REDMOND, Wash., July 17, 2000 — According to the Gomez™ Summer 2000 Internet Home Buying Scorecard™ , an independent survey that evaluated the top 29 online real estate Web sites based on more than 200 specific criteria, the HomeAdvisor™
online real estate service is the
“Best Home-Buying Site”
on the Internet. The survey was conducted by e-business and consumer authority Gomez Advisors Inc.
The Best Home-Buying Site selection comes just weeks after HomeAdvisor.com ( http://www.homeadvisor.com ), the Internet’s most complete guide to everything about the home, launched its redesigned site. The site now includes an even broader array of consumer tools and resources, as well as HomeAdvisor.com MortgageDirect technology, which guarantees that consumers will save money on their home mortgage and significantly reduces the time it takes to get a loan.
With an overall ranking of 6.38 out of 10, HomeAdvisor.com unseats HomeStore.com, which ranked 6.24, as the top real estate site nationwide. HomeAdvisor.com came in first in two of the four categories surveyed, including Ease of Use and Relationship Services. In addition, over the past month HomeAdvisor.com has consistently outperformed HomeStore.com in site speed, according to measurements performed by Keynote Systems (NASD
“KEYN”
), with an average home page download time of 2.15 seconds (vs. HomeStore.com’s average time of 2.82 seconds).
“We are extremely pleased to be named Best Home-Buying Site on the Internet, a clear endorsement that the numerous features we’ve added — including our new mortgage technology, which guarantees consumers the lowest-priced home loan anywhere — are what consumers and our real estate partners have been looking for,”
said Bryan Mistele, general manager of HomeAdvisor Technologies Inc.
Gomez.com points out that the recently redesigned Web site of HomeAdvisor.com offers
“a wide selection of listings, outstanding functionality and deep educational content. These features, presented in an elegant user interface, pushed HomeAdvisor to the No. 1 overall ranking.”
Regarding the innovative MortgageDirect technology on HomeAdvisor.com, which can save consumers more than $2,000 per loan and cut weeks off the closing process,* Gomez.com stated,
“HomeAdvisor.com offers a lowest-rate guarantee, committing to deliver the lowest rate available or refunding $250 back at closing, regardless of where the consumer chooses to transact.”
About HomeAdvisor.com
HomeAdvisor.com is the Internet’s most complete guide for finding everything about the home, combining Microsoft® technology with services and expertise from the most trusted names in the real estate and mortgage industries. HomeAdvisor.com helps consumers address every home-related decision and will provide the guaranteed* lowest rates for mortgage loans. Winner of the Inman Innovator Award as the best residential real estate site, HomeAdvisor.com is a PC Magazine Top 100 Web site, a Yahoo! Internet Life Best of the Best winner and one of its 100 Best Sites for 2000, and a Family PC Web Site of the Month. Launched in July 1998, HomeAdvisor.com can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.homeadvisor.com/ .
About HomeAdvisor Technologies
HomeAdvisor Technologies Inc. is dedicated to dramatically improving the way homes are financed, bought, sold and maintained. Formed in March 2000 and backed by Microsoft Corp., HomeAdvisor Technologies consists of three divisions focused on delivering the tools and services necessary to revolutionize the real estate and mortgage transaction while delivering significant time and cost savings to consumers as well as real estate and mortgage professionals.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
* Certain offer restrictions apply. Details can be found at http://www.homeadvisor.com/financing/finder/guarantee.asp .
Microsoft and HomeAdvisor are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Gomez, Gomez.com and Internet Home Buying Scorecard are trademarks of Gomez Advisors Inc.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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