Homes.com president out 

Dave Mele, the longtime president of Homes.com, has parted ways with CoStar and vacated his role, he confirmed to Real Estate News. 

Mele said he left the position to pursue "an opportunity outside of the real estate industry."

Mele took the president role at Homes.com nearly 10 years ago after a run in local news publishing with The Virginian-Pilot. During his tenure with Homes.com, Mele oversaw the company's acquisition by CoStar in 2021 and its rise as a major player in the home search space.

CoStar CEO Andy Florance confirmed Mele's departure to Real Estate News, adding that the company is "grateful to David Mele for his contributions to Homes.com" and that the team "wishes him the best" in his future endeavors.

Mele was instrumental in CoStar's strategy to become a residential industry leader via its "your listing, your lead" philosophy and business model. Prior to the CoStar acquisition, Homes.com sold buyer leads to agents but halted the practice shortly after the acquisition was completed.

Mele's leadership role with CoStar put him in charge of the company's residential division, which meant overseeing products like Homesnap, which was folded into Homes.com as Homes Pro. The role also meant Mele was responsible for overseeing layoffs during the merger.

Mele was on the frontlines of CoStar's battle over web traffic and portal rankings. Under his leadership, Homes.com saw major leaps in traffic in the past two years, solidifying the portal's position as a top home search site. 

Last October, Homes.com announced it had logged over 100 million unique visitors to the site in the previous month, which the company — and Mele — claimed put Homes.com second only to Zillow. The milestone sparked a battle between Homes.com and rival Realtor.com for the No. 2 spot, which has only intensified since. 

Mele didn't back down from the confrontation — he had previously told Real Estate News that his team at Homes.com was "challenging the established structure and established business models" and "competing to help agents win" with the company's "your listing, your lead" model.  

Additionally, Mele oversaw Homes.com's monetization plan, which started earlier this year with Homes Pro membership plans. The company reported selling roughly 8,000 memberships in the first quarter, which CoStar CEO Andy Florance described as being "by far and away … our most successful product launch ever."