I think you stressed one thing to us that wasn’t hitting home on this trail. The fact it is NON-BINDING.

The product is no doubt; easy to use. You said it is customizable.

What has been your success rate with it? Realistically. I know this will take sometime for the public to grasp.

Again, thanks for your response. You have addressed my concerns.

We agree. Very few, if any, homebuyers will buy real estate sight unseen and that is NOT the way N-Play is intended to be used. It is assumed that the buyer making an offer on N-Play is familiar with the property, has seen it first hand, just as they normally would do prior to making a written offer. N-Play provides a nonbinding, simple means for the buyer to take immediate action and make an offer. After all, that’s what all agents’ want.

Additionally, N-Play provides the buyer a means to make offers on several properties at the same time. Buyers have a lot of options. This interest level builds interest in other buyers and so on and so on, hopefully to the point where someone moves down the path to a purchase agreement.

On the other hand, we have been told by many Realtors®, especially in south Florida, that there is a high level of international interest in US real estate. In this case, an offer could come from across the pond, with the contingency of the requirement of an onsite visit…. which is provided by the N-Play offer program. If most of the major points of a transaction are agreed to upfront, an international buyer is then willing to make the trip to see the property firsthand. If it meets the expectations, they close the deal. Although, we hope N-Play can serve this international (site unseen) market that will be the exception and not the norm. But either way, it works!

1. Unlike Ebay, real estate is buyer beware here in VA. There is no way to force the seller to give a true picture of what condition the home is in. To think a buyer will spend $300 for an inspection is not realistic.

2. A seller is usually only selling one property, therefore giving them a low rating will not force them to be forthcoming.

3. The agent who is listing the property is not going to take the hit to their reputation because their seller didn’t disclose a problem so blaming them is pointless.

It could be done but the risk taken, in my opinion, would be too high. Just like representing yourself in a murder trial, you might get off but you could also be sentenced to death.

Many of us have had clients buy sight unseen, and it’s certainly the exception and not the norm. While I think the vending machine idea is far-fetched, I do think that services like N-Play can gain traction. I’m in the minority - I’m willing to buy expensive items online (in fact, bought my last car on eBay as a matter of fact, but because the price of a home doesn’t compare to the cost of a trinket or a book I don’t expect this to be right for the majority of the market. I can see a small percentage of buyers though - yet large enough to be commercially viable - that would like this service. If you can get enough information online or through other channels, then why not hit “Submit Bid” and see what happens?

2. IE7 has been around for almost 3 years and will soon be replaced by IE8.0 which is now in beta. Many Web 2.0 applications require the later generations of browsers to be useful.

3. In setting up the Seller’s profile, the listing agent chooses what questions that will appear on the offer grid to be asked of a potential buyer. This is customizable for every seller/listing. For example, if a listing agent did not want to ask the question regarding “binder fee” they simply would not select this question to be displayed for that lisitng. All terms are defined and can be viewed by clicking on the link. A popup window giving the description of the term is provided.

4. THERE ARE NO LEGAL RAMIFICATIONS IN ANY STATE TO USE N-PLAY. N-PLAY IS A NON-BINDING SERVICE. This has been reviewed by real estate legal counsel, including representatives at NAR.

5. There are many measures in place to discourage and/or prevent fraudulent/shill offers. We use the terms offers and not bids because N-Play IS NOT and auction, like EBAY. We like to think of ourselves as the “anti auction”

There are strict terms and policies that every buyer and agent must agree to prior to placing listings and/or offers on N-Play specifically stating that shill offers will result in permanent loss of privileges. Additionally, unlike an e-bay environment, there are inherent reasons that a seller would not want to artificially set a price. In an E-BAY environment, the highest bidder is obligated to make the purchase and the seller is obligated to sell. Not so under the N-Play model.

A seller can accept any offer or no offer. Every low offer will bring in a higher offer if there is a market for that property amongst other buyers. If there is not a market, then the price, whatever it may be is the real market value, although the seller may not choose to accept it. The seller can respond to the offer with stipulation modifying any of the terms of the offer, but a buyer does not have to agree to it, just like the offline world.

Something is only worth what someone else will pay for it. Buyers know when placing offers that the seller does not even have to consider the offer, so making ridiculous offers will get no response. Why waste the time and energy if you get nothing from it?

A seller making an artificial price only hurts him/herself. Besides violating the T&Cs of using N-Play, any artificial price sets the bar for those who may have been willing to offer under that price and be pulled up over time or through competitive offers. In this case, the seller loses out on a real buyer by setting a bar. Why do it?

Additionally, N-Play will use state of the art fraud detection technology to identify and prevent further use by unscrupulous users.