iSearchDecor: Your Guide for Where to Buy

iSearchDecor Offers a Value-Added Design Service to Help Realtors Close More Business

PHOENIX, AZ–(Marketwire – June 8, 2010) –  iSearchDecor announces the “Second Look Tour,” the first of its kind synergistic initiative exclusively available to realtors and new home buyers during the pre-sales process. Realtors have the ability to team up with a home décor expert made available through the iSearchDecor community of local home décor business partners. The program allows the realtor to call in an expert to provide the “vision” that some buyers may need on a property in order for them to truly appreciate the potential of the property prior to purchase. “Buyers often times need a little help with envisioning the possibilities. Taking a ‘Second Look Tour’ with one of our home décor partners allows the buyer to receive consultation from a third-party expert,” says Alicia Guerrieri, CEO and Co-Founder of iSearchDecor.

The specific needs of each property and concerns expressed by the new homebuyer will dictate the type of professional that is sent for the Second Look Tour consultation. Experts may include interior designers, color consultants, stagers, contractors, architects or landscape designers, just to name a few.

Realtors pay no fee for the consultation until the property is sold. Buyers receive free one-half hour consultation sessions. “I like the Second Look Tour concept. It takes home previewing to a whole new level. I can see it being a value-added service for both realtors and buyers,” says Darrell Moffitt, a residential real estate agent with Realty Executives in Scottsdale.

After the purchase of a new home the buyer can use the iSearchDecor free online matching service to find local “hidden gem” stores and service professionals for their home décor needs at insider savings (www.isearchdecor.com).

Realtors can enroll in the program by contacting iSearchDecor at secondlooktour@isearchdecor.com or by calling 480-619-5505.

About Us: iSearchDecor offers a FREE online matching service connecting consumers looking to decorate or remodel with local home decor stores and service professionals (the true “hidden gems” of the area). Consumers can visit the iSearchDecor website and click on what they need. The online system provides a perfect match to home decor stores and service professionals that have exactly what they are looking for. Consumers enjoy insider savings from each merchant and receive a map to each location. There are over 200 categories to choose from. For more information, visit www.isearchdecor.com.

For more details about iSearchDecor, please contact:

Alicia Guerrieri

Email Contact

480-619-5505

http://www.rentedspaces.com/2010/04/22/one-stop-design-help-isearchdecor/

One-Stop Design Help: iSearchDecor

Browse Rentals By State

Apr 22nd 2010 3:30PM

Can’t afford to have an interior designer to coordinate your home, but don’t want to do it yourself? Now there’s help…provided that you live in or near the Phoenix, Ariz. area.

iSearchDecor – a site launched last month – matches your home furnishing needs up with local vendors carrying those wares. DIY decorators can price and product compare home accessory options from local “hidden gem” stores without pulling out of the driveway.

And there are plans to make this service available in more cities. ”We can do just about everything that someone may be looking for,” says iSearchDecor CEO and co-founder Alicia Guerrieri. After spending a bit of time using the site for my own virtual furnishing needs, I realized she may be right. The site currently offers 200 categories of products ranging from typical appliances and home furnishings to incredibly specific items like solar panels, bamboo flooring and wine coolers. Customers looking for a specific item – whether it be a couch or a water filtration system – fill out a brief questionnaire on the type and style of product they need and their project time frame and voila! The search system generates up to three matches, all available from

local vendors in the Phoenix area and all offering a special iSearchDecor discount. In playing around on the site, I found that if I lived in the Phoenix area, I could easily have a set of Southwestern/Rustic metal railings, custom bed linens and a multi-media chair designed for a “Man Cave” available immediately.

Information on where I could pick up each item, along with a contact name, phone number and e-mail was sent to my inbox within three minutes of filling out the form. Thanks to the site’s service search options, I could also find someone to move and install it all before purchasing. Win-win!

