INTERNATIONAL BUILDERS SHOW, ATLANTA, Ga. – February 8, 2002 – HomeBuilder.com™, and the Builder Homesite Consortium, two of the building industry’s leading sources of online sales leads, today announced an alliance to increase the online advertising reach of America’s homebuilders.
Under the multi-year agreement, HomeBuilder.com will undertake marketing efforts and act as the reseller for the Consortium’s Web presence, NewHomeSource.com, and will be the exclusive reseller of newhomesource.com’s pioneering performance based pricing model to non-Consortium builders. HomeBuilder.com is the Internet’s leading new homes destination and the official site of the National Association of Home Builders. The Builder Homesite Consortium is comprised of 31 of the largest homebuilders who together build more than 225,000 homes annually.
The alliance will help builders increase their exposure of online new home listings while simplifying the collection of listing data. Through HomeBuilder.com, builders are offered one-stop shopping with the ability to advertise and display homes on two complimentary online networks: HomeBuilder.com and newhomesource.com. Builders listed on both sites can reach approximately 93% of the total Internet user audience.
New home listings on HomeBuilder.com benefit from being part of the Homestore™ Network which attracts more than 8 million individuals per month, and from being part of AOL’s House & Home Channel, which access AOL’s 33 million members and the AOL Time Warner network’s more than 83 million unique monthly visitors, the most network visited in the country. New home listings on newhomesource.com benefit from an alliance with MSN, the country’s second largest online destination, which attracts more than 75 million unique monthly visitors. (Jupiter Media Metrix, December 2001)
“Builders of all sizes have grown to accept the Internet’s importance as a way to access home buyers. HomeBuilder.com and Builder Homesite have come together in a shared vision of how builders can improve their marketing and advertising,” said Allan Merrill, HomeBuilder.com’s President. “From vastly increasing the online reach of builders, to collaborating on data standards, this alliance is an important step in the maturation of the Internet as a marketing medium for homebuilders.”
“We have reached a point in the evolution of the building industry where cooperation is more important than competition. Together, all key industry players can deliver better products that more seamlessly integrate into existing technology infrastructures,” said Tim Costello, Builder Homesite’s President and CEO. “We’re pleased to work with HomeBuilder.com to extend the existing relationships they have with thousands of builders nationally and offer builders of all sizes a marketing program that combined with HomeBuilder.com has the potential to reach most Internet users.”
For more information, Builder Homesite and eBay Real Estate representative will be available for comment on Friday, February 8th from noon to 2 p.m. at the International Builder Show, Westin Peachtree Plaza, Augusta III room.
About HomeBuilder.com™
HomeBuilder.com™, the official site of the National Association of Home Builders, is ranked as the number one new homes site on the Internet. HomeBuilder.com, which drove more than one million leads to the nation’s builders in 2001, offers consumers searching for new homes approximately 110,000 models, homes and built-to-suit plans for viewing. A Homestore™ company, HomeBuilder.com also offers homebuilding professionals an array of technology tools to maximize lead opportunities from their online marketing efforts.
About Homestore
Homestore (Nasdaq: HOMS) is the leading supplier of online media and technology to the real estate industry. The company operates the #1 network of home and real estate Web sites including flagship site REALTOR.com®, the official Web site of the National Association of REALTORS®; HomeBuilder.com™, the official new homes site of the National Association of Home Builders; Homestore.com™ Apartments & Rentals; and Homestore.com™, a home information resource.
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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- Eleanor Bowman
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