Homescape

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Homescape was founded in 1997 as a division of Chicago-based Classified Ventures. It provides local property listings to homebuyers and sellers nationwide and offers advertising solutions to real estate professionals. Homescape has more than 3 million property listings nationwide and a network of over 130 online newspaper partners.


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[edit] History

Homescape began in 1997 as a part of Classified Ventures, which was formed by a joint-venture between five large media partners: Belo Corp., Gannett Co. Inc, The McClatchy Co., Tribune Co. and The Washington Post. Homescape was created to provide private-label real estate technology, data management solutions and online advertising solutions to the newspaper affiliates. Homescape announced on August 1, 2007 that it is "changing its approach by working directly with brokers and agents to gather property listings in markets nationwide." [1]

[edit] Features

The real estate industry has been experiencing continuous change with the emergence of various significant real estate trends that have created numerous new real estate business models that are reshaping the industry. This includes companies such as Move.com, Zillow, Trulia and RealEstate.com.[2] Buyers are more frequently searching online as the National Association of Realtors reported: "84 percent of recent home buyers used the Internet in their search, up from 80 percent in 2006," [3] which has helped with the continued growth of Homescape.

Homescape provides a complete set of local home listings with resale, new construction, classified and open house listings to consumers. Search results appear in a list view, map view or combination list + map view. Also provided are larger photos, multi-media and additional home features. 2.9 million home searches are conducted monthly on the Homescape Web site.

[edit] Agents, Brokers and Builders

Homescape's primary clients are real estate professionals, including agents, brokers and builders. Agents, brokers and consumers post their property listings on the site for local home buyers. Agents, brokers and builders can add to their listings on Homescape with photos, logos, contact information, promotional text and multi-media. Homescape's other features include: open houses and targeted online banner positions. They also provide detailed activity reports for advertisers.

[edit] Partnerships

Today, Homescape has extended its national reach through marketing aggreements within the real estate industry. The most recent partnership was with the Realogy Corporation, [4] a global provider of real estate and relocation services. Homescape is also partners with Keller Williams, Three Wide, Point2 Technologies, MLSPIN and many others.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Homescape Shifts Listing Focus to Brokers;[1].
  2. ^ The 2007 National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers; [3].
  3. ^ Homescape Announces Nationwide Marketing Aggreement with Realogy; http://www.centredaily.com/business/technology/story/412849.html].

[edit] External links