RISMEDIA, August 26, 2008-Trulia.com announced the launch of innovative new features that will provide users with a personalized real-time local news feed, allow for house hunting on the go and give agents, home owners and house hunters an opportunity to blog about their real estate experiences to 5 million monthly users.
“We are experiencing an extremely turbulent time in the housing market. Millions of consumers are turning to Trulia to make informed real estate decisions,” said Pete Flint, Trulia CEO. “At Trulia, our mission is to deliver unique local insight to consumers when they want it, how they want it, and where they want it. Today’s launch is a big step in this direction.”
Personalization – Local News Feed (Trulia Homepage Redesign)
According to the company, Trulia’s homepage now displays a local news feed featuring customized real estate news to help consumers access up-to-the minute information that relates directly to the cities that they care about. The localized news feed will include new property listings, home prices changes, upcoming open houses, median sales price trends, recently sold properties, relevant blogs and Q&As from our Trulia Voices Community.
Portability – Trulia Mobile
Now users can access Trulia across multiple interfaces such as on the iPhone, on their mobile device and in the car via GPS, all for free.
Trulia on your iPhone 3G or iPod touch: Trulia’s native application automatically detects a user’s location via iPhone 3G’s location-aware technology, or by user input, to find nearby homes for sale. Detailed property search results include price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, color photos and local open house information. The company says the Trulia iPhone application is free to download from Apple’s App Store on iPhone and iPod touch.
Trulia on your phone: Trulia’s phone application delivers homes for sale and open house information directly to a user’s handset, whether you’ve got a BlackBerry, Blackjack, Sony Ericsson, Nokia or many more, according to the company. Built as a channel on Lightpole’s mobile platform, Trulia’s application allows consumers to search homes for sale via an interactive local map. Other search features include extensive property details, color photos and updated open house dates and times. New results are instantly generated with every change in location or search criteria.
Trulia in your car: In partnership with Dash Navigation, Inc. (http://dash.net), Trulia enables consumers to search for homes for sale right from the drivers’ seat. Via the Dash ExpressTM, the first Internet-connected automotive GPS, users can access real-time listings of all homes for sale from their cars. As part of their search, consumers get up-to-the minute open house information, in-depth property details and driving directions.
According to the company, Trulia Mobile also offers a number of value-added search capabilities, including alternative driving routes and the ability to e-mail property descriptions to friends or to save your favorite properties for easy future reference. To get Trulia Mobile go to www.trulia.com/mobile/.
Participation – Trulia Blogs
Trulia’s blogging platform provides users with a built in audience of 5 million home owners, buyers and real estate agents to share real estate advice, tales from their recent home remodel or community news. By providing a free, easy and collaborative environment, Trulia is empowering consumers to share their voices with a blog platform that is as easy to use as sending an e-mail. Real estate agents have the benefit of maximizing a value-added social media tool that enhances their online brand and allows them to share their expertise among a highly targeted audience of consumers who are looking for real estate content and information, and other industry colleagues who are interested in all things real estate. Go blog at www.trulia.com/voices/blogs.
Since Trulia launched Voices in the spring of 2007, the company say the community has grown to more than 300,000 users. During that time, the community has generated more than 200,000 insightful questions and answers providing consumers with free education. Trulia Voices users receive an average of over 4 answers per question, and their first answer within an average of 20 minutes. Trulia users are active, engaged home buyers, 72% of whom plan to buy a home in the next year; 53% in the next 6 months.
For more information, visit www.trulia.com.
