In August, 1996, Peter Tafeen met with Stuart Wolff and they pounded out a mission to take Realtor.com into the next century. Starting with $6 million and a great business plan, Stuart Wolff started Realtor.com, and then launched Homestore, the Internet's largest real estate vortal. Today, Homestore is valued at over $6.4 billion.

As Homestore's front man, Stuart Wolff has received many accolades, but behind the scenes was a master puppeteer who pulled many of the most important strings in manipulating Homestore's massive success. Tafeen's role as executive vice president of business development covers a broad range of responsibilities including advertising and content. His real job? To see to it that Homestore meets its business plan. Meet Homestore's prince of deals, Peter Tafeen.

Blanche Evans: You were Wolff's first major hire. Did you ever think that you could achieve what you have?

Peter Tafeen: No, I thought we had the right ingredients to be very successful and create a great company. My goal was to create a billion dollar company, so we have exceeded our goal by six times.

B.E.: What was your early plan?

P.T.: Exactly what you are seeing today. Homestore has been planned out for two years. The vision of what you are seeing is exactly what we thought we could do.

B.E.: Describe Peter Tafeen.

P.T.: Aggressive, passionate, loyal, trustworthy, honest, intelligent

B.E.: You left out tough. You've often had to play the bad guy. How does it feel that others may see you as a rough player

P.T.: People call me the Piranha. (laughs.) My job is to make sure the company executes its business plan. We don't have a lot of time to spend on things that don't fit into our mission. If others have intelligent offerings, that's fine, but we know what we want. If I have to be the fall guy, I'm more than happy to do that.

B.E.: Why is it worth it?

P.T.: We want to be the biggest and the best. I compare us not to other real estate companies, but to the greatest companies in the world. I look at UPS, GE, Microsoft, AOL and others and that is where we want to be.

B.E.: What is your relationship like with Wolff? Are you friends outside of business?

P.T.: Yes, we are friends outside. I consider him my partner. My first job is to increase shareholder value. My second job is to increase the perceptions of Stuart. He should get the glory. Every great company needs a great figurehead. And he is it for this company. And he is the brightest man I've ever met. We share the same ideals. We care about winning and greatness. When you find people who are alike that way, you tend to gravitate toward each other.

B.E.: This association has not been without its sacrifices. You've had to hop a plane at a moment's notice and work long hours to get things done. What sacrifices do you make for Homestore?

P.T.: I logged over 200,000 air miles last year. I work seven days a week. I come to the office at 6:30 and leave at 7:30 at night. Go home for an hour, and still make more phone calls. I have sacrificed everything.

B.E.: How do you do it?

P.T.: I don't believe in balance. In order to win, you have to give 150%. There have been a lot of rewards. Like I've said, I have had time to play golf and tennis. Now is the time to create a great company.

B.E.: What is the biggest deal you've ever made?

P.T.: There are lots of ways to look at these deals. I look at the level of importance. As you try to build a great company, you have to look at the whole package. I look at each deal with the same significance because we are building a jigsaw puzzle. If we don't get one piece, the puzzle is never completed.

B.E.: The hardest?

P.T.: It's always hard to deal with other competitive companies. AOL and Cendant were tough to deal with. Each deal seems difficult, and each one is anti-climatic. You assume you are going to get it done, so you don't get excited about it. I go into every deal with the attitude that we are going to get it done and that is the right deal for the company. We will do whatever it takes. And we always have a contingency plan.

B.E.: What deals didn't you make that you wish you had?

P.T.: It has to be the right deal at the right price. There isn't one deal we haven't gotten. We are batting pretty close to 1000.

B.E.: Who's on your wish list?

P.T.: There are still targets out there. There are new opportunities for us in gardening and decorating since we've added those categories.

B.E.: Where do you see Homestore going?

P.T.: I think we have concentrated on looking for a home, so our additional focus will be on home ownership - how to make owning a home a pleasure. That's when we will get into consumers putting their personal stamp on the home via gardening, decorating, etc. We'll be making more deals along those lines, and the model has the possibility to expand internationally.

B.E.: And 2000?

P.T.: I want to say that we are very committed to the realty industry. We couldn't do this without them. We have done this with help. We are a company built on partnerships. Our deals have to be good with our partners. We are committed to strengthening the industry, together.

B.E.: What about the secondary stock offering?

P.T.: That will be in a couple of weeks, and the stock will sell for whatever the fair market value as of that day. We are raising more money so we can do more.

Published: January 13, 2000

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Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. For more articles by Blanche, click here.