Like us on Facebook and win an Android Tablet!

We’re so proud of our new Android Tablet App that we think everyone should get the chance to try it out. That’s why we decided to give away a brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab to one lucky winner!

Entering is super simple and takes less than a minute. All you have to do is go to our Facebook Page and fill out a short form on our Sweepstakes tab before midnight, October 8th. If you win, we’ll send you a brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab with our new app pre-installed so you can start your house hunt right away. And while you’re at it, check out our page, whether it’s for fun, real estate tips, and or get the latest news that’s relevant to you as either a home buyer, owner, or renter.

So why are you still reading this? Enter to win right now! Trulia’s Android Tablet Giveaway

Trulia Mobile on Fire: Introduces Android Tablet and Dedicated Rentals Apps

We’re pumped to announce the addition of two new Android apps to our already exciting mobile line-up – the first dedicated real estate Android tablet app and an app just for renters.

The Android Tablet Market is Heating Up

The new Trulia Android tablet app delivers all the Trulia real estate information you know and love in a cool new format. With recent Android tablet announcements from Amazon and Sony, Trulia is extending our commitment to deliver innovative, top quality mobile real estate experiences on this exciting new mobile platform. Location based property search, large-screen mapview, and more info from Trulia is optimized for your Android tablet – and when you’re ready for more details you can easily contact a real estate professional from within the app.

Additionally, we’re delivering our huge property photos onto a beautiful full-screen tablet browsing experience so you can spend all day (and night) looking at the properties you find on Trulia.

Here are a few screenshots to get you started:

To celebrate launching the first real estate Android tablet app, we’re having a limited-time Facebook contest where you could win a new Android tablet – It’s as easy as being our friend on www.facebook.com/trulia.

Rentals Get Real with a Dedicated Android App

Renter Nation, get ready to find your next great place with the brand new dedicated rentals app from Trulia. Renters comprise a significant (and rapidly growing) portion of mobile visits, especially on our current Android app. We‘re now providing a dedicated “For Rent” app that caters to renters’ specific needs. Renters have to work on much tighter timeframes than house hunters, so we’ve packed our app with features that help you quickly organize and customize your searches, and keep all your notes and photos in one place!

We’ve given you the ability to instantly save or nix properties, which will allow you to re-visit the properties you love, and flag the properties that you’re not interested in.

To make your rental search truly your own, you can add your own private notes and photos to listings and share these via email with your roommates, significant other, or trusted advisors.

Get instant alerts via email when a new property is added to Trulia – simply click the star at the bottom of any search results page to “save your search,” and you’ll never miss out on another new home again:

Stay tuned for more mobile innovations from Trulia coming soon. We always appreciate your feedback on android@trulia.com.

Trulians take on Cycling Challenge at Velo|SF

Here at Trulia we love a challenge. When we’re not working to give you the upper hand in real estate, we’re finding other ways to improve our ourselves as individuals, to become more efficient and to find a balance between work and play. Striking that balance is key to delivering our best and defines who we are as Trulians.

A crucial element to achieving life balance is physical fitness. When you see the rows of bikes on the wall in our San Francisco head office, you’ll know what we’re talking about. Trulia has more than its fair share of athletes, who put as much effort into their fitness as they do into their work. Our Trulian cyclists already conquer the crazy topography of San Francisco on a daily basis, so yesterday our President slash Ironman world champion, Sami Inkinen, decided to crank it up a notch.

Yesterday, 8 cyclists from Trulia took part in a cycling challenge guranteed to test them to their limits: San Francisco’s infamous Velo|SF.

If you don’t know about Velo|SF, you should. Velo|SF is a group of renowned professional trainers in downtown San Francisco who pride themselves on the intensity and efficiency of their workouts; one hour of training with them is equal to three hours of training by yourself. The personal trainer/tormentor for the challenge was Meredith Kessler, a veteran cyclist who has competed in over 20 Ironman Triathalons and has the notable distinction of being undefeated for all of 2009, winning every race she participated in while setting some new course records in the process. Needless to say, the bar was high.

Over lunch, these eight Trulian’s spent 80 solid minutes cycling their butts off, equal to 4 hours of mere mortal cycling. Having completed the challenge, and regained sensation in their legs, they promptly got back on their bikes, cycled back to headquarters and continued in their day’s work.

