Marketing new homes online is no different than existing homes. Or is it? There are some differences that you need to know, whether you are a Realtor representing one or more builders and their properties, or whether you are builder's agent working for one builder.

Like the big listings sites for existing homes, there are mega-listing sites for new homes. NewHomeNetwork.com and Homebuilder.com are the market leaders, and actually work together in a spirit of cooperation unseen in the resale world. These sites know that the more exposure a builder can get for a home, the better.

Generally advertising a builder costs anywhere from $30 to $60 to get someone to walk in the door. The Internet can drop that expense significantly if you know how to use it as a tool and make it work for you.

NewHomeNetwork.com

NewHomeNetwork.com is the new home Web site of Classified Ventures, an online conglomerate owned by many of the top newspaper publishing firms in the United States. When you market your builder here, you not only get the benefit of online marketing, but Classified Ventures charter requires NewHomeNetwork to purchase 1/2 page ads in all the newspaper affiliates across the country, so the builder’s homes will also show up in USA Today, Chicago Tribune, etc. In addition, the site is advertised on all media - television, billboards, radio, and print.

NewHomeNetwork.com’s product for builder’s agents is the Builder Marketing Showcase, where companies like a broker's office or marketer can get exposure for the builder. Basically it is an online brochure with links going back to the listings database.

To market your builder effectively, you’ll need photos, floor plans, and information on the builder’s communities or developments. You should have a fulfillment package which includes information on the community itself, the schools, and the builder. Contact information should always include an email address as well as a phone number.

According to John McDonald, director of sales, 80% of new home searches performed by consumers are by price. Next in order of popularity are area - city, town; communities - types of communities; and amenities. "They will get homes that fit that criteria and see who is representing those homes," explains McDonald. "Then you have BMS and it shows all about the builder. It helps display the communities on a one-page document, the group, what they are building, and all about the community."

What makes NewHomeNetwork unique is its pro-active approach to training builder’s agents and Realtors who want to market builders through the service. McDonald says he works closely with builders and agents to show them that with a little effort they can derive more from their Internet marketing.

"One builder had a great success story, closing 24% of online leads, while another in the same market closed less than 1%," recounted McDonald. "The difference was the on-sites (representatives) and how they responded to online leads. The one builder who was unhappy with his leads was partnering with new home listing companies to drive traffic, but no one was following up. They were waiting for leads to come through the door. Many don’t have computers and they are sending the leads by fax or email. The fax comes in and it sits there and they don't have the mindset that it is a real person."

McDonald set up a program with a couple of builders in which all inbound leads receive an autoreply - "Your request has been received and you will have a response shortly. Most were following up within 24 to 48 hours, but the close ratio went up 20% when responses were returned within four hours.

Complaints are also solved by encouraging the agents to partner with all the sites - Realtor.com, NewHomeNetwork, Homebuilder.com, and others. "Now it’s your job to track which ones do well for you," says McDonald.

Like other lead generating sites, NewHomeNetwork provides a report to the builder and agent but that doesn’t account for all the people who may find a plan they like on the Net and come through your front door without emailing you first. Again, there is a right way and a wrong way to make tracking work for you. When a customer comes in the door, have them fill out a card. Don’t leave it to the customer - fill it out together. Be sure the cards include other media such as billboards and newspaper ads to get a fair appraisal of where your leads are coming from.

McDonald has also been known to test agents with a secret shopper routine. Agents who asked the "customer," how did they hear about the builder might be rewarded with a hundred dollar bill next time McDonald was in town.

Phone calls will be twice as frequent as emails, suggests McDonald. " What does that tell you?" he poses. "Some people don't want to wait for an email. I can show you how many phone calls you're getting."

Homebuilder.com

Homebuilder.com is the official Web site of the National Association of Home Builders, (NAHB) and is owned by parent company Homestore. Homestore boasts the greatest visitor traffic of any "homes" site, because it offers the greatest number of listings, both new homes and existing homes, on the Internet.

Homebuilder.com is focused on builder information, including new homes, subdivisions and developments. The site has developed a customized, nationwide listing of builders' models, newly built homes and housing plans, which it aggregates directly from builders and organizes into a listings database. The site also features mapping and community profiles.

Homebuilder’s Lead Generation Program allows consumers to email or fax the builder with detailed requests for information on each property. Potential buyers can search for new homes using the following features:

New Homes: Users can search by geographic location and by price, square footage, floor plans, elevation, pictures, maps, school information, and other demographic data pertaining to the community. Builders can pay to be linked from the listing to the builder's Web site.

Builders: Users can search by builder and view a detailed list of the selected builder's homes.

Custom Builders: Users can search for custom builders by geographic region and lists the builders by name, phone number, the price range of the builder's homes and a text link to view the builder's inventory. A text link from the builders' name to its web site is also available.

Real Estate Agents. Users can find a Realtor to assist them in a new home search. This is an excellent place to advertise as a buyer’s agent, relocation agent or as a builder’s agent.

What you will purchase is the Professional Product Basic Services Package, a program for builders of all sizes. Homebuilder.com will collect and store the builder's information, display the information throughout our national and local Internet distribution channels, and, like NewHomeNetwork, train the builder's salespeople on how to respond to Internet leads.

The Basic Services Package should include collection, entry, and periodic updating of the builder's inventory of models; newly built homes and floor plans, and community information; scanning and digitally storing the builder's floor plans; elevations and available pictures detailed property profiles with floor plans; descriptions, mapping, photographs, specifications, elevations and virtual tours.

Proactive Agent Marketing is Homebuilder.com’s agent marketing program which allows builder’s agents to:

• announce a new community
• announce a new model
• have an open house
• change prices within a community
• have a broker incentive program
• have a special close out subdivision
• have a sale on a specific inventory home

This is an email program in which every Friday, local agents and brokers will receive notifications from the builder’s agent on any of the above topics.