visitors to a site – the more popular the site is. Some sites charge homeowners for $30 to $225 in order for their properties to be included in the directory for year, the price needed to be paid for membership depends on the popularity of the listing.

Now days there are lot of sites offering free listing for limited period like 6 months or one year, after that you will be charged a considerable amount fee as listing service charge. On the other hand, there are sites like www.rentalmadeeasy.com offers free listing of vacation rentals for lifetime. These sites also get high traffic especially since more homeowners can access the services of these sites for free. We recommend all home owners to take advantage of listing their homes in those sites and get more inquiries even though the sites have only few hundreds of visitors a day.

How, you might ask, these sites allowing free listing of vacation rentals and homes earn their income? Some of these sites sometimes get minimal commissions for every booking. Also, they get residual income from advertisements on their sites. There are also some sites which actually charge fees for homeowners to prioritize the position their listing, so much like the yellow pages. Some of these sites charge for extra photos after free ones. Some of the sites charge money for adding the link to your own websites. The most interesting fact about these free vacation rental listing sites is they do not require any credit card information when you list your properties; it is completely up to you to decide to promote your property in these site by paying extra to prioritize or adding extras like more photos and links. In addition to these features most of the free sites for listing vacation rentals and homes are also promoting your listing on major search engines and bring more traffic to your home.

For homeowners, paid and free listing of vacation rentals and homes serves as a source of advertisement and a great way to get more booking for their villas, homes, condos, etc. Now days there are more and more real estate investors are choosing to purchase vacation properties abroad because these are not only cheaper, they also more profitable especially when these are advertised in a free listing of vacation rentals and homes.

According to a study, approximately half of the homeowners surveyed say that more than 25% of their vacation rental bookings come from paid listing sites. At present at least 27% of homeowners use three or more paid listing sites and at least 86% of homeowners have listed their properties on free sites. On the other hand, 14% of the homeowners surveyed do not use free listing of vacation rentals and homes, and 18% use more than 3 free sites for their vacation homes. With these statistics, it is undeniable – the use of free listing of vacation rentals and homes is the way to go if you want to profit from your property.

Get revenue from your rental property today. Avail of the free listing of vacation rentals and homes at http://www.rentalmadeeasy.com.

Deciding to Sell Fsbo

If you are currently considering selling your home in this very turbulent real estate market the biggest question you may have is whether to use a licensed real estate agent or not. Going the route of for sale by owner, or fsbo, can be very challenging but rewarding for some individuals while being very frustrating and a waste of time for others.

The numbers are very interesting if you consider them! Every year thousands of property owners choose to sell their own real estate without the use of a broker or agent. These owners add up to approximately20 percent of home sales every year in the United States. These homeowners save thousands of dollars by avoiding the high commission fees paid to these professionals in the sale of their home. This is money, which would have been part of their equity, thus more of the property owner’s money stays where it belongs; in their bank accounts.

Commission rates for real estate agents vary from state to state, but you can expect to pay 5 – 7% if you choose to use an agent on your property sale. For example if your home sells for $100,000 you will end up paying $5,000 – $7,000 in fees all of which ends up coming out of the equity you have built up in your property. If you are prepared to spend some time you can sell your home, save money, and maybe even get it done quicker in the long run.

One of the biggest hurdles once you decide to sell on your own to determine your asking price. Do some research on the internet to find out how many comparable homes are on the market in your area currently and what the asking price for these homes are. This will supply you with simple supply and demand information regarding your property. The more homes available on the market similar to yours means a high supply which will mean a low demand bringing the value down. While the opposite is true if there are only a few comparable homes. This will mean a low supply for a higher demand resulting in a higher value for your property.

Once you know what a realistic asking price is for your home, you can now see how much you will save by not using a real estate agent. If you really want to sell your home quickly you can pass some of the savings on to the buyer. If your home is priced lower than the other comparable properties in your market it will become more attractive to potential buyers. It is up to you to decide if you want to use this tactic to sell quicker and how much of a price reduction you are willing to part with financially.

Another advantage of selling your own home many people find is you know the property better than any real estate agent ever can, plus you have more motivation to get it sold. Who better to point out the positive things about your home to a potential buyer than you yourself. Maybe it is the way the morning sun lights up the kitchen during breakfast, or even how the house tends to stay cool in the summer even on the hottest days. It is so much easier to sell an item when you know it well!

If you decide to go it alone you should ensure the transaction is documented as per your state’s particular laws. Using the proper sellers agreement, sellers disclosure, and other legal forms is essential to cover yourself in a large transaction. The Easy Forms is a handy online resource to buy and download real estate forms for all 50 states quickly and conveniently.