CoStar to purchase Norfolk-based Homes.com for $156M

All-cash deal is set to close by mid-year

Published April 15, 2021 by Kate Andrews

CoStar Group Inc. announced Wednesday it has reached an agreement to purchase Homes.com, a division of Norfolk-based Dominion Enterprises, for $156 million in cash.

Homes.com is a residential property listing and marketing portal that brings nearly 1.8 million residential property listings each month to its membership base of more than 500,000 residential real estate agents and brokers. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2021, according to Washington, D.C.-based CoStar, which has a significant presence in Richmond. CoStar Group, the nation’s leading provider of commercial real estate information and analytics, employs more than 4,600 people worldwide and manages a portfolio of online services that provide information on the hospitality, rental properties and commercial real estate sectors. CoStar also runs online marketplaces including Apartments.com and LoopNet.

CoStar’s Homesnap, an online and mobile software platform for real estate agents and clients, will be incorporated with Homes.com, CoStar CEO Andrew C. Florance said in a statement. “We believe that the acquisition of Homes.com is highly complementary alongside Homesnap, the industry-leading workflow and marketing platform for residential real estate agents that we acquired in December last year. The combination of Homes.com’s online portal and consumer traffic with Homesnap’s powerful mobile tools and highly effective agent marketing solutions has the potential to create a differentiated service that uniquely focuses on selling a house faster and at a better price, rather than just trying to take agent fees.”

CoStar anticipates the acquisition will contribute about $5 million to $10 million in incremental revenue for the company, and company officials intend to provide more details during a first-quarter investor call scheduled for April 27.

“The Homes.com team and I are looking forward to working with our new colleagues at CoStar,” Dave Mele, president of Homes.com, said in a statement. “Together we will be dedicated to growing the Homes.com brand and building innovative solutions that expand the marketing options available to consumers and their agents.”