Realtor.com

Realtor.com
Industry Real Estate
Founded September 14, 1995[1]
Website www.realtor.com

Realtor.com is an online resource for home buyers, and sellers with a comprehensive database of for-sale properties and the information, tools and professional expertise to help people purchase a home. As the official site of the National Association of REALTORS, realtor.com pioneered the world of digital real estate 20 years ago, and today prides itself on making all things home simple, efficient and enjoyable. Realtor.com is operated by News Corp [NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA] [ASX: NWS, NWSLV] subsidiary Move, Inc. Realtor.com is operated by News Corp [NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA] [ASX: NWS, NWSLV] subsidiary Move, Inc. Realtor.com was founded on Sept. 14, 1995 with Move, Inc. taking over operations of the site on Nov. 26, 1996.


Website features

Leveraging relationships with 99 percent of multiple listing services (MLSs), realtor.com displays more than 1.7 million active, for-sale listings, which account for more than 97 percent of all MLS-listed for-sale properties. More than 90 percent of the listings are updated every 15 minutes.[3] Buyers and sellers can download the realtor.com mobile apps to access realtor.com on the go. Consumers can learn about local market statistics, national housing trends and more on the site’s data portal, and realtor.com’s News and Advice section features housing news and trends, tips for buyers and sellers, and advice for homeowners. Mortgage rate calculators and home affordability tools helpful to potential home buyers can also be found on realtor.com, including a “rent versus buy” comparability tool and an interactive mortgage rate widget that tracks statewide mortgage rates and terms, comparing them to the national average. Consumers can also learn about real estate agents through realtor.com’s Find a Realtor tool, including recent transaction history, certifications and designations, qualified ratings and reviews, and a map-based activity search. Realtor.com also features a growing rental property database, including photos, school and neighborhood information, and property history as well as search filters for property type (condo, apartment or house), rental price, pet policy and more.

House Talk

In February 2016, realtor.com announced the launch of House Talk™,[2] an online community created for the millions visiting the site to get answers to their home-related questions.

Celebrity Marketing Campaign

Realtor.com kicked off its marketing campaign with well-known actress Elizabeth Banks in May 2015[3] with its first commercial and new tagline, “Real estate in real time.” The commercial was directed through Uber Content by Fred Savage, actor and former star of The Wonder Years, and was a mainstream success.

Realtor.com extended its relationship with Elizabeth Banks with additional videos such as the five-episode digital video series “The Home Buying Process in Plain English.” The digital series was developed to give consumers practical and entertaining advice on the start-to-finish stages of the home buying process. The collection of webisodes have been viewed more than three million times since the launch.

In June 2016, realtor.com released a new tagline, “Dream Home. Own Home. Find Home,”and new set of commercials with Elizabeth Banks. Continuing her run as realtor.com's spokesperson, Elizabeth Banks drops in on people's dreams about their perfect homes to tell them they can make it a reality.

The new campaign also includes digital and social videos, including a five-part home buying series on YouTube.[4]

History

Realtor.com mobile

Recognition and awards

OMMA Awards

W3 Awards

Performance

One Screen

Ad Week

Webby Awards

DMA Echo Award 2001 150K Celebrity Remodel Featuring Kelly Emberg

Brand Film Festival

SF Big Awards

HousingWire Rising Stars™

Controversy

Former CEO of Homestore, Stuart Wolff, was convicted of falsifying company books in 2006.[12] Wolff had 18 felony counts against him, including lying to the company’s accountants and auditor, filing false reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission and insider trading.

Wolff was one of four former Homestore executives to admit to wrongdoing in this revenue scheme. Wolff and others attempted to boost the price of Homestore stock, by engaging in “roundtrip transactions” which dramatically overstated revenues and assets. Homestore.com was not charged because of its honesty and cooperation with prosecutors.

On June 6, 2016, Zillow agreed to pay $130 million to Move[13] for a 2014 lawsuit in which Move alleged misappropriation of trade secrets after Errol Samuelson, former president and chief strategy officer of realtor.com, left to join Zillow as chief industry development officer.

Move and the National Association of Realtors sued Zillow and Samuelson in March 2014, later adding Curt Beardsley as a defendant.[14] Beardsley, former EVP of industry development at Move, along with Samuelson, were both accused of stealing trade secrets and destroying evidence.

Zillow said the allegations were without merit and argued in a counterclaim that the plaintiffs released Zillow’s confidential information and trade secrets due to the filing of a whistleblower letter in court, written by Chris Crocker, a former Zillow employee. The settlement agreement was reached with both parties agreeing to dismiss all claims and counterclaims with prejudice, and neither party admitting liability, wrongdoing, or responsibility by any of the parties.

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.