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The Latest News from WFG National Title Company
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
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
183
WFG News
February 6, 2015

Zillow gets book buzz, realtor.com sees boost in traffic

Real estate is not about location, location, location, but about future location, future location, future location. That’s one of the many real estate insights Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff and Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries offer up in their 288-page book, “Zillow Talk,” which came out Jan. 27. With the book, its play…
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ryantate
168
WFG News
February 6, 2015

Consultant: One-size-fits-all is wrong approach to portal listing feeds

A model agreement hammered out by industry players representing listing portals, MLSs and brokerages in the hopes of standardizing the terms under which listings are provided to big search sites like Zillow, Trulia and realtor.com should be viewed as a floor, not a ceiling, says a prominent real estate industry…
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ryantate
200
WFG News
February 4, 2015

How listings will flow to Zillow, other portals

Industry players representing listing portals, MLSs and brokerages have finalized a model content licensing agreement that could help Zillow obtain more direct listing feeds before its contract with syndicator ListHub expires this spring. The model agreement seeks to standardize the ground rules under which real estate brokerages and MLSs provide…
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ryantate
191
WFG News
January 30, 2015

Chief economists mostly bullish on 2015 housing market

NEW YORK — Four chief economists from some of the nation’s most popular real estate websites are optimistic about the housing market this year, citing an expected increase in home sales, and low mortgage rates and oil prices leaving more money in consumers’ pockets. Still, low inventory, decreasing home affordability…
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ryantate
198
WFG News
January 28, 2015

Consumers will decide who is king of the online real estate mountain

NEW YORK — When Zillow closes its acquisition of Trulia, which Wall Street expects to happen any day now, the megaportal will square off with realtor.com operator Move Inc., which will be determined to unseat the king of the online real estate mountain. Both Zillow and Trulia already get more visits than…
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ryantate
217
WFG News
January 28, 2015

Why News Corp bought realtor.com instead of Zillow or Trulia

NEW YORK CITY — The new owner of realtor.com operator Move Inc. kicked the tires of its two chief competitors, Zillow and Trulia, before  acquiring Move for $950 million in November, News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson revealed today. In a one-on-one conversation with Inman Publisher Brad Inman at Real Estate Connect…
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ryantate
166
WFG News
January 27, 2015

Realtor.com will make ‘simple product improvements’ before exploring ‘big, bold ideas’

Don’t expect radical changes to realtor.com under the management of News Corp., which acquired the site’s operator, Move Inc., in November — at least not right away. Ryan O’Hara Move’s new CEO, News Corp. veteran Ryan O’Hara, says he’s looking to start out with “simple product improvements” already in the…
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ryantate
215
WFG News
January 26, 2015

Special report: How to deliver technology agents need

Money is pouring into real estate technology, and the sheer number of products available to agents has risen exponentially in recent years. Whatever the merits of that increase, on a practical level this means that real estate agents are often bombarded by solicitations from tech companies peddling the next big…
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