The real estate data provider has agreed to buy property engine developer Homesnap for $250m in cash following $32m from investors including AH Belo.

Homesnap, a US-based property search engine developer backed by newspaper publisher AH Belo, has agreed to be acquired by real estate information provider CoStar Group in a $250m cash deal.

Founded in 2008 as Sawbuck Realty, Homesnap has built an online real estate database that includes listings for properties from more than 250 multiple listing services – groups of real estate brokers that collate portfolio updates.

The company claims to have more than 1.1 million real estate agents signed up…