Finally, a realtor that understands that most people want to look online for a home before they drive around, call a realtor or scan the newspapers.  This site is crisp, attractive and engaging.  More places should do the same thing and give the potential buyers the option of seeing the available homes in this manner, it should certainly drive business to their door!

FIND NEW HOMES NOW in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and move to the great state of Texas.  Not only will you see many homes, get the help you want in buying the home but you will also get 1% of the purchase price back at closing, that’s like getting a real deal on your realtor fees!

 Take a look at the site, you’ll be impressed with the quality and idea.

 Posted on Fri, Feb. 29, 2008

 Two Plano-based real estate brokers have teamed up to develop a Web site that they say will make finding a new house easier.

Brad Holden and Brad Oellermann, who a year ago formed Builders Information Marketing Services, on Saturday will launch www.homeferret.com, which features the new-home communities in the Metroplex offered by 32 home builders, including 25 national companies.

The men said their site is a one-stop shop because it puts an end to having to log on to each builder Web site to see what’s available. Searches can be made by city and price range, or by builder.

Holden and Oellermann said they spent several months researching and gathering the information from the builders.

“All of their communities are available,” Oellermann said.

By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
stevebrown@dallasnews.com Homebuilders who are sick of reading about the housing downturn are hoping to attract buyers with their own message.

The Homebuilders Association of Metro Dallas has raised funding from builders, developers and financial institutions for an advertising blitz aimed at attracting buyers.

The builders’ “DFW Buy Now” campaign has begun running ads in newspapersand magazines, on billboards and in broadcast media. There’s also a Web site: www.dfwhousing facts.org.

The builders say that the marketing program will help combat negative publicity about the housing market, which is hurting their business.

The Web site advertisements including pro-housing quotes from Dallas developer Ross Perot Jr., legendary real estate agent Ebby Halliday and housing analyst Ted Wilson.

“The national press’ blanket coverage of the dire circumstances in other markets has discouraged prospective buyers from exploring the buying opportunities in our local Dallas-Fort Worth market,” Donny Mack, president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Dallas, said in a statement.

“Because the builders have cut way back on starts, once the current inventory of finished new homes is sold, prices on new construction will likely go up and this unique value purchasing opportunity will be gone,” Mr. Mack said.

North Texas homebuilders have been forced to cut their starts by almost 40 percent due to lagging sales caused in part by the mortgage market crash. The cutbacks have been even steeper in many U.S. markets.

Almost 10,000 vacant new homes are on the market in the D-FW area, and builders are offering significant sales incentives to move their surplus inventory.

The local building industry’s marketing campaign will promote the idea that North Texas’ home prices are stable, houses are affordable and sell quickly, and there is a limited inventory of finished homes available. The advertisements will also promote the “strong local economy” and current “very low interest rates.”

The National Association of Realtors has been running a similar nationwide advertising campaign, telling consumers “It’s a great time to buy a home.”

And the D-FW builders’ group says similar local marketing programs have been used in St. Louis, Atlanta, Houston and Florida.

The North Texas ad campaign will run through May, at the start of what is traditionally the prime home selling season.

Housing analysts say that one reason many consumers have delayed purchasing a house is because of fears of falling home prices. In late 2007, nationwide home prices fell by close to 9 percent – the biggest such drop on record.

However, home prices in the D-FW area have remained flat or dipped only slightly from recent peaks.

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By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
stevebrown@dallasnews.com While the buzz in the housing market these days is about popping price bubbles, a new national study says that Dallas-Fort Worth has one of the most undervalued housing markets in the country.

Texas markets are also showing resilience in the face of nationwide home value drops, according to Tuesday’s report released by research firm Global Insight and financial holding company National City Corp.

Homes in Dallas are 30 percent undervalued and Fort Worth homes are almost 25 percent undervalued, researchers say, based on their estimates of where housing prices should be in North Texas.

To come up with its valuation estimates, Global Insight says it determines what home prices should be in the area, accounting for differences in population density, relative income levels, interest rates and historically observed market premiums or discounts.

The D-FW area is near the top of the list of cities with the most undervalued housing. Houston and College Station were also high on the list.

“Texas, which we have long characterized as undervalued, is now attracting significant migration at the expense of the much higher-cost metros of California and Florida,” Global Insight researchers said.

Even so, North Texas cities were among the 291 U.S. metropolitan areas that saw declines in overall home values at the end of 2007. Global Insight estimates that overall home values in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have dropped as much as 10 percent.

But that’s nothing compared with the slide in a handful of markets in California and Florida, where prices have plunged by more than 20 percent.

“Across the country, we are seeing prices going down, and that is also keeping the Texas metropolitan areas undervalued,” said Global Insight analyst Jeannine Cataldi.

The ease of building large numbers of homes in Texas is also a factor, she said.

“As demand keeps increasing there, there is enough room to build homes to meet that demand,” Ms. Cataldi said. “That’s one of the reasons we consider it undervalued.”

Even with the recent price declines, home prices in some markets in Oregon, New Jersey and California are still about 50 percent or more overvalued, Global Insight estimates.

North Texas has long stood out as one of the few large metropolitan areas not to experience dramatic home price appreciation over the last few years.

During the last five years, Dallas-area home prices have risen less than 16 percent, while the nationwide market has appreciated more than 40 percent.

“The upside for you is areas that did have all that appreciation are being hit the hardest,” Ms. Cataldi said.

Whitemark Homes, based in Sarasota, Fla., said it has signed a nonbinding letter of intent to buy Metiscan, but it is still negotiating the definitive agreement. The company said it expects to close the deal before the end of March.

Metiscan Holdings operates through its unit Metiscan Technologies Inc., a provider of medical diagnostic imaging products and services.

