ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 30, 1997 TAG: 9703290009
SECTION: TODAY'S HOMES PAGE: 9 EDITION: METRO
When you buy a new home, you are likely to have questions such as: How much home can I afford? What kind of house is being built in my favorite neighborhood? I've been transferred; how do I find out about homes in my new town? My builder is letting me choose the cabinets in my kitchen; where can I find more information about my choices? What kind of mortgage is best for me?
The housing industry is helping home buyers find answers to these questions. All through the country, builders and their trade associations are making it easier for people to buy a home by providing information on the Internet's World Wide Web. Web sites can answer questions about how to work with a builder, provide lists of builders and remodelers in your area and walk you through the mortgage process as well as answer the questions listed above.
For example, the National Association of Home Builders launched its web site, known as The Home Page, in early 1996, and it is a huge success with both home buyers and builders. You can find The Home Page on the web at http://www.nahb.com
According to Randy Smith, the 1996 NAHB President and a builder from Walnut Creek, Calif., "The Home Page is a valuable resource to a wide range of people from first-time buyers to builders to people who already own a home. "A key area is information about home finance, and the site provides a Lender's Link that allows people to link to mortgage company web sites where they can determine current rates, how much home they can afford and how much their monthly payments would be," Smith said.
Home pages allow visitors to click on specific points in the site and be linked to web sites created by local builders associations.
Builders themselves are using on-line technologies to sell their homes. According to NAHB, approximately 200 members reported that the web is an important part of their marketing strategies. Builders use the web to show floor plans, give directions to model homes, list product options and prices and provide links to related sites.
Here in Roanoke, David Radford, of Radford & Company and current president of Roanoke Regional Home Builders Association (RRHBA), set up a home page on the World Wide Web a year ago.
The site is at: http://www.ibt.net/ra/
The web site is shared with Radford & Associates, a real estate firm. Radford gets a summary report which tracks the number of hits and where they are from. The site averages 37 hits a day. Though the majority of hits are from Virginia, recently he has logged hits from Canada, New York, Indiana, New Jersey, North Carolina and California. Most people are looking into relocating. His home page, designed specifically for senior housing, is easy to find. Radford advises building home pages with key words to help make searchers easy.
At his site, hit the "projects" button to see current real estate projects. Keep clicking to floor plans, pull them off the net, print a copy and study them. Then, call or e-mail Radford for more information.
Radford says developing a home page is a good, low-cost image builder, but you need to update and refresh the site frequently. No one wants to read Monday's paper again on Tuesday
"Give your home page a facelift to keep people hitting and looking at it," Radford says.
Tom and Beth Wilson, full-time real estate agents at Owens & Co. Realtors, set up their Star City Page more than two years ago. They average four or five hits to their page per week. Initially, mostly out-of-towners hit the site while searching for information about Roanoke and relocation. They offer newcomer packages and links - by hitting a button - to the Roanoke Regional Home Builders Association page. There you will see photos and read about the HBA House.
Their "Star City Home Page" is at
http://www.infi.net/~t.wilson
Dolores Farmer, vice president and associate broker for Owens & Co. Realtors, has had an Internet home page since 1995. She thinks of a home page as a high-tech bulletin board full of words and pictures.
"An executive in Charlotte, N.C. might be sitting at her desk, thinking of relocating her business or family here," Farmer says. "The more information on Roanoke available on the Net, the better for Roanoke."
She has averaged 500 hits per week since August 1995.
Her home page is at http://www.infi.net/~dolores
To find answers to your home buying questions and information about building companies, log on to a web crawler or search engine.
Popular ones include http://www.yahoo.com, http://www.lycos.com and http:// www.atext.com
Enter key words such as builder, home building, home, mortgages, construction, remodeling, new homes, real estate or the builder's name. You should find information on all these topics and references to others you may not have considered. And check back often since most web sites are updated frequently. With a broad base of facts, you will be able to find the home that meets your needs and fulfills your dreams.
NAHB's web site gets 120,000 hits per week. New on the web site: The ANSI guidelines for measuring square footage in a house. This publication can be downloaded or printed out, saving NAHB the cost of printing and mailing it to its members. Look for the NAHB/OSHA job site handbook to appear on the web site.
For the latest news about home buying and the home building industry, be sure to log on to "The Home Page" at http://www.nahb.com
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