As a preemptive strike against the anticipated Homestore IPO, HomeSeekers.com (OTC Bulletin Board: HMSK) is offering one warrant to purchase one share of HMSK common stock for every listing in the company's database to each of its MLS partners and repeating the offer to the MLS member brokers. The offer is good for MLS contract renewals or the signing of a new HomeSeeker's web site listing advertisement agreement.

"This amounts to two warrants per listing, one to the MLS and one to the broker per listing," explains John Giaimo, CEO of HomeSeekers. "If ABC MLS has 10,000 listings they will receive 10,000 warrants. The brokers of 'ABC' MLS will receive communally 10,000. If a broker with 'ABC' MLS has 500 listings, s/he will receive 500 warrants."

As stock options are offered to employees or "insiders" of publicly held companies, warrants are offered to "outsiders," such as customers or strategic partners. The terms are different, but the benefit is the same. If the warrant is obtained at today's price, 7 1/2, the MLS and the member broker can exercise the warrant at will as the stock rises. They are guaranteed that they can buy the stock at 7 1/2 even if the price goes up significantly and pick up the difference. If the stock goes down, they simply do nothing.

It is an investment with no strings, allowing the brokers to cash in as well as the MLSs. HomeSeekers does not even require an exclusive MLS or broker agreement to participate.

"The brokers own the listings," says Giaimo.

His statement may prove to reveal where the future line in the sand will be drawn. Realtor.com continues to court MLSs over individual brokers. Its warrants were offered only to MLS exclusive members.

In a volatile market, where Internet stocks have cooled over the last six months, the steady climb of HomeSeekers stock has shown only an occasional slip since its low of 1 13/16 in October 1998 to a 52 week high in April 1999 of 12 1/2. If the stock continues to go up from its mid-point of 7 11/16 where it opened today, brokers who take advantage of the warrants stand to do very well.

So far in the race to attract and hold as many viewers as possible, HomeSeekers.com has held its own against Realtor.com, a division of Homestore. By offering a variety of inducements to brokers to gain access to listings, including daily listing postings to free Web pages for agents, Where the two companies differ is that Realtor.com would like to see listings remain the exclusive territory of the NAR partner. HomeSeekers' philosophy is that listings should be available to be seen on as many sites as possible, offering additional exposure for sellers as well as agents and brokers.

Published: July 22, 1999

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