It must first be said that, although I produce regular cyber-columns on new home issues and trends, I am not the quintessential cyberspace expert or explorer in my spare time. When it was suggested that I arbitrarily try to find a new home on the Internet, I can truly say that I define "point and click molasses-like speed." My teenager lets loose with regular guffaws whenever she watches me on a computer, wondering how my reflexes have deteriorated to this level, so bear with me on this point.

Perhaps that is why I may not be unlike many new home buyers trying their hand at mouse-driven house hunting, making me credible after all. The idea of searching for a new home on the Internet is at first quite appealing, just because of the mere simplicity of letting my fingers do the walking. It is certainly less wear and tear than subscribing to the newspaper of the town in which I'm interested, or scheduling several "looky-loo" trips there. And probably more reliable than counting on someone else to know where all the new homes are being built. Of course, the cyber-search is a preliminary step in finding a home, not even in the league of kicking the real tires on a place and getting serious. Nevertheless, if you have to start somewhere, your own home office doesn't sound bad after all.

I first began with my favorite rookie search engine, Yahoo, and typed "new homes" into the little box. In no time flat, a page headed with the possibilities of more than 8,000 matches appeared. At the top was an attractive ad, complete with a small picture of a beautiful home, enticing me to click on "NewHomeNetwork.com", before I even looked further down the page to see what else was available to me. Before I let myself take the easy way out and click right away, I scanned the page, seeing that there were indeed some other "sites to see", so to speak. The page ended with another opportunity to click on NewHomeNetwork.com, so there was no escape. I clicked there first.

I had decided ahead of time, for the purposes of this article, to look for a new home in the north coastal section of San Diego, where my spouse and I spent our first eight years of married life. Knowing real estate is quite expensive there, I gave myself some latitude about the price range, settling on $300,000 to $450,000 for a single family home. I also decided not to specify the bedroom and bath count, or a specific borough for that region, keeping my options open. And this is how I began every search.

NewHomeNetwork's home page prominently displays a many-dotted map of the United States. It appears, pleasingly enough, that their focus is on the new home search, not smacking of advertising content for my first impression. This was good. Although tiny dots on the map made each market area seem almost pin-point, I took my trusty little mouse and got specific to see if these dots really worked. Voila! After pointing to San Diego, I was taken to another page more specific to my search, asking what part of San Diego I was interested in. I indicated my criteria and was supplied with information on several new home developments there, including the phone numbers of their builders. I was able to note the square footage, bedroom and bath count, garage size, and even the opportunity to see a profile on the builder.

Impressed by the small number of clicks it took to get to the information, as well as the lack of annoying glitz in the site itself, I kept NewHomeNetwork site in mind for future use. What was somewhat disappointing, however, was the lack of opportunity to view a specific floor plan or picture of a prospective house itself, leaving me with numbers, and no images to get me excited.

I returned to my Yahoo menu and scanned down past a few sites that sold manufactured houses and other related products, to NewHomesDirect.com, clicking this time with lightening speed (my daughter would have been proud). I was greeted with another national map, this time with arrows for choices. The map was surrounded by advertising, some of it related to new homes, and some of it looking as if it belonged elsewhere. The three related to my search were those of a national homebuilder, a mortgage company, and a moving company. The rest were for golf equipment, an Internet service provider, and cheap airfares.

I ignored the ads and zeroed in on my search. This time, the little arrows, unlike the last site's little dots, didn't work as well. It gave me the entire state of California on the next page, to narrow down my search again. It is interesting to note that every page I clicked in to specify information contained advertising to distract me (sometimes it literally dominated the page), continuously flashing, until, after more than six page clicks, and being asked to name a specific town, I got to pay dirt. Three builders' communities were listed and the possibilities looked good enough at first glance. Little icons of cameras next to each floor plan made me think I could see an actual photo. So I clicked on one and was given a drawing instead. Better than nothing, but not exciting. I was pleased to notice a place on this page also listed a place for schools for the area, but failed to mention them specifically, denoting "San Diego District" instead.

I was willing to try two more sites. NewHomesNet.com was next, although in Yahoo it was listed as New Home(s) Network, smacking of copycat from the first site I visited. This site was much less user-friendly, forcing me to continuously click for specifics I thought I had already indicated, and leading me to a page of builders' names from which to choose. It was not until I was willing to get brand-name about it that I was able to see the homes listed. I figured this part out quickly, even if I am a cyber-idiot. This is a site that links builder web sites and does not appear to be an information gathering vehicle. I was taken to the specific builder's web site itself, robbing me (in my opinion) of having an open arena of communities and homes from which to choose. The most annoying thing to me was the fact that, once I was catapulted into a builder's own web site, I could not navigate back to NewHomesNet for the remainder of the search. I was stuck.

The last site I visited was one with which I was already familiar, possibly the oldest and best-known web site for new home searches, HomeBuilder.com, which recently became part of HomeStore.com. One can find just about anything for homes there, used, new, rented or waiting to be remodeled. I was somewhat disappointed at the fact that neither of these mega-sites was listed in my original Yahoo search; perhaps other search engines would have listed it prominently. In the spirit of posing as any cyber-shopper would, however, I would not have been led there without my own knowledge of its existence. (If I missed its listing, I will no doubt hear about it from someone in the near future.) On to a brief assessment, however.

HomeBuilder.com is the official new homes site of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), and a large web site indeed. Drawing from the strength of thousands of member homebuilders, the site is possibly the most comprehensive for home cyber-hunts available. Its home page gave me literally dozens of places to point and click, including lots of ads, which most of us are used to being hit with, but I personally find rather annoying when my purpose is to find a new home, first and foremost. I was given a choice of clicking on new homes, builders, custom builders or planned communities. Another alternative was going directly to a map of the U.S.

The idea of having all of these options was pleasing to me, especially since I like planned communities in general, and love being given broad choices. Although It took awhile to get where my specifics were listed, this time I could click on real photos (places are designated for virtual tours, but this must not be available on many homes yet) and good-sized floor plans to view. I was also delighted in not only being able to study the web pages created by the developers of the communities in which these homes appeared; I could also return to the HomeBuilder listing I had not yet finished looking at. The drawbacks of this site, as formidable and impressive as it looks, is that only homebuilders belonging to the NAHB are listed there, creating a de facto elimination of those who don't belong. The other would be its commercialism, which is somewhat expected, I suppose, considering its size and power. It is also time-consuming in its clicker-friendliness.

I suppose the bottom line is that it's all there, free of charge, for us to begin our dreams with. Information is what the Internet is all about, and new homebuilders and developers certainly don't seem to penny-pinch when it comes to promoting their homes and communities. Cyberspace, to the chagrin of many newspapers, may be garnering a good chunk of builder advertising budgets these days, with more and more potential homebuyers using it to facilitate them in their search for the American Dream. I have always thought them a complement to one another, however. Many homebuyers would not take the time to print out page after page of research results. But they might end up writing down what builders' homes they liked on the Internet, and look for its corresponding newspaper ad to throw in the car on their way out the door for their weekend of home shopping. At least, that's what a cyber-dummy like me would do, not wanting to use up my printer cartridge on it. It's a great place to start, however, and definitely the future of new home promotion, giving homebuyers more information than they ever dreamed possible from the comfort of home.

Also See: Which Is the Best Online Home Buying Site?

Published: January 21, 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.