MS HomeAdvisor to Reside at InfoSpace.com

InfoSpace.com said today it picked Microsoft HomeAdvisor online real estate service to be its featured mortgage service provider for its upcoming Loan Center.

The agreement calls for HomeAdvisor to provide loan products and home-buying tools directly to users of several InfoSpace.com services and syndication partners. The complete range of HomeAdvisor services, real estate listings and tutorials will also be available through links on the InfoSpace.com homepage. No financial details were disclosed.

"We're committed to giving our users the best tools and educational information available on the Internet today," said Naveen Jain, president and CEO of InfoSpace. "Microsoft HomeAdvisor offers our customers not only a wide range of loan offerings, but advice and tips throughout the home-buying process that are second to none."

With the online real estate market hot and expected to get hotter, companies are scrambling to grab users.

Earlier this month, HomeAdvisor inked an exclusive distribution agreement with GeoCities to become the exclusive real estate listing provider for its Real Estate Center. Microsoft's real estate arm which launched last month, also has alliances with several leading portals and Internet sites including Yahoo!, Infoseek, Pathfinder, and DoubleClick.

In related news, AOL's Digital City today announced an expansion of its real estate offerings with AllApartments.com.