Cyberhomes Announces Launch of Richer, Redesigned Real Estate Listings and Home Evaluation Site
Jacksonville, Fla. -- (May 5, 2008) -- Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (NYSE:FNF), a Fortune 500 provider of products, services and technology solutions to the financial and real estate industries, has announced the release of a completely redesigned and enhanced Cyberhomes.com, the real estate listings and home evaluation site from Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions (FNRES).
The changes reflect the extraordinary growth that Cyberhomes experienced during its introductory year. The new site brings to the forefront the more than 2.5 million homes for sale licensed from its broker, MLS and franchisor content partners, and expands upon the presentation of home and neighborhood evaluation information for which it is already well-known, covering 100 million property, ownership, sales and mortgage records drawn from more than 85 percent of the United States population. Cyberhomes now also features more than half-a-million virtual tours, and 700,000 foreclosure and pre-foreclosure listings.
In its first year, the site's broad acceptance by both consumers looking for real estate information, and professionals looking for a better way to engage homebuyers searching the Web, resulted in much faster growth than anticipated. The new design of the site accommodates far more content and functionality, has beautiful graphic continuity, and has integrated several new technologies that speed navigation and will allow future expansion to continue to take place quickly.
"We are very proud of the real estate industry's acceptance of our product, and of the partnerships we have formed," said Marty Frame, Cyberhomes General Manager. "We have now reached a point of critical mass in listing content, and it makes sense to reposition around our partners' listings, since the payoff for them and for the consumer is so good. With so much information, creating new navigation to move users rapidly through it in single clicks - horizontally from home to home, as well as vertically from neighborhoods to homes to schools - likewise became even more important," Frame added.
Cyberhomes has added new searches for neighborhoods and schools to provide consumers with different starting points in their search for real estate information that are specifically suited to their needs. In addition, an extraordinary amount of new editorial content is featured in a new section called "Good Reading." This content is developed by Cyberhomes's own editorial staff using the site's incredibly rich database.
"If we use the analogy of a new home," Frame remarked, "then Cyberhomes began as a 900-square-foot cottage and, within a year had added ten more rooms. Each room was a crucial addition, but getting from one to another could be circuitous. It's not as if we created a Winchester Mystery House here, but the 'renovations' we are releasing now will speed each user's visit through Cyberhomes. And that will not only make it more enjoyable, but more valuable."
A Visit to Cyberhomes.com
The first time users visit Cyberhomes they now see a beautiful landscape with a prominent search for all homes for sale, or for a specific home they may already want to track. After searching, most users will land on the search results page, with its newly expanded analysis and tools. Here they will see the home's listing photos, virtual tours, remarks, list price, size, address, and a variety of other features.
On the map to the right of a home's profile, users will be shown the boundary of the neighborhood they were searching within, which will adjust to contain each house as the viewer scrolls through the list of homes. Below the map is a snapshot of the neighborhood and a link to more details about it.
Once the user selects a home to view in detail, Cyberhomes now makes it easy for comparisons of a property to other homes in or out of that neighborhood. Cyberhomes likewise offers an enormous amount of information for people who are not currently searching for a home. The "Good Reading" section is constantly updated with current articles by some of the country's most experienced real estate writers, many of which are available only on Cyberhomes.
"In the world of real estate listing sites," Frame said, "Cyberhomes has started to emerge as the logical first stop for any home buyer, seller or real estate professional. It's no surprise our average visits last more than 30 minutes. Now, with more robust searching, mapping and good reading available, there is even more available to the information-hungry consumer."
To view the new Cyberhomes site, visit Cyberhomes.com. For more information on how to reach this important and growing consumer audience, please contact the Cyberhomes Media Group at connectme@cyberhomes.com.
About Fidelity National Financial
Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (NYSE:FNF), is a leading provider of title insurance, specialty insurance and claims management services. FNF is one of the nation's largest title insurance companies through its title insurance underwriters - Fidelity National Title, Chicago Title, Ticor Title, Security Union Title and Alamo Title - that issue approximately 29 percent of all title insurance policies in the United States. FNF also provides flood insurance, personal lines insurance and home warranty insurance through it specialty insurance business. FNF also is a leading provider of outsourced claims management services to large corporate and public sector entities through its minority-owned subsidiary, Sedgwick CMS. More information about FNF can be found at www.fnf.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about our beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management. Because such statements are based on expectations as to future economic performance and are not statements of fact, actual results may differ materially from those projected. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The risks and uncertainties which forward-looking statements are subject to include, but are not limited to: changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; adverse changes in the level of real estate activity, which may be caused by, among other things, high or increasing interest rates, a limited supply of mortgage funding or a weak U. S. economy; our potential inability to find suitable acquisition candidates, acquisitions in lines of business that will not necessarily be limited to our traditional areas of focus, or difficulties in integrating acquisitions; our dependence on operating subsidiaries as a source of cash flow; significant competition that our operating subsidiaries face; compliance with extensive government regulation of our operating subsidiaries; and other risks detailed in the "Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information," "Risk Factors" and other sections of the Company's Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
SOURCE: Fidelity National Financial, Inc.
FNF CONTACT: Darcy Patch, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Real Estate and Mortgage Information Services, 949-477-1173, darcy.patch@fnis.com.