The owner of Condo.com and Condos.com is looking for a partner or a buyer to purchase the domains, potentially for tens of millions of dollars.
eRealEstate Holdings, led by Richard Swerdlow and a group of Miami-based investors, is considering a sale following the trades of other property websites that include Home.com, Property.com and Homes.com. Swerdlow is a real estate and proptech investor whose other ventures include BulkCondoDeals.com. Condo.com is a listings website.
“The market is so big, and it’s going through a lot of interesting changes now, particularly with this [National Association of Realtors] lawsuit. We’re really looking for a partner,” Swerdlow said. “We’ve built a product that helps agents get listings but we’re a small team.”
A Missouri jury this week determined that NAR, Keller Williams and HomeServices of America were guilty of conspiring to inflate buyers’ broker commissions, awarding half a million Missouri home sellers who are the plaintiffs $1.8 billion in damages. That amount could be tripled, though the defendants are appealing the verdict and the final award could be much less.
Swerdlow said the ruling could reduce the value of leads from buyers, with online portals like Homes.com to monetize listing agents even more.
Swedlow also pointed to the value that comes with owning both websites. CoStar announced it was buying Homes.com in 2021 for $156 million. CoStar also owns Houses.com, Apartments.com and Apartment.com. But it doesn’t own Home.com — the mortgage company Fairway Independent does. Fairway benefits from CoStar’s marketing dollars, he said.
He’s owned Condo.com for more than a decade, and launched Condos.com with a former partner two years ago as an iBuying site.
“If you don’t have the plural situation, you’re losing a lot of traffic,” Swerdlow added.