HomeAdvisor.com Heats Up Florida Home Market With Listings From Pensacola to Key West

REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 15, 2000 — As the Internet’s most complete guide to everything about the home, the HomeAdvisor.com™
online real estate service today announced that consumers in the Sunshine State now have access to comprehensive home listings throughout Florida, thanks to several new agreements with the state’s largest real estate companies. Recently named the Best Home-Buying Site on the Web by Gomez Advisors Inc., HomeAdvisor.com makes it easier for Florida homebuyers to use the Internet to find everything about their new home at http://www.homeadvisor.com/ .

HomeAdvisor.com provides consumers with an extensive selection of useful tools, handy checklists and informative editorial content designed to help with every home-related decision, including renting, buying, financing, moving, maintaining, improving, selling and shopping.

HomeAdvisor.com guarantees* consumers the best-priced loans anywhere and automates many of the steps required to approve and finance a mortgage. As a result, this loan technology can save the average homebuyer more than $2,000, enable them to instantly lock in a rate online, and cut the length of the closing process down from more than a month to just 10 days.

“I explored many sites, and HomeAdvisor.com seemed to be the easiest and most helpful for me,”
said Ruth Crum, a Tampa homeowner.
“I was pleasantly surprised when I chose my lender through HomeAdvisor and learned it would handle all the loan application details, unlike a competing Web site where I would have had to do all the legwork.”

Beginning today, more than 60,000 homes for sale throughout Palm Beach County, Pensacola, Key West, St. Petersburg-Suncoast and other key Florida markets will be available on HomeAdvisor.com thanks to new listing agreements signed with several leading multiple-listing services (MLSs) throughout the state. The latest MLSs to sign with HomeAdvisor.com include Regional MLS Inc. in Palm Beach County, North Okaloosa Association of Realtors Inc., Navarre Beach Board of Realtors Inc., St. Petersburg-Suncoast Association of Realtors Inc., North Florida MLS, Marathon and Lower Keys Association of Realtors, Space Coast Association of Realtors, Gainsville-Alachua County Association of Realtors, Bay County Association of Realtors, Daytona Beach Association of Realtors, Tallahassee Board of Realtors, and Pensacola Association of Realtors.

“The No. 1 request we hear from consumers is their desire for a single site that satisfies all their home needs,”
said Sara Narbaitz, product manager at HomeAdvisor.com.
“With thousands of new listings throughout Florida and expanded home-related content, we’re truly providing consumers with a one-stop shop for the home.”

HomeAdvisor.com’s new features and enhancements represent the latest step in its expansion as the leading destination for buyers, sellers and homeowners nationwide. Highlights of the site’s five core areas include the following:

  • Selling. A revolutionary new home-valuation feature allows consumers to quickly determine the value of almost any home in the United States.

  • Home Improvements and Repair. A Homeowner’s Handbook empowers consumers with tools that can help them diagnose home-related problems and learn simple repairs for every area of the home, including the roof; the electrical, plumbing and climate-control systems; appliances; windows; and doors.

  • Moving. A new Moving section provides comprehensive tools for helping people with all their moving and relocation needs – before, during and after a big move – and includes an interactive Move Calendar, change of address tool and Insurance Center.

  • Buying. The improved Home Finder tool enables consumers to more quickly and easily narrow their home search with new search criteria located directly on the home page.

  • Lifestyle Interests and Shopping. A new Lifestyle section delivers a richly integrated set of features to help consumers enhance and improve their home, including design and decorating tips, home furnishings and appliances, home office and technology ideas, garden and landscape planning, community forum advice, and family-related resources.

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. Named Best Home-Buying Site on the Web in the Gomez Summer 2000 Internet Home-Buying Scorecard and 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 Web at http://www.homeadvisor.com/ .

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.com are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.

Related Posts