Trulia will provide special training and discounts on the listing portal’s marketing tools to 40,000 members of Lisle, Ill.-based Midwest Real Estate Data LLC (MRED), one of the nation’s largest multiple listing services.

MRED is the first MLS to partner with Trulia in the new “Shared Success Program,” which will provide guidance to agents on how to get the most out of Trulia’s local and mobile ads platforms and suite of membership plans. The program is being marketed to MLSs throughout the country.

“Our goal (with the program) is to help agents better understand Trulia’s free and paid services to help agents and brokers succeed and more effectively use Trulia’s tools to grow their businesses,” said Trulia spokesperson Ginger Wilcox.

In addition to MRED members receiving discounts for Trulia products, they’ll also receive training on how to use both Trulia’s free and paid tools and exclusive training webcasts.

As part of the deal, MRED will also use be able to co-brand training materials including videos, handouts and emails that market Trulia’s tools to its members.

“Trulia is delivering the online and mobile tools to help agents meet the expectations of today’s consumers, and agents who adopt those tools effectively will build a better business,” said Russ Bergeron, CEO of MRED.

MRED is one of several large MLSs that provide listings to Trulia. Others include the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR), Boston-area MLS Property Information Service Inc. (MLSPIN), Bay Area Real Estate Information Services Inc. (BAREIS) in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Connecticut Multiple Listing Service (CTMLS).

Trulia rival Zillow also receives listings directly from some MLSs, including HAR, MLSPIN, CTMLS, and the Corpus Christi Association of Realtors.

Some are noticing that partnerships like this are an indication that the portals and industry are in the beginning stages of figuring out how to work together.

“I tweeted last week from #Clareity that there seemed to be a subtle shift coming from portal bashing toward finding ways to partner and co-exist. MRED seems to be on the leading edge of that with this announcement,” wrote Amy Geddes, chief operating officer of real estate consulting firm Clareity Consulting, in a Facebook post yesterday.

Ron Stephan, CEO of Southeast-based real estate analysis firm Metro Market Trends, agreed.

“If its considered portal bashing to be concerned that some portals have inaccurate, untimely, illegal listings and repurpose MLS and broker data … then consider me a portal basher! Trulia, for one, has come a long way toward cooperation,” Stephan wrote in a comment on Geddes’ Facebook post about MRED and Trulia’s new partnership.

Finding industry partnership for the portals has been a bumpy road. This week, two Trulia execs with longtime industry experience and mandates to build relationships between the portal and the real estate world split ways with the company.

In December, Trulia hired iHomefinder founder Alon Chaver as vice president of industry services.

Zillow has been similarly focused on building relationships in the real estate industry. Last year, it hired prominent real estate broker Jay Thompson and longtime MLS exec Bob Bemis to beef up its industry rep. In January, former NRT LLC exec Chris Crocker joined the team at Zillow.

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Article source: http://www.inman.com/news/2013/03/7/trulia-providing-mred-members-with-training-discounts

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story misstated the number of multiple listing services participating in the Zillow Partnership Platform. Zillow is not disclosing the number of participants.

Zillow will get listings directly from the 1,000-member Corpus Christi Association of Realtors, which has signed on to become the latest member of the Zillow Partnership Platform.

The Texas-based Realtor association joins the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR), Connecticut Multiple Listing Service (CTMLS), and Shrewsbury, Mass.-based MLS Property Information Network Inc. (MLSPIN) as members of the Zillow Partnership Platform. Like HAR, the Corpus Christi Association of Realtors operates the local MLS.

A Zillow spokeswoman said other MLSs are participating, but declined to disclose how many.

The Zillow Partnership Platform, announced last May, provides brokers and agents who belong to participating associations and MLSs with enhanced branding and other perks in exchange for direct listing feeds.

“We are very concerned about accuracy and freshness of our listings as they are displayed on public websites,” said Josh Ellington, director of MLS and technology at the Corpus Christi Association of Realtors in a statement. “We applaud Zillow’s efforts to increase accuracy by refreshing their database as often as every 15 minutes using the direct data feed from the Corpus Christi Association of Realtors.”

