THE HOMES.COM - DEBACLE The truth behind the decline of Homes.com must lie in one of three arenas: 1. Corporate Espionage/Corruption 2. Fraud / Theft 3. Complete Incompetence Query: How does a company spend $35+ Million Dollars of Venture Capital (VC) money, plus recurring monthly revenue in just 14 months? How does a company purchase three profitable going concerns and still loose money? How does a company disregard the recommendations provided by the former leaders of these three companies for operating a profitable business? Finally, how does a New ?A-Team? of sales leaders for a company destroy the top-level managers, which built the infrastructure for profitability? Answer: The ?A-Team?, Ricky Del Santro, Matt Bolin, and Greg Cook, the current Executive Sales team of Homes.com and all former Cendant Sales Executives, arguably sabotaged Homes.com. Notation: To Date, Ricky Del Santro has not closed one sale for the company, nor did he assist in the closing of a sale. Greg Cook, never closed one deal for the company as VP of Strategic Sales nor as the Senior VP of Direct Sales. Matt Bolin can not even find the control panel to the Homes.com Agent Advantage product for which he is directly responsible to sell. He also has never closed a deal for Homes.com. HISTORY: It was just twelve months ago, March 15th, 2000, that Homes.com acquired Real Estate Village (REV), doing business in San Diego, CA. REV was a thriving In-Side Sales company which provided a quality turn-key Internet web-site solution for the real estate professional, coupled with a Customer Service Department that truly cared about the individual client and their success on the Internet. Real Estate Village was a profitable going concern when assumed by Homes.com. The two primary leaders of Real Estate Village were Grant Gould, a visionary and sales veteran; and John Perkins, a respected and successful financial manager. The business model established by these two men is the only remaining sales division within Homes.com. Within a few months of its acquisition of REV, Homes.com purchased Automation Quest, founded and operated by Verl Workman, a highly respected business operator and public speaker in the real estate industry. Additionally, Homes.com purchased PREP Software from Pat Zaby. Pat Zaby?s national reputation for honesty, integrity, and true concern for the real estate professional is beyond reproach. At this writing, none of these business leaders are with Homes.com, and claims are being filed in Federal Bankruptcy Court, San Francisco, California, as creditors of Homes.com. Chronological Facts of the Homes.com demise: June 2000: Bob Prince hires Ricky Del Santro, Matt Bolin and Greg Cook away from Cendant, as the executive sales team for the company. Mr. Del Santro becomes Executive Sales Director; Mr. Bolin is engaged as Senior Vice President of Sales, responsible for REV - Insides Sales Division, Automation Quest and the Seminar Sales Division; Mr. Cook is hired as the Vice President of Strategic Sales. June 2000: Alan Pyles, former National Sales Director of HMS Home Warranty, is promoted from North East Regional VP, to Senior Vice President of the Direct Sales Division. October 2000: Homes.com terminates 15% of its workforce, over 100 employees, and closes offices in Newport Beach, CA (Regional Office); Salt Lake City, UT (Automation Quest); Dallas, TX (PREP Software Office); Denver, CO (Regional Office); and Falls Church, VA (Data Aggregation and Regional Office). November 2000: Homes.com spends over $250,000 at NAR Convention to promote itself, including sponsoring the Huey Lewis and the News Concert. December 2000: Jay Westmark, Vice President of Business Development, resigns; Mike English, founder of the National Sales Division and highly respected real estate industry professional is terminated without cause; and, Tom Orsi becomes Chief Operating Officer per the mandates of VC?s. January 2001: Homes.com announces to all its employees that additional funding had been approved from VC?s; Tom Orsi conducts national tele-conference to assure employees the company is ?doing well?; Alan Pyles resigns as Senior Vice President of Direct Sales and is replaced by Greg Cook, former VP of Strategic Sales. Verl Workman, former owner of Automation Quest, resigns. March 2001: Bob Prince resigns as CEO and returns to Homes & Land Magazine; Tom Orsi becomes CEO; Homes.com announces the closure of the Seminar Sales and Direct Sales Divisions resulting in the elimination of 40% of its workforce; Pat Zaby, former owner of PREP Software, is terminated; Homes.com Files Chapter 11 in Federal Court in San Francisco; Homes.com fails to pay former owners and shareholders of REV a ?Large? payment owed from the purchase of REV; and, The San Diego Union Tribune, the city?s premier newspaper, refuses to allow Homes.com to advertise in its newspaper. Kent Dowdy, Vice President of Technology Operations just resigned. July 23, 2001: The date any and all creditors must file a claim in the Chapter 11 proceedings. NATIONAL SALES TEAM REMAINING: All that remains of Homes.com sales force today is the In-side Sales Division, which was formerly REV; and, Ricky Del Santro, Greg Cook, Matt Bolin, Peter Del Santro, South East Regional VP and Dan Fry, Midwest Regional VP. (Note: both Peter and Dan are also former Cendant employees). Who is kidding who??? THE STORY I am a former employee of Homes.com and Real Estate Village (REV) who enjoyed my job immensely and appreciated the individuals I worked with. When REV was first acquired by Homes.com all the sales representatives, approximately forty (40), were excited about the opportunities which lied ahead of us for selling a quality product with name recognition. Many of us at the same time were hesitantly cautious due to the fact that Real Estate Village was just beginning to receive national name recognition. Additionally, real estate agents using the product were starting to reap the benefits of the REV web-site and were generating leads from the Internet through the marketing REV had implemented with specific Internet partners. I vividly recall one sales rep inquiring to a manager, ?Are we going to be Davie Crocket at the Alamo, or Neil Armstrong going to the moon?? The manager responded, ?There is No Doubt About It, We Are Going to the Moon!? And I as well believed in my heart of hearts that this manager was correct. Thereafter, I had the pleasure of working with a number of Homes.com employees as well as the folks within REV. Just last summer, a Homes.com employee stated to me that she had never worked for a company where so many people were working so hard to make a company successful. This epitomizes the attitude of hundreds of the people at Homes.com that were working night and day to contribute and be a part of ?Something GREAT?. What followed over the course of the past six months is a tragedy. (See: Chronological Facts of the Homes.com demise, above). I firmly believe that all of us ?former Homes.com employees? are still amazed that such a great product and support team could be ruined by a handful of men leading the company. While the Bankruptcy Court can not investigate the demise of the company I certainly hope that some agency within the Federal Government will. Whether it is the FBI, the SEC or some other agency, someone-somewhere needs to delve into the company?s mismanagement and identify the Fraud/Theft or Corporate Espionage that must have occurred for this to happen. Too many good people have been damaged by the decisions made from the leadership team of Homes.com. Homes.com was a viable bright shining company with employees that worked diligently to contribute its success. Now, Homes.com is just ?dot com done?. It?s a Tragedy. To all my fellow former employees I want to wish you all well and God?s Speed in your new endeavors. Let?s all try to remember the great moments we had at Homes.com, because there were many. Hopefully, one day, justice will be served and these ?alleged leaders? will be found out for what they truly are.