Scenario #1:

You're looking for a newly constructed home, want to check out as many builder's homes, locations and options as possible (from the comfort of your own home computer), and certainly wouldn't mind a hefty rebate once you've made your choice and escrow has closed.

Scenario#2:

As a new homebuilder, you want a place on the World Wide Web where potential buyers looking for new homes on their own can go to link to your expensively maintained web site and see detailed descriptions of your communities, your homes and their options. Should they eventually visit one of your communities and buy there, you are willing to rebate up to 1% of their base sales price for the honor.

Where to Go:

InterNest.com. Rebates for new homes? Why not? We use the Internet to shop for everything from books, clothing, home furniture, and remodeling services to cars, and jewelry and computers. We almost come to expect rebates on some of these items, large or small. Why not a rebate on your new home purchase?

Andy Wolf, founder and president of InterNest.com, explains, "We are a perfect example of how the Internet is changing the way people do business," and adds "InterNest.com's value-added, personalized approach to buying a new home via the Internet is the wave of the future."

While saving homebuyers thousands of dollars with its "Cash Back Program", InterNest.com's interface brings homebuyers and builders together, one-to-one, allowing consumers to research and review literally hundreds of new home building options, all online. While registering with InterNest.com does not obligate the consumer in any way to buy from one of the builders who participates, it does enable the buyer to receive a cash back bonus after purchasing a home through the program and an affiliate builder featured on the InterNest.com site.

"What we have pioneered is a value-based home buying resource that not only saves homebuyers time, but can put thousands of dollars back in their pockets," says Wolf. "We're living in a fast-paced, time-crunched society where it's difficult to devote numerous weekends to searching for a new home, and do "homework" on qualified builders and communities. And for buyers relocating from another city, it can be even more difficult. InterNest.com puts weeks of research and travel time at a buyer's fingertips."

Now available in six states (California, Florida, Illinois, Arizona, Texas and Georgia) and growing daily, InterNest.com features leading builders who offer large portfolios of new home models and building options, and ensure that each builder offers the highest quality of service, products and technology, according to Wolf. It links select builders' sites into one central online resource, allowing homebuyers to select and view communities, home styles and floor plans prior to visiting the actual property.

For instance affiliate builders participating in the Orlando area, such as Centex Homes, Lennar Homes, American Heritage Homes, Landstar Homes, and Banyan Homes feature directories of selling locations. Buyers simply click on a location of interest, where they can then review detailed information about each member builder include current models, floor plans and pricing. Consumers can privately tour each development and home and research builders and communities prior to visiting a home of their choice, making it a tool for them to educate themselves about the new home buying process without pressure from outside representatives.

InterNest.com also provides buyers access to other resources for locating services necessary to the home buying process. Resources include links to the NAHB (National Association of Home Builders), mortgage lenders and home inspectors, and information on mortgage rates, local schools, community amenities, government housing, and even a real estate glossary of terms. Links are also offered to sites such as furniture.com, ImproveNet, Garden.com, Home Warehouse, and National Van Lines, with special 3-D landscaping software offers through the Toro company.

Also on the site are dozens of testimonial letters from buyers who took advantage of the cash-back program offered by InterNest.com, and went on to put in landscaping, add window coverings, or buy new appliances with the rebate money, at a time when "hole-in-the pocket" syndrome may have begun to set in.

InterNest.com is based in Bloomingdale, Ill, and is owned and operated by InterNest Brokerage Inc., and is a licensed broker in each state in which it does business. You may visit their web site at www.InterNest.com.

There's no doubt that web shopping offers limitless opportunities, saving consumers precious time and money in the long run, at a time when they need it most. Buying a new home using the Internet may have sounded far-fetched an even space-aged just a few years ago. But, as we all are increasingly discovering, the future is now, and the year 2000 will bring even more eye-opening cyber-options our way.

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Published: January 5, 2000

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.