CHICAGO, Ill. — Reflecting the theme of the innovative web site, sellers set a starting price for their property, and the price gradually drops over time if it is not sold. Sellers also place a sign of their online listing in their front yard. The foreclosure crisis continues to escalate, and the real estate market remains sluggish like the economy. Economic experts agree that the real estate market will not start to rebound until the vast inventory of homes is reduced. Believing that traditional sales methods are not working, Joe Elias has created an innovative way for sellers to market their homes via 4Sale4Now.com.
When it launched on November 1, 4Sale4Now introduced an innovative way for sellers to offer products and services online, and for buyers to purchase them. Unlike auction sites (such as eBay and its competitors), there is no bidding on 4Sale4Now.com. Instead, each product and service is listed with an initial discounted price, and that price gradually decreases. Everything from clothing, electronics, toys and sporting goods to jewelry, antiques, art and books are available, as are items like airline tickets, event tickets and vacation packages.
Elias, who founded 4Sale4Now.com and also has a real estate background, felt that – considering the current real estate market conditions – 4Sale4now concept would be ideal for people to sell their homes.
Through 4Sale4now.com, consumers have three avenues to market their properties whether they are single-family homes, condominiums, townhouses or land at any price. One avenue is on the web site, where sellers get 24-hour exposure and offer a starting price that decreases over time. For example, the price of a $2.2 million home posted on the site is scheduled to drop to $2,090,000 after seven days. If it hasn’t sold by then, the price dips to $1,980,000 after another week, $1,870,000 after another seven days and $1,760,000 after one more week. If it is still available at that time, the final asking price is $1,650,000.
Of course, the site is ideal for homes of all price ranges, not just million dollar properties. Before posting their listing on 4Sale4Now.com, sellers establish a bottom line number they can take for the house.
The second way to sell homes through 4Sale4Now.com is by planting a sign in the yard that details the starting price, and the subsequent price drops if the home has not sold. Essentially, the sign represents a screen shot of what is seen on 4Sale4Now.com. The third avenue of marketing a property through the site includes a local mailer that is sent to 20,000 homes featuring the screen shot of the listing.
“This is a first-of-its-kind sales approach for real estate. It causes people to look, talk and think. It encourages people buy before it is too late, and it creates an environment best suited for selling real estate – competitiveness,” Elias explained. “This method gives people have a sense of urgency because they don’t want to lose the house because it might be sold. That sense of urgency is lacking right now with traditional sales methods in a buyer’s market.”
Real estate was a natural addition to 4Sale4Now, Elias believes.
“This is a better process than a real estate auction, where people don’t understand a fair price or they are intimidated. We give prospective buyers an opportunity to see the price in a non-pressure atmosphere and it’s up to them whether they make an offer or wait,” Elias said. “It reflects the concept of 4Sale4Now.com. You can buy it now, or you can take a chance that it will not be sold and buy it when the price drops.”
Adding real estate is just the beginning. 4Sale4Now will continue to evolve, Elias says.
“Our concept is ideal for a unique sales venue of a variety of products and services,” Elias said. “My objective from the start was to revolutionize buying and selling on the Internet, and what we are doing with real estate is a prime example.”
[tags]sell homes online, Joe Elias[/tags]
