Cendant Real Estate Services Division has announced a new name -- Realogy -- in which it will operate as a stand-alone, publicly traded company known as the Realogy Corporation.
Realogy (pronounced "REEL-uh-JEE," as in "real" estate) is a newly created word, resulting from the fusion of "real estate" and "-logy," the suffix meaning "the science or study of." The company's new logo includes a stylized "A," representing the company's position as the investor's doorway to the real estate sector.
"The name Realogy communicates our rigorous approach to the real estate business," said Richard A. Smith, chairman and CEO of the Cendant Real Estate Services Division, who will serve as vice chairman and president of Realogy Corporation. "Realogy also uniquely embodies our identity as an organization and our collective strength in the real estate sector."
The Cendant name will ultimately be retired, says the company and two subsidiaries of the Real Estate Services Division are also changing their corporate identities in association with the spin-off. Cendant Mobility will become known as Cartus. The name is derived from "carte" or "charta," suggesting the art and technique of making maps (cartography) to plan or delineate one's future. Cartus has more than 1,300 active clients worldwide, including over 60 percent of the Fortune 50 and numerous government agencies and affinity organizations. The company annually assists more than 100,000 transferring employees with moves into and out of more than 130 countries.
Cendant Settlement Services Group, a national leader in title and settlement services, will become known as Title Resource Group (TRG). TRG is comprised of 21 title and settlement services companies with 500 offices in 33 states across the United States.
"We feel that the powerful new names we have chosen -- Realogy, Cartus, and Title Resource Group -- each strengthen our identity as an organization and help represent our unique leadership position in the real estate services sector," said Smith.
What's interesting is the timing.
Homestore just announced a name change of its own, to Move, Inc. and will create a new website called Move.com. "Move.com will have exceptional real estate and move-related information, with an innovative, consumer-focused vertical search engine that combines the power of REALTOR.com®, HomeBuilder.comTM and RENTNET® with new home and rental listings from all over the Internet," says the website.
For history lovers, Move.com was sold by Cendant to Homestore in February 2001 in an all-stock transaction valued at nearly $800 million, giving Cendant 19 percent interest in Homestore. A year later almost to the day, Cendant wrote off the "carrying value of the Company's investment in Homestore.com" to $0, due to "the recent market decline in Homestore.com shares and the Company's equity share in the losses of Homestore.com. Accordingly, Cendant will no longer reflect the earnings or losses of Homestore.com in its financial results. The Company has no other commitments as it relates to this investment," Cendant said at the time.
That raises some interesting questions. If the value of Homestore is zero, according to Cendant, and the name of Move.com is being resurrected, what does that mean for the future of Realogy?
"Cendant doesn't own any shares of Homestore," says Mark Panus, spokesperson for Cendant Real Estate Services Division, but he declined to comment further.
You can draw your own conclusions, but it appears to mean that Realogy doesn't owe any loyalty or support to Homestore or the National Association of Realtors.
Realtor.com, Homestore's main asset, is operated by licensing agreement with the National Association of Realtors, which has been under fire from the Department of Justice for seeking to control listing brokers' rights to say where and by whom their public listings will be shown.
Cendant Real Estate Services Division actually competes with NAR for broker/agent services, yet brokers through MLS organizations have a vested interest in continuing cooperation, but not at the expense of enabling third-party competitors to compress commissions and make the franchises of Cendant and NAR less valuable. If the NAR can't protect MLS listings, and with no financial interest in Homestore any longer, will Realogy be in a position to create its own national listings portal, similar to the various solutions RE/MAX has put on REMAX.net?
Could Realogy be the Trojan Horse the industry has been looking for to fight back third-party interference? Maybe. If it's good for Realogy and its customers. 
