REDMOND, Wash., April 19, 2000 — The HomeAdvisor.com TM online real estate service, the award-winning guide to finding homes and loans on the Web, today announced that nearly two out of every three homes for sale in Canada will be listed for sale on www.homeadvisor.com thanks to new listing agreements with Coldwell Banker Affiliates of Canada, RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada Inc. and the Toronto Real Estate Board. This is the first time HomeAdvisor.com has expanded to include real estate listings outside of the United States. The Canadian listings will be available on HomeAdvisor.com when the site relaunches in the coming weeks.
Coldwell Banker Affiliates of Canada, RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada and the Toronto Real Estate Board together account for more than 60 percent of homes listed for sale in Canada. With this announcement, HomeAdvisor.com will also provide Canadians direct access to these listings on Microsoft’s Canadian version of the MSN TM network of Internet services, located on the Web at http://www.msn.ca .
Coldwell Banker Affiliates of Canada, a recognized real estate technology leader, has approximately 3,800 sales representatives in 235 independently owned offices throughout Canada and was the first national real estate company to offer customized property e-mail notifications to customers. The company’s award-winning Web site, www.coldwellbanker.ca, has been ranked among the top 1 percent of real estate sites by several online sources and features virtual tours and consumer contests.
“Coldwell Banker Canada chose to align with HomeAdvisor.com on their entry into the Canadian market based on their proven track record and future potential,”
said Peter Robinson, president and CEO of Coldwell Banker Affiliates of Canada.
“HomeAdvisor is a recognized leader in driving qualified leads to real estate professionals throughout the United States. We want the benefits and exposure for both our customers’ listings and our sales representatives that only HomeAdvisor can provide. We’re pleased to be directly involved in HomeAdvisor’s debut in the Canadian marketplace and look forward to a long, mutually beneficial relationship.”
RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada is one of Canada’s top-producing real estate companies operating regionally throughout Ontario and the Maritime Provinces including New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The company operates more than 250 franchises with more than 5,500 sales associates. RE/MAX in Canada has invested heavily to bring first-class technology solutions to its sales associates.
The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) is the largest full-service real estate board in North America. With approximately 25,000 commercial and residential listings across the Greater Toronto area on any given day, TREB has the biggest and busiest MLS site in Canada. TREB’s member Realtors, 18,000 strong, make up over one-quarter of the total number of Canadian Realtors.
These Canadian listing agreements come as HomeAdvisor.com continues to expand its listings in the United States at a record pace. The HomeAdvisor.com online real estate service has more than 750,000 home listings throughout all 50 states, as well as listing agreements representing a majority of the nation’s real estate property listings.
“The success of HomeAdvisor throughout the United States has created great demand from Canadian consumers and real estate professionals alike,”
said Ian Morris, product unit manager for HomeAdvisor.com.
“We are proud to be working with the leading real estate organizations in Canada and look forward to helping them secure new customers and take advantage of the great business opportunities offered by MSN and the Internet.”
About HomeAdvisor.com
HomeAdvisor.com is the Internet’s most complete guide for finding homes and loans, combining Microsoft® technology with services and expertise from some of the most trusted names in the real estate industry. It empowers consumers through every step of the home-buying process and is the first Internet site to fully integrate content and services such as neighborhood crime and school statistics with homes, loans, editorial content and expert advice. 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. Part of the MSN network of Internet services, HomeAdvisor.com launched in July 1998 and is free on the World Wide Web at http://homeadvisor.com/ (connect-time charges may apply).
About HomeAdvisor Technologies
HomeAdvisor Technologies Inc. is dedicated to dramatically improving the way homes are financed, bought, sold and maintained. The new company, already backed by Chase Manhattan Mortgage, Freddie Mac, GMAC-RFC, Microsoft, Norwest Mortgage and Bank of America, consists of three distinct 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. The company’s award-winning consumer Web site, HomeAdvisor.com, helps consumers address every home-related decision while providing the lowest loan rates available on the Web.
Microsoft, HomeAdvisor.com, MSN and HomeAdvisor are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
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