Speculation within the Central Iowa real estate industry says that another area home builder is on the verge of creating an in-house sales system, lessening its dependence on traditional real estate companies and their agents.

If it happens, it would be part of a quiet revolution taking place in the way new homes are sold in Central Iowa, as builders demand more from real estate agents and everyone scrambles to take advantage of the Internet.

A move to in-house marketing would look radical from here – and traditional when viewed from nearly every other city. “Des Moines is the anomaly,” said Rick Tollakson, president and CEO of Hubbell Realty Co. “Traditionally, in any market our size or larger, each home builder will have its own salespeople.”

Hubbell Homes went that route in the spring of 2004, hiring people with experience in retail sales, not real estate. “We got into home building in 1998 and went with the people we knew to list our houses,” Tollakson said. When sales stayed flat, the company called in consultants. “They said, ‘Your people are not motivated to sell just your product; they’ll sell anything,’” Tollakson said. “They said, ‘You need agents dedicated to selling only your product.’”

When Hubbell jumped off the rails, “it was a big deal,” said Dean Cooper, vice president and director of sales at Jerry’s Homes Inc. “A lot of people in the real estate industry, the doomsayers, were saying it would never work. Well, they’re still around.”

“We got hurt in the beginning, because we bucked the system,” Tollakson said. “There was a fear that other builders would do the same. Now we’re starting to trend upward (in sales), obviously not as fast as I would like.”

Among other Central Iowa builders, “in-house sales are definitely being discussed,” Cooper said. Other builders suggest Jerry’s Homes will be the next to take the step, but Cooper would say only that “any good business entity is always exploring options to see what’s best suited for its situation.”

Builders see size as a basic requirement for an in-house sales operation, and that also creates rumors about the plans of ever-growing Regency Homes. Dean Summa, the company’s director of outside marketing, said: “A lot of people have insinuated that we might do that, but no. Look at the population base. In Minneapolis, a lot of builders have their own salespeople, but they have a population of 3.5 million – and there’s not a dominant broker.” Iowa Realty’s dominance of the local market is regularly cited as the biggest reason for the lack of in-house marketing here.

Whether in-house marketing makes inroads or not, the sales process appears to be evolving.

“I think the new-home market might be changing,” said Dave Vollmar, who recently became executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Des Moines. “We have had some groups get together and talk about how they’re going to market themselves, and I’m looking at starting a sales and marketing committee here. We would offer classes for Realtors so they can become better agents for the new-home market.”

And Regency’s Summa noted, “Right now we’re setting up a focus group of selling agents to discuss how we can enhance the sales process.”

The Internet is also changing the way the home-selling game is played. Coldwell Banker Mid-America Group Realtors recently signed an agreement with California-based Homestore Inc. to receive enhanced listings on that company’s realtor.com Web site.

“We did it because we know 76 percent of home buyers go to the Internet to start their search,” said Carolyn Helmlinger, president of Coldwell Banker Mid-America. The deal will provide more photos and improved descriptions for Coldwell’s listings. “We think it’s a great direction for our company to expose each seller’s home in a much stronger way on the Internet,” Helmlinger said.

Cooper, at Jerry’s Homes, agrees that it’s time to revamp at least some of the home-selling practices around here. “The tradition has been to have an open house from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and that’s it,” he said. “It’s conducive to the agent’s needs, not the consumer’s needs.

“Now builders are starting to voice their opinions and starting to require longer hours. We have instituted a policy of holding open houses from noon to 5 p.m. on weekends, and now we’re instituting open houses during the week. Hubbell is doing that, too, and other builders are following suit,” Cooper said.

‘Builders have the risk, the financial investment, and we expect that investment to have a return.”

According to several builders, another major issue is complicating the home-selling process: The Central Iowa market has an unusual inventory of unsold homes that were built on speculation.

“There’s an enormous amount of inventory on the market, and people had better start watching it,” said Bill Kimberley, owner of Kimberley Development Corp. in Ankeny. “Everyone and his brother is throwing up one or two spec houses, and you’re going to see them get a spanking. This market is not for novices, and I think the business is going to be a lot tougher in the next few years.”