Realtor.com joins forces with Excite

Realtor.com, a leading real estate site on the Internet, has joined forces with web portal powerhouse Excite, said Lou Sable, CAE, executive vice president of the Greater Springfield Board of Realtors, in a news release.

The Springfield Multilist Service places all the residential listings in its service on this site. There are 1.2 million home listings on the site, according to the release.

This relationship further extends Realtor.com's reach on the Internet, which will include presence on five of the top seven web portals.

The multi-year, multi-million dollar alliance reaches across Excite's flagship services: Excite, WebCrawler, Classified 2000 and the portions of Netscape's Netcenter programmed by Excite, the release stated.

In each case, Realtor.com becomes the exclusive provider of existing homes for sale by brokers on the real estate channels of these sites.

For Realtor.com, the alliance is expected to increase traffic above and beyond the more than 3 million visitors and 55 million page views that the site receives each month. This type of traffic means even more exposure for listings on Realtor.com.

"We are very pleased with our new presence on these four sites because of the tremendous value they add to their customers and the exposure they will create for our brand and content," stated Stuart Wolff, chief executive officer and chairman of RealSelect Inc., operator of Realtor.com.

Realtor.com already has multi-year, multimillion dollar alliances with AOL, Infoseek and Lycos, which were formed earlier this year.

"Success on the Web is about content and distribution," Wolff said in the release. "With over 90 percent of all existing homes for sale in the U.S., we have the comprehensive content consumers want from a real estate site, and with the Excite alliance, we will have a major presence on five of the top seven portals and have ensured virtually 100 percent reach for Realtor.com."

Excite, WebCrawler, Classifieds 2000 and Netscape Netcenter customers will have instant and convenient access to 1.2 million home listings and all of the services Realtor.com features, like the ability to find a real estate professional and load up on helpful hints about the entire home- buying process, the release said.

"By partnering with Realtor.com, Excite can now offer a deeper level of real estate services to its customers worldwide," said Ken Wach-tel, senior vice president of advertising sales at Excite, in the release.

"The Realtor.com offerings are an important part of Excite's channel strategy to deliver Web experiences that have a real-world impact on our consumers' everyday lives," he added.

INSET CAPTION:

The Springfield Multilist Service places all the residential listings in its service on the Realtor.com site.[[In-content Ad]]