The players are changing in public online real estate, and eBay, the world's greatest marketplace, with its following of peer-to-peer sellers and buyers, is poised to have a big impact on the way homes are marketed online.

In this exclusive interview with Agent News, Doug Galen, general manager of eBay Real Estate discusses strategies for success and eBay's competitive edge over rival Homestore.

B.E.: How is the new real estate site doing?

D.G.: Doing great! With very little help from eBay the company, the community has moved in and has started to show their homes. eBay loves to see the community come up with new ways to leverage the platform. We are selling commercial businesses, buildings, timeshares, homes, you name it.

B.E.: How is your partnership with Homeseekers working out?

D.G.: eBay is trying to help all buyers and all sellers, and Realtors make up the vast majority of sellers. Homeseekers helps us reach Realtors. Through their technology, a Realtor can upload their listing to the MLS and push a button and upload to eBay, which increases their exposure, increases the number of buyers that see the listings, and increases the number of offers.

B.E.: Any way to quantify the leads?

D.G.: We do it internally and don't disclose that.

B.E.: You're not alone. I ask everybody that, and no one discloses leads….yet.

D.G.: If you go to the site, we get five to 50 bids on a piece of property. There is a home in New Jersey that is for sale by the author of the book that the hit TV series "The Sopranos" is based on. He has 50 offers on his house. If you happen to look, that listing has been seen 4,000 times.

B.E.: Let's talk stats. How often are preselected homes viewed?

D.G.: Preselected? Homes are arranged by region, by state.

B.E.: Then home view wouldn’t be accurate because they can't go to a specific town or neighborhood.

D.G.: This is someone clicking on a specific listing in an area, it isn't a list of properties, someone saw that they wanted a property in New Jersey with a certain number of bedrooms and they clicked to it.

A home on eBay is going to get a lot of views. If you want to look at the bell curve, the homes that get the most views would be about $150,000 to $400,000 homes, and how many people see each listing is in the low hundreds and the high right now is about 5000.

B.E.: Number of offers?

D.G.: Some have zero and others have as many as 50 or 60. The sweet spot is in the range of 5 to 15.

B.E.: A lot of fast-selling homes don't get that many offers. Are the offers in the range of fair market value?

D.G.: Some are looking for a place to live, and we have investors looking for good opportunities, so it varies.

B.E.: How do Realtors feel about having listings so close to FSBOs?

D.G.: Most are happy to advertise in newspapers, and they rely on newspapers to gain exposure. Newspapers have Realtor-based and individual-based listings. What the Realtor cares about is "Am I getting exposure that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise?" eBay is a well kept secret, and those coming to eBay are satisfied with the results.

B.E.: How are ad position sales coming for brokers?

D.G.: We are just starting, but we are happy with the early indications.

B.E.: What about individual agents?

D.G.: Right now they can advertise their listings, and if they wanted to advertise themselves they could do so like a broker does.

B.E.: A lot of consumers complain that Realtor content on the Web is stale. Some Realtors and some sites use stale inventory as lead generators. Any firewalls to keep Realtors from abusing the system?

D.G.: Our feedback mechanism is one of the things that makes us unique. If we have a buyer or seller who steps out of bounds, notes will be posted and that seller or buyer will have a hard time breaking the rules again on eBay.

B.E.: What about the fees? Are Realtors going for them?

D.G.: The fee structure today is a fixed price. For a broker, it is a small up front fee of $50, and a fixed back end fee of $150. For an individual agent, it is a flat fee of $50. The broker is paying more because they are getting substantially more exposure.

B.E.: Are there any restrictions on how you can market a home on eBay? Like virtual tour support?

D.G.: There are only so many fields of information, but you put a link to other pages that have additional information.

B.E. What is your competitive edge offer over Homestore?

D.G.: A consumer base of 29 million, a loyal base that tries to buy and sell everything at eBay, an honest consumer base that deals with integrity, and people who come to transact. That is by far the most valuable thing that eBay has built as a company, they come to buy and sell things They may go to other sites to gather information, and then go elsewhere to transact. With eBay, they come to transact.

No one can match that.

Published: May 14, 2001

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Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment. Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's. Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. To contact Blanche, email her at . For more articles by Blanche, click here.