National Hispanic real estate portal targets professionals and consumers

Real Estate Weekly, May 3, 2000

An agreement to power a nationwide Hispanic real estate portal was announced recently by HomeSeekers.com, Inc. and the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP).

The agreement is intended to increase the availability of Internet-based real estate information to the Hispanic-American real estate professional and Spanish-speaking consumer. It also reinforces HomeSeekers.com's commitment to global expansion without language boundaries, aimed at creating the most competitive offering of real estate information on the Internet.

By accessing the portal's web site, www.RealEstateEspanol.com, users will be able to quickly implement a nationwide property search of the complete Homeseekers.com residential home listings database. That database contains listings from throughout the U.S. and also provides detailed home and realtor information in Spanish, including virtual tours, school information and more. The agreement also details that Homeseekers.com will provide and market its leading edge technology and professional services, such as personalized web sites and desktop productivity software, to NAHREP members.

RealEstateEspanol.com is targeted to launch this month.

In addition to the portal agreement, John Giaimo, president and COO of HomeSeekers.com has been appointed to serve on the board of directors of NAHREP.

"We feel that our relationship with the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals will allow us to combine our unmatched technical expertise with the most committed experts who understand the needs of the Hispanic American market," Giaimo said. "I am honored to have been elected to the board of directors of NAHREP and look forward to furthering the goals of their organization."

Gary Acosta, vice chairman and communications director of NAHREP, said "Homeseekers.com was our first choice, as they have demonstrated their commitment to providing Hispanic Americans a full array of Internet services with bilingual page views."

According to NAHREP statistics, Hispanic Americans represent the fastest growing segment of home-buyers in the marketplace. Further, there are over 50,000 Hispanic Americans working as professionals in real estate and real estate related fields.

In its commitment to serve the needs of the Hispanic American professional real estate community, as well as consumers contemplating the purchase or sale of a residence, Homeseekers.com CEO Greg Costley said, "Until now, this emerging market has been under-served. Not only are we providing our technological expertise and expansive database of residential listings, more importantly, our intent is to create an on-line experience that eliminates language barriers from the real estate search. By properly serving this fast growing segment of the market, we intend to further strengthen our position as a leading provider of technology solutions, on-line residential real estate listings