Apartment Ratings gets their game on.

We aren't going anywhere.



I recently emailed Jeremy Bencken of Apartment Ratings about forums for movers when he responded with some very excellent news.

Here is the press release.

INTERNET BRANDS ACQUIRES APARTMENTRATINGS.COM, THE LEADING ONLINE COMMUNITY OF APARTMENT RENTERS


Site offers unbiased reviews of tens of thousands of apartments nationwide

LOS ANGELES (July 9, 2007) -Internet Brands, Inc., a leading operator of media and e-commerce websites, today announced its acquisition of ApartmentRatings.com, the largest and most popular community of apartment renters on the Internet.

"We've brought transparency and savings to home buyers and sellers on RealEstateABC.com, and to the mortgage lending process with our Ethical Lender Rate Directory on Loan.com," said Michael Dodge, general manager of the home and real estate division at Internet Brands. "The acquisition of ApartmentRatings.com builds on this momentum by enabling us to educate and inform consumers in the rental market as well."

Launched in 2000 by Jeremy and Katie Bencken, ApartmentRatings.com features more than 500,000 reviews and ratings of about 60,000 apartments nationwide. The site offers renters valuable resources including rent trend data, safety information and detailed maps. Renters can also interact with one another and get advice from the site's apartment living blog.

"Since we launched the site, our ultimate goal has always been to help renters make informed renting decisions," said Jeremy Bencken, founder of ApartmentRatings.com. "We're proud that unlike most other online apartment hunting services, we don't accept advertising from apartment owners or managers, allowing us to provide completely unbiased reviews and resources on the site."

About Internet Brands

Los Angeles-based Internet Brands (www.internetbrands.com) is a leading operator of media and e-commerce sites for large ticket consumer purchases, such as cars, real estate, mortgages and travel. The company empowers consumers to make better product choices and save money. Internet Brands' sites deliver superior content and consumer insight and have received dozens of "best-in-class" awards.

Internet Brands' automotive division includes CarsDirect.com, Autos.com, Wikicars.org, GreenHybrid.com and Autodata Solutions. The company's home division includes DoItYourself.com, LoanApp.com, Loan.com and RealEstateABC.com. Internet Brands' travel division includes VacationHomes.com, Vamoose.com, Wikitravel.org, World66.com, BBOnline.com, CruiseMates.com, CruiseReviews.com, and FlyerTalk.com.

Internet Brands was founded in 1998 as CarsDirect and added the new parent company name of Internet Brands in June 2005.

I congratulate Katie and Jeremy on their success. They deserve it, considering how much work they have put into Apartment Ratings.

Now if you think Katie and Jeremy are going to take the money and run, you are quite wrong. They are not only sticking around to further strengthen the brand but they also struck a deal that allowed them to keep their development team and office. I look forward to see more of their work.