Have you seen the new real estate web site called Trulia.  Well, it’s new and coming up high on most search engines in searches for things like San Clemente real estate, Orange County Real Estate, San Juan Capistrano real estate, Capistrano Beach real estate and more.

Yes, I’m there on Trulia in cities like San Clemente, California, and I have one listing there.

So go take a look.  I think you’ll like the real estate that you see there by your South Orange County Realtor, me, Debbie Ferrari.

This Web 2.0 revolution is everywhere.  Trulia is yet another social networking site where you can make contacts all over the world.  Moreover, it has experts in hundreds of different fields listed there as authorities.  You can go to www.Trulia.com and ask a question and then get answers from one or many of the experts in that field.  It also has links to my Orange County Real Estate web site.

Naturally, my field is real estate, and specifically, South Orange County California real estate.

Go to Trulia and give it a try.

FSBO SELLING USUALLY GAINS YOU NOTHING; SURE YOU SAVE PAYING REALTOR COMMISSIONS, BUT WHAT YOU REALLY WANT IS THE HIGHEST PRICE YOU CAN GET…AND THAT’S WHAT REALTORS DO FOR YOU

Yuk! FSBO signs are usually radically unprofessional looking like this one.

Now THAT is a beautifully worded and professional looking Realtor yard sign!!!!

Having a Realtor sell your house statistically brings a seller 16% higher in sales price on a home. That’s the difference between $230,000 vs. $198,200.

FSBO stands for “For Sale by Owner” and most of the time, unless you already have a buyer in your pocket, it’s generally an exercise in futility.

FSBO transactions have dropped dramatically since 1997 from a high then of 18 percent. In 2005, only 13 percent of sellers did sales without a real estate agent.

Additionally, of those FSBO sales, 39 percent of them were between a buyer and seller who knew each other beforehand. In 2004 the figure was 32 percent.

In both 2003 and 2004 the FSBO share all sales was 14 percent. The highest ever was in 1987 at 29 percent. It had likely been higher before that at some time, but NAR only began following FSBO statistics in 1981.

For a lot more good information about FSBOs and why being one may be hazardous to your pocketbook, visit my FSBO real estate sales section of my web site. . DF

Consumers who are moving in, moving out, relocating to another area, or switching utilities, can do most everything they need online now at www.homes.org.

Every Realtor should have a link to homes.org on their web site as a service to their realty home buyers and sellers. Homes.org makes it simple to compare prices and handle utilities via the Internet: water, gas, phone, sewer, satellite TV, Internet and cable service, and newspapers.

In a nutshell, here’s much of what the site offers in just utilities and shopping:

You can also shop for home alarms, home warranties. The site takes care of all the connections and transfers your new home requires. You canget it all done in one place with the site’s Utility Switching Concierge Service.

You can also lower your current home expenses by comparing various prices shown for home services in your zip code area.

Get BY-NEIGHBORHOOD info on demographics, cost of living, crime, driving directions, shopping, restaurants, school performance and test performance. And more. Go visit www.Homes.org now to see for yourself.