Bay Area Real Estate Information Services Announces Direct Syndication to Trulia

We are pleased to welcome Bay Area Real Estate Information Services, Inc. (BAREIS MLS®) to the list of MLS’s working directly with Trulia as we continue to help the real estate industry with online listing quality.

Today Trulia announced a strategic alliance with Bay Area Real Estate Information Services, Inc. (BAREIS MLS®) to directly syndicate the listings of its 8,000 members to Trulia, providing consumers with the most accurate information on homes for sale in five Northern San Francisco Bay Area counties including Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Sonoma, and Solano.

With the addition of BAREIS MLS®, the majority of the MLSs in the Bay Area are now working with Trulia. Trulia already receives direct feeds from MLSListings, Bay East, and Contra Costa MLS, meaning Bay Area homebuyers can have an extremely high degree of confidence that the data they see on Trulia is correct. As part of its alliance with Trulia, BAREIS will also participate in the Trulia Direct Reference program, under which Trulia notifies listing agents and brokers about any discrepancies between the data provided by the MLS and information from other syndicators.

Listings from BAREIS MLS® will now be seen by the more than 23 million* serious home-buyers and sellers coming to Trulia each month to get the inside scoop on real estate they can’t find anywhere else. BAREIS MLS® will syndicate all of its listings unless the listing is not approved for the internet.

“Our membership is dedicated to providing the most accurate data on the internet to buyers and sellers working with the real estate professionals in our region,” said Jim Branscombe, President and CEO of BAREIS MLS®.  “There is an explosion of data and a great deal of that information is not accurate or kept up to date. Building strategic alliances with major real estate portals like Trulia will ensure the best data is available to the public and support the efforts of our real estate professionals to list and sell property. BAREIS MLS® has operated its own public site for 14 years, and this relationship we are forging with Trulia is similar to the relationships we have with other public internet sites we have worked with in that we are providing all active listing data approved for internet display.”

As part of the agreement, Trulia will abide by the guidelines established by theTrulia Data Pledge for listing syndication that launched in January 2012.

This alliance follows the recent announcement of our partnership with MRED in Chicago and several other MLS’s that have joined our Trulia Direct Reference program. We look forward to our collaboration with these organizations and delivering high quality listing information to home buyers in these areas.

*Omniture, April 2012

Trulia Overhauls Industry Offerings

A Message from Trulia CEO Pete Flint

Over the past three months, our industry team and our senior executives logged more than 100,000 miles on the road meeting with leading brokers across the country. We met with franchisors, large regional brokerages, and smaller brokers in their local markets to collaborate and identify how we can strengthen our relationship and help you succeed.

We listened closely and gathered feedback from partners like Houlihan Lawrence, @properties, RE/MAX Results, The Keyes Company and dozens more. I am delighted to say we are putting that feedback into action. In the coming weeks, Trulia will be launching a series of updates to improve broker marketing tools and address the challenges around data accuracy and advertising on property listings. Some of the changes we will make are below.

Enhance identification of listing broker and agent

We will enhance the identification of the listing broker and listing agent on every listing on our site, both at the top of the page and in the body of the detailed listing data.

Top of the Page Attribution Module

Bottom of the Page Attribution Module

Broker logo will display on all premium listings.

Remove competing ads on featured listings

We will remove competing agent and/or broker display advertising on featured listings. On non-featured listings, paid advertisements will be more clearly identified.

Display Ads on Non-Featured Listings

Improve listing data accuracy

We will enhance listing management and claiming processes to improve accuracy of the listings we display. It has always been our goal to display the most accurate listings information to home buyers and sellers. That said, as you know, data accuracy is a complex challenge due to the fragmented nature of the real estate industry’s data management systems. This challenge is not unique to Trulia, and we continue to invest significant resources towards developing effective solutions, but we need your assistance. Our interests are fully aligned with yours on this subject; data accuracy is a shared responsibility we need to solve together. We ask for your help and support, and are committed to continue to work with the industry to improve data quality on all levels.

