Four Years!
Where does the time go? When I joined the ranks of a passionate crew of twenty, I felt I had joined in on the fun kind of late in the game. They’d already put tons of thought in to developing Trulia’s values, defining it’s culture, built the website (a modest version of today’s), established relationships with the top 100 real estate brokers in the country, and had raised a little money through Accel Partners.
Well, that was January 2007 and I may have been impressed then by the already huge accomplishments since its founding on September 25th, 2005 but looking back now on four years of growth as a company, as individuals, and as a household name floors me (but doesn’t really surprise me!)
We’re a top 5 site according to Hitwise and Comscore, with well over 80 employees representing at least 20 countries, all with ridiculously humbling smarts (and many with educations to boot), working out of San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Fort Collins. I’ve practically lost track of the exponentially increasing numbers of marriages and babies, which is I admit a little embarrassing, but we certainly celebrate every birth, every marriage, every achievement, and every little success. We celebrate the people and culture of this company, the incredibly powerful legacy that the early employees leave for all “newlians” to come, and the sincerity of caring we share for what Trulia is doing and what it stands for.
It may have been four years since its launch, but if you were to ask anyone here, I’ll bet they’d say it feels like 4 months.
Yes, we still qualify as a “start up” in some ways, sometimes working long hours to pull off a last minute miracle, or push code QA’d until late in to the evening. But, I personally think we tend to play harder still. Even now, glancing up from my desk, our offices here in San Francisco’s Sun Belt are being decorated in Trulia green, white, and black. Party favors (and aperitifs) await, and a wonderfully satisfying buzz of productivity lingers as another great week comes to an end. We have a 4th birthday celebration to look forward to!
With an often enviable athleticism common amongst the crew, weekly in-house yoga, mind-body-spirit days (designed to close the yin yang gap in all of us), not to mention the positive ever reaffirming belief in our core values (B.O.F.F.I), this company and its unique culture simply rocks! There is no doubt that a positive work environment yields positive results…if you also love what you do, then this revelation comes as no surprise.
Trulia, to all of us Trulian’s great fortune, is a beacon of light for other small companies with big dreams and high ideals, and we know that our future continues to look bright.
We’re growing…hiring…and searching for more great people. If you’re interested in a company that believes in you, challenges you, and is constantly iterating on how to improve, then contact me.
Happy 4th Birthday Trulia! And many more…
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Trulia CEO Pete Flint on CNBC – Report Card on Home Prices
Trulia’s CEO Pete Flint was on CNBC recently with Diana Olick talking about where housing prices are heading this fall. According to Pete, home prices have started to stabilize over the last couple of months. But some big questions remain: What will happen when the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit expires at the end of November? Will interest rates remain low? How will the the high level of unemployment effect the fall home buying and selling season?
Good interview Pete!
0 commentsTrulia Welcomes It’s First Five Mayors
Trulia is excited to introduce our ‘Trulia Mayor’ program, a new initiative that will help strengthen and expand the Trulia Voices community including nearly 400,000 real estate professionals.
Trulia Mayors are great social media role models and innovators, and will represent the opinions of real estate professionals in various Trulia efforts. Mayors will attend frequent roundtable meetings, get sneak peeks of upcoming projects and will provide their input in content quality matters on Trulia Voices. Additionally, Trulia Mayors will be participating in various PR and marketing efforts, such as co-hosting local events and co-authoring newsletters and articles, to spread their knowledge and provide expert advice to consumers and professionals alike. Bottom line – it’s pretty cool.
You can identify the Trulia Mayors in the Trulia Voices community by a special Mayor badge. They will also continue participating on the Trulia Voices community by asking and answering questions and blogging. The Trulia Mayors will be at your assistance when you have questions or concerns about Trulia or the Trulia Voices community, and they will be happy to share their experiences and knowledge.
The inaugural Trulia Mayors are five real estate professionals who have led by example within the Trulia Voices community, and we’re thrilled that each of them accepted their volunteer Mayoral appointments! It’s a great start to a program that will eventually include a representative from each state.
