After ten years, Homes.com president Dave Mele left the company to pursue other opportunities. Mele played a key role in CoStar Group’s $156 million acquisition of the company in 2021.
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Homes.com President Dave Mele is leaving the company real estate news on Friday.
Mele joined Homes.com in 2014 after a long career in the news publishing industry, where he led operations for virginia pilot and successfully transitioned the company from a print-only model to a print and online model. Mele was appointed to bring that same magic to Homes.com, then the fifth most trafficked real estate portal in the United States
“We’re very focused on growth and quality growth — we’re not trying to have 100 million unique visitors,” Mele told Inman in 2015 of his approach to expanding Homes.com’s reach. “Our goal is to provide professionals with transaction-ready consumers, and that’s our focus.”
“For us, we don’t have to be the biggest; we can be the biggest. We take the stance of Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, quality over quantity,” he added. “We have a lot of respect for Zillow, but we are different.”
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That focus shifted in 2021, when CoStar Group acquired Homes.com for $156 million, laying the foundation for the platform to become a serious contender in the residential portal space with its “Your Listing, Your Lead” model.
“Together we are committed to growing the Homes.com brand,” Mele said of the new opportunities the acquisition will bring to the Homes.com team. “And build innovative solutions that expand marketing options for consumers and their agents.”
In the three years since, Homes.com has undergone a major transformation. Homesnap was integrated into Homes.com as Homes Pro. A huge marketing budget and an aggressive traffic strategy have brought the Homes.com network to 156 million unique visitors per month – —A number that places it among the top echelons of U.S. residential portals
With CoStar Group’s $1.6 billion acquisition of Matterport and its digital twin technology, more changes are coming to Homes.com, expected to create a unique home search experience for listing agents and home buyers.
In an emailed statement to Inman, CoStar Group co-founder and CEO Andy Florance thanked Mellay for his contributions and wished him well in his next chapter.
“We thank David Mele for his contributions to Homes.com over the past year,” he said. “He was part of an extremely talented and motivated team that successfully launched Homes.com, the industry’s first agent-friendly portal with over 100 million unique visitors that empowered agents to Business owners can sell their homes faster and make more money.
“We wish him all the best in his future endeavors,” he added.
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