Realtor.com (stylized as realtor.com) is a real estate listings website operated by the News Corporation subsidiary Move, Inc. and based in Santa Clara, California. The site launched as the Realtor Information Network in 1995, serving as a closed network for members of the National Association of Realtors. It relaunched in 1996 as a public website displaying property listings. Since then, Realtor.com claims to have become the largest website in the United States for real estate listings, and in 2016 was valued at $2.5 billion by Morgan Stanley. The website's advertising campaigns have been recognized by Adweek and the Webby Awards.
Video Realtor.com
Operations
Realtor.com is operated by the real estate network Move, Inc., which is owned by News Corporation. Ryan O'Hara serves as chief executive officer (CEO) of both realtor.com and Move. The website is licensed to operate by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the real estate industry's largest trade association. The company's business model focuses on selling advertising and leads to agents and brokers.
Originally located in San Jose, California, the company moved to Santa Clara in 2016. The new headquarters was designed by the architecture firm Gensler to resemble a "deconstructed house".
Maps Realtor.com
History
Founding and early growth
Realtor.com first launched in 1995 as the Realtor Information Network (RIN), which at that time was a closed network providing proprietary information to members of NAR. In 1996, the hosting site became public, allowing any Internet users to search for property listings, and expanded with the addition of Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS) listings in August. RIN grew from 32,000 property listings in December 1995 to nearly 400,000 properties by October 1996.
The site was relaunched with the name "Spot Realtor.com" at the same realtor.com domain name in November 2016. The site's management was assumed by a company called RealSelect, in a new partnership with NAR, funded by investment from venture capital firms. RealSelect later changed its name to Homestore, and continued to operate the realtor.com site with NAR as a partner.
Starting in 1997, Realtor.com became the exclusive online real estate listings source for several companies, including USA Today, NBC, and America Online (AOL). Realtor.com also entered into a partnership with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Service, beginning in 1998. With more than 1.3 million listings by 1999, Realtor.com had become the largest website for real estate listings, and expanded services to include virtual tours of properties.
Public listing and acquisition
Homestore went public in August 1999, raising $140 million in the process. NAR retained a significant equity position, but Homestore negotiated agreements with multiple listing services and brokerages to secure direct feeds of listings.
News Corporation purchased Realtor.com's parent company, now called Move, for $950 million in September 2014. According to comScore, Realtor.com was receiving 34.1 million unique visitors per month at the time. New partnerships were formed with Airbnb, to focus on encouraging potential home buyers to stay in neighborhoods of interest to them; and with Yelp, to provide users with information about listed properties' neighborhood amenities.
As of 2016, Realtor.com claimed to display 97 percent of residential properties for sale in the United States, and reportedly received 36.7 million unique monthly visitors. The company was valued by Morgan Stanley at $2.5 billion.
Features for augmented reality and image recognition in listings were added to the Realtor.com mobile apps in January 2017. Also, the site began offering 3D tours from Matterport on its iOS app, and began offering the same technology on its website and Android app.
Marketing
Elizabeth Banks has been a spokesperson for Realtor.com since 2015, appearing in the company's YouTube series targeting millennials buying their first home. Her first commercial for the company was directed by Fred Savage.
The website's advertising campaigns have been recognized by Adweek, the Online Marketing Media and Advertising (OMMA) Awards, and the Webby Awards for their creativity, use of talent, and digital advertising.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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