So who are they? Let us introduce you!
Josh Boggs (San Antonio, TX) – Owner of Exposed Homes – Trulia Pro
Josh moved to San Antonio in 2000 and has flourished in his new found home. Having a strong background in financial management, consulting and multi-family property management, residential real estate consulting was inevitably waiting for him right around the corner. Believing wholeheartedly about reviving what is now considered a long lost art in today’s business world, Josh has brought his passion for helping people, valuable experience, sense of humor and enjoyment into his real estate career to hopefully remind his clients and potential clients that customer service is still alive and kicking in his domain. He now owns and controls the marketing company eXposed Homes located at Keller Williams and are barreling through their 3rd year of operation.
Maureen Francis (Birmingham, MI) – Associate Broker at SKBK Sotheby’s International Realty –Trulia Pro – 2008 Trulia MVP
As a top producing Realtor in Birmingham, Michigan, she, and her husband, Dmitry Koublitsky, have been selling residential real estate in some of Metro Detroit’s most affluent suburbs since 2001. The couple met in Ukraine, where Maureen worked as a consultant on projects for the US government, The World Bank and The United Nations, after serving in the first group of US Peace Corps volunteers in the former Soviet Union.
Maureen and Dmitry have built much of their business through technology, by using the web to help them to unite buyers with sellers. Maureen was recently recognized by the Women’s Council of Realtors for her use of technology, and she has received awards for blogging over the years. Maureen blogs at www.miOaklandCounty.com.
Deborah Madey (Rumson, NJ) – Broker/Owner of Penninsula Realty – Trulia Pro – 2008 Trulia MVP
Deborah is a social media enthusiast with more than 2700 comments in Trulia Voices. See her Trulia profile here: http://www.trulia.com/profile/DeborahMadeyNewJersey/
Alan May (Evanston, IL) – Realtor at Coldwell Banker – 2008 Trulia MVP
Alan brings a casual sense of humor to his postings (as you can tell from his ever-changing Elvis-inspired icons), here on Trulia and has has been a regular contributor to Trulia Voices since 2007 which lead to him becoming a Trulia MVP for 2008. Additionally, Alan has contributed to several other real estate related sites over the past few years.
Alan has been a Realtor with one of the top Coldwell Banker offices in the Chicago area for almost 10 years, and has been consistently an award-winning agent, as well as one of the top producers in his area. He’s a low-key agent, and views himself more as a consultant, than a salesman.
Carl Medford (Fremont, CA) – Agent at Windermere – Trulia Pro
With the motto of, “Helping You Write The Next Chapter In Your Life,”™ Carl is one of the “next generation” of Web-based REALTORS. Carl typically transforms any local coffeehouse into an office; meeting with clients in any location and conducting business while enjoying the best coffee available! Instead of focusing on a specific neighborhood, Carl has earned the distinction of being a “Regional Expert,” tracking trends and critical information in multiple markets, thus bringing the broadest possible expertise and service to his clients.
In addition to being a REALTOR, Carl is a licensed general contractor and also owns “The Next Stage,” a fully professional and accredited home staging company. Lastly, Carl has developed “The Ultimate Home Buying Experience,™”. He is featured weekly in “Real Estate Reality” in the Real Estate section of the San Leandro Times and Castro Valley Forum newspapers.
We’re very excited by this program and look forward to seeing how the community embraces it. As always, all feedback and observations will be considered for future growth and expansion of the Trulia Mayor program. If you want to be one of the next Trulia Mayors, share your thoughts on why in a blog post on Trulia, standout within the community and be remarkable – we’ll notice.
In Related Mayor News:
Did you know the Gavin Newsom, the Mayor of San Francisco, is active on Trulia Voices? Check out his question to the community – When deciding where to live, what local information do you want at your fingertips?
Craig Newmark of Craigslist even re-tweeted Mayor Newsom’s Trulia Voices Question – pretty cool.
Check out the feedback from the Trulia Voices Community.
