Thursday, February 16, 2012

Howard Hanna Expands National Reach with REALTOR.com


Fourth largest Real Estate Broker Delivers Unmatched Marketing Power to Agents and Sellers

PITTSBURGHFeb. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, the fourth largest real estate company inthe United States, today announced an industry leading alliance that will showcase every Howard Hanna property nationally on Realtor.com, the #1 homes for sale website operated by Move, Inc. (NASDAQ: MOVE), the leader in online real estate.
Howard Hanna spent the past 15 to 18 months studying their listing syndication strategy and what would balance the needs of the company, its agents and sellers. They did studies of their own website, http://www.howardhanna.com, which receives more than 1 million visits a month. Their new marketing relationship with Realtor.com provides Howard Hanna agents and sellers with an even more powerful suite of national marketing tools to drive millions more interested home shoppers directly to Hanna listings through the Realtor.com desktop and mobile search experiences.
"This is the first time Howard Hanna has created a marketing alliance of this magnitude, and one that supports our core value of data integrity and our philosophy on generating buyer interest," said Hoby Hanna, president of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services. "We have a responsibility to our clients, and we're committed to providing them with the greatest group of potential buyers. We spent well over 18 months studying and evaluating the benefits of sending listings to large national sites. Both Howard Hanna and Realtor.com have complementary philosophies and business models. Our agents and clients will benefit even more now that Realtor.com is our national site and outside site coupled with our own site, howardhanna.com."
As a result of this new partnership, Howard Hanna agents can expand the marketing power of their listings through the Realtor.com 'Showcase Listing Enhancement Program' that offers:
  • Agent contact details and photo on Listing Detail Pages
  • Multiple inquiry forms on each Listing Detail Page to connect buyers with agents
  • A photo gallery of up to 25 high-quality jumbo photos
  • Direct "click to call' button on Realtor.com mobile experience to agent cell
  • Social media marketing with Realtor.com Social Connections App for Facebook
  • Performance reports on consumer traffic related to each listing
  • Open house alerts
  • Full-motion videos and virtual tours where available
  • Detailed neighborhood information
In addition, Howard Hanna will brand their mortgage company, Howard Hanna Mortgage Services, on each of their listings displayed on Realtor.com. All Howard Hanna listings on Realtor.com will also display on Realtor.com International, MSN.com and AOL.com real estate search experiences.
"We're excited to welcome Howard Hanna Real Estate Services into the Realtor.com family. Because of our unique position in the market and deep understanding of what our partners need to grow their businesses, we can develop powerful national programs that also focus on the individual needs of their agents and brokers," said Errol Samuelson, president of Realtor.com. "Our mission is to connect buyers and sellers with real estate professionals so they can find and purchase the right home. To do this, we stay focused on creating a superior home search experience, and we design industry-friendly solutions that add value and power to our customer's marketing programs."
Nationwide, potential home buyers now have access to enhanced Howard Hanna listings on Realtor.com mobile apps for the iPad, iPhone, Android or Windows 7 phones. This added exposure gives Howard Hanna a comprehensive national mobile and desk top search experience that will deliver millions of highly active and engaged potential home buyers to Howard Hannaagents and listings.
ABOUT HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE
Howard Hanna Real Estate Services is the #1 real estate company in Pennsylvania and Ohio and the 4th largest real estate company in the United States. The company specializes in residential and commercial brokerage service, mortgages, closing and title insurance, land development, appraisal services, insurance services and corporate relocation. With 134 offices acrossPennsylvaniaOhioNew York and West VirginiaHoward Hanna's more than 4,700 sales associates, management and staff are guided by a spirit of integrity in all aspects of the real estate process. Founded in 1957 by Howard W. Hanna, Jr. and his wife, Anne Freyvogel Hanna, with one office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the company today is still privately owned with four generations of the Hanna family involved in the day to day operations of the business. 
ABOUT REALTOR.COM
Realtor.com®, where the world shops for real estate online, is operated by Move, Inc., (NASDAQ: MOVE) and is the official web site of the National Association of Realtors®.  As the #1 homes-for-sale site, Realtor.com® currently offers potential home buyers access to over four million property listings.  It also provides Realtors® and the home sellers they represent with the Internet's most accurate and comprehensive real estate marketplace. Agents and companies have the power to customize Realtor.com® resources to maximize their brand and productivity.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including information about management's view of Move's future expectations, plans and prospects, within the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the results of Move, its subsidiaries, divisions and concepts to be materially different than those expressed or implied in such statements. These risk factors and others are included from time to time in documents Move files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to, its Form 10-Ks, Form 10-Qs and Form 8-Ks. Other unknown or unpredictable factors also could have material adverse effects on Move's future results. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date hereof. Move cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Finally, Move expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

SOURCE Realtor.com
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About Howard Hanna Holt Real Estate
Chautauqua County-headquartered Howard Hanna Holt Real Estate, www.HowardHannaHolt.com, offers comprehensive residential and commercial real estate sales, leasing and related services including real property appraisals, property management, development services, vacation property rentals and traditional rentals. Owned by the Holt family, the local affiliate of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services has offices in Fredonia, Mayville and Westfield, on the grounds of Chautauqua Institution, at the Bemus Bay condominiums and at Peek'n Peak Resort and Spa.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Hoby Hanna Explains Hanna's Zillow Partnership

A great video from Hoby Hanna explaining our new agreement with Zillow.

