Zillow is now powering real estate search at MSN Real Estate, taking over from Move Inc., which announced in May that its more than 10-year relationship with the portal was ending. The transition occurred today.
It’s the second portal relationship that Zillow has taken over from realtor.com operator Move Inc. in the last six months. In December, Zillow began powering search at AOL Real Estate when Move’s three-year relationship with the portal came to a seemingly abrupt end.
Zillow’s real estate network now includes five sites: Zillow.com, Yahoo Homes, HGTV’s FrontDoor, AOL Real Estate and MSN Real Estate.
Real estate search bar on MSN Real Estate now “Powered by Zillow.” Until today, Move Inc. powered for-sale, new-home and rental search on the portal.
The addition of MSN Real Estate to Zillow’s already market-leading real estate network, which includes Yahoo Homes, HGTV’s FrontDoor and AOL Real Estate, catapults Zillow’s audience to even higher levels. MSN Real Estate captured 5.4 million unique visitors to its network in May, the sixth most of any network that month, according to comScore data.
If the number of MSN Real Estate’s May visitors is added to those of Zillow’s network in the same month, 63 percent of all visitors to a real estate site that month would have visited a site powered by Zillow. That’s a jump of 5.8 percentage points, representing 59.2 million unique visitors.
Consumers who search for homes on MSN Real Estate will be directed to search results on zillow.com. They can filter their search on the portal by for-sale homes, rentals and foreclosures.
“Integrations like this are important for home sellers and real estate professionals who list their homes on Zillow because it helps them achieve maximum exposure at no additional cost,” said Spencer Rascoff, Zillow’s CEO, in a statement.
For more than a decade MSN Real Estate had served up framed search results from realtor.com, the official listing portal of the National Association of Realtors. Realtor.com features listings that Move obtains directly from more than 800 multiple listing services across the U.S.
It’s not clear why the relationship between MSN Real Estate and Move ended. MSN Real Estate provided no comment when Move announced that the two would part ways in May. Move characterized it as a strategic shift.
“We are no longer focused on Internet portals for traffic acquisition,” said Barbara O’Connor, chief marketing officer of Move, in a statement at the time.
Under the now-lapsed deal with MSN Real Estate, Move powered for-sale, new-home and rental search on the portal, and foreclosures.com powered foreclosure search.