“The Zillow Partnership Platform strives to eliminate the confusion associated with stale data, lagging price changes and incorrect statuses,” said Bob Bemis, Zillow vice president of partner relations.

Listings fed to the Zillow program show up on the Zillow Real Estate Network, which includes Yahoo Homes, Google Now, and soon, HGTV’s FrontDoor.com

Unlike Realtor.com — which thanks to its ties to the National Association of Realtors gets listings directly from most of the nation’s MLSs — third-party portals get listing data from a variety of sources, including MLSs, brokers, agents and listing syndicators like ListHub and Point2. 

Zillow rival Trulia launched a program in 2011, in which MLS data takes precedence over other sources when discrepancies are found. Large MLSs providing Trulia with direct feeds include the HAR, MLSPIN, CTMLS, Midwest Real Estate Data LLC (MRED),  and Bay Area Real Estate Information Services Inc. (BAREIS) in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Trulia and Zillow launched programs last year that provide perks to brokerages providing direct feeds.

This week Zillow announced that Hunt Real Estate ERA is sending listings the firm represents in New York and Arizona directly to Zillow, bringing the number of firms participating in the “Zillow Pro for Brokers” program to 49.

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Article source: http://www.inman.com/news/2013/03/1/zillow-get-listings-texas-mls

Real estate search and marketing company Trulia is making strides in its push to cooperate with multiple listing services nationwide in order to better the quality of listing information online.

The company announced this week that it has signed up all five MLSs in the San Francisco Bay Area to its quality assurance system, Trulia Direct Reference, The system allows MLSs, brokers and agents to identify discrepancies between real estate listings from MLSs and listings on third-party syndication sites.

Trulia introduced the system last year. Participating MLSs provide Trulia Direct Reference with accurate data on factors such as list price and status. The system then automatically reports discrepancies back to the MLS, broker and listing agent. The agent then has the option to visit the third-party sources and correct the information. MLSs can participate in the system at no cost whether or not they syndicate listings to Trulia.

The five participating Bay Area MLSs are East Bay Regional Data Inc. (EBRDI), San Francisco Association of Realtors, MLSListings, Bay Area Real Estate Information Services (BAREIS), and Bay East Association of Realtors. MLSListings and BAREIS also syndicate listings to Trulia.

EBRDI was the latest to sign up. “TDR will ensure that our listings are accurately displayed and provide the highest quality exposure and experience for our members,” said Rosemary Scardina, CEO of EBRDI, in a statement.

With all five MLSs participating, “Bay Area homebuyers, sellers and renters will have access to high quality property information to help them complete their home search,” said Matt Dollinger, Trulia’s head of industry relations, in a statement.

Listings quality is a long-standing issue across the online real estate space. Some brokerages have cited listing inaccuracy as one of the reasons they’ve stopped syndicating listings to Trulia and other third-party sites. Trulia and rival Zillow have recently offered brokers incentives to feed the portals listings data directly and both companies say they prioritize listing information that comes directly from MLSs and brokers.

In a letter to brokers in May, Trulia CEO Pete Flint emphasized the company’s desire to partner with the industry.

“We know that direct data feeds from brokers drastically improve data accuracy. We ask for your help and support, and are committed to continue to work with the industry to improve data quality on all levels,” he said.

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Article source: http://www.inman.com/news/2012/09/28/trulia-working-with-more-mlss-listing-data-quality

San Francisco, CA – December 22, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Today, Redfin launched Redfin for iPad, a home-buying app that combines the best real estate data with an industry-first “swipeable” interface. This app follows on the success of Redfin for Android, the highest-rated real estate app in Android Market.

