Friday, February 29, 2008
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.
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
