How to Buy Real-Estate Online - Safely

Visit our home and bid on it at our online auction

You know by now that we are selling our home (sob) and I promised to tell you why we chose to work through the online auction process of Rbuy.com, so here goes.

Why would anyone buy real estate online?

You are being transferred and you don’t have the time to go in person to check out all the available properties. You rely on your online research.

You want to buy a vacation property or an investment property in the Caribbean, but do not have the time to do all the research and site visits, and you rely on all the available online information plus e-mails and phone calls.

At the same time, you are concerned about online scams and security breaches. You have heard of people buying properties that do not exist; of people providing personal information online and waking up to identity theft. How certain are you that you are paying for what is shown online? How do you know that you are buying at the best possible price?

There is a new way of buying real-estate online where all the necessary safeguards have been put in place for both the buyer and the seller.

What safeguards do you, as a buyer, want to have?
1. You want a whole lot of information about the area in which the property is located.
2. You want to know as much as possible about the property. This includes a lot of photographs and probably a video. You want to know about the condition of the property and you probably want a little something about the owners.
3. Mainly, you want to be sure that if you decide to buy, you are in fact buying the property shown online.
4. You want to buy at the best possible price.

Up until now the only way you could be assured of all this was by visiting and researching the property in person and/or by trusting the information provided by the real-estate agent listing the property. The listing agent is required to represent the property accurately and she can provide all of the additional information, but would you be buying at the best possible price?

Now there is another way you can have all your safeguards. Through Rbuy.com, a new and popular online real-estate auction service, you see only properties that have been listed by a realtor. This takes care of safeguards 1, 2 and 3 since you can contact this realtor for all additional information.

How about number 4, how do you know that you are buying at the best possible price? With the Rbuy auction, bidding for a property can last several weeks, you bid on this property online, you can actually see all the other bids and decide, without any pressure, what your bidding limit is going to be. This means that instead of negotiating from an asking price, you are in fact buying at a price set for that property by the bidders. This is a true reflection of a trade, where any product is worth as much as what someone is willing to pay for it.

What about safeguards for the seller? There is only one: the Rbuy.com process requires that all bidders be pre-qualified for a loan. This is no different from the pre-qualification usually required when buying through a real-estate agent. With Rbuy.com this also works to buyer’s advantage: buyers are assured that all the other bidders have also been pre-qualified and are serious potential buyers. You are on a level playing field.

The final safeguard for both buyer and seller is the contractual nature of the bids. After the reserve set by the seller is met, the winning bidder is assured of being able to buy the property – the auction was not a waste of time. Most other online real-estate auctions do not require such a contractual commitment and say so in their fine print. Both sellers and buyers should beware.

Are you ready for that gorgeous Caribbean retreat the Rbuy.com way? Check out our home and take a virtual spin on buying a property with all your safeguards in place.


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