Redfin for iPad’s unique interface uses the iPad’s large screen size to display area maps, thumbnails of homes for sale, listing details and galleries of full-screen photos, all on one page that customers navigate by swiping, rather than going back and forth between pages. Also, no other iPad application combines Redfin’s rich feature set with listing data directly from the Multiple Listing Services used by brokers. As a result Redfin for iPad shows users all the homes for sale, in more detail than any other application can provide.

Redfin for iPad is a combination of the features enjoyed on Redfin’s top-rated Android and iPhone apps and the fun and fast interaction of iPad’s high-resolution screen. Additional Redfin for iPad features include:

• Full detail on every listing, with more than 20 fields for each home in the native application, and dozens more a tap away;
• Full-screen photos, for luscious detail on every bathroom and kitchen;
• Full price history, so users see how a listing’s price has changed since its debut;
• Photo upload, so users can add photos taken by the iPad camera to a listing already on Redfin’s site;
• Agent Insights, which give iPad users comments from Redfin agents with firsthand experience of a listing;
• Price-drop notifications, so users can follow a listing via iPad and get email updates when its price drops or its status changes;
• Syncs with Redfin’s website, so that favorite listings, crossed-out listings, private notes and home-tour schedules are the same on the device and on the web.

“We designed this app from the ground up to take advantage of the crisp screen and large size of the iPad’s display,” said Sasha Aickin, Redfin’s Chief Technology Officer. “Customers told us they want one page that shows the map view, a list of homes and details and photos of individual listings. Rather than having to browse back and forth between views, with Redfin for iPad, they’ve seen the map, narrowed their search, viewed the listing and are halfway to talking to a Redfin agent while other applications would still be loading the map for the fourth time.”

The areas of the United States served by the iPad app are the same as those served by Redfin’s website, which include the metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland (Oregon), Seattle, Washington DC, New York’s Long Island and Westchester County as well as the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and Palm Springs.

The app continues to deliver on Redfin’s commitment to combine technology and service to make the home-buying process better, from start to finish. Redfin for iPad not only allows buyers to search for homes, but also gives them fast, mobile access to agents who specialize in their search area, and unique insights from agents who have seen the homes. During the next year, Redfin will continue marrying technology and service throughout the home-buying and selling processes.

Redfin (www.redfin.com) is the real estate industry’s first online brokerage, combining a customer-focused team of real estate agents with online tools for making the process of buying or selling a home easy. Redfin’s agents handle every facet of a transaction, including tours, pricing analyses, negotiations, inspections and closings. Redfin is the only major search site to feature listings direct from broker databases as well as for-sale-by-owner and foreclosure properties from across the Internet. The company pays its agents customer-satisfaction bonuses, not commissions, and surveys every client, publishing each survey alongside the agent’s complete deal history. Redfin’s service is available in the metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland, OR, Seattle, Washington DC, New York’s Long Island and Westchester County as well as most of California, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego. To keep track of our daring exploits, subscribe to blog.redfin.com or our Twitter feed @redfin.

• Redfin Releases Native Real Estate Search Application for Android Mobile Devices
  San Francisco, CA – July 19, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Redfin today released Redfin for Android, a map-driven real estate search application for mobile devices using Google’s Android operating system….

• Barrett Co Real Estate reaches Greater Boston home buyers with custom iPhone/iPad App
  Concord, MA – May 31, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Barrett Company Real Estate has expanded their mobile MLS IDX reach with the addition of a complimentary, custom Massachusetts Real Estate App for the iPad iPhone. With Verizon’s launch of the iPhone, Apple’s recent launch of iPad 2, and over 10 million iPads sold in 2010, Executive Director of…

• RE/MAX Agents Receive Exclusive iPad App for Listing Presentations
  Anaheim, CA – November 11, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — NAR Convention – RE/MAX agents worldwide will soon be pulling out their Apple iPads when meeting with prospective home sellers, using one of the real estate industry’s first iPad App for listing presentations called “RE/MAX Presenter,” an innovative and intuitive application developed exclusively for RE/MAX agents….

