Posted on: Friday, June 27, 2003

Software aims to be 'Century 21 of new homes'

By David Tyler
The (Rochester, N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle

Magellan Inc. President Kimberlie Barrett is going to Plan B.

Plan A went like this: Design a computer database that lists newly built homes and lets a buyer look at hundreds of developments, with site plans and other details. Offer the service to other local brokers.

The idea received a lukewarm response. Most agents don't specialize in new-home sales.

But Barrett was convinced there was a market for a firm that focuses exclusively on new homes. She went to plan B: Think bigger. Perfect the software and take the service national.

Building the database has taken years. Barrett opened her first real estate business in the Rochester, N.Y., area in 1984. By 1988, she had created her software, dubbed New Home Explorer. She considers it the new-home version of the multiple listing service used by real estate agents for existing homes.

Her experience in market analysis, marketing and sales for new homebuilders convinced her that new-home buyers needed someone to look out for their needs.

"I saw over and over again that buyers were on their own when they came in looking at a model home," she said.

By 1994, she brought her new home, consulting and marketing businesses under one name tied to the explorer theme: Magellan.

She put the idea on hiatus in 1996. "I was raising four kids as a single mom," she said. "I was tired."

Over the next seven years, Barrett continued to work with builders. She also tweaked the software, which was originally designed on an early generation Macintosh computer, so it was ready for the Web.

Now, Barrett says she's ready to take the concept outside her eight-agent office. By fall, she plans to open company-owned offices and establish joint ventures with out-of-town companies. Magellan projects 2003 sales to hit $15 million.

"I want to be the Century 21 of new homes," Barrett said.

The program has won converts, including Rose Gabriele, who was so impressed with the concept she joined the company as an agent.

Gabriele said she could have used the service when she built her own house.

"I didn't find anything out there available for me that was anything like this," she said.

That sort of reaction is what Barrett is banking on. Many real estate agents shy away from selling new homes, she said, because of the complexities involved.

"It can be easier to sell an existing home than to find a client a lot to build on," she said.