We’ve built our audience to more than 23 million consumers visiting every month and we want to create a compelling and accurate experience that connects them to our brokers, agents and partners. We want to be your premier media and technology partner to contribute to your success. Part of Trulia’s success is that we have always iterated on our products by listening to our customers, in our commitment to creating the best real estate experience. We look forward to more collaboration and ongoing discussion in the future.

Best,

Pete Flint
Founder & CEO
Trulia

Announcing the First Mobile Advertising Platform for Real Estate Agents

Full screen ad with "Call Now" button

Over the past two years, we’ve watched a new audience of consumers emerge who are passionate about using Trulia’s top-rated mobile apps find their next home.   These buyers are deeply involved in the home search process, using their mobile phones to browse listings as they drive through neighborhoods and visit open homes.   Most interestingly, these on-the-go buyers often request the help of a real estate agent—our research has found that consumers on Trulia’s mobile apps are 60% more likely to contact an agent during their home search.*

Today, Trulia is proud to announce Trulia Mobile Ads, the first mobile advertising platform designed specifically to help real estate agents connect with these transaction-ready mobile consumers.  Trulia Mobile Ads allow agents to purchase a share of display advertising space and generate phone leads from consumers who are using Trulia’s iPhone and Android apps, as well as Trulia’s mobile website.  Top agents using these prominent mobile ad placements are already discovering that phone leads from mobile buyers are just one touch away.

In every ZIP code, agents may purchase up to five Mobile Ads spots that include a banner ad on the map page, a personalized full screen ad with lead form and the guaranteed top spot in Trulia’s mobile lead generator.  With Trulia Mobile Ads, it takes only one tap for buyers to directly call an agent from a banner or full screen ad.

Banner ad on the map search page

Trulia Mobile Ads subscriptions include:

• A Branded Banner Ad:  The banner ad includes the agent’s photo, name and phone number and appears at the top of map search page as consumers browse homes in local neighborhoods.
• Full Screen Ad:  When clicking on a banner ad, the full screen takeover ad appears, including the agent’s contact info, brokerage, a “Call Now” button and lead form
• Phone Lead Generation:  All ad templates include large buttons and links allowing consumers to call agents from Trulia Mobile Ads with just one touch.

Trulia Mobile Ads are sold on a first come, first serve basis and are currently available only to existing Trulia Local Ads and Trulia Pro customers.  Agents may reserve their Mobile Ads advertising space by calling 1-888-553-8864

*Trulia internal Omniture data

Trulia Named One Of SF Bay Area’s Best Places To Work

For the past six years Trulia has been built on six core values: I.M.P.A.C.T.

Innovate. Make a Difference. People Matter. Act with Integrity. Customer Obsessed. Trust & respect each other.

Fully understanding that People Matter is the key to any company’s success and each day our senior management strives to push the envelope for our Trulians so that we can offer a fun, innovative and exciting place to work.

How are we doing, you ask? Well, our Trulians have spoken.

Based on employee feedback, Trulia has been named one of the Bay Area’s 2012 Best Places to Work by the San Francisco and Silicon Valley Business Times!

From our excellent company benefits to our fun Trulia traditions –which include monthly company happy hours, in-office massages, Mind Body Spirit Day, weekly yoga and meditation classes and more – we strive to provide the best perks for our hard working Trulians and we’re glad they agree! Thank you to our employees for honoring Trulia with this awesome recognition.

Want to be a part of the fun? Check out our current job listings! We’re hiring various positions in all our departments and we look forward to hearing from you!

Production Innovation and Industry Relationships Lead to Record Traffic in 2012

Spring is upon us and the first part of 2012 is in the review mirror.  It has been another busy start to the year for Trulia and we wanted to take a minute to share some Truli-a-mazing milestones and achievements.

