RISMEDIA, March 5, 2007-Realogy Corporation announced a far-reaching online listings distribution strategy that will benefit home buyers and sellers as well as the more than 320,000 real estate sales professionals who belong to its franchise networks.
Specifically, Realogy, a global leader in real estate franchising, announced two significant marketing agreements to have more than 500,000 affiliate real estate listings appear on both GoogleTM, the world's largest search engine site, and Trulia a leading real estate vertical search engine. All property listings that currently reside on the CENTURY 21®, Coldwell Banker®, and ERA® brand Web sites will be uploaded to the GoogleTM and Trulia.com search engines making it easier than ever for buyers to find the home of their dreams, while providing sellers with outstanding marketing exposure. Realogy's strategic move represents one of the largest distribution of property listings to major online search engines at one time.
"Our brand Web sites are some of the most highly trafficked and comprehensive sites in real estate today," said Richard A. Smith, vice chairman and president of Realogy Corporation. "Our announced distributed listing strategy follows an intense study of the advantages of the broad distribution of our listing inventory. This serves as a milestone in our strategy to maximize the advantages of the Web for the benefit of our franchisees, our operating company and our customers."
The listings distribution strategy will broaden exposure for Realogy brand listings as well as those featured by Company-owned brokerages operated by Realogy's subsidiary, NRT Incorporated. The listings distribution initiative aligns effective marketing strategy with online consumer behavior. According to comScore, more than 58% of all Internet searches on "real estate" and related terms are conducted on GoogleTM and its search partner sites, while over 375 million unique global users conduct searches on Google.com each month.
"For the buyer, viewing listings online is just part of the equation," said Alex Perriello, president and chief executive officer of the Realogy Franchise Group. "From the Google and Trulia Web sites, consumers will be linked to the brand sites where they can learn more about individual properties, communities and the home buying process. Home sellers will naturally benefit from the additional marketing exposure for their properties."
The increased traffic is also expected to benefit Realogy's broker and sales associate networks of 320,000 members who stand ready to assist consumers in their local searches. As more listing distribution channels are adopted, lead traffic to Realogy's broker networks is expected to increase as well. As an example, in a pilot study with Trulia in 2006, 15% of ERA.com's search engine traffic originated from the Trulia.com site. Currently, according to Realogy, its brand Web sites receive over one million visitors a week.
Launched in 2005, Trulia offers consumers a highly intuitive user interface that simplifies searches and leads to click-throughs to the complete property information on broker and agent sites. Trulia.com is one of the fastest growing sites in the real estate category, reporting 25% month-over-month growth over the last six months. The Trulia site refers over two million buyer visits to external listing sites each month and seventy percent of Trulia users surveyed indicated that they were looking to buy a home in the next 12 months.
Realogy will continue to expand its listings distribution strategy by seeking out appropriate alliances and Internet channels to promote properties that appeal to particular lifestyles and niche markets. The first of these agreements includes LandandFarm.com, which caters to buyers and sellers of country properties including farms, ranches and hunting retreats. Select Realogy brand listings will post to this site when they meet the specific criteria of the market segment and audience demographic.
"The Internet empowers consumers to get information from a vast array of sources that appeal to their particular needs and interests," said Perriello. "Our strategy meets consumer needs head on, while offering a level of unparalleled service in marketing homes for our affiliates' clientele."
For more information, visit www.realogy.com and www.trulia.com.
