Current News

The Latest News from WFG National Title Company
ryantate
186
WFG News
February 24, 2015

Judge keeps listings flowing to Trulia — for now

Trulia Inc., the nation’s second-most popular real estate listing site, has been granted a temporary restraining order to keep receiving listings from rival-owned ListHub. ListHub — which is owned by realtor.com operator Move Inc., a News Corp. subsidiary — announced Thursday that it had terminated its syndication agreement with Trulia…
Read More
ryantate
170
WFG News
February 24, 2015

Could a portal merger change the face of real estate? A lesson from PayPal

In October 2002, eBay, the giant online auction site, purchased the fast-growing payments company, PayPal, for $1.5 billion. Founded at the end of 1998, PayPal had become the de facto way to pay for goods on eBay, powering 70 percent of auction payments. The purchase was the exclamation mark on…
Read More
ryantate
170
WFG News
February 23, 2015

Trulia’s economist latest to leave company

Trulia’s chief economist is the latest to depart the company in the wake of the portal’s acquisition by Zillow, but says his research team will continue to produce housing reports “that will be different from Zillow’s and sometimes will kick their butts.” Jed Kolko. “From day one, Trulia’s leaders have…
Read More
ryantate
221
WFG News
February 23, 2015

Analyst: Trulia could lose 40 percent of listings

Trulia, the nation’s second most popular real estate search portal, could lose 40 percent of its listings if Zillow Group is not able to get a court to step in, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Lloyd Walmsley. Zillow announced Friday that it had filed for a temporary restraining order in…
Read More
ryantate
153
WFG News
February 23, 2015

StreetEasy takes page out of Zillow’s marketing playbook

Zillow-owned StreetEasy, a listing portal covering the New York City area, has launched a blog to showcase original research and company news, market data and “stories on the complexities and quirks of living in New York City.” The StreetEasy Blog will “serve as a helpful intersection for all the data…
Read More
ryantate
184
WFG News
February 23, 2015

ListHub stops syndication to Trulia and Zillow … so what?

Most Realtors would agree that maximum exposure to the marketplace results in maximum price. ListHub’s decision to pull the plug on the data it aggregates from 560 multiple listing services (MLSs) and syndicates to Trulia would seem to be a damaging decision to both agents and consumers — but is it really? If you were…
Read More
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…
Read More
ryantate
184
WFG News
February 20, 2015

Why the FTC let Zillow buy Trulia

Federal antitrust regulators say they decided to allow the nation’s most popular real estate search portal to acquire its closest rival because real estate agents have “numerous” ways to market their services, and that there was “insufficient evidence” that the deal would result in higher advertising costs or hurt innovation.…
Read More
ryantate
202
WFG News
February 20, 2015

News Corp. delivers one-two punch to Zillow Group

With Zillow finally swallowing Trulia, the head-to-head portal bout is officially on. News Corp. — owner of realtor.com operator Move Inc. — has thrown the first punches. In a press release on Tuesday emblazoned with an all-caps headline, Move jabbed that “Zillow’s year of the merge will be realtor.com’s year…
Read More
ryantate
218
WFG News
February 20, 2015

Zillow Group seeks restraining order to keep listings flowing to Trulia

Zillow Group filed for a temporary restraining order today in a bid to keep listings flowing to Trulia from listing syndicator ListHub. ListHub — which is owned by realtor.com operator Move Inc., a News Corp. subsidiary — announced yesterday that it had terminated its syndication agreement with Trulia, the nation’s…
Read More