This has been a rumor for awhile now. You gotta think Marty and Mona’s old relationships with AOL thru HomeStore came in to play. Then again I’m sure AOL feels that FNRES’ money is just as green as anyone elses. The only rub here is how many listings will be available to search on AOL? Without good coverage consumers are bound to go elsewhere. I’m curious about the phrase “This is the beginning..”, seems like they are already admiting that its not where it should be….yet. Check out this Inman article for more on this.
But hey these types of deals are hard to put together, so congrats to FNRES!
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AOL today announced a partnership with Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions (FNRES). Through this agreement, FNRES will aggregate broker and MLS listings for the 3 million monthly AOL Real Estate users, and provide access to instant home evaluations through FNRES’ Cyberhomes expert tools at http://realestate.aol.com.
“This is the beginning of a great partnership with Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions to deliver potential home buyers with the valuable content, information, and analysis they need to make smart real estate decisions,” said Samara Jaffe, General Manager of AOL Real Estate. “This partnership brings together one of the top real estate sites on the Internet with a premier real estate data and services provider.”
“This announcement marks an important shift for brokers and MLSs,” said Cyberhomes General Manager Marty Frame. “Now there will be one destination that unifies their content and offers the best of both listing search and home evaluation, while applying their traffic and lead routing requirements consistently throughout. AOL Real Estate has long been a leading consumer destination and Cyberhomes is proud to bring our real estate industry partners added exposure through this relationship,” Frame concluded.
Later this fall on AOL Real Estate, home buyers and sellers will also be able to search the real estate listings enrolled by FNRES and will have expanded access to Cyberhomes’ comprehensive home evaluation information and market data. Brokers and MLSs interested in learning more about how to provide listing content to millions of AOL users should contact FNRES at (866) 388-4889.
FNRES is a division of Fidelity National Financial, Inc., a Fortune 500 provider of products, services and technology solutions to the financial and real estate industries. The Cyberhomes Web site (www.cyberhomes.com) provides access to FNRES’ leading community and property information and tools. Launched in November 2006, the goal of Cyberhomes is to extend the reach of FNRES’ customers everywhere consumers are seeking home evaluation information online.
AOL® Real Estate, http://realestate.aol.com, is a resource for home buyers and renters of all demographics offering consumers the necessary tools and resources to make a smart investment. The site is focused on delivering a customized experience for multiple audiences, including first time home buyers, buying a second property, renting, selling or home improvement.
About AOL
AOL® is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services, runs one of the country’s largest Internet access businesses, and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., AOL LLC is based in Dulles, Virginia. AOL and its subsidiaries also have operations in Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com.
About Fidelity National Financial
Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (NYSE:FNF), is a leading provider of title insurance, specialty insurance and claims management services. FNF is one of the nation’s largest title insurance companies through its title insurance underwriters – Fidelity National Title, Chicago Title, Ticor Title, Security Union Title and Alamo Title – that issue approximately 28 percent of all title insurance policies in the United States. FNF also provides flood insurance, personal lines insurance and home warranty insurance through it specialty insurance business. FNF also is a leading provider of outsourced claims management services to large corporate and public sector entities through its minority-owned subsidiary, Sedgwick CMS. More information about FNF can be found at www.fnf.com.
Does this mean that AOL won’t be working with Move.com/Realtor.com for its find-a-home searches any more?
According the Inman article, MOVE’s agreement with AOL ends September 30th 2007.
The quote from Marty states, “At that point, AOL Real Estate will be hosting its own broker and MLS-centric listings search powered by us [FNRES]”
So presumably this means that AOL is not renewing with Move, and is moving on to Cyberhomes. That’s a huge change for AOL Real Estate.
I wonder how that’s being taken over at Move, considering that the partnership with AOL is a part of what made Realtor.com as big as it is today, and that ol’ Marty used to work at Move.
Change is good.
Presumably yes. And I think this matches what has been said before. One of the major reasons for the name change from HomeStore to MOVE was to start build traffic to their own portal (move.com) and not rely on these other expensive “partnerships”. We shall see.
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