John Giaimo, the founder and former CEO of HomeSeekers is joining Realty Times as the company's new vice president of business development.

With a new product launch pending for Realty Times in mid-November, Giaimo will have little time to mourn his departure from the company he helped build. Giaimo was one of the first Internet pioneers to put listings on kiosks in the malls back in the early 1990's. His leadership in product innovations for Realtors enabled him to sell HomeSeekers to partners that took the company public in the mid-1990's, making HomeSeekers one of the top real estate portals on the Internet. Later, he added an MLS division which has just been sold to Fidelity National Information Systems (FNIS.)

Jody Lane, founder and CEO of Realty Times says, "I've worked with John over the last four years, and he is as innovative as any person in real estate. Anytime you get a chance to bring someone of this quality to your team, you jump at it. He has proven himself as having grace under fire, and that has attracted a lot of interest in John from other companies. I'm thrilled that he said yes to our company."

"I've seen the products that Realty Times is coming out with and I believe that they are going to transform Web marketing for Realtors as we know it," says Giaimo. "It will be exciting to be help create a new marketing revolution, just like we did a decade ago with online listings and Web sites for agents. This is an opportunity to roll out something new that the industry has never seen before, and the timing couldn't be better. With the real estate market beginning to slow, agents will be marketing to a much smaller pool of buyers and sellers, and they will be looking at their marketing options very carefully and making decisions by what works and doesn't work."

Explains Lane, "We have a tool set coming in two weeks that will give brokers and agents such a competitive advantage that they won't need to spend that $500 a week with the newspapers anymore. But the real beauty of our products is that we can partner with others and create a win-win for everybody, but we're going to need the right partners to get it launched. That's where John will make a big difference for us."

"I’m an entrepreneur, and real estate is in my blood," he adds. "I'm the kind of guy that just wants to make products that work, not answer to shareholders and to Wall Street. Realty Times is going to allow me to do what I do best - continue to work in the real estate industry where I have strong contacts and I can use my creativity and experience."

Giaimo, a significant shareholder in HomeSeekers, is serving as a consultant to HomeSeekers/FNIS current management. He will start his new duties at Realty Times on November 1, 2001.

Published: October 31, 2001

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