Starting immediately you can search for open houses on Trulia! This is huge. See a map below for all homes with open houses listed on Trulia for Los Angeles.
You see that we have 522 open houses for LA listed. This service is not comprehensive (yet), but it is darn good start. Currently, we receive the open house information from broker and agent feeds, so if you send us a feed, make sure that it includes open house information.
And stay tuned…soon enough agents will be able to enter open house information on their listings directly.
All house hunters need to do is search for their city, click on “open houses” under Listing Type, then wah-lah! All open homes are displayed in search results and on the map.
Another improvement we just launched is the ability to refine your search by lot size and year built. So if you are looking for a home in Houston on a 1+ acre lot built between 1960 and 1980, you should check out these 9 gems. This is something that our users have been asking for and we are happy to deliver.
Now please indulge a personal story…
One Saturday late last year when I was looking for a home, I drove by a very cute home with a for sale sign. The listing agent clearly manicured the yard, paid for the sign rider and did all the other stuff you are supposed to do to get the drivers by interested. Successful agent! I wanted to check it out.
Interest piqued, I called the agent twice to get the open house information- no answer; I found the listing on her website (sweet!), but still no open house info. Alas, I skipped the cute SFH in Marin and stayed in San Francisco for my Sunday open house tour. Got a call from the agent on Tuesday, letting me know that I should have looked at the local paper (stupid house hunter!) to learn that the open house was in fact on Sunday, from 2-4. Hmph.
I love the paper, but does it make sense that you can’t find this simple info anywhere online–especially when you can post online for free?! I think not. This move will hopefully help more agents get the word out online; we look forward to getting even more open house coverage across the country!
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March 8th, 2008 at 8:05 am
This is awesome…any plans to an embeddable Trulia widget that display open houses based upon zipcode? that would be terrific to have.
Thanks Trulia
Julie Andrews
WNYHomeVoice.com
March 8th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Julie - now that would be cool. Will add that to the idea pipeline.
March 8th, 2008 at 9:50 am
The newspaper has been uneffective for years. No one looks at the paper for listings or open houses anymore. Open houses online is the way to go.
On another note, the link to the Trulia blog is located down at the bottom of your home page. You really have to know its there to find it easily. Any thoughts about a larger button in a more prominent location? I think you would get more comments on the blog if it was easier to find.
March 8th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Hey Debra - I can’t tell you how frustrating it was to try to find open houses every weekend!! The icing on the cake was the agent making me feel stupid and inadequate for not looking in her local paper. It was classic.
And thanks for the feedback on the blog link.
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:02 pm
For another great way to help you find properties and homes according to price, location, schools, and even by neighborhoods check out Movoto. They are a great new website that specializes in making home buying a whole lot easier. It helped me find exactly what I was looking for and I couldn’t be happier.
San Francisco Properties
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:01 am
Hey Real Estate Guru — let me guess, would you happen to be a Movoto employee?