Trulia

Trulia is an online platform that helps the users search for their new homes and facilitates them to make better decisions by using the relevant information regarding the real estate market. It attempts to provide the best deal to the user that does not hit their pocket negatively. It basically collects data regarding the homes from various sources like professional websites and multiple listing services (MLS) in the real estate. Sometimes Trulia includes those listings of properties also which are not even included in many MLS. It basically deals in residential properties in the real estate market. Apart from providing the information of the residential properties, Trulia also provides searching for popular neighborhoods and schools in that particular area. One of most attractive features of Trulia is the use of Google Maps in the site to show the exact location of homes. The feature is named ‘Heat maps’ in which a user can have a virtual view of the properties. It facilitates the users to compare the prices of different properties or for the same property with the past prices. It perfectly uses statistics tools to show various trend patterns in the prices like average listing price, average price per square feet, etc. Users can also provide advices and opinions; can put queries and answer the already existing ones on the site. The search process of Trulia is simple, at the start a user just has to provide the city name and ZIP or popular neighborhood, and then the price range, type of home required, number of bathrooms, bedrooms and the area of the home in square feet is to be filled. Users can also get more details and pictures by accessing the agent/broker website. With ‘My Trulia’, users can save their favorite properties and notes, so they can regularly keep a track on those properties. Trulia- a real estate search engine is a combined effort of two Stanford MBAs-Pete Flint (CEO of the company) and Sami Inkinen (CCO of the company). It was launched in May 2004, with only ten employees to start with. The company is situated in San Francisco, USA. Trulia boasts of an increasing user base and plan to carry forward it position in the real estate domain. Trulia is an active search platform in the real estate market for a long time and is providing quality services to the home seekers, brokers and professional websites. ‘Heat maps’ is an excellent feature in the site through which users can actually see on their computer screens the virtual photos of different homes. The users can also compare and find out trends in prices of various homes through this site. Trulia looks like a pretty busy site with lot of information placed on the home page itself. The use of greenish and blue color in the site is great. The navigation is smooth and it doesn’t take much time to move from one page to another. Registration with Trulia is simple, and it does not require a bulk of information. A user just has to provide his name, email address, password, location and phone number (optional). Then the user is required to specify the category i.e., home buyer, home seller, real estate professional, etc. There is no need to give credit card details for the registration. Once a user enters all the required details, a confirmatory mail is sent to the user’s email address. Trulia does not charge a single penny to use its services and view the information on its site. It charges nothing from brokers and agents for listing the properties on the site. It basically makes money through the advertising placed on its site by professionals and service providers in the real estate market. Company is presently funded by Angel investors. The site can be recommended to anybody who is in search of a new home and has the specifications for the kind of home required by him in mind. This site provides the best deal for the home seeker which is according to his budget too. Home sellers can also take advantage of Trulia by listing their properties on the site.