eBay Real Estate Offers Thousands of Custom Designed and Model Homes from KB Home, Beazer Homes and Other Top HomeBuilders
San Jose, CA – May 20, 2002 -eBay Real Estate (www.ebayrealestate.com) today announced the launch of its new homes category along with an online auction in June to feature more than 200 in-demand properties. With thousands of homes from leading builders like KB Home, Beazer Homes, Coventry Homes, Pioneer Homes, Plantation Homes, David Weekley, American Heritage, and Hammonds Homes, the new homes channel offers homebuyers a wider inventory and a faster, easier way to preview and make an offer for properties online. The new homes channel is located within eBay’s real estate category.
“This is the first step in a long-term commitment between eBay Real Estate and homebuilders that make the home-buying process more enjoyable, fair and less stressful for consumers,” said Doug Galen, eBay vice president and general manager of eBay Real Estate. “We’re reducing the anxiety normally associated with buying a home by using the Internet and the eBay auction format to make the process more transparent and allow homebuyers to more closely follow the progress of their bidding online.”
To showcase a number of the properties listed within the channel, eBay Real Estate will hold the first of many national, high-powered auction events June 15-24. In-demand homes from top builders and communities nationwide will be made available on eBay during this event, and potential homebuyers can preview the homes on eBay beginning in early June. Subsequent events featuring similarly high-profile properties will follow periodically throughout the year.
Bruce Karatz, chairman and CEO of KB Home said, “eBay Real Estate and its auction-style marketplace are great avenues for communicating the advantages of buying a new home and generating buzz for our grand openings and other special sales events. Ian McCarthy of Beazer Homes agreed, and added, “Beazer Homes is dedicated to its online presences and is excited about this new opportunity to reach homebuyers searching online for their dream home. The Internet serves as a great showcase for our available homes and provides a powerful new channel.”
New home postings on eBay Real Estate will contain everything necessary to help buyers make a more informed purchasing decision, including photos of model homes, architectural drawings, floor plans, maps, community information and property descriptions. Potential buyers can also contact builders directly for further information or to arrange tours of homes in their area. In addition, eBay Real Estate offers first-time buyers an online library of “how-to” articles for help with purchasing a new home.
“The new homes channel and the kick-off auction event are great opportunities for home buyers to preview and make an offer on homes from some of the most credible and trusted names in home building,” said Tim Costello, president and CEO of Builder Homesite, Inc. “By participating in the auction event next month, many homebuyers can be the first to bid on exclusive inventory in sought-after locations from around the country.”
About eBay Real Estate
eBay Real Estate is the world’s online marketplace for real estate-related properties and services. Launched in August of 2000, eBay Real Estate operates five core categories within its marketplace: residential homes, timeshares, foreclosures, plots of land and commercial real estate. Both individual buyers and sellers and real estate professionals can enjoy a complete offering of services that make purchasing or selling a home safer, easier and more efficient. eBay Real Estate is a business unit of eBay, Inc. and can be found at www.ebayrealestate.com
About Builder Homesite, Inc. and NewHomeSource.com
Founded in Austin, TX in 2000 by a consortium of 32 of the nation’s largest homebuilders, Builder Homesite, Inc. (BHI) represents over 225,000 new home sales annually. BHI’s mission is to offer improved technology and marketing solutions for the new home industry. The first product by Builder Homesite is NewHomeSource.com, a consumer website offering the most comprehensive information and selection of new homes available on the Internet. Because of the extensive distribution network, more and more builders are making BHI their entry point into the Internet. By providing data to New Home Source, builders can also participate in BHI online partner channels, including Yahoo, eBay, CitySearch, Homegain, newspaper and realtor websites.
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