Realtor.com® unveils new and expanded experience for consumers and professionals

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Realtor.com®, a leading online real estate destination operated by News Corp [NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA]; [ASX: NWS, NWSLV] subsidiary Move, Inc. today announced it is unveiling a new and expanded experience that helps make the real estate journey simpler, easier and more efficient for consumers and the professionals who serve them.  

The enhancements put information at consumers' fingertips more quickly, in a streamlined and contemporary presentation in line with evolving consumer expectations. They include a revamped listing search and display, featuring more prominently placed photos, improvements to the at-a-glance information summary preferred by active buyers, and prominent quick-connect options to link consumers with an agent to help answer questions or provide a timely response about a listing inquiry.

The experience is designed to deliver optimal connectivity between real estate professionals and their next client. It offers best-in-class branding and lead opportunities through a new, targeted advertising program named Advantage, designed to optimize brand visibility and listing marketing, capture and convert leads, and grow business. The Advantage program offers real estate professionals 100 percent of the leads from their listings, real-time performance reporting on leads and listings, a new seller report with performance insights and benchmarking, lead configuration options and investment targeting by property type.

Also newly available to professionals is Essentials, a free benefit that provides a one-stop management toolkit designed to help them oversee their business on realtor.com® efficiently and effectively. Essentials helps agents stay on top of their online business marketing, advertising and listing needs, and manage their journey to the next level – all from a single location, the realtor.com® Essentials Dashboard, accessed directly from the login at realtor.com®.

"This is a significant moment for realtor.com®, both for the innovation going into the features themselves, and in terms of the power of what these enhancements can do used in combination," said Tracy Mahnken, senior vice president, product management for realtor.com®. "We're attracting well-informed, highly engaged consumers with a constantly evolving, world-class experience and helping connect those consumers with critical information and with real estate professionals who are vital to the process. We're also providing solutions that empower the real estate professional to easily manage their business and deliver an exceptional experience for their clients. Addressing all these pieces together is key to creating the most fluid and effective marketplace."

Over the past two years, realtor.com® has invested significantly in building a consumer experience that is second to none, with impressive and ongoing returns. Traffic is at record levels, up more than 64 percent in the past 24 months. Awareness is at an all-time-high, and the site far outdistances its competitors in engagement based on both time on site and pages per visit. Realtor.com®'s page-view growth was four times that of its nearest comparable competitor in September, according to comScore.

"Performance metrics are only part of the equation – another powerful measurement is the real connections and real transactions taking place in the real estate economy," said Mahnken.

Consumers ranked realtor.com® No. 1 in terms of how they found their home, how they found their agent, and where they found the agent who actually listed their home, according to addendum questions in the 2016 NAR Profile of Buyers and Sellers.

The new features cap 18 months of research-based rolling enhancements at realtor.com® that have expanded its feature set and improved functionality for both consumers and professionals:

• Realtor.com®'s News & Advice section offers a diverse array of informational articles on buying, selling and renting as well as celebrity news and home design and improvement tips for homeowners, and shares related content from other publishers in the News Corp family including MarketWatch, Barron's and The Wall Street Journal.
• The site's new Local experience surfaces neighborhood market stats, trends and school information, spotlights local real estate agents who can provide unique insight, and features nearby homes for sale and for rent. It also links to the site's HouseTalk community forum in which users can connect, ask questions and provide their own experience and insight on real estate-related topics.
• Realtor.com®'s economics portal provides powerful tools for consumers and professionals alike looking to understand market trends at the macro and neighborhood levels, with interactive tools for self-directed research and regular blog commentary from Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke. Its new REsource center for real estate professionals offers personalized information that agents can deliver to their clients based on their profile (seller, buyer, renter) along with sharable editorial content and videos that agents can use on their own websites and in client communications.
• Ongoing predictive technology enhancements help surface similar properties that match consumers' preferences to aid their search, and provide additional exposure for agent and broker branding.
• Realtor.com®'s best-in-class agent profiles provide detailed information about agents' transaction history and areas of expertise, and its RealRating^SM and reviews are only accepted from clients who have closed a transaction with a specific real estate professional, providing consumers an extra layer of confidence when researching an agent. Consumers are 10 times more likely to connect with an agent with a full profile, and realtor.com® provides these well-informed inquiries directly to the agent for free.
• Ongoing enhancements to realtor.com® apps make home search easy for consumers on-the-go, integrating with emerging technologies, including wearable devices and AppleTV.

"These achievements represent a powerful acceleration in helping consumers and real estate professionals maximize the value of their relationship with realtor.com® in the real world," said Mahnken. "They also speak to the core of what we do – help deliver the best experience for the consumer in what is the most important financial decision of their lifetime, and help ensure that the real estate professional remains at the center of the real estate journey to provide their vital expertise."

The new experience and solutions are targeted to begin rolling out at the end of November, expanding to universal availability over the next several days. 

Forward-Looking Statements

This document contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management's views and assumptions regarding future events and business performance as of the time the statements are made. Actual results may differ materially from these expectations due to changes in global economic, business, competitive market and regulatory and other factors. More detailed information about these and other factors that could affect future results is contained in News Corp's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The "forward-looking statements" included in this document are made only as of the date of this document and we do not have any obligation to publicly update any "forward-looking statements" to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law.

About realtor.com®

Realtor.com® is the trusted resource for home buyers, sellers and dreamers, offering the most comprehensive source of for-sale properties, among competing national sites, and the information, tools and professional expertise to help people move confidently through every step of their home journey. It pioneered the world of digital real estate 20 years ago, and today helps make all things home simple, efficient and enjoyable. Realtor.com® is operated by News Corp [NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA] [ASX: NWS, NWSLV] subsidiary Move, Inc. under a perpetual license from the National Association of REALTORS®. For more information, visit realtor.com®.

Media Contact:

Realtor.com®

Christie Farrell – [email protected]

SOURCE realtor.com

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