Watch for www.realestatesale.com

It is going to be a new real estate resource website dedicated to real estates of all types. 

We intend to incorporate residential and commercial real estate listings on this Website, since the domain is not specific to homes or houses.

When www.realestatesale.com is launched, homes you list on House Locator will automatically appear on www.realestatesale.com.

List home for sale on houselocator.com today, and put your property on the spotlight of Internet. Unlimited photos with your listing and home page exposer is included with every home listing options.

The real estate market is pretty bad and people are taking unconventional approach to try and sell their home. This Beach house in Yachats, Oregon is being put on as the first prize of an essay contest! The house is appraised at $575,000 and located right on the beach. The entry fee for this contest is $200, and all you have to do is write an essay in the theme of 'I/We want to win this home in home in Yachats because...' in 100 words or less.

The contest started on January 2nd 2008, and last day of entry is April 30th 2008. They require at least 3000 entries otherwise it may be cancelled due to insufficient entries. About 2000 entries have been received so far. You can see updates on the entries on their Website.

The success of a contest like this would depend on its publicity. As more people find out about the contest, more entries are likely to come. The owners are going through various marketing activities including posting the house and contest everywhere they can on the Internet, advertising in local radio, tv, and news papers. The house is open for a visit every weekend. Although most entries are coming from the neighborhood cities, entries from 29 states have been received so far. There are even entries from Americans living in the middle east!

Why a contest, but not a lottery?

You may think that depending on the decisions of some independent judge is not very reliable for a contest like this, and it would be better to just have a lottery with a $200/ticket. However, making it a lottery will have legal implications pertaining to various state law. Making it a contest opens it up to all the states without much legal complications.

You can apply online or personally at the house during the open house every weekend. 

They have 3 more weeks and a 1000 more entries to go and it will be interesting to see how the contest ends up.

Everyone here at HouseLocator.com would like to wish you a very happy new year. Whether you are in Real Estate or not, may  2008 bring you happiness and success.

We have a lot of exciting new features and functionalities planned for HouseLocator.com in 2008. Here is a short list:

• Ability to save your favorite home listings so you can come back to them later.
• Ability to build a list of home listings that you may be interested in that you can email to yourself or a friend, or save for later.
• View neighborhood sales activity of comparable homes for any listing. This feature is already available for the Property Locator, and we are implementing it for every home for sale listing.
• Market trend that will show you change in activities in any given zip, city or state.
• A comprehensive FAQ and Help section. Its long due, we know!
• A map view for search results, showing the listings on an interactive map.
• Instant home value estimate.

Please let us know if you have any suggestions or ideas.