Homestore to Revamp Website

Facing increasing pressure from real estate upstarts, Homestore Inc., operator of property listing service Realtor.com, said Wednesday that it would change its name to Move Inc. and revamp its primary website to include more consumer-friendly features.

Westlake Village-based Homestore also said it would take a $5.9-million charge for the fourth quarter of 2005 because the company reimbursed a former executive for legal fees.

Homestore said it would add to Realtor.com such features as a comparative pricing function, neighborhood maps and a forum where agents and consumers can post comments about communities.

In addition, Homestore will “rebrand” its other listing websites -- Homebuilder.com and Rentnet.com -- in the second quarter under a site to be called Move.com, which will link to Realtor.com.

The announcement comes as online offerings to consumers looking to buy and sell real estate have exploded. Homestore was among the first companies to manage a real estate website when it agreed to operate Realtor.com, owned by the National Assn. of Realtors and now the top such Internet site.

Homestore generates revenue by selling technology services and advertising space to real estate agents, brokers and other real estate service providers.

But the company has been slow to offer enhanced services to consumers. Thus, it ceded some ground to newer online companies with interesting features such as instant home valuation tools and satellite maps of neighborhoods.

“Consumers today want to see all the available residential options before they begin to narrow their choices,” Homestore Chief Executive Michael Long said of the company’s planned offerings.

The charge for legal-fee reimbursements to Peter Tafeen, who was Homestore’s executive vice president for business development, will cause the company to break even on full-year net income, Long said in a conference call with analysts.

Homestore is scheduled to announce its quarterly and full-year results next week, and Long said the results would “be in line with expectations.”

Analysts on average expect fourth-quarter per-share earnings of 1 cent. The company reported a loss of $7.9 million for 2004 but earned $4.9 million in the first nine months of last year.

Tafeen is facing criminal charges, along with former Chief Executive Stuart Wolff, for allegedly participating in a 2001 scheme that inflated online advertising revenue.

Tafeen and Wolff have pleaded not guilty.

Homestore’s stock rose 11 cents Wednesday to close at $5.37. The announcements were made after the market closed.