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The Latest News from WFG National Title Company
ryantate
159
WFG News
February 19, 2015

What the Zillow-Trulia deal means for broker, agent ads

When Zillow fully absorbs Trulia sometime later this year, brokers and agents will buy one set of ad products that will show up across the two sites — and also on Zillow’s partner sites, as well as its other consumer brands, where applicable. Broker and agent ads will show up across both Zillow…
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ryantate
136
WFG News
February 19, 2015

MLSs feud over direct feed to Zillow

Two South Florida Realtor associations with a contentious history are once again battling, this time over a direct listing feed to top real estate portal Zillow. When the Jupiter-Tequesta-Hobe Sound Association of Realtors announced last month that it would be sending its more than 52,000 active residential listings directly to…
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ryantate
170
WFG News
February 19, 2015

Homes.com retools ads for buyer’s agents

Homes.com is getting its own version of the “three headed monster,” launching “Local Connect” advertising that offers buyer’s agents the ability to geotarget consumers searching for homes by ZIP code using ads prominently displayed on listing detail pages. The ads — contact forms that list buyer’s agents directly below the…
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ryantate
119
WFG News
February 18, 2015

Revamped apartments.com gets $100M coming-out party

Commercial real estate powerhouse CoStar Group has launched an “aggressive” play to win the rental portal space in 2015 with a $100 million national multifaceted consumer marketing campaign to hype its revamped apartments.com rental site. CoStar Group, which acquired apartments.com for $585 million last March and owns the popular commercial listing site LoopNet,…
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ryantate
153
WFG News
February 18, 2015

10 reasons email real estate marketing beats social media

Social media can be a soul-crushing experience for a real estate agent. On Facebook, your posts get seen by a whopping four people. Or on Twitter, you find out that a past client just bought a house with another agent. Over on Pinterest, you are getting zero interaction on any…
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ryantate
118
WFG News
February 18, 2015

Trulia acquisition giving Zillow’s stock a shot in the arm

With the acquisition of Trulia finally in the bag, Zillow’s share price soared more than 20 percent in heavy trading this afternoon as the company begins to take steps — including trimming its workforce — that will help it fully realize cost and revenue “synergies.” The jump in share price…
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ryantate
116
WFG News
February 18, 2015

International portal Lamudi raises $19 million

Lamudi, a rapidly growing international real estate portal with a focus on emerging markets, has raised $19 million to strengthen its presence in Latin America and Asia. Three investors participated in the round: Asia Pacific Internet Group, a joint venture between Lamudi’s parent company Rocket Internet and telecom firm Ooredoo; Holtzbrinck Ventures, the…
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ryantate
185
WFG News
February 18, 2015

Zillow ratcheting up marketing spend

Last year Zillow spent $75 million to raise the profile of its brand with consumers. This year, it will spend even more, CEO Spencer Rascoff says. Discussing the company’s acquisition of Trulia on a conference call with investors this morning, Rascoff wouldn’t provide exact numbers on this year’s marketing spend.…
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ryantate
149
WFG News
February 18, 2015

Missing Pete Flint

Ian Morris Eighteen years ago, while helping Microsoft figure out an online real estate strategy, I met Ian Morris, a brash, funny, ambitious New Jersey boy, son of a Wall Street banker. He was a recent graduate of the Harvard MBA program and he was anxious to make a mark…
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ryantate
135
WFG News
February 18, 2015

Home loans can offer a world of opportunity to savvy real estate agents

Ever since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its findings that almost half of homebuyers don’t shop around for the best rate on their mortgage, I’ve been trying to make sense of this revelation. It’s not that it’s shocking — the fact that homebuyers need a lot of help with the…
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