BACKGROUNDER
Based in Chicago and located on the World Wide Web at
www.apartments.com, Apartments.com is a national online apartment guide and relocation
resource distinguished by its highly customized searches, superior visual ads and
affiliation with more than 130 newspapers across the country.
AUDIENCES
Renters
Apartments.com helps renters reduce the time
and effort spent finding an apartment through:
- Free customized searches of its national apartment database
- Up to dozens of interior and exterior photos, plus floor plans, video
and in-depth textual detail for each apartment community on the service
- Current classified listings from more than 130 newspapers (complete
by mid-2000)
- Detailed local maps, driving directions and community information
- Instant contact with property managers
- Access to MovingCenter, where renters can get community information,
arrange truck and furniture rental, calculate their salary in different cities, instantly
check their credit report, change their address and more
Property Management Companies
Apartments.com creates the industry’s
most visually detailed apartment ads for many of the largest property management companies
in the country, including SCG, United Dominion, Great West, Gables and Pinnacle.
By developing such comprehensive presentations of apartment
communities and distributing them where renters congregate online, Apartments.com delivers
its customers highly qualified, ready-to-rent prospects, which increases their closure
rate and decreases their average cost to lease an apartment.
Newspapers
More than 130 newspapers across the U.S. have
selected Apartments.com to be the exclusive provider of visual apartment listings for
their Web sites. Apartments.com represents newspapers’ solution to expand their
position as the leading provider of local apartment information to the Internet.
Currently, Apartments.com is available through the local Web sites of more than 40
newspapers, including The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Chicago
Tribune.
Apartments.com is also integrating the most current apartment
classified listings from its newspaper affiliates into its national database of visual
content, offering renters the most comprehensive source of apartment information available
online.
Apartments.com currently represents approximately 1 million
apartments in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
DISTRIBUTION
In addition to affiliated newspaper Web sites,
Apartments.com distributes its content to renters through prominent search engines,
directories and online communities, including:
HISTORY
Visual Properties, L.L.C., a
Chicagoland apartment locator service founded in 1992, launched the Apartments Plus Web
site in January 1997 to support its local retail apartment locator business. The site
included national listings by April 1997 and in December 1997, Classified Ventures
acquired ApartmentsPlus to be its online apartment advertising solution for
newspapers nationwide. ApartmentsPlus was re-launched as Apartments.com in March
1998 and is now focused solely on the Internet.
OWNERSHIP
Apartments.com is owned by
Classified Ventures Inc. which is also based in Chicago. Classified Ventures was formed by
seven leading media companies—Central Newspapers, Inc., Gannett Co. Inc., Knight
Ridder, Inc., The McClatchy Company, The New York Times Company, The Tribune Company and the Washington Post Company. It provides national and locally branded
online services for e-commerce opportunities in the classified advertising marketplace
that build upon the capabilities and local expertise of its national affiliate network.
The company currently operates five national Web sites in the apartment, auction,
automotive, relocation and new home construction categories, including:
In mid-August, Classified Ventures also began to roll-out HomeHunter,
its exclusively local resale real estate service, on the Web sites of more than 130
newspaper affiliates.
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