Homes.com Asserts ``Bill of Rights'' for Consumers and Real Estate Agents in Light of DOJ Investigation of Homestore.com

Business Wire, May 10, 2000

Business Editors & High Tech Writers

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 10, 2000

Online Real Estate Network Urges Open Access for

Home Buyers, Home Sellers, Brokers, and Agents

On the heels of the Department of Justice investigation into possible anti-competitive practices by Homestore.com (HOMS) involving Multiple Listings Service (MLS) real estate listings, Homes.com today established a set of fundamental rights for home buyers and sellers and the real estate professionals who serve them.

This Bill of Rights begins with a call to give national online real estate websites equal access to MLS property listings. It also provides guidelines to ensure that both consumers and real estate professionals alike have the greatest level of choice and services available through the Internet.

The DOJ investigation and this response from Homes.com arise from the exclusive agreements made between a large number of MLS organizations and Realtor.com, a division of online real estate web site Homestore.com. These exclusive contracts limit access to the MLS property listings, which force consumers and real estate professionals to use Realtor.com for online services. Even though the consumer's home listing is inserted into the MLS by individual real estate agents and brokers, only the local MLS organizations benefit from the contracts with Homestore.com through gains on stock granted to them for exclusivity.

"Restricting the MLS listings to a single online provider harms nearly everyone involved with the real estate industry," said Bob Prince, president and CEO of Homes.com. "In fact, the only ones who have benefited from these agreements are the MLSs, National Association of Realtors (NAR) executives, and Homestore.com investors. Homebuyers have fewer options, sellers lose exposure for their homes, and real estate brokers and agents face the prospect of being penalized for choosing other online providers. We believe that online real estate services must compete on the basis of the value and quality of the services they provide to consumers and to real estate professionals, not by anti-competitive measures such as blocking access to listing information."

Through statements to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and recommendations to local MLSs and real estate boards, Homes.com seeks to open the restricted listings to all online real estate sites and to permit all real estate professionals to utilize the listings on behalf of home-buying and selling consumers.

Homes.com has outlined the following fundamental rights for consumers and real estate professionals:

1. Home sellers have the right for their homes to receive the

maximum exposure possible, and therefore the best price and

quickest sale, and not have exposure restricted to a single

online service.

2. Consumers and real estate professionals have the right to

public disclosure whether the MLS and local real estate board

has accepted cash and/or stock in exchange for purposely

limiting the distribution of the consumers' home listing

information to just one national website.

3. Real estate professionals have the right to develop superior

Web services without being handicapped by restrictive

practices that harm consumers, foster confusion and create ill

will.

4. Consumers have the right to fast and easy access to

information on all available properties.

5. Consumers have the right to choose online services based upon

which features are most useful and valuable to them.

6. Real estate professionals have the right to choose Web-based

marketing services that most enhance their productivity and

ability to serve their customers, and not be artificially

forced into less attractive options.

ABOUT HOMES.COM

Homes.com, Inc. is a premier Internet business solution provider enabling the real estate industry. The company provides a nexus for the entire real estate industry through offering an integrated set of market-making solutions designed to support next-generation real estate transactions online. These solutions coupled with Homes.com's network of industry professionals create the only online marketplace for real estate. By providing a nexus for the entire real estate industry to conduct transactions from the desktop, Homes.com is a leader in integrated market solutions for the real estate industry. Homes.com's proprietary technology will allow over 85,000 real estate industry professionals in its network to initiate, manage, and close real estate transactions online. The company derives its consumer base from a real estate and home ownership web center at www.homes.com, and delivers these qualified consumers to its network of Web-enabled industry professionals. At Homes.com, users benefit from a single resource of information and content with an integrated and highly personalized experience. From home buying and home selling, to mortgages, relocation and home improvement, Homes.com provides advanced personalization tools to enable users with virtually any home-related resource.