New Program Allows Franchisors and Brokerages to Post Free Home Listings On Yahoo! Real Estate
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan 10, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Yahoo! Real Estate today launched its new online property listings program, allowing franchisors and brokers nationwide to post their complete set of home listings on the site for free on the Internet's #1 real estate website. Prudential Real Estate Affiliates and Realogy Corporation, two of the industry's largest franchisors, are among the first to participate in the service, enabling their teams of real estate professionals to market their full catalog of property listings on Yahoo! Real Estate. Realogy's franchise brand networks include CENTURY 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA and Sotheby's International Realty.
Several other leading real estate franchisors and brokerages have also elected to participate in the Yahoo! property listings program, making Yahoo! Real Estate one of the most comprehensive sites offering listings of existing homes for sale. These brokerages include: Assist 2 Sell, First Team Real Estate, GMAC Real Estate, Help-U-Sell, Houlihan Lawrence Real Estate, Illustrated Properties Real Estate, Intero Real Estate Services, Keller Williams Realty, Keyes Company, Long & Foster Companies, RealEstate.com REALTORS, Real Living, Realty Executives International, Weichert Realtors, and ZipRealty.
The new franchisor and brokerage partnerships complement Yahoo! Real Estate's long-standing listings relationships with publishers and aggregators such as Harmon Homes, a division of Homes.com, Homes and Land, ListHub, The Real Estate Book, and Point2 Technologies, ensuring consumers are offered the widest range of real estate information possible online.
"We have benefited tremendously over the past five years from the marketing power Yahoo! Real Estate brings to the table," said Laurie Keenan, President of Prudential Real Estate Affiliates. "As more and more prospective buyers and sellers turn to the Internet for their real estate needs, extending our partnership with Yahoo! allows Prudential to take advantage of leading interactive marketing services offered and to better service our affiliates, our agents, and our customers."
As an extension of this online property listings program, Yahoo! Real Estate will offer franchisors and brokerages a variety of additional interactive marketing services, including featured home listings and display advertising. For example, Prudential Real Estate has pledged all of their affiliates' listings to be featured properties as part of their commitment to continue their "Online Advantage" program.
"The real estate industry is fast-embracing a marketing mantra of wider distribution of property listings online," said Michael Yang, vice president and general manager of Yahoo! Real Estate. "We know that 89 percent of consumers researching real estate online use a Yahoo! product or service in any given month, which presents an amazing opportunity for franchisors and brokerages to put their listings in front of homebuyers."
Yahoo! Real Estate has experienced an 80 percent year-over-year growth rate in audience base and in November surpassed Realtor.com as the most visited online real estate site (comScore MediaMetrix, November 2007). Most recently, Yahoo! Real Estate introduced the following products to offer consumers one of the most comprehensive destinations for online real estate research and listings options:
-- Guides & Advice (Newly launched at http://realestate.yahoo.com/info) provides detailed information for home buyers, sellers and owners to make the most educated real estate decisions. Features include expert opinions, how-to guides, timely real estate news in partnership with Inman News, as well as capabilities to rate, comment and share favorite articles.
-- Schools Search (http://realestate.yahoo.com/schools), allows users to easily search, browse, and evaluate local schools via a map interface. Schools Search allows users to refine and sort their search by school district, distance, grade level, or school type (e.g. public, private, charter).
-- Foreclosures Center (http://realestate.yahoo.com/foreclosures), offers the ability to search for properties in foreclosure, analyze trends in the foreclosure market, and education about buying properties in foreclosure.
-- Home Values Center (http://realestate.yahoo.com/homevalues), provides home valuations from multiple sources, a library of articles and how-to guides on home value topics, and contacts for local appraisers.
-- Neighborhoods Search (http://realestate.yahoo.com/neighborhoods), offers various information about a city of interest, including a quick glimpse of the city's demographics, housing and education statistics, and general maps showing nearby schools, restaurants and shops.
-- Home Loans Center (http://realestate.yahoo.com/loans), provides education on researching loans, financial calculators, expert how-to guides, national and state trends on mortgage and home equity, as well as top rated local mortgage brokers and comprehensive local rate searches.
For more information about how to distribute or market property listings on Yahoo! Real Estate, visit http://realestate.yahoo.com/partner or email aroraa@yahoo-inc.com.
About Yahoo! Real Estate
Yahoo! Real Estate is one of the largest and fastest-growing real estate Web sites in the market, having grown over 80 percent in the last year, according to ComScore Media Metrix November 2007 rankings. Yahoo! Real Estate provides users with one of the most comprehensive sets of real estate information and listings, including new and for-sale home listings, apartments for rent, home values, local schools, detailed neighborhood overviews, and home mortgage rates. Consumers can visit Yahoo! Real Estate at realestate.yahoo.com.
SOURCE: Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Jason Khoury, 408-349-3435
jkhoury@yahoo-inc.com
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