Coldwell Banker partners with Google and Trulia

Friday March 2, 1:58pm ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- Realogy, which owns the Coldwell Banker and ERA Brands, on Friday said it would partner with Google and the Trulia real estate websites to market listings from its brokerages.  Parsippany, NJ- based Realogy has added about half a million listings from the three brokerages to Google Base and to Trulia.com, a real estate search engine stated in 2005 that makes money through advertising.  More that 58 percent of real estate-related online searches are executed on Google and partner Web sites, Realogy said, citing November data from comScore Networks.

"This serves as a milestone in our strategy to maximize the advantages of the Web," Realogy President Richard Smith said in a statement.  "our announced distribution strategy follows an intense study of the advantages of the broad distribution of our listing inventory, "Richard A. Smith, vice chairman and president of Parsppany, NJ- based Realogy, said in a statement.  He said the company's 320,000 practitioners stand to benefit from higher traffic to their home listings.  Under the agreements, all listings from Realogy's Coldwell Banker businesses -- as well as listings from company-owned brokerages managed by Realogy's NRT. subsidiary - will be automatically added to Google and Trulia.

As part of a pilot study in 2006, Realogy provided listings from ERA.com to the Trulia site.  During the four-month trial, 15 percent of search portal traffic to ERA.com originated from Trulia.com, Realogy said.

Alex Perriello, president and CEO of Realogy Franchise Group, says the agreements are part of a strategy to "maximize the advantages of the Web for real estate professionals and consumers alike."

Realogy shareholders will vote on March 30th whether to approve taking the company private.  On Dec. 17, private equity firm Apollo Management LP agreed to buy Realogy for more than $6.6 billion while assuming $2.4 billion of the company's debt and other liabilities.  Realogy -- along with Wyndham Worldwide Corp., Travelport and the Avis car rental business -- were part of Cendant Corp. until they were split up last year in an effort to increase value to shareholders.  Realogy shares were up 4 cents at $29.55 in afternoon trading on the New Your Stock Exchange.