In a deal designed to put more advertising revenues in Homestore's pockets, Homestore has asked Yahoo!-owned Overture to be its exclusive provider of paid-search listings.

What does this mean to Realtors and their listings?

It means that Realtors' property ads, among other content across Homestore, will deliver leads to advertisers in limited categories which do not include searches for real estate, property or other Realtors.

Homestore controls the categories, and Overture designs custom "searches" based on key words and phrases that are designed to deliver specific results to specific advertisers.

Here's how it works:

On Realtor.com, the searches begin with the "Find A Home" section in which consumers input the city, state and price range of homes they want to search. Custom search boxes are located in the navigation areas of certain real estate-related Web pages, says the company, but on Realtor.com, custom search boxes are located on property listings. As the consumer clicks through to view more on the listing, they can scroll down and take action on the listing, including contacting the agent, visiting her Website, or saving her information. Further down, the consumer may take other actions, including finding out if he can afford the property, calculating the monthly payment and getting a free credit report.

Below that, the consumer comes to the custom search provided by Homestore and powered by Overture -- the "Next Steps" section where the consumer can obtain homeowner's insurance, find a self-storage company, switch auto insurance, or hook up a phone service.

Unlike other Overture searches in which the consumer can enter a search criteria such as "Dallas Realtors," as can be found on Yahoo! and other Overture partner sites, the Overture search on Homestore is contained to keyword links controlled by the site. In other words, there isn't an opportunity for a consumer to view one Realtor's listing, and then key in a search for other Realtors from the listing, so Realtors needn't worry that their consumers are being hijacked to other competitors.

Based on consumer-defined search terms, these non-real estate paid search results are listed under the heading "Sponsored Results." Due to the interest of advertisers to market to their target audience, the custom search pages may include different categories throughout the Homestore site. All custom searches are based on location and the types of properties and prices of homes consumers search.

The idea is to take advantage of the 10.5 million unique visitors that Homestore claims to have by giving them a richer navigational experience through targeted searches that will keep them returning to Homestore and its real estate-related customers, says the company. Richer content for consumers. More revenues from a form of advertising that is only gaining in popularity. No lead diversion from Realtor customers because the types of companies that advertise on the paid search are limited to specific categories. What's not to like?

Homestore executive vice president, corporate development group, Allan Merrill, explains, "Let's be clear that the paid searches relate to non-real estate content. When consumers come to our site, they want to look at real estate and find real estate professionals, and that is the primary activity, and will continue to be the primary activity on the site, but when they are on our site, there are other things that they are interested in -- supporting content like community information, schools, and finance tools. Those aren't primary but they support the consumer experience so they bookmark our site and come back."

Homestore looks at the paid searches the same way, that they are information the consumer actively seeks because they are knowingly clicking through to get it.

"With respect to other non-real estate categories, we have phone companies, mortgage companies, and regional and local advertisers who support of the primary focus of consumers looking for real estate professionals and property. Advertisers want as much information about their audience as they can get so that they can buy that part of the audience. They want to know where you are, and something about you. If you are looking at $2 million estates or $200,000 condos, your selection tells us something about you. This isn't personally identifying information. Over time, our sites have gotten better at allowing advertisers to buy campaigns to reach our audience."

Published: September 11, 2003

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