Visual Properties, L.L.C., a Chicagoland apartment locator service founded in 1992, launched the Apartments Plus Web site in January 1997 to support its local retail apartment locator business. The site included national listings by April 1997 and in December 1997, Classified Ventures acquired ApartmentsPlus as its online apartment advertising solution for newspapers nationwide. ApartmentsPlus was re-launched as Apartments.com in March 1998 and is focused solely on the Internet. Apartments.com became a member of HomeScape.com in July 2000.