Whitemark Homes previously engaged in the development of lots and construction and sale of single-family homes primarily aimed at vacation homebuyers. It is currently seeking to buy or be acquired by an operating business. ++

Homebuilder Sharif & Munir has teamed with Gray & Co. Realtors Inc. to build a luxury mid-rise project on Lomo Alto Drive in Highland Park.

The three-story project, named The Ravello, will feature six residences, two on each floor, with an average 4,800 square feet per unit, priced from $3.75 million.

Each home will include a private elevator, three parking spaces in the gated underground garage and private storage.

The Italian-style villa, at the intersection of Lomo Alto and Fairway, was designed by Dallas architect Richard Drummond Davis. Each homeowner will have an opportunity to create a custom home designed to their exact specifications with Sharif & Munir, the company said.

Homeferret to connect builders with buyers

Dallas Business Journal – by Bill Hethcock Staff Writer

Geico has its gecko. Budweiser has its Clydesdales.

Now a Plano company is turning to a ferret named Frankie to call attention to a new Web site designed to connect homebuilders with buyers of new homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

Homeferret.com, created by Bradley Oellermann and Brad Holden, is scheduled to launch March 1.

The home search site will be free to homebuyers, builders and real estate agents. Extensive detail, including floor plans, photos of homes, neighborhood demographics and amenities, will be provided to help users narrow their searches.

Homeferret.com will be different than other search sites because it will focus on new homes, instead of tapping into the Multiple Listing Service, which primarily contains listings for existing homes, Oellermann said. Sales agents for homebuilders who sign up for homeferret.com will be given a password allowing them to list and update information on houses and housing communities, Oellerman said.

North Texas will be the test market for the site, which Holden and Oellerman hope to take nationwide.

The project has been well received by builders, who are looking for more ways to compete with existing homes for sales in a slumping market, Holden said. Many builders have their own Web sites, but homeferret.com provides a centralized site for potential buyers to search instead of going to individual builders’ sites, he said.

Ten builders have signed up, including Dallas-Fort Worth’s top-volume builder, D.R. Horton Homes, Holden said. “Builders love it,” he said.

Oellerman and Holden’s mascot will be a 25-foot, blue inflatable ferret that will be popping up all over the Metroplex, the co-founders say.

According to the National Association of Realtors, more than 80% of Americans start their home search on the Internet.

Traub joins Gensler

Gensler architectural firm has named Robert Traub design director of architecture, as part of Gensler’s goal of broadening its base of services.

Traub, who has more than 30 years of experience in architectural design, marketing and management, was most recently a vice president and director of design with Leo A Daly in Dallas.

bhethcock@bizjournals.com | 214-706-7125

Homeferret.com, a new type of real estate website, will be launching March 1st and is quickly gaining in popularity with realtors because it’s a completely free service.

March 1, 2008 — In the tough market of Real Estate, there appears to be many new trends for internet marketing. One of those new trends is listing homes on a non-MLS driven website. The newest website leading this trend is Homeferret.com, launching today March 1^st, 2008. Unlike most other Real Estate websites, this website allows anyone to search for a new home in the Dallas Fort-Worth metroplex with up to date information directly from the builder’s representatives.

 Although it is relatively new, within the last two weeks Homeferret.com has partnered with over 10 builders already, which 8 are in the top 25 builders in DFW metroplex (Dallas Business Journal Book of Lists, 2007). Beazer Homes, Bloomfield Homes, D.R. Horton Homes, Meritage Homes, Legacy Homes, Monterrey Homes, K Hovnanian Homes, New Lineage Homes, and Bowen Homes are the newest additions.

“Until now, there hasn’t been any successful sites dedicated primarily to new homes with local information in the DFW market,” states Bradley Oellermann, Co-founder of Homeferret.com.Unlike larger sites such as Realtor.com, Newhomesource.com, or INest.com, the ferret has a distinct advantage. They will show the conveniences and lifestyles to anyone searching on the site with locations of schools, hospitals, grocery stores, and banks. Typically your larger MLS dominated websites will list communities without actual pictures of available homes. This website is designed for not only the home buyer, but a valuable tool for real estate agents or realtors.Plans call for an on-going effort to add local resources and services to the site. “This is the main reason Homeferret was created,” Oellermann concluded, “to provide as much local information to our visitors, as we can, and striving to show the actual home online for the pleasure of our users.” About Homeferret.comHomeferret.com provides the most current information about the new home market and incorporating the latest technology all in one. They have created the next advance of searching for new homes online locally. The principals have over 15 years of new home experience in the Dallas Fort Worth real estate home market. Homeferret.com is owned by Builder’s Inventory Marketing Services L.P.

A 25 foot blue ferret with an unknown name will be unveiled in Texas. Dallas-based Homeferret.com will launch its new home search website on March 1^st, 2008, a free service to homebuyers and realtors in the DFW Metroplex. The voice of Brooke Layne, the original host of the show “Hot on Homes” will guide visitors through an interactive home search process, based on realtors and buyers’ specific preferences. Extensive detail, including floor plans, photos of homes, neighborhood demographics and amenities will also be provided to help users narrow their searches.  

“Until now, there hasn’t been any successful sites dedicated primarily to new homes with local up to date information in the DFW market,” states Bradley Oellermann, Co-founder of Homeferret.com. Unlike larger sites such as Realtor.com, Newhomesource.com, or INest.com, the ferret has a distinct advantage. They will show the conveniences and lifestyles to anyone searching on the site with locations of schools, hospitals, grocery stores, and banks provided by Google Maps.

            According to the National Association of Realtors, nearly 87% of Americans start their home search on the internet.  “We believe that with increasing popularity of the internet, the home buying process will begin online.  Homeferret.com will facilitate that process for buyers and realtors needs.”