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The Latest News from WFG National Title Company
ryantate
220
WFG News
March 6, 2015

Realtor.com climbs in rankings, Trulia’s new look, Homes.com picking up steam

Zillow Group has given Trulia’s home page a subtle makeover, which could foreshadow other changes that would help differentiate the nation’s most popular real estate search portals now that they’re under the same roof. Before it was acquired by Zillow, Trulia’s home page featured an image of a couple holding hands, strolling up a…
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ryantate
148
WFG News
March 6, 2015

Brokers facing tough choices when portals raise prices for ‘featured’ listings

When Zillow told New York City-based brokerage CORE in December that the price of “featuring” its listings on the portal in 2015 would be four times what it paid in 2014, the company decided to cancel its ad spend. Instead of paying to feature listings on the site — blocking…
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ryantate
149
WFG News
March 5, 2015

Realtor.com grows New York City footprint

Realtor.com’s listing database in the Big Apple is getting thousands of new listings thanks to new agreements with five brokerages and listing syndication platform RealPlus. In addition to securing listings from Bond New York, Brown Harris Stevens, Compass, Halstead Property and NestSeekers, the portal has added new search filters and property types to help streamline…
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ryantate
186
WFG News
March 2, 2015

Jeff Goldblum’s latest role: Apartments.com mastermind

Jeff Goldblum plays Brad Bellflower, the fictional mastermind of apartments.com. Real estate brokers and agents have become adept at using the Internet and social media to grow their business. But suddenly TV is blazing hot, with big brand names like Zillow, realtor.com, Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Re/Max, Redfin and Berkshire…
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ryantate
180
WFG News
March 2, 2015

Zillow Group’s game of ‘chicken’

For months now, the rumor mill has been flying with talk of Zillow and Trulia (now Zillow Group) ending the featured listings placement for brokers and franchisors by the end of 2015. Large brokers and franchisors who pay $5 to $10 to feature a listing, with all competing agents stripped…
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ryantate
218
WFG News
February 27, 2015

Zillow’s drinking the Trulia Kool-Aid, realtor.com gets feisty

Realtor.com operator Move Inc. has been feisty out of the gate with its new rival Zillow Group Inc. Just a week after Zillow’s acquisition of Trulia closed, the two already have a new court date. On March 12 a judge will decide whether Move’s syndication platform ListHub can cut its listings feed to…
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ryantate
182
WFG News
February 27, 2015

Zillow and Trulia say they’re still competitors

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Executives with Zillow and Trulia told a roomful of multiple listing service leaders that the two sites will continue to compete even though the top two listing portals are now under the same roof. “Beating each other up, sharpening each other, for us that’s going to be…
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ryantate
203
WFG News
February 27, 2015

‘What the hell does Zillow mean?’ Watch the video

“What the hell does Zillow mean?” News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch famously said when asked at Real Estate Connect New York City whether “realtor.com” remains relevant. “We know what Realtor means.” Pop some popcorn and clear your schedule for the next half hour — News Corp. owns realtor.com operator Move…
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ryantate
216
WFG News
February 25, 2015

Behind-the-scenes look at the Zillow-Trulia-News Corp. listings battle

Real estate is an industry full of people who cooperate and compete with each other at all levels, sometimes uneasily. With potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue at stake, this is especially clear among the now top two rivals for consumer traffic in the real estate space:…
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ryantate
168
WFG News
February 21, 2015

Study finds patent licensing rarely results in innovation

It may come as little surprise to players in online real estate who have been cajoled into such deals, but patent licensing rarely results in new products, technology transfer or other markers of innovation. That’s according to an academic study that provides some ammunition for critics of “patent trolls,” who…
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