We’d like to take time to recognize our hard working and hard playing Trulians for pushing themselves to find the balance in their lives. Congratulations to everyone who took part in the challenge and for overcoming the challenge of Velo|SF!

Brian Donaldson – Engineering Lead
Dan Hang – Senior Director, Product Management
Daniele Farnedi – Vice President, Engineering
Harshal Dedhia – Director, Analytics
Keith Louie – Director, Business Development
Pete Flint – CEO and Co-Founder
Rob Cross – Senior Director, Business Development
Sami Inkinen – President and Co-Founder

Thank You Trulia!

When you love what you do, time just seems to fly by. Today is my last day as a Trulian. It’s been almost 4 years since I started bleeding green on the slopes of Lake Tahoe – my first official day at Trulia. Over that time, it’s been Truliamazing to be a part of such a great team. So may wonderful memories. So many awesome company accomplishments.

I’ve put my heart and soul into the company and our partners. I’ve proudly preached the gospel of Trulia to literally thousands upon thousands of real estate professionals nationwide. And I loved every minute of it. I will be forever thankful for the opportunity I was given to represent such a great company.

This was not an easy decision to make. It never is. But every once in a while, life presents us with an opportunity to really make a difference. To make an impact. The challenge is knowing when to pursue it. I loved my time at Trulia and am now looking forward to a new adventure

It feels good knowing that I had some small part of Trulia’s growth. That I was able to help so many people with their real estate needs. Make so many lifelong friends from around the world. Use and experiment with a ridiculous amount of new technology. Not too shabby.

So with that, I sincerely thank Pete, Sami and all the Trulians I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the years. I’m honored to have been able to work with you.

I’ll always be available to each of you. So don’t be shy to ever reach out:

rdbachraty at gmail dot com

https://www.facebook.com/rudybachraty

http://www.linkedin.com/in/rudybachraty

https://twitter.com/#!/rudybachraty

Onward!

American Dream Survey: 80% of Homeowners Plan to Buy Again

Trulia has been tracking consumer sentiment surrounding the American Dream of homeownership for the past four years, asking people across the country if homeownership is still part of their personal American Dream.When we asked this question again in August, 70% of Americans said “yes, it is.” This remained unchanged since January despite record-low home sales and ongoing instability in today’s financial markets. In fact, 80% of current homeowners said they plan to buy again while 59% of renters said they aspire to be homeowners. Given this strong intent to buy a home  in the future, we are optimistic about long-term housing demand.

But before this can happen, prospective buyers must overcome many barriers to homeownership – from saving enough for a down payment to qualifying for a mortgage and fixing a poor credit history. At the same time, the American Dream of homeownership is in flux, shifting away from the “bigger is better” mentality that made McMansions and suburban living so popular during the boom.

To check out all the key findings from the survey, here’s the press release. Also, be sure to flip through the slideshow below as well as the fuller analysis and infographic we made on Trulia Insights.

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Trulia Names Jed Kolko as Chief Economist

Today, we’re thrilled to announce the appointment of Dr. Jed Kolko (@JedKolko) as our new chief economist. Leading the company’s housing research, he will translate economic trends, real estate data and public policies to help us provide even more vital insights to homebuyers, sellers and renters. Behind the scenes, he will also advise the development of Trulia Estimates and create new derivatives of Trulia’s data to help people make smarter decisions about where they want to live.

“Being a housing expert with a keen understanding of what matters most to consumers when it comes to buying a home, Jed brings a unique perspective of where the market is today and where it is headed tomorrow. At Trulia, he will analyze our proprietary search and listing data in order to help us shed light on how the future of real estate will evolve – from where people want to live to the type of homes that they want to live in, all the way down to the neighborhood amenities that are most important to them and their families,” said Pete Flint, CEO and co-founder of Trulia. “Today, there are more than enough economists looking at the housing market with a short-term lens and I think we can all agree that most have not been able to predict when a recovery will happen, nor have they been successful in creating policies to will foster a long-term recovery. Moving away from this way of thinking, we believe Jed’s long-term point of view on housing issues is exactly what consumers need to help them understand the health of the economy in the long run rather than another short-term crystal ball prediction about the real estate market.”