While the site isn’t perfect – I wasn’t crazy about one of the uber-expensive linen stores my search suggested and a few of the discounts offered didn’t apply to my specific purchase – it could be a significant boost to local stores struggling to keep up with competition from larger franchises. It’s also a valuable intermediary step between hiring a pro designer and doing it all yourself.

If the site continues to perform well, Guerrieri reports that iSearchDecor will expand to two to-be-announced US cities before the end of the year, and the service will continue to keep a strong emphasis on supporting local businesses.

Friday, April 16, 2010  |  Modified: Monday, April 19, 2010, 10:56am MST

Startup

Web site connects contractors with homeowners

PHOENIX BUSINESS JOURNAL – BY Lynn Ducey

“ISEARCHDECOR IN PHOENIX BUSINESS JOURNAL”

A conversation about home remodeling and decoration led Michelle Maxwell and Alicia Guerrieri to launch iSearchDecor, a Web site that connects customers with independent businesses and service professionals in the field.

The women are self-financing the venture and have recruited some investors, which they spent the past year developing. But iSearchDecor isn’t their first enterprise together. They launched Decoratours in 2007. The personalized service offers clients one-on-one trips to select home boutiques and decorating businesses.

“But after that, we still had people coming to us for referrals, and that’s how we got the idea for iSearchDecor,” Maxwell said.

The women hired a company to develop their new Web site, which features home decor, lighting, flooring providers and installers across the region.

The site is free for consumers, but businesses pay fees based on the number of leads they receive from the site. Maxwell declined to share financials, but said the goal is to turn a profit while also supporting local companies.

She said the site is more than a listing service because participating businesses are vetted before earning a spot on the site.

“We call them the ‘hidden gems’ in the Valley. We go out and actually visit the stores and meet with the service professionals,” Maxwell said. “We really scour the Valley to find these great places.”

Even though the women live in the same Scottsdale neighborhood, Maxwell said it was important to expand the breadth of the site to reflect the entire Valley.

“We find that our clients want to venture out and explore and see what is out there. We also think it’s important to expose people to different options and ideas,” she said.

For more: www.isearchdecor.com ; www.facebook.com/isearchdecor; twitter.com/isearchdecor

Read more: Web site connects contractors with homeowners – Phoenix Business Journal:

Apr 06, 2010 10:00 ET

iSearchDecor Is the First of Its Kind Online “Matching” Service for Home Furnishings

PHOENIX, AZ–(Marketwire – April 6, 2010) -  iSearchDecor announces the launch of an innovative, free online matching service that unites consumers with locally-owned home décor stores and service professionals. With the launch of iSearchDecor, there is no need for consumers to go out aimlessly driving around town.  Instead, consumers are one click away from finding the perfect match to a local “hidden gem” store that has exactly what they are searching for. “It is much easier to search online before venturing out of the house,” says CEO and Founder, Alicia Guerrieri. “We are able to save the consumer valuable time, gas and money.”  At no charge consumers receive a listing of match results based on their specific needs and design style in real-time. Results include detailed information about each store, the store’s price level, and a map to the store’s location. In addition, consumers receive special insider savings on their purchases.

Serious buyers can fill out a quick and easy form. For others who want to simply check out the interactive website, a demo is provided that can satisfy one’s curiosity on how it all works.

Merchants in the program have to meet stringent qualifications and include both unique home décor stores and experienced home service professionals. “We only match consumers with locally-owned businesses,” says co-Founder Michelle Maxwell. “It is important to us to support the community by providing visibility to locally-owned businesses. With the iSearchDecor matching service we can do just that.” There are over 200 categories on the iSearchDecor website, everything from furniture, accessories, and window coverings to closets, cabinets and countertops. Consumers can even find solar/thermal products and hot/cold outdoor spas.

Optional tours are available to the stores on a consumer’s match list through Decoratours, a sister company to iSearchDecor. With the tour service, consumers are chauffeured to stores in comfort and luxury.

iSearchDecor is currently serving the Phoenix area and plans on quickly expanding to other cities across the U.S.

