Online real estate marketplace Trulia will provide metrics data to ListHub on the listings it receives from the syndicator — data that ListHub can sell to brokers and agents to help them evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing strategies when providing listings to the site.
The provision of listing performance metrics is part of a new syndication agreement between Trulia and ListHub’s parent company, Move Inc.
ListHub aggregates listing data from 400 multiple listing services (MLSs) and some of the largest U.S. real estate franchisors. The company provides listings from about 47,000 brokers to Trulia.com, making ListHub the largest provider of listings to the site.
"By adding performance metrics from Trulia, brokers have even greater insights into the effectiveness of their online advertising, while clearly understanding how their content will be used on publishing sites," said Luke Glass, general manager and vice president, ListHub, in a statement. "We’re very pleased to offer the convenience brokers and MLSs want when syndicating within a controlled and transparent platform."
In April, ListHub introduced new dashboard filters that brokers can use to decide which websites they will send listings to. ListHub also allows brokers to share their opinions about publishers using a five-star rating system, and see which — including Trulia — have been identified by MLSs as "preferred publishers."
The new capabilities were introduced after some brokers objected to advertisements and lead forms for other brokers’ agents that sometimes appear alongside of listings. A few brokers have stopped sending listings to third-party websites not affiliated with an MLS.
ListHub publishes a free "Channel Scorecard" that compares the attributes of 126 real estate websites that brokers and agents can choose to syndicate listings to. The ListHub Channel Scorecard notes whether websites will display the listing agent’s name and contact information, for example, and how often listings data is "refreshed," or updated.
In addition to the Channel Scorecard, ListHub sells metrics reports that tell agents, offices and brokerages how many page views and leads its listings are generating on sites that they syndicate to, when such information is available to ListHub. Some websites, including Trulia, provide that data directly to brokers and agents who purchase leads and advertising from them, but the ListHub reports are useful for comparing metrics of multiple sites.
"Trulia is committed to ensuring the highest standards of data quality and integrity for the real estate industry," said Matt Dollinger, head of industry relations at Trulia, in a statement. "We look forward to working with Listhub as a trusted partner for syndication and communicating Trulia’s metrics through their reporting products."
Move — which operates Trulia competitor Realtor.com — acquired ListHub’s parent company, Threewide Corp., for $13 million in September 2010.
Some industry participants — including Trulia’s chief operating officer at the time, Sami Inkinen — warned that Move might be able to use its acquisition of ListHub to gain a competitive advantage over its rivals.
But last year, Zillow and Move signed a long-term agreement under which Zillow would continue to receive listing data from ListHub. Like Trulia, Zillow agreed to provide ListHub with metrics on page views and leads its listings generate.
Since acquiring ListHub, Move said it’s added listing feeds from 117 real estate franchises and MLSs, bringing the total number of contributors of listings to the network to 421. The number of public-facing real estate websites that display listings from ListHub has also grown from 79 to 126 during that time, the company said.
