There are many different ways an investor can sell a home that he or she has rehabbed. Traditional selling methods include:

• Selling a property oneself through the use of yard signs and newspaper ads to advertise a property as FSBO (for sale by owner)
• Listing the property with a real estate agent, who will put the home in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
• Featuring the home in one of many for-sale-by-owner publications. Some of these services will also enter the home into the MLS
• Selling the property through the use of a buyer’s list (one of the best ways to sell a home)
• Selling the property by using another investor’s buyers list, or perhaps using the list of someone in your local real estate investors’ club holding a round-robin auction (a method of selling homes which has become very popular and if done right, can be very successful)
• Handing out fliers in the neighborhood asking the neighbors to invite their friends to look at the home
• Selling the home to another investor
There are other creative ways to sell a home, like selling raffle tickets and holding a drawing (if it's legal in your state). I've also seen sellers include an expensive sports car with the purchase of a high-end home. Sometimes it works.

Another way to sell your home is to auction it on eBay. You could call it the ultimate garage sale—you just include the home with the garage.

eBay Real Estate is huge, yet many people don't realize that you can actually auction a home on eBay. It is a good way to give your home international exposure with minimal expense, and it will typically yield a good selling price.
Before trying to auction your home on eBay, you need to understand the rules. First and most importantly is the fact that, due to the wide variety of laws governing the purchase and sale of real estate in the different states, eBay Real Estate auction-style advertisements of real property do not involve legally binding offers to buy and sell. Instead, eBay Real Estate auctions are simply a way for sellers to advertise their real estate and meet potential buyers. The winning bid does not constitute a binding contract, so if your winning bidder decides they don't want the home after all, you can merely report them to eBay and leave negative feedback for them.

Don't let that discourage you; eBay does its best to expose potential buyers to the rules and potential buyers are asked not to bid unless they intend to complete the purchase of the advertised property. Be aware that eBay's policies regarding real estate are different than its other policies. The full text of their policies and documents can be found by visiting http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/real-estate.html.

Once the auction is over, it is the responsibility of the seller and the highest bidder to get together (usually through express mail and/or the Internet) and sign a formal real estate purchase contract. From that point on, the transaction is similar to any other real estate transaction. The purchase and sale agreement spells out the terms and conditions of the sale and specifies the closing date. The transaction is closed offline at a settlement agency, such as a title company.

Selling your home on eBay is quite different from traditional methods, but it has lots of advantages. First, you don't have to spend countless hours showing the home. No more rush cleanups when your real estate agent calls and wants to show the home in an hour! You prepare your home once, stage it properly, and place information and photos in your eBay ad, which will increase buyer confidence and generate more interest and more bidders, resulting in a higher winning bid.

What are the items you should include in your listing? Remember, your eBay listing is all that your prospective buyers are going to see, so it must be good. It has to be overflowing with information that is easy to read, and must look great. In designing your listing, put yourself in the shoes of a buyer. What would you want and need to know about a home before you would be willing to bid and buy, especially without being able to see it in person? At a minimum, include:

• Videos and photographs of the home (interior and exterior), the yard, the neighborhood, the views (if any), and anything nearby that might help sell the home (for example, schools and stores). You can do this yourself, or you can hire a professional.
• A home inspection report – this will cost you a few hundred dollars, but it gives your listing more credibility
• Floor plan of the home and a layout of the yard, showing the location of the home in relation to the lot boundaries
• Preliminary title commitment
• Rules, regulations, and bylaws if the home is part of a private subdivision or is a condo
• Mold disclosures, if required by your state
• Copy of the purchase and sale agreement you want the buyer to sign
• Details of any seller financing you might be offering
• List of the things you love about the home
Other items you could include that may help you sell your property:
• MapQuest map or Google Earth map showing the location
• Neighborhood statistics
• A current appraisal or recent CMA (comparative market analysis)
• Paid real estate tax notice
• Closing-cost worksheet
• Any concessions you are willing to make to help sell the home (for example, appliances you are leaving or yard-care equipment)

Be creative and have fun with your listing. If your extra effort attracts just one extra bidder, it could raise the final bid price by thousands of dollars.

One of the keys to getting a lot of people to look at your listing is to have a very low starting-bid price. There are entire books written on eBay-auction strategies but, to summarize, what you are trying to do is attract people's attention. You want to pique people's curiosity and get them to say, "No way! They can't seriously be selling a home that cheap." If a low-starting bid gets someone to look at your listing, you potentially have one more bidder who could turn into a buyer.

So how low is low? Try $9.97. It's crazy, but you have to trust the system. You have to believe that hundreds, even thousands of people will see your listing and, among them, will be people who will bid the price up and you will sell it for its fair market value.

For the faint hearted, you can always set a reserve price with eBay. No matter where you start the bidding, if a bid doesn't meet your reserve price, the bidder will be told that their bid doesn't meet the reserve amount and, if they want eBay to post a bid, they will have to bid higher. Details on eBay's reserve price policies can be found at http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/reserve.html.

Another advantage of selling your home on eBay is that you can eliminate most, if not all, of the contingencies that you get with a traditional offer on your home. In a traditional offer, the buyer makes an offer and then starts their due diligence. The offer is often subject to a home inspection, to the buyer getting approved for a new mortgage loan, and to an attorney's review of the documents. This puts the buyer in control.

When selling on eBay, if you have done a good job of putting a wealth of information in your listing, you can reasonably ask and expect all bidders to have looked at the home inspection report, reviewed all of the documents, had their attorney review the documents, and looked at the photos to see the condition of the home. Thus, it is not unreasonable to expect the highest bidder to sign a purchase and sale agreement with no contingencies. Then, if the deal does fall through on the buyer's end, you usually will be able to keep the earnest money for damages. (Always have your attorney review all documents to ensure you are in compliance with all legal requirements in your state.)

Knowing how to sell (or buy) a home on eBay will increase your options in selling your property. So what are you waiting for? Log onto eBay Real Estate today, learn the rules, and have your own ultimate garage sale!