To learn more about the program and receive exclusive insider savings on purchases, visit: www.iSearchDecor.com.

About Us:

iSearchDecor was founded in August 2009 by Alicia Guerrieri and Michelle Maxwell. iSearchDécor is the nation’s premier online, real time, matching application for consumers who seek the perfect match to local home décor hidden gems (unique home décor stores and experienced home service professionals). For more information, visit www.isearchdecor.com.

The sister company, Decoratours, was formed in January 2007. For those looking to decorate or remodel their home, Decoratours offers custom, individualized tours to locally-owned home decor stores based on a client’s unique style and budget. Tours are available for people who want to be chauffeured to the stores on the match list provided through iSearchDecor. For more information about the home décor tours, visit www.decoratours.com.

For more details about iSearchDecor, please contact

Alicia Guerrieri at Email Contact or 480-619-5505

* Digg this

* Bookmark with del.icio.us

* Add to Newsvine

* Technorati: interior design   home interiors   home improvement   home furnishings   design tips   home decor

Click here to see all recent news from this company

Privacy Statement | Sitemap |© 2010 Marketwire, Incorporated. All rights reserved.

Your newswire of choice for expert news release distribution.

1-800-774-9473 (US)  |  1-888-299-0338 (Canada)  |  +44-20-7562-6550 (UK)

Valley businesses should learn to tweak before they start to tweet

March 8, 11:58 PM Phoenix Business Insight Examiner Denise Meridith

Many businesses in Phoenix are trying to jump on the Twitter band…wagon.  Baby boomers, who, use to think a social network was a chamber meeting, are now scrambling to hire a Millennial, who can build one for their business websites.  But not all types of businesses translate well into tiny url’s.  Sometimes, in Phoenix, it may be more productive for a business to “tweak” (its operations) instead of “tweet.”

Wolzs Florist is an example of a small business, which adapted to a poor economy by narrowing its target market to weddings.  There is another business in town, which is not changing its product or, even its audience, but is changing how it displays its products.

During the last decade, Alicia Guerrieri’s experience mirrored many others in Phoenix. With a lot of optimism, the University of Arizona graduate launched Decoratours, an exciting new concept, which would provide tours for people to “hidden gems,” small boutiques. It was like a “personal shopper on wheels.” Arizonans, tired of big box stores, would find unique products or bargains in small shops. It was a win-win-win for Guerrieri, the shopper and the small décor stores.

Unfortunately for Guerrieri, and so many others, her LLC was incorporated in December 2007.  Of course, 2008 brought the housing bust.  The market for people, wanting to ride around looking for home furnishings, shrank as people worried more about keeping their homes.

The economy is turning.  First-time homebuyers are taking advantage of special credits. Other people are more inclined to fix up their current homes, since they cannot afford new ones. However, Guerrieri had to come up with a new way to show off her clients’ products, to recapture her target audience.  The result is iSearchDecor.

iSearchDecor, which launches Tuesday, March 9, 2010, provides a virtual guide for people looking for home furnishings.  Home décor shops, interior decorators, and other vendors can gain visibility among a very targeted audience at a low cost. For cash-strapped, publicity-challenged small businesses in Arizona, it is a new marketing outlet. For time- and budget-conscious consumers, it will be a fun, one-stop shopping method.  Interested customers will still be able to tour. Guerrieri is excited about a fresh start for her home décor dream business, and “about being able to give small home decorating Valley businesses the visibility they deserve.”

iSearchDecor will use Twitter and Facebook. But Phoenix businesses should tweak before they tweet.

Click here to find out more!

More About: Business · economy · Phoenix · Arizona · industry · recovery · recession · Chamber · how-to · budget · tweet · computers · baby boomers · partnerships · collaboration · advertising · ads · U of A · entrepreneurs · decor · launch · tour · home

ShareThis