Periodic tips and reminders to help focus your by-owner marketing and win your commission-free sale - from Canada’s by-owner web-site, www.privatelist.com.

THIS ISSUE:      Have It Both Ways! / Safe Online Payments

ARCHIVES:     www.privatelist.com/newsletter.htm

HAVE IT BOTH WAYS!

Current low interest rates are creating a lot of excitement among buyers - at 2200-2500 per week, visits to our Nova Scotia page, for example, are up over 30% from last year! (Note: individual displays uploaded since January 1st also carry a counter, in the lower-right corner of the first display page.)

Realtors are also in a feeding frenzy - particularly those who specialize in listing properties as opposed to selling them.

As a private seller, how do you distinguish the latter from the former when salespeople come knocking? How do you invite participation from local agents who may, in fact, have a buyer for your home?

First of all, realize that

• the more realtors insist that they have buyers for your property, the greater your right to ask "Where are they - why don’t you bring them through?"
   
• the reply that "I need a listing before I can show the property" is legitimate (realtors want protection against their buyers returning later and trying to purchase directly without paying a commission), BUT the listing need be no longer than 24 hours;
   
• the buyer can pay the realtor directly: there’s no need for you to "bump your price up" to cover the commission.

Then, be prepared to tell the realtor very clearly:

"Bring your buyer through, and bring us an offer - we'll give you a 24-hour listing. But the buyer pays any fees: our asking price is based on what we need to net, and we want nothing to do with commissions."

Does it work? It can - several PrivateList clients have achieved sales under exactly these terms.

At the very least, you'll quickly discover whether the realtor on your doorstep really does have a buyer - or is just trying to tie you up in a long-term listing, hoping that someone else will bring a sale!

As a private seller (and only as a private seller, you can have it both ways: you can offer a very competitive PRIVATE asking-price and enjoy the attention of REALTORS who have serious prospects for your property. You save in either case.

But only if you play by YOUR rules!

SAFE ONLINE PAYMENTS

PrivateList will soon be offering clients a secure and convenient way to make online payments — via PayPal, an innovative web-based service that goes a step or two beyond traditional online credit-card systems.

With PayPal, not only will you be able to submit online payment for your email enrollment, lawn signs and extra highlight sheets - you'll also be able to transfer funds instantaneously to and from friends, family members, businesses and potentially anyone else with an email address!

A full description of the service will soon be appearing on this site. In the meantime, for those who may be a little leery of online transactions, here's a quick primer on security as it applies to online fund transfers . . . .

Basically, sending or receiving money safely online revolves around three issues:

• How is privacy and security ensured during actual data transmission?
• Who is it, really, on the other end of the line?
• What will they do with your credit-card information?

How is security assured?

Your browser provides two ways to confirm that a private and secure connection exists between your machine and the web-site you’re visiting:

• The first part of the page address displayed at the top of your browser window changes from "http://" to "https://", and
• the padlock icon at the bottom of the window changes from open to closed.

Any data transmitted under these conditions will be encrypted, ie, garbled in such a way that only the sending and receiving computers can unscramble it.

(How strong is the encryption? Current technology would require two trillion years to crack the 228-bit SSL encryption employed by PayPal and other commercial sites, according to a recent study.)

Who are you dealing with?

Since most online credit-card fraud involves the unwitting sharing of card information with the wrong people, you want to be sure that the party on the other end of the line is who you think it is.

To check, just double-click the closed padlock icon; you'll then be able to examine a digital Certificate, issued by a third-party certification authority like VeriSign who, on the basis of careful background checks, vouches for the identity of the site you’re visiting.

(Should you receive a message at some point that a site’s certificate has expired, don’t worry: that simply means that the site’s current certificate is newer than your browser version and therefore not recognized. Just choose to continue, and verify the site’s identity by double-clicking the padlock.)

Do you trust them with your card?

And how do you know that your credit-card information will be protected once you’ve given it to an online merchant? Check the formal privacy and security statement which any serious commercial site will provide up front. (PayPal’s, for example, states very clearly that your credit card information will be stored only in encrypted form, and on computers that are NOT connected to the Internet.)

In summary, legitimate online businesses have a vested interest in ensuring that you can buy from them in full confidence. If you’re careful to deal only with secure sites, verify their identity and insist on rigorous and clearly-stated privacy policies, purchasing with your credit card online can be safer than using it over the phone or handing it to a store clerk.

FRIENDLY REMINDERS . . .

Are the thousands of dollars you'll save by selling privately worth, say, an hour each week-end, spent reviewing your progress to date and mapping out your continuing campaign?

It's important to maintain an active marketing focus until your property is sold. Therefore, each e-mail version of this newsletter links to a series of reminders, tips and tools that lead to a sale!

To access these resources, press here.

©2001 PrivateList