Trulia’s September Price Reduction Report – Home Sellers Cut $28.5 Billion off Asking Prices
Our September home price reduction report shows a fourth straight month of increases. 26% of U.S. homes as of September 1, 2009 have experienced at least 1 price cut of their original asking price. Since June, the percentage of price reductions has increased by 10%. The total amount slashed off of active for sale listings by home sellers is $28.5 billion. Fourteen of the largest 50 cities are seeing reduction rates that are significantly above the national average of 26%. The average percent off the original asking price remains 10% off compared to 10.6% in June. For the 4th straight month, Jacksonville, Florida leads the way with 37% of active listings seeing a price reduction.
Price Reduction Highlights
- 26% of U.S. homes as of September 1, 2009 have experienced at least 1 price cut of their original asking price
- $28.5 Billion in price reductions
- Average national price reduction remains 10% compared to 10.6 in June
- Jacksonville, Florida leads nation in price reductions for 4th straight month with 38%
- Sellers need to price aggressively to avoid price reductions
- Luxury homes priced $2 million plus seeing an average of 14% cut vs. the national average of 10%
- Luxury homes over $2,000,000 on Trulia = 2% but = 25% of the $28.5 billion in home price reductions
- New York City, New York = sellers cut 13% off original asking price
- Austin, Texas = sellers cut 8% off original asking price
According to Trulia’s Co-Founder & CEO Pete Flint,
“The steady rise in price reductions is a signal that sellers are still trying to adjust to the ever changing market conditions. “We expect the $8,000 federal tax incentive to extend the peak home purchasing season beyond the summer months, continuing to drive competition amongst sellers and ultimately leading to more price reductions, giving consumers a great opportunity to find the home of their dreams.”
Several cities have seen four consecutive months where the percent of homes that have seen a price reduction has increased month-over-month, underscoring that sellers across the country might not be fully adjusting their home value expectations to the current real estate market:
Top 50 U.S. Cities for Price Reductions in September
Luxury Real Estate Market
Luxury homes that are priced $2 million and above are seeing an average of 14% cut vs. the national average of 10%. Approximately 2% of the homes on Trulia are luxury homes yet are responsible for 25% of the $28.5 billion in home price reductions.
For more info on Trulia’s national home price reduction report, please visit our press release in the Trulia News Room.
If you don’t see home price reductions for your local market mentioned above, just leave a comment below with your City, County or zip code and we’ll provide it to you on demand. If you’re on Twitter, just ask me @trulia “How much were prices reduced in my area – City, County or Zip code? Cool?
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Once Again, Listhub confirms Trulia as the #1 Lead Source
Once again, Trulia has earned top honors from ListHub as the #1 lead provider of all their syndication partners. You can find the data in the August edition of REAL Trends.
This data supports what our own surveys have shown: Trulia users are highly engaged and prepared to buy a home. More than 70% of our users want to buy a home in the next 6 months, and more than 40% are pre-qualified for a loan. These are people ready to contact an agent and get their transaction going. In fact, we have seen more than a 300% increase in the number of home buyer leads being sent through Trulia direct to listings agents this year!
Leads are important but there is more data that brokers and agents should track, including views and clicks for more information. Trulia empowers agents to send this data to their clients automatically (for free!) with our Client Listing Report.
When it comes to choosing your marketing partners, this type of data is invaluable. If you want a piece of collateral to use on listing presentations, click here to download one.
If you want to learn more about advertising with Trulia to increase the number of leads you get, call 866-946-5685.
Best,
Pierre
Home Buying Video – Things To Know Before You Look for a Home
So you want to buy a home? Here are a few tips before you start looking.
Buying a home is a journey. Having a road map as a guide can make the process a whole lot easier and save you loads of time. At Trulia, we believe in empowering consumers and agents to make informed real estate decisions.
Hot out of the editing room is Trulia’s latest video titled “Things To Know Before You Look for a Home” highlighting important steps in preparing to buy a home. This presentation pays particular attention to steps to take before you begin the home search process. Check it out!
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