HomeShark (TM) Inc. announced a multi-year agreement with BellSouth.net(SM) service, one of the fastest growing regional Internet services in the United States.

In the first alliance of its kind, HomeShark will be the premier provider of real estate and mortgage services to the more than 255,000 BellSouth.net customers.

"We evaluated a number of potential partners in the real estate and mortgage industry and felt that HomeShark's unique informational content, online application and transaction services, and market leadership position made them the natural choice for BellSouth.net customers," said Donna Lachance, vice president of marketing for BellSouth.net Services.

"Our relationship with HomeShark will enable us to meet the high expectations of our long-standing customers with access to the best real estate resources available on the Web."

The multi-year agreement will feature access to HomeShark services through the BellSouth.net service's Living and Real estate categories. To begin a mortgage search, BellSouth.net customers need only click on the real estate bar to utilize a homes and loans search.

Homebuyers can then enter the state in which they are purchasing a home and their expected loan, and in one click they are delivered a table of the lowest available rate and point combinations from approximately 20 national lenders. Once customers have found the loan which best fits their situation, they can click immediately to the loan application and complete the entire process online.

From the same initial search screen on BellSouth.net's site, customers in the initial stages of a home purchase can enter the city and state in which they are searching and immediately access the most comprehensive selection of home listings available in that area provided by HomeShark's newly acquired HomeScout.

HomeScout compiles more than 850,000 home listings from more than 350 real estate sites from around the country. Once the desired home is located, customers are conveniently linked directly to the listing provider's site and can ascertain detailed information about the property. Currently, Atlanta is one of the top three markets from which visitors to the HomeShark/HomeScout site are performing comprehensive home searches.

"We are very pleased to have been selected by BellSouth.net service as their premier real estate partner. While many e-commerce providers are solely targeting search engines and portal sites to reach more customers, HomeShark has tried to expand distribution of real estate services to include ISPs.

In addition to essential homes and loans search functionality, BellSouth.net customers can access HomeShark's discounted mortgages from national lenders, HomeValuation tools to estimate their property's worth and other real estate resources including tools to help homebuyers choose the right mortgage and find a Realtor.

Published: July 2, 1998

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.