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RealtyBid.com Achieves Record 2008 by Offering Tremendous Foreclosure Bargains

Online Home Auction Leader Predicts Even Greater Potential for Home Buying Deals in 2009

As the number of foreclosures continued to rise in 2008, thousands of home bargain hunters and investors searching for foreclosure deals discovered RealtyBid.com. Because of the tremendous foreclosure bargains the website offered throughout the year, 2008 was a record-setter for RealtyBid.com, the nation's leader in online home auctions.

According to RealtyBid.com CEO/President Tony Isbell, the website saw both its largest inventory of properties ever and largest number of home sales ever in 2008, with the fourth quarter showing the greatest strength. RealtyBid.com specializes in the online auctioning of REO (bank-owned, post foreclosure) homes at discount prices. Some record-breaking 2008 statistics follow:

--  RealtyBid.com saw a 26 percent increase in home sales during the
    fourth quarter of 2008 over the same period in 2007.
--  In 2008, RealtyBid.com's site traffic nearly tripled over 2007, and
    the site hosted more than 16 million page views.
--  During 11 of 12 months in 2008, RealtyBid.com's monthly inventory of
    properties "up for auction" topped more than 1,000.
    

"Many people are looking to buy homes at a discount right now, and tens of thousands of potential home buyers and investors are flocking to RealtyBid.com to bid on the properties we offer," Isbell said. "The fourth quarter of 2008 was our biggest quarter ever. And, we are not slowing down. We anticipate offering more than 5,500 properties for auction during the first quarter of 2009."

RealtyBid.com Executive Vice President Mike Keracher said lenders are ready to sell the growing number of foreclosure properties they have on their books. "We are providing an efficient and effective outlet for them to move those properties. At the same time, we are offering home buyers and investors the opportunity to bid on these properties and buy at a tremendous discount."

Keracher added that RealtyBid.com is seeing a huge increase in "owner-occupant" sales or sales directly to those buying homes for their own personal use. "Just two years ago, close to 90 percent of our home sales were to investors, and now, our sales are closer to 60 percent investor and 40 percent owner-occupant. That is a big shift that indicates that everyday home buyers recognize the value of the homes that we auction and are comfortable bidding online with RealtyBid.com."

Isbell emphasized that thousands of people are searching the Internet for foreclosure properties these days, and most often they find that they must pay a monthly fee to gain information about these homes. "That is not the case with RealtyBid.com. Viewing property data on RealtyBid.com is completely free, and listing agent contact information for each home is available right on the website, making gathering additional information and arranging to view a property extremely easy," he said.

Thousands of homes are available each month on www.RealtyBid.com from the nation's largest lenders, builders and real estate brokerage firms. RealtyBid.com has sold more than 20,000 homes online and was ranked as the country's number one sales team in team transactions in both the 2008 and 2007 Lore Magazine/Wall Street Journal/Real Trends "Real Estate Top 200."