The company and its partners throughout the industry soldiered on with the belief that things would eventually get better. Meanwhile, traffic to Trulia continued to grow as the company focused on what it could control—building great products and services.
The Importance of Product Experience
The real estate industry continues to undergo a massive transformation, and competition is fierce. That’s why technology and service providers are under pressure to develop ever-improving products, for both consumers and real estate agents and brokers.
Trulia invested in building a useful service for consumers to gather information, not only about homes but also about the real estate process and ultimately the people—real estate agents and brokers—who can help them buy, sell, or rent a home.
According to a 2012 Herbert Research report, consumers currently spend about 18 months searching for a home before buying. Trulia has focused its efforts on helping consumers learn about the real estate process until they are ready to connect with a real estate agent.
Trulia makes a rich mapping experience core to its consumer offering so homebuyers can understand contextual information about neighborhoods. For example, Trulia makes it easy for consumers to see a visual representation of important areas, such as school districts and crime statistics, as well as natural hazards, such as flooding, wildfires or earthquakes. One of the most popular visualizations enables users to see which homes are within specific commute times from their jobs.
Presenting engaged homebuyers with contextual information about neighborhoods and specific information on homes helps prepare consumers before they begin working with a real estate professional to pick a home, make the right offer, and finalize the transaction.
To assist in this process, Trulia created Find an Agent, which enables real estate agents and brokers to feature their experience, sold homes, active listings, awards, recommendations and areas of expertise to buyers and sellers, all for free.
