Homestore and its equity partner, America Online, Inc. have taken their long-standing agreement to the next level. The five-year $200 million stock deal that charmed analysts and boosted stock prices announced in May 2000 is bearing fruit as Homestore's debuts its new and extensive real estate content for the world's largest interactive services company.

Homestore is the exclusive provider of professional home and moving services in home-related areas across AOL, AOL.COM, CompuServe, Netscape Netcenter and Digital City, according to the agreement and it is also the exclusive national provider of aggregated apartment inventory and will continue to be the exclusive national provider of aggregated residential real estate listings across these AOL properties. AOL and CompuServe have more than 24 million combined members worldwide and AOL's Web-based brands receive tens of millions of additional visitors. Homestore is no slouch in the visitor department either with approximately six million visitors monthly.

Peter Tafeen, executive vice president of Homestore, explains, "What this alliance means is that the number one company at building consumer traffic and the number one group for real estate content is now one plus one equals three. It's that big."

What's changed? "Before with AOL, the deal was that we were more of a content provider in getting distribution for our content. This is more of a joint venture," says Tafeen. "We even paid for the deal with stock vs. cash. That shows a desire to be partners. We are trying to revolutionize content. This is the first channel they (AOL) have launched in three years. We are programming all the content areas ourselves."

Featured on AOL's new House & Home Channel (AOL Keyword: House & Home), the Homestore content provides tools, advice, and e-commerce solutions to help consumers of all skill levels get practical information on buying, selling, and managing a home including the Home Decorating, Home Security, Hardware, and Lawn & Garden areas, and will be a prominent content provider in the Commercial Real Estate, Home Finance, Home Technology, Home Office, Senior Housing and Home Appliances areas.

How will the alliance impact the stock now that the deal is in place? "Obviously the marriage made a lot of sense," says Tafeen. "but how it will impact the stock, I don't know. I don't understand the market any better than anyone else, but what the deal does do is show our key drivers. Traffic is about the acquisisiton of new customers and maintaining a customer base. Ths deal will have a significant impact on acquiring and keeping repeat customers."

"Everybody thinks it is a smart deal and they are excited about it," he continues. "The Realtors and analysts think this is the right type of deal because we are tying ourselves together through equity."

The deal goes deeper than that. Offers Tafeen, "We are building content together and building applications together. The applications are on Homestore itself. AOL is best at providing convenience applications, like Instant Messenger, and we are working with them on changing those tools, to modify them to use in the real estate industry. Imagine Instant Messenger on Realtors' cell phones."

Homestore has expanded its authority in a number of areas besides home searches, including Home Decorating, Home Security, Hardware, and Lawn & Garden, and more. The House and Home Channel is already gearing up for the holidays, with planned programming featuring holiday crafts and party food ideas, and even advice on how to baste a turkey properly.

But back to real estate, the star of the new channel is clearly still Realtor.com listings content with over 1.4 million existing homes listed. Home buyers can also peruse the 130,000-plus new home listings on Homestore.com's HomeBuilder.com(TM) site. Apartment seekers can check out over 45,000 apartment properties in more than 6,000 cities on Homestore.com's apartments section. AOL users will have a one-click connection to a full range of moving and relocation services. And don't forget beauty. Homestore is also a premier provider of home improvement, gardening and decorating services. Where else can you search a database of over 3,000 plants, trees and shrubs? You can at Plant Finder, or AOL Keyword: Gardening.

To kick off the alliance, Homestore is offering a "$100,000 Celebrity Home Makeover" Sweepstakes AOL Keyword: Home Makeover. One lucky entrant with receive $100,000 to remodel and/or redecorate his/her residence. In addition, Homestore.com is giving away over $70,000 in products, services and mortgage/rent reductions in twice daily $500 prizes and one weekly $5,000 award. Consumers can visit the House & Home main screen, go to the sweepstakes site and register.