Another real estate technology company, HomeSeekers.com Inc., is inviting its clients to play the stock market, announcing this month it would give stock warrants to MLS or brokerage partners who sign new agreements with the vendor or renew old agreements.

In theory, the giveaway could be worth between $11 million and $20 million.

One warrant to purchase one share of HomeSeekers.com common stock will be offered for each residential listing in the MLS database at the time of a contract renewal or signing of a new HomeSeekers.com Web site listing advertisement agreement.

Additionally, one warrant will be offered for each residential listing to each member broker of the participating MLS. This offer is made on a non-exclusive basis and for a limited time.

HomeSeekers is listed as a Bulletin Board stock on the Over-the-Counter exchange. Its symbol is HMSK.

In some ways the offer is similar to that made by rival vendor HomeStore (formerly RealSelect), operator of the REALTOR.com Web site, which offered warrants to MLSs and large brokers who signed exclusive deals with it. HomeStore has filed to go IPO sometime this fall.

"I think the biggest difference (between HomeSeekers and HomeStore) is that what we’re doing has nothing to do with exclusivity," Johnson said. "Our partnership program is on a non-exclusive basis. You can have your listings somewhere else and still be in our program."

HomeStore has taken some heat in the past for signing the exclusive deals in its "Gold Alliance" program. Competitors argued that it was attempting to "buy" the market and squeeze out the other players.

Johnson said that in theory, at least, the HomeSeeker’s giveaway could be worth more than $20 million.

"At any given time there are 1.2 million to 1.5 million listings," Johnson said, each of which is worth one share of stock to the local MLS board. "So you double that (by also giving a stock share to each broker who owns the listing)" suggesting that between 2.5 million and 3 million shares could be distributed.

Currently, HomeSeekers' database contains about 700,000 listings, implying 1.4 million shares available for distribution.

The stock currently is trading in the $7.50 to $8 range.

"We want to expand HomeSeeker's relationship with our broker and MLS partners," Johnson said. "By providing warrants as part of our agreements, we believe that brokers and MLSs will have a sense of ownership and will participate in the promotion of the HomeSeekers.com Web site and HomeSeekers.com agent Web services."

"I can’t believe anyone wouldn’t want to take us up on our offer," Johnson said. "Afterall, the overall value of the data has gone up tremendously. I can’t believe anyone wouldn’t want to cash in on that."

Russ Bergeron, general manager of Southern California Multiple Listing Service, the nation’s third largest MLS, applauded HomeSeekers' offer. "Since we first put our listings on the Internet four years ago, the value of our MLS data has increased significantly," he said.

"An entire industry has developed based on the heretofore private data of the MLS. HomeSeekers recognizes this fact and has taken a bold step to increase its compensation to MLSs without requiring exclusive agreements which are imposed by some listing aggregators."

Published: July 23, 1999

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