LPS, RPR, CoreLogic, Zillow and Trulia Logo Compilation In real estate technology this week, there were two announcements that caught our attention regarding Automated Valuations (AVM). Trulia launched Trulia Estimates, their version of property valuations for consumers that competes with public website rival, Zillow  and Zestimates. Along the same lines, CoreLogic announced this week that they have licensed more than 1 million active property listings from MLSs through their Partner InfoNet program (PIN) powering their institutional AVM products. CoreLogic is in a race with NAR’s initiative called Realtors Property Resource or RPR. Lender Processing Service (LPS) licenses active listing data from RPR to power their commercial AVM product.

Stepping back for a moment, to the naked eye it looks to me like both Zillow and Trulia have more active listing data powering their AVMs than the institutional products offered by RPR (LPS Partner) or CoreLogic. Trulia and Zillow each claim a number somewhere around 3 or 4 Million active listings.

I know that there is a third party rating system that measures the accuracy of AVMs that both LPS and Corelogic subscribe to. Not sure if Zillow does, and it is too early in the game for Trulia, who is only in beta in the San Francisco Bay Area.  In the long run, one wonders why Trulia and Zillow are not selling their AVM to the institutional markets like LPS or CoreLogic (or perhaps they are planning to and we don’t know it). One barrier is the ongoing litigation of CoreLogic vs. everyone with an AVM that may infringe on their patents.

Homefinder Logo In listing syndication news, Homefinder picked up another newspaper syndication partner in GateHouse Media. Homefinder will now power real estate search to Gatehouse’s 494 community newspaper publications and more than 250 websites reaching 10 Million new consumers. You are likely to see Homefinder climb significantly in traffic as this program comes online, perhaps reaching the ranks of Trulia, Zillow, Homes, and Realtor.com.

RE Technology Success Store

Success Store for MLS

In other news, RE Technology launched the Success Store this week – enabling MLSs and Associations to generate non-dues revenue from products they sell to members online. There are 5 new stores in the pipeline for roll out. RE Technology also launched training videos on the home page of the site in partnership with video leader, VScreen. Now reaching an audience of more than 700,000 real estate professionals through MLS partnerships, and more than 1 million visits a month – the site is empowering the development of the MLS as the most comprehensive source of technology information for today’s real estate professional.

RE Technology also launched a technology product give-away this week.

Participating companies and prizes include:

It’s a lot of stuff. If you are an MLS who is partnered with RE Technology – make sure your agents register for the goodies.

Disclosure: WAV Group partners are also investors in RE Technology, a venture funded company founded in 2009.

showing suite logo In other news, Showing Suite announced that they are now supporting REO showings, RealtyPlug announced the release of their application for Facebook. SentriLock and Lone Wolf combined to launch integrated Lockbox Security in Toronoto. Franchise giant RE/MAX joined Keller Williams in announcing the DotLoop product to their franchises and agents.

Florida Realtors announced a partnership with 10K Research to offer their market analytics package to all members of the Association. 10k was built by the Minneapolis Association of REALTORS and is gaining significant partnerships across America in a hurry.

This is the first time WAV Group has done a Week in Review Post – Thanks to the sharp guys over at 1000WattConsulting for the idea. Let us know if you like this. Be sure to send us any new announcements that you would like included.