• Homes.com Adds New iPad App to its Mobile Portfolio
  NORFOLK, VA – November 18, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Homes Media Solutions, sister real estate brand of For Rent Media Solutions™ and branch of Dominion Enterprises, announced today the expansion of the Homes.com mobile suite with the release of its iPad application for home and rental searches. The Homes.com iPad application joins the company’s widely successful release of home search…

• Stan Jones Santa Fe Real Estate Launches Free Mobole Santa Fe Real Estate Application For All Mobile Platforms
  Santa Fe, NM – February 21, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Stan Jones Santa Fe Real Estate/ Sotheby’s International Realty in Santa Fe, NM today announced the launch of a free mobile application and mobile web search that works on standard cell phones, smart phones, and iPads across all mobile carriers, allowing consumers to view all homes for sale in Santa…

• • Seattle, King County receive more than $21.8 million in federal homeless assistance grants
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  • Governor McDonnell Asks for Additional Earthquake Recovery Assistance for Homeowners and Local Governments
  • Redfin Launches iPad App, Featuring Real Estate Industry’s First Swipeable Interface
  • HUD EXPANDS SERVICES TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE PUBLIC IN 175 LANGUAGES

• • Canyon Gate Real Estate Services’ Vice President Kim Corcoran Named to APCM Board of Directors
  • Governor Haley to sign South Carolina REALTORS® Point of Sale bill Monday
  • The NH Department of Revenue Administration’s Annual Low and Moderate Income Homeowner’s Property Tax Relief
  • The NH Department of Revenue Administration’s Annual Low and Moderate Income Homeowner’s Property Tax Relief
  • South Carolina REALTORS® Release August Market Numbers
  • 1Casa Real Estate Agency – Offers Cheap Spanish Properties like Business, Villas and Bar in Spain
  • South Carolina REALTORS® UnConference a Success
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  • South Carolina REALTORS® UnConference a Success
  • 1Casa Real Estate Agency – Offers Cheap Spanish Properties like Business, Villas and Bar in Spain

Article source: http://www.realestaterama.com/2011/12/22/redfin-launches-ipad-app-featuring-real-estate-industrys-first-swipeable-interface-ID013509.html

San Francisco, CA – December 22, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Today, Redfin launched Redfin for iPad, a home-buying app that combines the best real estate data with an industry-first “swipeable” interface. This app follows on the success of Redfin for Android, the highest-rated real estate app in Android Market.

Redfin for iPad’s unique interface uses the iPad’s large screen size to display area maps, thumbnails of homes for sale, listing details and galleries of full-screen photos, all on one page that customers navigate by swiping, rather than going back and forth between pages. Also, no other iPad application combines Redfin’s rich feature set with listing data directly from the Multiple Listing Services used by brokers. As a result Redfin for iPad shows users all the homes for sale, in more detail than any other application can provide.

Redfin for iPad is a combination of the features enjoyed on Redfin’s top-rated Android and iPhone apps and the fun and fast interaction of iPad’s high-resolution screen. Additional Redfin for iPad features include:

• Full detail on every listing, with more than 20 fields for each home in the native application, and dozens more a tap away;
• Full-screen photos, for luscious detail on every bathroom and kitchen;
• Full price history, so users see how a listing’s price has changed since its debut;
• Photo upload, so users can add photos taken by the iPad camera to a listing already on Redfin’s site;
• Agent Insights, which give iPad users comments from Redfin agents with firsthand experience of a listing;
• Price-drop notifications, so users can follow a listing via iPad and get email updates when its price drops or its status changes;
• Syncs with Redfin’s website, so that favorite listings, crossed-out listings, private notes and home-tour schedules are the same on the device and on the web.

“We designed this app from the ground up to take advantage of the crisp screen and large size of the iPad’s display,” said Sasha Aickin, Redfin’s Chief Technology Officer. “Customers told us they want one page that shows the map view, a list of homes and details and photos of individual listings. Rather than having to browse back and forth between views, with Redfin for iPad, they’ve seen the map, narrowed their search, viewed the listing and are halfway to talking to a Redfin agent while other applications would still be loading the map for the fourth time.”

