Recently, we’ve been hearing many success stories from Trulia Voices members. Many have extended their online interactions with consumers to actual offline business relationships. By talking to them and observing Trulia Voices behaviors, we came up with 10 tips which hopefully can help all of you make the most out of Trulia Voices.

1. Complete your profile

After reading your question or answer on Voices, your profile is where consumers will visit to learn more about you. Upload a cool photo of yourself to stand out. Add a link to your personal website, blog or listing to boost its traffic. The more detailed you make your profile and the more you contribute to Voices, over time, the higher your page rank may be for your profile. Fill out the “about me” section, add testimonials, talk about your experience, interests and anything else that is important for you share.

2. Focus on the consumer

The majority of questions on Trulia Voices are asked by home buyers and home sellers—they want clear, informative and concrete advice that answers their question. They don’t want the hard sell.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fun Friday House Story

Step aside Mr. Oracle Ellison ($300M home), The Donald ($125M), Mr. Softy Gates ($100M), Sage from Omaha: Warren Buffet ($700k –ha, the value of a 1-bdrm condo in SF!) - y’all’s cribs are like dollhouse slums compared to the one that India’s richest person- Mukesh Ambani’s is building - it’s a $2 billion (!) ,400,000 sf, 27-story palace! Siiick!

Read the story about his 27-story home monument here.

See the slideshow pics here.

Of course, it’s only 4.65% of his $43B fortune - so it’s really more sensible than the % of our net worths that we’ll pay for a home! Heck, most of us spend a larger % on our cars! I think that I spend 4.65% of my net worth on lattes every year….

Harris Interactive ® recently conducted a comprehensive survey on our behalf showing that while more than half of all U.S. adults would consider purchasing a foreclosed home, over two-thirds also feel that there are several negative aspects of such purchases.

The survey was conducted over a three-day period in late April, found that, while 69 percent of U.S. adults feel that there are negative aspects to purchasing a foreclosed home, more than half would be at least somewhat likely to consider purchasing a foreclosed home. Of survey respondents mentioning negative aspects of purchasing a foreclosed home, 69 percent cited hidden costs; 35 percent considered the prospect risky; and 33 percent mentioned the possibility of the home losing value.

The results of the Harris Interactive ® survey provide nuanced insight into the types of consumers more likely to consider the purchase of a foreclosed home, including:

• Single/never married adults (60 percent) are more likely to be at least somewhat likely to consider purchasing a foreclosure versus married (50 percent) or divorced/separated/widowed adults (50 percent).

• Male respondents are more likely to be at least somewhat likely to consider purchasing a foreclosed home compared with female respondents (57 percent versus 51 percent).

• Younger adults (18-34) are more than twice as likely to be at least somewhat likely to consider purchasing a foreclosed home than U.S. adults ages 55+ (69 percent versus 32 percent).

• Respondents with children in the household are more likely to be at least somewhat likely to consider purchasing a foreclosed home versus those who have no children in their household (66 percent versus 50 percent).

• About three out of every four U.S. adults aged 18-34 feel that there are negative aspects of purchasing a foreclosed home (74 percent) versus two-thirds (66 percent) of U.S. adults aged 35 and older.

• 20 percent of U.S. adults said that having a personal connection with someone who lost their home to foreclosure is a negative aspect of purchasing a foreclosed home.

For the full snapshot of Harris Survey Findings, click here. You can read the full press release and learn more about the methodology here. Check out tips from Trulia’s online community of foreclosure experts here.

Most savvy house hunters today know that foreclosed homes are a growing portion of real estate available right now. In fact, consumers are searching now more than ever for foreclosures — a pattern we’ve seen on Trulia.com with 214 percent growth in searches in the first quarter of this year alone.

But, that doesn’t mean that home buyers are comfortable with the process. Trulia’s latest and greatest consumer survey by Harris Interactive told us that while consumers see the potential value in foreclosure properties, the vast majority are also worried about a process that may have potential to go horribly wrong.

