FSBO Leads With LandVoice and RedX
Yahoo is outsourcing yet another product to an outside company. Tonight, Yahoo is announcing an exclusive partnership with real estate listings and search site Zillow. As part of the partnership, which will go into effect later this year, Zillow will power all for-sale listings on Yahoo Real Estate. The financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
Zillow’s will integrate its 4 million for-sale listings on Yahoo’s real estate site, where users will still be able to search for home listings by the same parameters as on Zillow’s site, such as by geography, price and other criteria. For-sale listings placed on Zillow will automatically appear on Yahoo Real Estate.
But the partnership is more than just an outsourcing of listings. Zillow and Yahoo Real Estate will be coordinating sales efforts for the advertising network, so that advertisers who buy Showcase Ads or Featured Listings on either site will automatically have those placed on both Yahoo Real Estate and Zillow. Zillow’s Premier Agent program will be extended to Yahoo Real Estate, and current Zillow advertisers will be offered the first chance to purchase Premier Agent placement on Yahoo.
This deal feels like deja vu of two months ago, when Yahoo announced that it was outsourcing personals to Match.com. Yahoo also outsources job listings to Monster, after it sold HotJobs to the job listing service for $225 million.
Similar to the situation with Match.com a few months ago, Yahoo and Zillow have a history of working together. In 2006, Yahoo Real Estate integrated Zillow’s home valuation technology into its user experience.
But it seems that yahoo isn’t completely handing over the keys to its real estate search to ZIllow. Zillow, which launched as a mortgage marketplace in 2008, also powers rentals, which Yahoo doesn’t appear to be aggregating. For now, at least.
Still, it’s a good deal for Zillow, a startup that survived the real estate market implosion, and seems to be back on its feet. The site has seen record traffic over the past six months and has seen 1.75 million downloads of its mobile apps. In my opinion, it’s only a matter of time until Yahoo just outsources all real estate listings, including rentals, to Zillow.
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Over the past two years, real estate professionals have found creative ways to overcome the real estate crisis, including finding innovative uses for social media. After facing drops in home sales well into 2010, real estate pros have been forced to utilize their offline skills in an increasingly social way online. By using photo and video sharing to enhance listings, along with professional networking sites to hone their sales skills, real estate veterans have made strides in moving inventory in tough times.
Agents, brokers and realtors have found successes in lead generation, sales and brand building through use of mass audience social platforms, including TwitterTwitter, FacebookFacebook, YouTubeYouTube, FlickrFlickr, Meetup, and LinkedInLinkedIn, as well as real estate specific platforms, like Trulia, Zillow, WellcomeMat and Architizer.
Whether they are sharing videos, listings or advice with their communities and prospective buyers or sellers, real estate pros are making progress in using social media for real results.
Attracting Buyers and Sellers
The core goal of real estate pros utilizing social media is to attract sellers looking to list their homes or buyers looking to purchase homes. Naturally, the 1.0 version of social media for real estate is setting up pages on social networks that fit your company’s content and audience.
Corcoran Group, the largest residential real estate firm in New York City, is a fitting example of how real estate agencies are going above and beyond to make themselves available for buyers and sellers. Corcoran differentiates itself by simply being available and open. The “Do More” tab on their Facebook page says it all — you can find them on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, FoursquareFoursquare, and GowallaGowalla, among other sites. And if you need more, you can download their iPhone app, where you can find nearby homes for sale or rent and open houses. The app also promotes their Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pages. If you dig a little deeper, you can also find Corcoran on TumblrTumblr, Blip.tv and VimeoVimeo. Simply put, Corcoran has found a way to be everywhere for its clients. This is the first step to converting fans and followers into buyers and sellers.
Tags: for sale by owner, landvoice, real estate, real estate data xchange, redx fsbo, redx real estate