Trulia 101

[PPC_Newbie]

Hi!
I've just been hearing about Trulia, and I have checked out the site. It looks GREAT! Has lots of valuable info, and from what I can tell has a FREE way for real estate agents to post their homes for sale.

Looks wonderful!! I can't wait to get started. What is your experience with Trulia? How popular is it? Do the masses know about it yet?

I see how to setup an XML file with your listing data. I guess you just open up Word Pad, create that .xml file, then FTP it up to your site, submit the form and wait? Is that all it takes?

Does anybody else have any experience with Trulia? What were your results?

[RESteve]

I personally do not have a lot of experience with Trulia, but my real estate office with Keller Williams just implemented their own listing service, and all listings are uploaded to Trulia and Google Base.

This was as of January so I'll be sure to share my thoughts soon.

[Ryan Ward]

Unlike some of the other real estate search sites, Trulia is real estate only. The jury is still out on how effective it wil utlimately be. At least at this point it is nice to have for additional exposue when you have a listing appointment. I too am with Keller Williams and I believe they automatically upload weekly to trulia.

[judyo]

This is one of those real estate portals that we might have to worry about down the road - if it gets too big & too popular it might start charging us for our own leads like Homegain - or upgrade charges like realtor.com. The bigger it gets, the more likely it will start taking over in the serps, too.

[Dennis Pease]

I'm with Judy on this, in fact I'm very opposed to it. Why would you add your listings on a companies website that wants to dominate your area. Type in "your city real estate" and you will see Trulia moving up the search engines. The more agents adding their listings the stronger they get.

I think agents need to market themselves, NOT your competitors. Trulia IS your competitor.

Wake up people, Judy is right comparing them to Homegain.

[cohomefinder]

Don't be fooled, read this thread before you post your listings on Trulia:

http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/...?t=9821&page=3

[Morristown]

Hmmm, sounds kind of bad. Kind of like zzzzilllowwwww I agree that we marketed agent websites with good IDX on them is a big part of the answer, though there is only so much room on the SE's for agent sites and lots of agents. Within 5 miles of me there are atleast 300 agents. Thank god most are very much not web savy at all.

[Morristown]

that should have read

I agree that well marketed agent websites with good IDX on them is the answer or a big part of it.

[Dennis Pease]

Within 5 miles of me there are at least 300 agents. Thank god most are very much not web savy at all.

That's the key in any business James. You've got to be better than your competitor.

If you are not already, you will gain that ability here.

[Morristown]

Yep, I hear you. I have most of the pieces in place and hoping to get the rest in place soon, then hoping the real estate market gets a little better as well. Have two listings right now, priced each of them about 3% below the market and they are hardly even getting shown. I wanted to be able to give my clients truthful answers so I even called some of the other agents who had listings in the area and asked what they were getting for showings and mostly I got the answer of very few showings. Not good.