So we scoured Trulia Voices to find a panel of foreclosure specialists across the country. Here’s the first installment of their TOP FORECLOSURE TIPs to put your foreclosure fears at rest:

• Prioritize your needs: Make a list of “must-haves” for your new home. The foreclosed house you choose should have some overall appeal as well as most of the items on your list.
• Talk to experts: Make an appointment with an experienced foreclosure agent. Don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions.
• Be current: Look at neighborhood data with emphasis on real time sales. Compare current and last year’s home values to determine which way the market is moving.
• Aim high: Find out the overall value of the neighborhood in which you are buying. A foreclosure may allow you entry into a better neighborhood.
• Make inspection mandatory: Minimize hidden costs by planning a professional inspection. Don’t be afraid to get a second opinion.
• Avoid pre-stage: The pre-foreclosure/short sales stage is typically not the most profitable. You could wait weeks or even months for an answer from the lender.
• Buy at the right time: The foreclosure stage can be profitable when it goes to public auction. The best REO deals are often situations where the home has been on the market for 60 days or more.

We’d like to thank our panel of pros for their time and great advice: Bill Boone, Fabiola Fleuranvil, John Goad Jr., Tom J. Hall, Travis Houston, Patrick Mahony, Melissa Morgan and Elizabeth Weintraub.

As always, you can get more questions answered from these pros and over 30,000 others on Trulia Voices. You can even find a foreclosure specialist in your neighborhood by entering a city and keyword foreclosure. What are you waiting for?

We’re in a challenging, fast-paced online real estate world – and few people recognize that better than the Realtor associations who work hard to provide their members with the resources they need to be successful. Associations have always helped Realtor members embrace new technologies to build and grow their businesses. With that in mind, we’re excited to announce that the Silicon Valley Association of REALTORS® recognized the value Trulia could provide its members awhile back and today is officially announcing a partnership with us!

This relationship will provide distinct marketing and educational benefits to SILVAR members:

· Marketing exposure for SILVAR member listings

· An intuitive public-facing search site, powered by the Trulia Publisher Platform

· Exclusive educational opportunities from Trulia for SILVAR members

Having personally spent the last 6 years working closely with Realtor association executives I sincerely believe this marks an exciting day for the future of value-added services that associations provide their members. Click here to learn more about our new partnership.

Thanks to our fans, Trulia has won the prestigious 2008 People’s Voice Webby Award.

The Webby Awards is the Internet’s most respected symbol of success. The 12th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. Webby Awards are awarded in over 100 categories.

According to the webby website, past winners include, “Amazon.com, eBay, Yahoo!, iTunes, Google, FedEx, BBC News, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, NPR, Salon Magazine, Evite, Meetup, Wikipedia, Flickr, ESPN, Comedy Central, PBS, and The Onion.” We’re proud to join such an elite group.

The entire team at Trulia works extremely hard to build a fantastic user friendly online real estate experience for consumers and real estate professionals…so it’s a huge honor to win the 2008 People’s Voice Webby Award. Additionally, winning the award will just encourage us to do even more to revolutionize the real estate process for buyers, brokers, sellers and agents.

What’s really special about winning the 2008 People’s Voice Award is that together, as a community, consumers and the real estate professionals voted us their favorite real estate site in the space. Your voice has been heard loud and clear. We are pumped! We’d like to personally thank each and every one of you who took the time to cast your vote for us. Thanks to each of our team members who put in countless hours each and everyday. Thanks to the The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for nominating us - we are grateful. Thanks to our Facebook group, I Helped Trulia Win a Webby Award, for your support. Thanks to our family and friends for your continued support. We love you all…..Ok, I hear the music so it’s time to wrap this up…..Congrats to all the other 2008 winners.

If you remember when Cuba Gooding Jr. won his Oscar® award for his performance in Jerry Maguire , then you can get a sense of how we feel today. In case you forgot, You Tube has the video clip for all to enjoy here.

With continuing strides towards being the best company to work for in the entire world, our focus on BOFFI is highlighted by our 2nd quarterly installment of “mind body spirit” day. It’s an event that’s fast become a symbol of F – F standing for “FUN”.

