Idealab Launching Home-Buying Web Site

Last year, Idealab launched MyHome.com to sell furniture, rugs, bathroom fixtures and other home furnishings over the Web. Now the Internet business incubator is starting a company to sell homes to go with all that merchandise.

Idealab Chairman Bill Gross will unveil MakeAnOffer.com today at the Demo 2000 conference in Indian Wells, Calif. The company will facilitate the buying and selling of houses, even if they’re not officially for sale.

Separately, Idealab recently acquired a nascent start-up incubator in Washington called VenCatalyst. The three founders asked Gross to become a minority investor, but instead he decided to buy the whole venture. VenCatalyst’s principals, Andrew Stern, David Bohigian and Richard Powell, are working on a plan to open an Idealab outlet on the East Coast.