Homestore.com Rises on Bank of America Alliance

The bank and the online real-estate company said they had launched an online marketplace offering home-buying, financing, maintenance and improvement services to consumers. The new site is the first part of a $10.5 million, multi-year marketing and Web services agreement, the companies said.

Consumers will be able to customize information about home buying and home improvement over the site, which will offer services including pre-qualifying for mortgages and moving arrangements, the companies said.

Kevin Shannon, president of Bank of America Consumer Real Estate, said the bank aims to give customers "an innovative, end-to-end homeownership service."

Homestore already has exclusive agreements with the National Association of Realtors, the National Association of Homebuilders and other industry groups, in addition to a partnership with America Online.

In January, Homestore, based in Westlake Village, California, reported fourth-quarter income before extraordinary items of $3.3 million, or 4 cents per share, compared with a loss of $16.2 million, or 23 cents, in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue rose to $79 million from $28 million. The company has said it expects first-quarter 2001 revenue of $81 million to $83 million, with pro forma earnings of 5 to 7 cents per share.

Homestore.com's network , which includes such sites as Realtor.com, HomeBuilder.com and HomeFair.com, saw a 102 percent increase in the average number of unique vistors per month during the fourth quarter. Each user spent an average of 19.7 minutes per month on the network, up 11 percent from the year-earlier quarter.