Technology

Realtor.com reports growth as parent CEO calls rival Homes.com ‘at least a fixer-upper’

2026-02-06 16:33
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Realtor.com reports growth as parent CEO calls rival Homes.com ‘at least a fixer-upper’

Realtor.com's parent company saw revenue increase 10 percent year over year. The CEO of the firm that owns the portal took the opportunity to call rival Homes.com a potential "knockdown." The post Rea...

Realtor.com’s parent company saw revenue increase 10 percent year over year. The CEO of the firm that owns the portal took the opportunity to call rival Homes.com a potential “knockdown.”

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Move, the operator and parent company of Realtor.com, saw revenue grow during the final months of 2025 in response to new offerings and gains in audience share — developments that prompted the firm’s leadership to suggest it is beating a key rival in the portal wars.

Move’s revenue increased 10 percent year over year to $143 million, a gain largely attributed to higher sales of RealPRO Select, Realtor.com’s seller leads program, News Corp announced in its quarterly earnings results on Thursday

“We are delighted to report excellent second quarter results with both revenue and profitability growth accelerating from the prior quarter, and we see favorable signs for the second half of our fiscal year,” News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said in a statement. He added that prospects for the next quarter are “auspicious.”

Robert Thomson | News Corp.

“The second quarter results were driven by sustained growth at Dow Jones and Digital Real Estate Services, which both achieved double-digit profit growth and have started the calendar year strongly,” Thomson also said.

Australia-headquartered News Corp reports earnings according to a fiscal year schedule, meaning the company’s “second quarter” was actually the final three months of the 2025 calendar year.

The company stated that Move is shifting focus to more premium offerings that feature higher revenue per lead and will offer growth in seller, new homes and rental businesses.

Average monthly unique users of Realtor.com’s web and mobile sites rose 1 percent year over year to about 62 million users, according to Move internal data. Lead volume also grew by 13 percent on an annual basis — a welcome sign after recent quarterly declines.

Meanwhile, average monthly visits for Realtor.com during the second quarter were 241 million, according to Comscore. That represents 3.4 times the visit share of Homes.com and 2.3 times the visit share of Redfin, Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales said in a blog post on the company’s website. During the second quarter, Eales added that Realtor.com also closed “more than half” of the visit share gap the company held with Zillow over the last 18 months.

During an investor call on Thursday, one analyst wondered if the company was concerned about the amount of capital being put into Homes.com, and whether News Corp felt it was a threat to Realtor.com. Thomson said that the company was “delighted” with Realtor.com’s progress and suggested it was a bit “unkind” to compare the two portals at this point, since Homes.com is today considered “at least a fixer-upper,” if not a “knockdown,” according to some estimations.

Realtor.com also held the title for most audience engagement during the quarter at 4.8 visits per unique visitor, Eales said in his post.

The portal continues to see audience gains by being a member of News Corp, Eales added, which allows Realtor.com to leverage its brand and content with high-intent buyers from News Corp publications like The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s.

“In the most prolonged housing slump in our company’s history and amid unprecedented competition, Realtor.com again demonstrated that growth comes from staying focused on the needs of our customers and the industry,” Eales said in the blog post.

Damian Eales | Credit: Realtor.com

“We are putting the customer first by simplifying discovery and leveraging Artificial Intelligence so consumers can easily connect with professionals,” the CEO continued. “We are delivering Realtors an enhanced premium value proposition through our RealPro Select program and broadening the ability for all Realtors to access our audience through our online store. We are executing exceptionally in our growth businesses, most particularly our seller business, which is delivering the highest intent audience in the industry to listing agents.”

Eales touted Realtor.com as having an “industry-first” model that advocates for the industry and “champions” the MLS. He also took the opportunity to criticize what he called “closed platforms that intentionally limit consumer choice” by limiting access to certain agents and steering users to their own mortgage services — something he said ultimately harms homebuyers and sellers.

This pro-industry attitude is what spurred the company to launch Realtor.com+ last month, Eales said, a platform only available through MLSs that offers a collaborative home search experience for agents and homebuyer clients. The platform currently has 16 MLSs signed on, with more expected “imminently,” according to Eales.

“I am confident that our continued focus on customers and the integrity of the industry will fuel our future growth,” Eales concluded.

Email Lillian Dickerson

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