The areas of the United States served by the iPad app are the same as those served by Redfin’s website, which include the metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland (Oregon), Seattle, Washington DC, New York’s Long Island and Westchester County as well as the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and Palm Springs.

The app continues to deliver on Redfin’s commitment to combine technology and service to make the home-buying process better, from start to finish. Redfin for iPad not only allows buyers to search for homes, but also gives them fast, mobile access to agents who specialize in their search area, and unique insights from agents who have seen the homes. During the next year, Redfin will continue marrying technology and service throughout the home-buying and selling processes.

Redfin (www.redfin.com) is the real estate industry’s first online brokerage, combining a customer-focused team of real estate agents with online tools for making the process of buying or selling a home easy. Redfin’s agents handle every facet of a transaction, including tours, pricing analyses, negotiations, inspections and closings. Redfin is the only major search site to feature listings direct from broker databases as well as for-sale-by-owner and foreclosure properties from across the Internet. The company pays its agents customer-satisfaction bonuses, not commissions, and surveys every client, publishing each survey alongside the agent’s complete deal history. Redfin’s service is available in the metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland, OR, Seattle, Washington DC, New York’s Long Island and Westchester County as well as most of California, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego. To keep track of our daring exploits, subscribe to blog.redfin.com or our Twitter feed @redfin.

• Redfin Releases Native Real Estate Search Application for Android Mobile Devices
  San Francisco, CA – July 19, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Redfin today released Redfin for Android, a map-driven real estate search application for mobile devices using Google’s Android operating system….

• Barrett Co Real Estate reaches Greater Boston home buyers with custom iPhone/iPad App
  Concord, MA – May 31, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Barrett Company Real Estate has expanded their mobile MLS IDX reach with the addition of a complimentary, custom Massachusetts Real Estate App for the iPad iPhone. With Verizon’s launch of the iPhone, Apple’s recent launch of iPad 2, and over 10 million iPads sold in 2010, Executive Director of…

• RE/MAX Agents Receive Exclusive iPad App for Listing Presentations
  Anaheim, CA – November 11, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — NAR Convention – RE/MAX agents worldwide will soon be pulling out their Apple iPads when meeting with prospective home sellers, using one of the real estate industry’s first iPad App for listing presentations called “RE/MAX Presenter,” an innovative and intuitive application developed exclusively for RE/MAX agents….

• Homes.com Adds New iPad App to its Mobile Portfolio
  NORFOLK, VA – November 18, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Homes Media Solutions, sister real estate brand of For Rent Media Solutions™ and branch of Dominion Enterprises, announced today the expansion of the Homes.com mobile suite with the release of its iPad application for home and rental searches. The Homes.com iPad application joins the company’s widely successful release of home search…

• Stan Jones Santa Fe Real Estate Launches Free Mobole Santa Fe Real Estate Application For All Mobile Platforms
  Santa Fe, NM – February 21, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Stan Jones Santa Fe Real Estate/ Sotheby’s International Realty in Santa Fe, NM today announced the launch of a free mobile application and mobile web search that works on standard cell phones, smart phones, and iPads across all mobile carriers, allowing consumers to view all homes for sale in Santa…

• • Seattle, King County receive more than $21.8 million in federal homeless assistance grants
  • RKF SECURES CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN FIRST MEN’S BOUTIQUE IN THE U.S. AT TF CORNERSTONE’S 808-10 WASHINGTON ST. IN THE MEATPACKING DISTRICT
  • Governor McDonnell Asks for Additional Earthquake Recovery Assistance for Homeowners and Local Governments
  • Redfin Launches iPad App, Featuring Real Estate Industry’s First Swipeable Interface
  • HUD EXPANDS SERVICES TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE PUBLIC IN 175 LANGUAGES

