Virtual tours can let people visit your home from theirs or their workplace. They can take a full look around and get a general feel of how your house looks like. With the possibility of 360 degree views, it’s one of the most useful tools that one can promote their house with. Many properties were sold fast thanks to high quality virtual tours. A classic tool which can’t be missing from any real estate presentation. Online photo sharing and storage creates the possibility of easily reaching a previously unthinkably large audience.

One big advantage of the Internet is that it’s available nonstop. While you and your agent can only organize showing and answer their phones in a limited period, often excluding weekends, your online presentations are always there. Many people are extremely busy during the week and do all their research at on Saturday and Sunday. If you can supply them with high quality information and pre-convince them online, you’re going to experience very fast responses and closing.

Instead of just having a phone or a pager, potential buyers can contact your agent by e-mail and instant messaging as well. With various services that route all others to a cellphone, communication is easier than ever. Your real estate agent can gather the e-mail addresses of people who are looking for a specific type of property or in a certain location, and can automatically alert them when one is listed that meets their criteria. This means an instant potential buyer base in the very moment you decide to sell your property.

With the advent of online video sharing services such as YouTube, you can film and publish a professionally edited video walkthrough through your home. If you’re using a true real estate agent who cares about his/her clients, he/she should be able to provide video marketing of your property. Social networking sites didn’t only help people to find long forgotten high school classmates, but have transformed many businesses and become a vital place for marketing. Not only your agent can join groups based on real estate investing in all the specific regions, but he can place ads on highly visible places where potential buyers spend a lot of time every single day.

Video, descriptions, virtual tools, stats, floor plans, surveys, legal status and everything can be inserted into an interactive ad such as Google Gadget Ads. While it’s still something quite cutting edge, ads like this will be placed all over in the future. An interactive gadget ad can be displayed on multiple websites, including social networking, classifieds and even virtual TV shows. The possibilities are endless and it’s clear that a successful realtor will be somebody who’s able to stay on top of technological advances online…

Even if you’re an internet novice, it’s easy to find property auctions online. All good auctioneers advertise to some extent on the internet, whether it’s publishing their entire catalogue or advertising upcoming property auctions. Even better than looking up individual auctioneers is to use a website which includes a database of all the major auctioneers in the country.

So, to online property auctions. Online auctions are well known, just think of the virtual giant, eBay. While there aren’t too many properties sold on eBay, there are online property auction sites that work in the same way in that bidders bid online and whoever has the highest bid at the time of the auction closing wins the property (although ‘win’ is a misleading term because they still have to pay for it of course). Online property auctions usually take place over a shorter period of time, typically within one day (starting early and finishing late in the evening).

Potential buyers can still look around the property prior to the auction. Online auctions are advertised in advance, like any other auction. This is an advantage for buyers and sellers. For buyers, obviously it’s better to see the property for yourself and for sellers it means you can be more confident that the people bidding will value your property for its true worth. This is why it is so important to have your property looking at its very best because that makes it far more appealing to buyers.

When selling your property through an online auction you will either pay a one-off fee to the auctioneer, or a percentage of the selling price (as with a traditional property auction). The former is a great advantage for sellers because it’s a fixed amount which means you’ll know how much you pay before your property is sold which could help you when setting a reserve price.