Given the current state of the housing market, Jed aims to help people understand which trends really matter for where they live now and where they want to live in the future. To learn more about Jed’s take on why we need to think locally and take the long view on housing, check out his first blog post on Trulia Insights (where he’ll be a regular contributor). To learn more about Jed’s expertise and experience, check out the full press release announcing his hire.

Happy 6th Birthday Trulia!

Today is Trulia’s 6th birthday, and it’s also our bi-annual Mind, Body & Spirit day… a fact we decided to take full advantage of.  We had yoga, surfing, a 5k run, a delicious asian lunch… and even had a ping-pong tournament with shots of wheatgrass. Yeah, you read that right… wheatgrass (which by the way, is more nutritious than delicious)

The whole theme of today was to revive our minds, replenish our bodies, and raise (glasses of) spirits. Trulia really is an amazing company to work with. We’re always striving to find that perfect balance of work and play. We’re dedicated to bringing you the best possible real estate experience, and not only do we have fun doing it… we make it look good too.

What’s it worth? Trulia Estimates Launches in Beta

We recently launched the beta of Trulia Estimates, a new tool that provides an estimate of a home’s worth and helps inform decisions, whether you’re buying, selling, renovating or refinancing. Trulia Estimates, built by an in-house team of experts, is another way we can provide useful information about homes and places across the country. Plus, it’s something our users have requested for some time. It’s no surprise in today’s market conditions that consumers are hungry for more information about home values and for local expert advice.

Trulia Estimates is launching in beta to a test market – the San Francisco Bay Area. The Bay Area is an early adopting, tech savvy group, making it a perfect launching ground for our beta product. And it’s right in our own backyard. The beta launch only includes off market homes in five Bay Area counties (Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Mateo), and is an opportunity for us to get feedback, watch user interaction and refine the estimates and experience.

Trulia Estimates starts with a number built from local real estate info, including prices of recently sold similar homes, and collects inputs from locals – agents, buyers and owners – to ultimately improve the estimates in those local areas. Over time, we’ll incorporate more feedback from local experts and develop additional, hyper-local user information.

While we hope that Trulia Estimates gives our users more useful information about their homes, we know that these estimates don’t replace the need for a professional appraisal. Trulia Estimates is just a starting point. On every page with an estimate, we make it very easy for consumers to provide feedback on the estimate and connect with a nearby agent to get a professional estimate.

Not in the Bay Area?

Before we span from coast to coast, we want to take the feedback from our Bay Area beta testers, refine our Estimates product and make the necessary tweaks to ensure the product is primed for a national rollout. While we aren’t announcing a timeline for a full rollout, we plan to offer Trulia Estimates nationwide, and to expand valuations to homes that are actively for sale. Stay tuned for more details in advance of the national launch!

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Your Favorite Real Estate iPad App Just Got More Personalized

Exciting news for Trulia iPad fans today – we’re linking searches and favorites to your Trulia account.

Here at Trulia, we spend lots of time in the office, at home and on-the-go cruising around on our iPads looking for the best homes and apartments. We know you do too, and you have told us that you want to save all those searches and favorite properties to your “home base,” your Trulia account. With the addition of favorites and searches to Trulia’s iPad app, there’s even more reason to spend time finding your dream home.

All your favorite Trulia features including: location-based searching, huge, beautiful colorful property photos, home price heatmaps, local restaurants, schools and amenities, search filtering – and now your Trulia account – are available across all Trulia experiences. From the award-winning Trulia website to your iPad and mobile phone, your home search is easy when you use Trulia to get the inside scoop.

We’ve also added a handy, always-available visual Help experience to help you get the most out of Trulia on iPad – just look for the “?” in the top menu bar.

Here’s a few screenshots highlighting the new Trulia iPad “My Homes” and “Help” functionality to help you get started:

Download the Trulia iPad update today, and start saving all your favorites and best searches to your Trulia account.

Thanks for using Trulia Mobile. We’re hard at work with more updates coming soon, so stay tuned – and let us know what you think by dropping us a line at ipad@trulia.com

- Steven Yarger

Trulia Mobile Product Manager