Zillow and Howard Hanna Announce Strategic Marketing Partnership

February 13, 2012 

Starting today, Howard Hanna listings will appear as featured listings on the Yahoo!-Zillow® Real Estate Network, the largest real estate network on the Web, and on Zillow Mobile. Featured listings appear at thetop of the search results for the area in which the listings are located. In addition, the Howard Hanna green and gold logo, theHanna listing agent’s photo and telephone number, and a link to the property on the Howard Hanna website will appear prominently on each listing.

The partnership benefits agents, buyers and sellers by ensuring the listing information is accurate, showing high-quality photos and receiving maximum exposure.

“I’ve always believed in going to the highest mountaintop to expose listings to the most buyers. Our ultimate goal is to operate in our clients’ best interests, which means showcasing listings across the website and mobile platform with the most eyeballs,” said Hoby Hanna, president of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services. “We talked to our agents, buyers and sellers and found what we were looking for with Zillow -- marketing choice and client value.”

“We are honored to help Howard Hanna and its outstanding agents drive the future of the real estate industry, and give buyers and sellers choice in how they buy and sell homes,” said Greg Schwartz, Zillow’s chief revenue officer. “Zillow’s leading technology and unique content captures tens of millions of monthly visitors, of which more than three-quarters are ‘in the market’, bringing Howard Hanna’s listings increased exposure to the right audience.”

Chautauqua County-headquartered Howard Hanna Holt Real Estate, www.HowardHannaHolt.com, offers comprehensive residential and commercial real estate sales, leasing and related services including real property appraisals, property management, development services, vacation property rentals and traditional rentals. Owned by the Holt family, the local affiliate of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services has offices in Fredonia, Mayville and Westfield, on the grounds of Chautauqua Institution, at the Bemus Bay condominiums and at Peek'n Peak Resort and Spa.
Howard Hanna Real Estate Services is the third-largest independent real estate company in the United States, the country's fourth-largest full service real estate company and the sixth largest mortgage banking company in the nation. The company serves the Western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia real estate markets.

Part III: A Beginners Guide to listing your home on the Web

Editors Note:  As I was posting news of our new Syndication efforts, I realized that Part Three of the Guide to Web Listings was never posted, so here it is... My apologies.  ~Nick

Part Three:  The Quality of the Listing Matters
This is the easiest one to understand, yet I still see people who don’t appreciate it.  When a buyer is coming to see your home, you clean it up, and try to show it in the best light possible.  However, for every one buyer who steps foot in your home, hundreds view it online.  So logically, you want the online listing to show the home in the best possible light.  This is done with imaginative write-ups, virtual tours, and most importantly, quality photos.  Most of these don’t really need explanation, you know them when you see them.  However, one guideline for the novices out there,  small bathrooms do not make for good photos.  A buyer can read that there’s a bathroom in the listing, you don’t need to prove it.  Nobody will buy a house because of a picture that just shows a toilet and the wall behind it. 
Conclusion:
That should at least give you an idea of what good online advertising consists of when you are selling your home.  If you are trying to sell it yourself:  I hope you keep in mind some of points I mentioned and good luck.  If you are selling it through a brokerage, don’t be afraid to ask the agent what their web presence consists of, including the terms SEO and Syndication, if the agent doesn’t know what you’re talking about, they probably aren’t doing a very good job at it.  And before you sign the listing contract, ask for example listings, and go online and check it out for yourself.  Remember more buyers seeing your home results in it selling faster and for the most money possible.
Nick Holt is a REALTOR Associate and Director of Web-Based Marketing with Howard Hanna Holt Real Estate.  Please feel free to contact him at nickholt@howardhanna.com Chautauqua County-headquartered Howard Hanna Holt Real Estate, www.HowardHannaHolt.com, offers comprehensive residential and commercial real estate sales, leasing and related services including real property appraisals, property management, development services, vacation property rentals and traditional rentals. Owned by the Holt family, the local affiliate of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services has offices in Fredonia, Mayville and Westfield, on the grounds of Chautauqua Institution, at the Bemus Bay condominiums and at Peek'n Peak Resort and Spa.
Howard Hanna Real Estate Services is the third-largest independent real estate company in the United States, the country's fourth-largest full service real estate company and the sixth largest mortgage banking company in the nation. The company serves the Western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia real estate markets.