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The Latest News from WFG National Title Company
ryantate
136
WFG News
February 11, 2015

6 lessons learned during 10 years of top local real estate blogging

Last fall, I made CBS Minnesota’s list of the best local bloggers. Making any local list like that is great publicity — and it was certainly a surprise. Real estate is local, and so is my business. That kind of local recognition brings in business. My St. Paul Real Estate Blog…
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ryantate
135
WFG News
February 11, 2015

Is Josh Altman headed to Douglas Elliman? Don’t try to control agents and Gary Keller on the Internet

Agent talk Goodluz/Shutterstock Agents are independent contractors; they go when and where they want. No big deal, right? Well, actually, sometimes it is a big deal, particularly when it involves celebrity agents who have national TV followings. Nick Segal at Partners Trust tells the story of taking Madison Hildebrand to…
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ryantate
150
WFG News
February 10, 2015

Mortgage giant Citi steps up marketing on Zillow, StreetEasy

Citi, one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders, has signed a marketing deal with Zillow in an effort to reach prospective borrowers on the highly trafficked real estate portal. The deal will boost Citi’s presence on Zillow; Zillow Mortgages, the site’s mortgage marketplace; and StreetEasy, a listing portal owned by Zillow…
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ryantate
134
WFG News
February 10, 2015

MLS orders broker to stop publishing offers of compensation to buyer’s agents

A Denver-based flat-fee brokerage that’s publishing the offer of compensation to buyer’s agents that sellers make through the multiple listing service has been ordered by the local MLS, REcolorado, to stop making that information public. Trelora LLC, which charges buyers a flat fee of $3,000, says publishing the offer of…
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ryantate
133
WFG News
February 10, 2015

Build ‘ships with millennials to gain their trust (and real estate business)

Those in sales are accustomed to focusing on the numbers. After all, we like numbers, especially big ones. But what happens when salespeople focus so much on their numbers that they lose focus on current and potential customers? Simply put, they’re categorized or tagged and become “leads,” “prospects” and, soon…
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ryantate
167
WFG News
February 10, 2015

Real estate agent reviews catching fire on Zillow

Consumers have posted more than 1 million reviews of real estate professionals on Zillow.com in the last four years — nearly half of those in the last year alone, an acceleration in growth that points to the growing importance of agents’ profiles on listing portals. More than 780,000 agents have…
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ryantate
220
WFG News
February 10, 2015

Some groups don’t get a say in the great portal debate

How should the industry address listing feeds to ListHub, Zillow, and other multiple listing services and portals? It’s up to brokers — and there are some industry groups who simply don’t get to vote. Jon Coile is the president of Champion Realty, a regional brokerage in Maryland, and the chairman of…
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ryantate
136
WFG News
February 10, 2015

Why the traditional brokerage model is obsolete

Traditionally, a real estate salesperson joined a brokerage for the power of their marketing and name recognition, relying on the “Higher Power” to drive leads and sales. Changes to the commission split structure put more and more marketing responsibility on the individual. The shift to social media and enhanced online…
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ryantate
203
WFG News
February 10, 2015

NAR continues to hype realtor.com in new national TV spot

Despite global media giant News Corp.’s acquisition of realtor.com operator Move Inc. in November, which lost NAR a seat on Move’s board and an ownership stake in the company, the trade association remains committed to promoting the realtor.com brand in a big way. NAR aired a 33-second TV ad during the Grammy Awards…
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ryantate
136
WFG News
February 10, 2015

3 barriers to delivering the tech solutions real estate agents crave: Part 2

Yesterday, we dug into an Inman survey to examine the first big barrier that technology vendors face when trying to meet the needs and wants of the real estate agents they served. That barrier was industry fragmentation, but it wasn’t the only (or the biggest) challenge that technology vendors must…
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