In one of the biggest deals of the year, Dominion Enterprises, a media and information services company, has purchased eNeighborhoods, a real estate data, technology and marketing solutions provider, to further its online marketing strategies for real estate agents.

eNeighborhoods CEO and founder Stu Siegel will retain his title and scope of responsibilities with the purpose of integrating the two companies' growth strategy and to serve as an advisor to Peter Ill, senior vice president and general manager of Dominion's Internet real estate businesses.

Founded in 1997 and employing about 140 people in Boca Raton, Florida, eNeighborhoods has built a customer base of more than 400,000 real estate professionals through its individual agent and enterprise products designed to attract and retain home buyers and sellers, says the company.

eNeighborhoods appeals to consumers by providing up-to-date, localized information about neighborhoods, home values, properties, schools, and crime. Real estate agents like the information and lead generation opportunities the company provides by adding such features as the neighborhood information and MLS (IDX) listing feeds to their websites.

"eNeighborhoods is a powerhouse in the real estate industry. Their award-winning products and services in marketing, websites and direct mail are only part of their story. They are also a cutting-edge data and technology company, providing aggregation, development and hosting services for some of the biggest names in the industry," explains Ill.

While he admits to some overlap, Ill says the companies seven acquisitions since 2004, including Homes.com, Best Image, Advanced Access and others, are each strong in Web services, have great teams of people, have great products and happy customers.

"We were watching technologies like paid search and realized that portals were being outflanked by Web services," says Ill, "Website hosting, email marketing, lead generation, lead management, data distribution, search engine optimization and paid search. These are the series of services that we have been competing with as Dominion and we realized these are important services to help Realtors buy and sell homes."

What Ill is referring to is the company's history in print marketing services for homes, cars, boats and other consumer goods. Dominion Homes Media, the real estate vertical part of the company, owns Harmon Homes and Homes.com (whose roots were Homes and Land magazine). The plan is to serve its real estate customers across the board, whether they are interested in print or online exposure, or both.

"We watched others who were meeting the needs of Realtors better," says Ill. "We've made over 160 acquisitions in the last 16 years, and we made those carefully. We rely on those teams of people to run their companies. We bring a strong stable company with plenty of capital to the table, and bring services to each other, and help customers by providing multiple services."

Adds Siegel, "We do not plan to integrate into a large entity. We'll operate autonomously but share best practices and work together where it makes sense, like eNeighborhood's IDX feeds on Best Image Websites."

"We're looking at real estate in total services," says Ill. "We're agnostic as to which set of services we provide. It's a balance between autonomy and working together. That's why we're excited about the role Stu will play. He'll work across the real estate properties to run a better set of products."

Dominion's portfolio of real estate solutions currently includes: Homes.com, a homes-for-sale portal and Web services provider; Advanced Access, a leading provider of Web design, Internet marketing and hosting services for real estate professionals; NUMBER1EXPERT, the premier provider of Internet marketing services to top-producing real estate agents; Katabat, a leading website and lead management provider for brokers; eProspecting, a leader in real estate marketing solutions; and HarmonHomes.com. Dominion Enterprises is also the largest publisher of free distribution residential real estate magazines including Harmon Homes, Home Solutions, New Homes & Living, and Distinctive Homes.