Companies eye furniture mortgages
By Brian Carroll -- Furniture Today, June 24, 2002
BUCHANAN, Mich. — Online furniture retailer FurnitureFind.com has linked with a real estate software company to expand its marketing reach to home buyers and mortgage seekers.
If FurnitureFind's partnership with Evantis goes well, the two companies might work together to create home construction mortgages that would include money for furniture — a novel strategy that could help new homeowners buy furniture.
The partnership was brokered by Circle Group Internet, an investor in both FurnitureFind.com and Evantis. The two companies will attempt to leverage each other's customer bases through online and offline promotions.
"From a timing standpoint, getting home furnishings in front of someone shopping for a mortgage is a good thing," said Steve Antisdel, FurnitureFind.com chief executive officer.
Already FurnitureFind has set up a mortgage center on its Web site (www.furniturefind.com) to direct potential homeowners to Evantis (www.evantis.com). The mortgage center offers rebates for mortgage and other ancillary services from Evantis.
For its part, Evantis will promote and market Furniture-Find.com to its clients through off-line promotions and sales incentives.
"I think this is a great opportunity for both companies because both stand to benefit," Antisdel said. "We're looking forward to working with Evantis. They have the ability to put FurnitureFind in front of a large group of targeted customers."
The companies are still working out details, and have not yet discussed when they might package home mortgage funds with dollars for new furniture.
FurnitureFind reports approximately 1 million site visitors per month. Online sales this year are running at twice the pace of 2001, according to Antisdel.
"Traffic was off in September 2001, for obvious reasons, but by early October it started coming back and has been good ever since," he said.
Founded in 2000, Evantis is a customer relationship management software company specializing in real estate. It sells financial products and services to real estate sales agents and insurers aimed at improving customer retention, generating more leads and closing more sales. Its clients include Wells Fargo, Washington Mutual, First Union, Service Master and AIG insurance.