Let’s start with a few key milestones:

• In March 2012 (source: comScore) we overtook Realtor.com in unique users for the first time in Trulia’s history
• March 2012 was a record month in mobile visits
• March 2012 was the largest traffic month in company history

We welcomed another member to the ranks of our senior management team-Lee Clancy joined the Trulia family as our new VP of Consumer Products. He is focused on creating more local, social and mobile tools, furthering our commitment to providing the inside scoop. Here are the latest and greatest:

• iPhone Rentals App — On the heels of super-popular Android rentals app, we created Trulia Rentals for iPhone, which caters to renters’ tight time frames by providing instant notifications about new rental listings, plus a color-coding system to easily keep track of all currently-available rentals.
• Trulia Local — “What is it like to live here?” That’s a burning question that crosses the mind of every homebuyer and renter. Now with Trulia Local, you can visually see real estate values, crime, school ratings and local amenities on a single map.
• Trulia Insight — Leveraging “big data,” Trulia Insight provides real estate pros with deeper knowledge of their client needs by exposing them to their clients home search preferences, plans to buy in the next six months and whether or not they are pre-qualified for a mortgage.
• Trulia Estimates — To help give homeowners a starting point for estimating their home’s value and understanding current market trends, we rolled out Trulia Estimates to more than 50 million off-market homes, townhomes and condos in nearly 500 counties across the country.
• Optimized Trulia iPad – The launch of the new iPad was a great opportunity to update our top-rated iPad real estate app to take full advantage of the great new iPad features. We’ve improved the speed of our app for users on 4G LTE networks. You’ll also see optimized “retina”-true icons and graphics. And our heatmaps look fantastic on the new iPad, too.

We’ve also been hard at work on the industry side creating partnerships with some of the biggest MLSs and brokers across the country.

• Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED), the largest MLS in the country, announced a direct syndication to Trulia. This strategic partnership with Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) to directly syndicate more than 100,000 listings to Trulia providing consumers with the most accurate information on homes for sale across Chicago, northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin and northwest Indiana.
• Alain Pinel Realtors is the largest privately owned and independent real estate company in California and they partnered with Trulia to further their reach and enhance their brand awareness. They are committed to reaching buyers in the places they are looking online, which increasingly is more mobile and this new partnership helps them enhance their online strategy.
• Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie embraced Trulia to bring their agents, brokers and consumers on Trulia closer together. This partnership provides their listings with extensive exposure.
• Carpenter Realtors partnered with Trulia to reach more homebuyers in the state of Indiana and within the first few weeks of this new partnership, they saw a huge spike in the amount of exposure that our listings got to prospective homebuyers, which more than doubled their incoming lead traffic.

Lastly, since we are obsessed with providing the inside scoop, we’re always looking for new ways to understand what’s happening in the real estate market. Under the leadership of our Chief Economist Jed Kolko, we published a series of new housing data reports to help shed more light on where people are looking to move tomorrow and how home prices and rents are trending today. Together, these reports–which include the Trulia Price and Rent Monitors, the Trulia Metro Movers report, the Trulia Rent vs. Buy Index and the Trulia Housing Barometer–provide a forward-looking way of understanding the housing market.

We got a lot accomplished to start 2012 but we’re only getting started!

Carpenter Realtors Partners with Trulia, Increases Leads to Agents

Trulia is pleased to announce a new marketing partnership with Carpenter Realtors®, a leading Indiana real estate brokerage.

“The goal of Carpenter’s Home Marketing System is to expose our sellers’ homes to more potential buyers on top sites where they are searching,” said David Caveness, Senior Vice President and General Sales Manager of Carpenter Realtors®. “Trulia is and continues to be our top lead-generator. Within the first few weeks of this new partnership, we saw a huge spike in the amount of exposure that our listings got to prospective homebuyers, which more than doubled our incoming lead traffic. These initial results have exceeded our expectations.”

As part of this agreement, Trulia’s premium listing placement is now part of Carpenter’s Home Marketing System. This means that Carpenter agents will receive prominent placement and brand exposure for their property listings on Trulia.

