HomeSeekers.com Posts Year-End Loss of $2.7 Million

Online real estate listing firm HomeSeekers.com posted a loss of $2.79 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1998, compared to a loss of $2.12 million in the prior year.

Revenues increased to $1.67 million from $1.59 million for fiscal 1997. The net loss for the year was 50 cents per share, compared with a net loss of 53 cents per share, a year earlier.

For the three months ended June 30, 1998, the company reported a net loss of $839,000, or 12 cents per share, on revenue of $488,000. This compares with a net loss of $508,000, or 11 cents per share, on revenue of $596,000 for the fourth quarter of fiscal 1997.

“During fiscal 1998, we invested heavily in the development of the company’s database, software and corporate infrastructure to support the higher revenue we anticipate in fiscal 1999 and beyond,” said Greg Johnson, CEO.

“Significantly, we completed the redesign and Web-enabling of HomeSeekers.com’s proprietary Vertical Application Browser (VAB) for real estate professionals, soon to be marketed as Realty 2000 Net ’98. All of the costs associated with these development programs were expensed in fiscal 1998. Now we are focused on capitalizing on the strategic alliances established in recent months with 24/7 Media Inc., Harte-Hanks Inc., and other marketing organization to rapidly build banner advertising sales on our Web site.”

“In addition, we expect revenue from the sale of Web sites to grow rapidly in the new fiscal year, supported by a nationwide seminar program targeted at real estate agents that begins soon.,” he said. “We also expect further expansion of the number of listings on our site and the launch of additional value-added services.”

Johnson said that HomeSeekers.com now has aggregated approximately 660,000 real estate listings, roughly half of all home listings in the United States.