Austin, Texas – April 9, 2001 Builder Homesite, Inc., the emerging builder-founded consortium for the new home market, today announced that The Drees Company, ranked 37 in the 2000 Builder 100, has signed up as the twenty-second consortium member.
Builder Homesite is backed, endorsed and driven by a consortium of the nation’s premier homebuilders and focused on improving the home selection, buying and ownership experience through the use of online technologies. BHI products are being designed to provide consortium members with the benefits of new sources of revenue from an open, un-biased new home channel, reduced technology acquisition costs and the monetization of each builder’s home and community assets. The 22 consortium members represent over $35 billion in gross revenue for 2000 and build over 165,000 homes across the continental United States.
“We are excited about the homebuilding market transformation being developed by the Builder Homesite consortium,” said David Drees, President and CEO of The Drees Company. “The Drees Company is a leader in using the Internet as a method for communicating our products and services. We believe that it also provides a significant competitive advantage to builders that can use and exploit its power. This is an exciting time for homebuilders as we leverage the capabilities of the consortium to take advantage of this opportunity.”
“The Drees Company is a great addition to the Builder Homesite consortium,” said Tim Costello, President and CEO of Builder Homesite. “We are thrilled that they have joined and will soon benefit by collaborating on the development of products and tools that will power the digitization of the entire new home lifecycle.”
New Home Industry
According to Hanley Woods 2000 Builder 400 Report, the top 200 builders in the United States are responsible for over $56 billion dollars in revenue (Single Family Detached Homes) with over 320,000 closing annually. The members of the Builder Homesite consortium dominate this list and are responsible for over 50% of the homes built by the Top 200 Builders in the United States.
PaineWebber’s eBuilder Report states that builders effectively using the Internet could see profits per-home improving by up to 30% in the next ten years. Consumer use of the Internet during the home selection process is increasing–research studies show that 62% of all new homebuyers already use the web for sources of information and service. Other research has revealed that over 85% of consumers will use or plan to use the Internet to shop for homes in the next two years.
About The Drees Company
Headquartered in Northern Kentucky, Drees has homebuilding operations in Cincinnati, Dayton and Cleveland, Ohio; Northern Kentucky; Washington DC; Raleigh, North Carolina and Dallas and Austin, Texas. With the recent acquisition of the assets of Zaring National Corporation, Drees has added home building operations in Indianapolis, Indiana and Nashville, Tennessee. In business for over 70 years, The Drees Company is listed by Builder Magazine as the 37th largest builder in the U.S.
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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