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The Latest News from WFG National Title Company
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
168
WFG News
February 6, 2015

How to beat portals at the lead game

Leads are life to Realtors. That’s obvious. Yet to anyone who’s looked to buy, sell, or rent online, it’s pretty obvious Zillow and Trulia own leads online. Seriously, is there a major market in the United States where these two are not on the first page of Google? (If there…
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ryantate
134
WFG News
February 6, 2015

Inside look at how Zillow pitched one broker for listings

Zillow has been scrambling to secure direct feeds from brokerages and multiple listing services ever since news broke that it will lose a chunk of its listings when its contract with listing syndication platform ListHub ends in April. Zillow is out to level the listings playing field currently dominated by its competitor, realtor.com,  which…
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ryantate
153
WFG News
February 5, 2015

Why real estate professionals need to read ‘Zillow Talk’

Many real estate professionals are still ambivalent about Zillow. They remember how Zillow came to the market 10 years ago with a much less industry-friendly attitude than it developed once it realized there was more money in pursuing the industry as a client rather than a competitor. Maybe we’re just…
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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
173
WFG News
February 3, 2015

Shout out to the FTC, and the listings chess game

This is chess, not checkers Lots of very smart people are scrambling to figure out the changing dynamics of online real estate listings and advertising. The end of the ListHub deal with Zillow has muddled the situation as Z furiously cuts deals with individual MLSs as the clock runs out…
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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
170
WFG News
January 30, 2015

Love it or hate it, Zillow is here to stay

Love it or hate it, Zillow is not going anywhere. Even with ListHub cutting off its feed, Zillow’s business will not suffer. In fact, it could probably make the portal even more trustworthy in the consumer’s eyes. I posted a simple question to my Facebook wall the other day, and…
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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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