Website Assists People Looking to Buy New Homes

Yes, the stock market was down 777 yesterday, but 7 is a lucky number, and if you had bought yesterday and sold today you'd be up over 4%. Likewise, with real estate investing, the best time to get deals is when there is "blood in the streets". And that time is now, as it's a buyer's market and the economy is in the tanker.

To help prospective buyers buy and builders sell, there's a website called New Homes Section that specializes in selling new homes, and offers builder incentives and specials. Here is an excerpt of the interview I had with the site's founder, Paul Escobedo:

1. How did you come up with the idea?
My partner came up with the idea while working at his previous job as an account manager for home builders advertising. He saw firsthand how much these home builders were paying for advertising and came up with the idea to advertise their incentives over the internet in a much cheaper way. This way even the small home builders can be on the same advertising platform with national home builders.

2. How does the company make money?
New Homes Section makes money from selling advertising space to home builders as well as Google ad sense.

3. Have you broken even yet on your initial investment?
Unfortunately not, we are getting close but are not there yet. With the real estate market the way it is home builders are pretty skeptical about just handing over money to a newer company. We have recently opened in 8 other states and with two more opening in the next couple weeks it shouldn’t be long.

4. What's been the biggest challenge to start up?
Capital has been our biggest challenge to date as well as home builder and home buyer recognition. Another challenge was that when we started the company we didn’t understand that the internet had its own community. We had to learn quickly about things such as SEO, and what home builders are looking for such as impressions and a click through rate. It seems simple now but at the time it was a rush to get educated on these topics.

5. What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?
Always keep pushing! Everyone wants to be rich, not everyone will work hard enough to get there. Additionally, giving back to your community is always good business practice. We have partnered up with a non-profit organization called Lost our Home Pet Foundation www.lostourhome.org I am on the committee, we help them with SEO and advertise their website on ours.

6. What is your background?
College graduates with experience in advertising and sales.