• • Canyon Gate Real Estate Services’ Vice President Kim Corcoran Named to APCM Board of Directors
  • Governor Haley to sign South Carolina REALTORS® Point of Sale bill Monday
  • The NH Department of Revenue Administration’s Annual Low and Moderate Income Homeowner’s Property Tax Relief
  • The NH Department of Revenue Administration’s Annual Low and Moderate Income Homeowner’s Property Tax Relief
  • South Carolina REALTORS® Release August Market Numbers
  • 1Casa Real Estate Agency – Offers Cheap Spanish Properties like Business, Villas and Bar in Spain
  • South Carolina REALTORS® UnConference a Success
  • The NH Department of Revenue Administration’s Annual Low and Moderate Income Homeowner’s Property Tax Relief
  • South Carolina REALTORS® UnConference a Success
  • 1Casa Real Estate Agency – Offers Cheap Spanish Properties like Business, Villas and Bar in Spain

Article source: http://www.realestaterama.com/2011/12/22/redfin-launches-ipad-app-featuring-real-estate-industrys-first-swipeable-interface-ID013509.html

Agents also identified some serious flaws in the tool’s information, which Redfin says it has corrected.

Since the “Scouting Report” tool went live last Thursday, two multiple listing services — one in Washington, D.C., and another in the East Bay area of San Francisco — have asked for a review of Redfin’s use of their data, said Glenn Kelman, Redfin’s chief executive. He says the company believes it is using the agent data in compliance with its licensing agreements with the multiple listing services, where agents list properties for sale. But Redfin has suspended offering information from those listing services while it sorts out the situation, Mr. Kelman said Monday.

“We knew this would raise a few eyebrows,” he said.

Also, according to a post on Redfin’s corporate blog, Redfin has discontinued the scouting tool in Sacramento, after determining that its offering did not comply with data-sharing rules there. It discontinued the tool in Atlanta, after determining that the effort there wasn’t ready. And it now requires users to register with the site in order to get access to information in certain markets, including Portland, Ore.

The site also had to correct some serious inaccuracies in its data, which some agents pointed out in angry posts to the site’s blog. In some instances, Mr. Kelman said, the tool showed an incorrect figure for the average length of time — known as “days on market” — that it took agents to sell some properties. (On the blog, Mr. Kelman conceded the mistake was “egregious” and apologized.)

In Phoenix and two other markets, the brokerage affiliations of about 10 percent of the agents were inaccurate. And in at least two markets — Denver and San Diego — the site initially said it was showing three years of data, but in fact just two years of data was available.

Agent Aquarium, a real estate Web site based in Austin, Tex., where Redfin is now offering its own scouting report, said it lets home buyers and sellers find active real estate agents in specific neighborhoods, but in a way that it says offers greater privacy for agents.

Agent Aquarium lets sellers and buyers search for agents by neighborhood or ZIP code and provides details of their sales records. But the agents remain anonymous — they are assigned an identification code — until the site makes an electronic introduction of a consumer and an agent. (The site will also request information from a specific agent, if a consumer requests it; the agent can decide if he or she wants to have the data released. If the information is provided, the consumer pays a $10 fee.)

“It’s the agent’s job and it’s their data, so we just feel it’s right to ask permission first to display their data,” Joe Molinelli, the site’s chief executive, said in an e-mail.

Agent Aquarium earns commissions from sales if the consumer chooses one of its own agents, and a referral fee — typically 25 percent of the agent’s commission — if the consumer chooses an agent who works for another firm, according to its Web site. The site currently is available in Austin and has plans to expand into other Texas markets.

“We don’t have animosity towards Realtors as an industry group,” said Tom Cunningham, Agent Aquarium’s chief operating officer, in a phone interview. “We’re simply trying to find a better way for consumers to vet their Realtors.”

In the case of Redfin, users must search by an agent’s name — they can’t yet search for agents by neighborhood. Mr. Kelman said such a feature is in the works.

Do you think it is fair for real estate agents’ sales histories to be publicly available?

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/redfin-backs-off-some-agent-home-sales-data/