With 30 offices throughout central Indiana and nearly 600 real estate professionals, Carpenter Realtors^® has been helping Indiana families with their real estate needs since 1970. Carpenter Realtors® is a member of the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World network.

We are happy to see the initial program results and look forward to helping Carpenter’s agents close more transactions.

Trulia Raises the Bar on Rentals – Makes Finding A Place Easy with Rentals For iPhone

Today we’re excited to announce a brand new app to add to our mobile suite – Trulia Rentals for iPhone! It’s no secret that renters are facing a tough and competitive rental market, and Trulia is ready to help in the quest to find the very best rental on the market.

Trulia Rentals for iPhone does more than just let you search an area for existing rentals – we watch for new properties so you can get the scoop on the best places before anyone else. When you’re searching for your new rental, you’re on-the-go and you’re working on a tight timeframe. That’s why our app organizes listings by which ones are newest. And we’ll make sure to keep you updated on the hottest rental listings in your area via notifications, because we know it’s hard to find a place to live in a short period of time too.

As you’re looking for a new rental, we make it easy to save and come back to your searches. Just save your criteria, give it a name, and get notifications for any new listings that match your saved search.

We’re excited to add Trulia Rentals for iPhone to our roster of mobile apps. Stay tuned for more mobile innovations from Trulia coming soon. We always appreciate your feedback at iPhone_for_Rent@trulia.com.

Better Homes & Gardens Mason McDuffie Embraces Trulia to Build Relationships with Consumers

Last week, we had the privilege of speaking with Ed Krafchow, Chairman and CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate and an influential member of the real estate industry.

Ed was in our offices to celebrate his firm’s partnership with Trulia. He sees many commonalities between our two firms, as do we. “In our work with Trulia, we are building a consortium of agents, brokers and consumers to come together in the best interest of the consumers,” Ed said. “We believe helping consumers get the information they want is the right thing to do for consumers. With its reach, Trulia will provide our listings with extensive exposure. For these reasons, I am excited about working with Trulia.”

As part of the agreement, Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate will receive prominent placement and brand exposure for its property listings on Trulia.

Krafchow says the industry is entering a third phase in the real estate business. In the first phase brokers owned the business, in the second the agent owned the business, and “in this third phase, I believe consumers will come to own part of the business,” he says.

Watch the video to see Krafchow’s complete remarks.

Accelerating Mobile with Akamai

At Trulia, mobile is an extremely important channel for us and we now see more than 30 percent of our traffic being driven through mobile applications. In our industry, mobile performance is critical because buyers and renters are always on-the-go. That’s why we use Akamai to bring a better quality experience to our mobile users across our mobile site and mobile apps

Here’s our VP of Product, Lee Clancy, talking about Trulia’s relationship with Akamai:

Trulia’s iPad App optimized for the new iPad – Download it Now!

At Trulia, our goal is to deliver the best mobile experience possible for our all of our users. Apple’s new iPad launches this week, and we felt it was a great opportunity to update our top-rated iPad real estate app to take full advantage of the great new iPad features.

What can you expect in the updated iPad app?

First of all, we’ve improved the speed of our app for users on 4G LTE networks. You’ll also see optimized “retina”-true icons and graphics.  And our heatmaps look fantastic on the new iPad, too. Here are a few examples:

Get more info about the new iPad (and a nice Trulia example) at Apple.com – click here

Trulia Mobile is proud of our commitment to innovation and we will continue providing the real estate information you need. That means more detailed property data, lots of huge photos and “the inside scoop” on local info such as amenities and schools–all in an effort to help you find your next place to live.

Stay tuned for more updates in the coming months. We always have great new products and features in development to make your on-the-go real estate experience the best it can be.

p.s. Let us know what you think of the new iPad app – email us at ipad@trulia.com!

-Steven Yarger

Trulia Mobile Product Manager