Homes.com has strengthened commitment to its ongoing distribution partnership with Realty Times by removing its previous news service provider and putting Realty Times consumer news on all 12,500 of the Web sites it has sold to and hosts for its agent customers.

Jody Lane, president of Realty Times says, "We have a successful distribution agreement with Homes.com, and now Homes.com has made a commitment to all their customers that they not only believe in our products, but they believe in our news authority as well - enough to put us as a standard feature on all their broker and agent customer Web sites."

Including the agents who participate in or who are otherwise touched by the 500 broker sites Homes.com hosts, the company calculates its reach to approximately 100,000 real estate professionals.

Tom Orsi, CEO of Homes.com says, "We made the switch because we believe Realty Times is the clear leader in the industry for real estate news, and we are proud to offer it to our customer base."

Adds John Perkins, senior vice president of business development, "Realty Times has superior products, and we took the opportunity to work with them because it is a win for our customers."

Century21 Judge Fite Company, ranked seventh in size for the Century 21 franchise, has carried the custom version of Realty Times and Agent News on its Website for some time.

Says Jim Fite, president of Century 21 Judge Fite Company, "I've been pleased with Homes.com, and they have been very responsive to our account and our needs. Our properties are getting exposure through their efforts that we have elsewhere. We have gotten listings and sales from our association with Homes.com. Realty Times is another service that we respect, and we are glad to see a partnership between Homes.com and Realty Times to provide even better service to our agents."

"We have weekly sales meetings," says John Lundquist, manager Century 21 Judge Fite Company Preston Road, "I go to Realty Times exclusively for agent information to pass onto our agents to help them build their business. I find them a useful source - they have more information I can use, so this is good news to me that Homes.com is using Realty Times."

Homes.com is experiencing a resurgence of its popularity and growth harking back to the early days of the dot-com Website-as-lead-generation boom. A victim of overspending and poor management, Homes.com was forced into bankruptcy two years ago. Under the new management of Orsi, a turn-around specialist, and his hand-selected management team including Perkins, Homes.com is expected to emerge from bankruptcy in the next two months.

"We have met with the company's major creditors and have tentative approval for a reorganization plan," says Orsi.

Orsi has so impressed Homes.com investors that its lead venture capital firm, Hummer Winblad, has asked Orsi to speak about how he and his team affected what could be the first exit from bankruptcy of a dot-com company.

"If we are successful, we will be one of the first if not the first to exit bankruptcy," says Orsi. "There's nothing magic about it - we went back to the fundamental business that the company was in which was selling Websites to brokers and agents. We rededicated the company to provide the highest quality of service available in the industry, and we are going to improve on that.

"We are working on major enhancements to improve our products, including deepening our partnership with Realty Times and its products for our customers," says Orsi. "We are delighted to work out an arrangement to sell the Realty Times e-newsletter, the Real Estate Update, and we are entertaining more opportunities to work together.

"Our slogan is 'We only promise what we can deliver and we deliver what we promise." says Orsi, "and we live by that. If we screw up, we fix it."

"The company's operations have stabilized and we have a new management team, with strong leadership in every important area of the company's business."

Recently, Yahoo! Internet Life gave Homes.com its coveted Gold Star Site award for Best Wireless Listings in the online real estate category. At the same time, Realty Times received the Gold Star Site award for Best Real Estate News.

Published: May 27, 2002

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment. Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's. Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. To contact Blanche, email her at . For more articles by Blanche, click here.