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The Latest News from WFG National Title Company
ryantate
151
WFG News
March 6, 2015

Feds tap Zillow’s chief economist for open-data initiative

Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries has been named to an advisory panel that the federal government says will help it do a better job unleashing vast troves of data to foster economic growth and promote better decision-making — including census data served up by real estate search sites. Humphries, creator of…
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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
134
WFG News
March 5, 2015

How this Zillow Premier Agent made $10 million

Gordon Stephenson is a Zillow Premier agent. Through his association with Zillow he has accumulated approximately $10 million in wealth. According to his profile on Zillow, he had 23 home sales in the last 12 months. He is a small Seattle broker with 60 agents and a property management division.…
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ryantate
131
WFG News
March 5, 2015

Zillow program could help more agents track their listings online

Zillow has launched a program that could provide another perk to real estate brokers and multiple listing services that send their listings directly to the popular search website. Zillow Tech Connect: Reports, the newest branch of the Zillow Tech Connect Program, will allow vendors that show agents how their listings perform online…
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ryantate
170
WFG News
March 5, 2015

How Zillow plans to stay on top: Watch the video

In a lively exchange with Inman Publisher Brad Inman, hear what Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff has to say about how Zillow climbed to the top, and how it intends to stay there. Now that Zillow owns Trulia, it will decide how to price real estate agent advertising not only for…
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ryantate
150
WFG News
March 4, 2015

Zillow secures direct feeds from 25 MLSs in February

In the month of February, 25 multiple listing services signed up to send listings in direct feeds to Zillow, the listing portal said in an announcement. The disclosure sheds more light on the headway that the listing portal has made in securing direct feeds from MLSs ahead of the April 7 expiration date of its agreement…
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ryantate
156
WFG News
March 4, 2015

Why portal changes will never affect top agents

There is a storm of confusion surrounding the Zillow-Trulia merger, especially when it comes to how the alliance will affect agents. You have to wonder how brokerages, MLSs (multiple listing services) and individual agents who feed listings into the two big portals are feeling about the idea that the leads…
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ryantate
148
WFG News
March 3, 2015

How real estate agents can create market advantages using Zillow data

Opportunity, at times, cloaks itself in annoyance. Some real estate agents like to grumble about Zillow and their clients’ propensity to take the Zestimate and other data points as gospel. However, a website with the level of access and data-gathering power that Zillow has presents a real opportunity. One interesting…
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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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