Due diligence has been completed and definitive agreements have been signed on Homestore's (Nasdaq:HOMS) purchase of HomeFair for $85 million, announced Stuart Wolff, chairman and chief executive officer of Homestore.com, in an exclusive interview with Realty Times.

Homefair ranks as the largest moving and relocation site on the Internet. The site is operated by Homebuyer’s Fair, Inc., a division of Central Newspapers, Inc. (NYSE:ECP).

"With Homefair integrated into the Homestore family," said Wolff, "that will give us three out of the top five most visited real estate sites (according to Media Metrix,) along with Realtor.com and Springstreet. With Homebuilder.com, we have four out of the top 20."

The inclusion of Homefair should also give Homestore a traffic boost - up to 2.7 million unique users each month, according to company estimates.

The site will also deliver an important revenue generator that is missing on Realtor.com - a dynamic loan center. Other sources of revenue are advertising dollars and relocation referral fees derived from sources such as career placement partners such as Virtual Job Fair, Career Central, and Dice.com.

Founded in 1994, Homefair is content rich for visitors, making it the Internet’s 5th leading real estate destination as measured by unique visitors. It offers popular features such as The School Report, a school district and education standards comparision tool; The Salary Calculator, a cost of living comparison tool; The Moving Calculator, which estimates shipping costs for household goods; The Relocation Wizard, a move-planning timeline; and The City Report, a tool which compares any two cities’ cost of living, climate demographics and other useful information.

According to Wolff, Homefair has supplied Homestore web sites with unique moving and relocation content in the past, so the purchase is the evolution of an already successful relationship, and one which should solidify Homestore's position as the leading home and real estate portal.

The deal is set to close in the next 30 to 60 days.

Published: October 14, 1999

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