Nothing but net

HEADNOTE

As Internet mania sweeps through the industry many wonder when and how hidebound home builders will enter the digital decade.

TO DOT.COM OR NOT TO DOT.COM THAT IS THE QUESTION. With each passing day, the

Internet threatens to take over even the most conservative businesses, including home building. Long known for its aversion to change, home building is haplessly caught up in the World Wide Web mania that is taking America by storm, making millionaires out of computer nerds who launched money losing Internet business es that nonetheless find willing investors. Industry watchers are waiting to see how abruptly builders will adapt to this brave new world, or whether they will at all.

"The last technological change that came to home building that was accepted, for all practical purposes, was the telephone," notes Joel Orr, editor of Extranet News and a leading technology consultant to the home building industry. "Home builders have not been known as the most technologically advanced folks out there." Greg Brooks, a general partner with The Construction Supply Group in Centerville, Va., agrees that builders are loath to make changes but believes they will eventually "get on board once they realize the Internet will not change the underlying construction process a bit."