FOR SALE: HOMES WIRED FOR COMPUTERS : BUILDERS MAKING IT EASIER TO ACCOMMODATE TECHNOLOGY.

Byline: Dawn Yoshitake Daily News Staff Writer

Hot-wired homes are popping up from coast to coast to lure technology-savvy home buyers.

Bedrooms, family rooms and, yes, even large landing areas off the stairway, are receiving upgraded, higher-capacity wiring that makes it possible to link all computers in the home together, side-by-side telephone jacks to accommodate separate lines for phones and computer modems and high-speed data transmission lines for video-conferencing.

West Venture Cos., a Burbank developer, is one of a small but growing number of builders jumping onto the techno bandwagon in search of increased home sales.

And to showcase its work and the latest in home computing and automation, West Venture and Computer Life magazine this week will demonstrate how technology can be laced throughout the fabric of homestead life.

The 1996 CyberHome will feature more than 50 computers, software programs and automation devices at a West Venture model home in Chino Hills.

Meanwhile, Taylor Woodrow Homes California Ltd. in Laguna Hills and the Walt Disney Co. in Burbank also are wiring up homes to handle techno features. And Los Angeles-based Kaufman and Broad Home Corp., the largest California home builder, is offering a smattering of computer wiring options for its Silicon Valley and upscale homes.

Last year, the Home Automation Association formed a task force to educate builders and consumers about the need to wire homes for current and future technology, said Susan Ritter, marketing director for Smart House, a Maryland-based home automation equipment maker.

``As people get computers and create home offices, they'll need additional wiring,'' she said. ``But homes today aren't typically wired for high-speed data transmission or satellite dishes that can download information. There's a huge market for this and it's in its infancy in getting off the ground.''

Wiring upgrades installed during home construction can cost from $500 to $1,500 - about half the cost of rewiring a home once it's built, developers say.

West Venture and Taylor Woodrow last year began offering the wiring upgrades in its new move-up homes. Some of the features are standard and others come as options.

``Up until 1990, builders were selling pretty much anything they built,'' said Sandy Sigal, West Venture chief executive. ``Then the recession came and we tried a number of approaches.''

First came price slashing, but then the company decided a couple of years ago to change its philosophy and add features that would yield a higher sales price.

``Technology had largely been ignored by the industry,'' Sigal said. ``But technology is changing the way we live.''

Placement of telephone and cable jacks has captured the attention of developers. Kaufman and Broad, as well as West Venture, has started to place telephone and cable jacks next to one another.

``As televisions and PCs merge, the ability to hook up a computer monitor to either one will be important,'' said Greg Romano, a Kaufman and Broad spokesman.

Meanwhile, West Venture and Taylor Woodrow offer upgraded wiring that can support a land area network, or LAN, in the home. Computers stationed in bedrooms, the kitchen and living room can be linked to one another, so family members can share files or equipment like a printer.

``This wiring makes our homes powered for interactive living,'' said Barbara Stowers, sales and market vice president for Taylor Woodrow.

She added that through this communications network, parents, for example, could station a video camera in their baby's room and watch the newborn sleeping on their television from another room in the house.

The souped-up wiring is standard in the homes.

In its housing development near Orlando, Fla., Disney is running a conduit through the homes that will make it easier to install fiber-optic cable when it becomes available in the area, said AnneMarie Mazzullo, a Disney spokeswoman.

Disney, along with West Venture and Taylor Woodrow, offers home buyers the option of running a high-speed Integrated Services Digital Network line to the home. ISDN allows data, video and voice to be transmitted over telephone lines at speeds four times faster than the quickest modem on the market.

And the cost of an ISDN option is $750 in West Venture homes, Sigal said.

Kaufman, however, does not offer that option due to a lack in customer demand.

``ISDN lines are a little too much at this point,'' Romano said. ``We sell homes to the lower-end price of the market and they're not asking for this.''

He estimated that less than 5 percent of the 7,500 homes the developer built last year had any computer-related feature.

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Photo: (Color) Sandy Sigal is chief executive of West Ventu re Cos., which designs homes for the computer age.

Phil McCarten/Daily News