It's astounding when you stop and think about how the Internet has changed our world. Currently more than 210 million people throughout the United States regularly log on to the Internet. This is no fad or passing craze. The Internet is for real and must be taken seriously.

The waves of change are being felt in every industry and the home building industry is no exception. Consider this: the Internet has actually surpassed newspapers in the ability to bring home buyers to sales offices. Home shopping through local newspapers is becoming a thing of the past, while home buyers turn to the more convenient and comprehensive alternative of online home shopping and targeted housing publications.

89 percent of potential homebuyers first turn to the Internet for housing information. And many builders are estimating numbers that are even higher.

"Each year, we are seeing a higher percentage of potential home buyers using the Internet to shop for homes," said Christine Selby Snow, Internet Marketing Director for Engle Homes. "The Internet has become integral to the home shopping experience. Even if you are flipping through the newspaper, most Internet savvy home shoppers are going to check out the website in the ad, before visiting the sales office."

Selby Snow said that she believes home shoppers are using the Internet even more than newspapers, mainly because it is so convenient and useful.

"Today, time is a valuable commodity. People used to jump in their cars and look at 10 communities in a day, but they don't have that kind of free time anymore. So home shoppers are doing a lot of narrowing down in their search on the computer, and then going to the communities of their choice."

While Engle Homes still advertises in the newspaper from time to time, Selby Snow said the dollar volume they are spending on Internet advertising is increasing, and the amount spent on newspaper advertising is declining. The only difficulty with Internet advertising, she said, is in quantifying how many sales are coming from the Internet.

"You cannot identify an Internet buyer as easily as others. Although they may have used the Internet and seen our website, when they get to the sales office, they may be with a broker, so the sale is marked as a realtor sale. Or they may say they saw the signs."

That is why, even though the hard numbers show that a small amount of the company's sales are coming from the Internet, Selby Snow is confident that the actual numbers are much higher.

Kevin Cross, senior regional marketing analyst for Centex Homes' Southeast Region, agrees that it is difficult to track the amount of traffic and buyers that are coming from the Internet.

"Unfortunately, what you get from customers at the point of sale is usually not accurate. At least 50 percent of traffic will say that they came in because they were just driving by and saw the entry signs. That's the last thing on their mind as they walk in the door so that's what they say even though they may have seen an ad or been on the Internet," he said.

The best way to determine Internet usage and the effectiveness of your Internet advertising, Cross said, is to follow up with buyers after the purchase.

"You have to really dig in to find out if people used the Internet and if so, how much was it a determining factor in their purchase," he said.

Centex is currently in the midst of conducting these kinds of surveys. Preliminarily, Cross said he guesses that one-third of their sales office traffic have been to their website.

Dave Kidd, vice president of Information Technology for NVR, also believes that many of their buyers are visiting their web site before visiting the community. In one small market study conducted by the company, the number of sales attributed to the NVR web site was slightly higher than the number of sales that came from their newspaper advertising.

According to Kidd, it is most important to have a website that has all the information people need and that will entice them to visit the community in person. While the Internet is a useful tool, it will never take the place of an actual visit, he said. It does, however, produce visitors that are more likely to buy because they are educated and interested in the product listed.

"If we get a visitor who has been to the web site, we know that this is a serious buyer that is much more likely to convert into a sale. This buyer has already done the homework and found out a lot of information about the community before coming in," he said.

At the Palm Beach Division of Lennar, Vice President Dana Kittredge is finding that the majority of their home shoppers are using the Internet. "Almost all of our buyers have visited multiple web sites on their way to buying a home from us... American Home Guides, NewHomeGuide.com, Lennar.com, etc. Our buyers have made that clear," she said.

So what does it all mean for the average homebuilder? It means that there is no more "wait and see" when it comes to making the Internet an essential part of your overall advertising campaign. Home buyers are using the Internet and it is producing sales. The Internet has, indeed, emerged as the most valuable and cost-effective marketing and sales tool available to homebuilders today.