RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE

Branching Out: Irvine-based Homes for Sale Magazine is at it again.

The publication--a guide to new home projects throughout Southern California--began publishing a specialized companion mailer last year aimed at turning renters into buyers. The initial zoned edition for Orange County proved so successful that the magazine now publishes quarterly mailers for four Southland markets.

Now Homes for Sale is branching out from its core publishing business with a new venture, Homes for Sale Information Centers.

The original free-standing center was built three years ago in Palmdale by Realtors Wendy and Susan D’Elosua.

Housing Publications Inc., publisher of Homes For Sale, entered into a partnership in January with the D’Elosuas--who share a last name because their husbands are related. The partnership, Homes for Sale Information Centers Inc., will open a 2,200-square-foot Orange County center in El Toro in mid-February, followed by a 4,000-square-foot North San Diego County center in Oceanside in late spring.

Offices in Coachella Valley, Temecula and South San Diego County are planned for 1993 and 1994.

The centers offer home shoppers a quick pictorial tour of new homes in the area.

Homes for Sale’s pitch to builders who buy space in the centers, however, is that they get not only the display space but also a range of services including access to a list of visitors, market research from surveys conducted by the licensed realtors who staff the centers, monthly listings of the names and addresses of shoppers who sign the registration book and even a set of mailing labels from that list.