With a fast growing team (currently 66), the cultural progression witnessed through days like this is outstanding. All types of events make up the day: team (golf, soccer), individual (yoga, riding, massage), and of course social (organic lunch, happy hour)–all with strikingly similar results, an overwhelmingly satisfying feeling that we all enjoy each other’s company and love what we do.

Of course, incorporating our right coast Trulians remains a challenge (perhaps transcendental meditation will bridge the gap for next time), but reports from New York were highlighted by a noted void of any photographic documentation (commentary from one of our newest additions, Ruth was hilariously vague). As I don my HR cap, this was perhaps a good thing. Hey, NY – we’re always thinking of you!

Friday’s SF events included:
8:00 am – Golf - Jeff 1.0 and I won (rumor has it that we schooled the competition)
9:30 am – Yoga in the office
Noon – Organic lunch + smoothies
2:00 pm – Hula hooping lessons by in-house experts, event guru Stephanie and “who says engineers are all men” Erica, which fast degenerated into a heated hooping-while-running race (Our very own marketing mastermind…uh hum Heather, was surprisingly strong, and vocal in this area)
3:00 pm – Soccer match rallied by design maven Sasha + employee #3/4 (but who’s counting?) Edouard
4:00 pm – A rigorously energetic bike ride lead by engineering top-tech Daniele in what have since been described as 30 – 75 mph head winds
6:00 pm – gathering at “the local”

All in all, an exciting and much deserved day for all of us to remember the importance of Mind, Body, and Spirit.

This week, the top thread on Trulia Voices has lots of unique points of view about low-balling offers. In many local markets around the nation, homes are sitting on the market longer then most sellers would like. Home buyers may be using this as a signal to present a low ball offer. Do you think it’s a bad thing when home buyers present low ball offers? Let’s see what our community thinks…..

1. Real estate pro, Lynn 911 Dallas stated, “Home buyers who want too low ball offers, the problems they cause cost the buyer $1000’s at closing….”

Real estate pro Gerry Vasquez says, “Are you serious? At a time when many homes are not selling because they’re priced too high, a national crusade by Realtors to chastise so-called “low-ball” home-buyers is, well, odd.”

While ML-I, a home buyer from Miami, says “This is not a game as you realtors would like it! This is real money! Offer is a offer is a offer. There is no reason to pay one dollar more than one has to and there is no reason to accept one dollar less than one has to.”

Real estate pro, Deborah Madey, says,”Unfortunately, the media has more influence over buyers and sellers than anyone else. I suggest that buyers utilize data to solidify their offers. If there is no rationale for a lower than ask price, it’s a pure play on seller motivation. April has the ability to keep walking away until she finds that highly motivated seller. ”

Trish, a real estate pro says, “You don’t normally find someone twisting a seller’s arm to sell. If a buyer is serious about a particular property, they need an agent that will work with them SERIOUSLY (low-ball offers typically come from buyers that don’t NEED to buy…they are usually ‘testing the water’ to see if they can ’snag’ it up at ‘their’ price).”

Real estate pro, RK Ruthman says, “With the economy being what it is, low ball offers or not, negotiations have become a tug of war. Buyers and Sellers are equally digging in their heels. If one side lets go, then the other side falls on their arse.”

….and now to the rest of the top 10……

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve been working on a new version of our Home Roll widget and I’m happy to announce that it’s now available for everyone to use! It’s a super-visual tool that gives your website users a snapshot of the latest homes for sale in a market.

Highlights of the new version include:

• Thumbnail images!
• Snapshot of the six “best matched” property results on Trulia
• Easily embeddable in any web page
• You choose the city and state, but can also specify a price range, number of beds/baths and square foot requirements for your search using simple choices from drop-down menus
• Like all of our widgets - it’s free!

Whether you’re a real estate professional, a blogger or a professional publisher, the Home Roll widget is a great way to add a snapshot of real estate search to your website. Check-out how Topix is using it in the Real Estate section of their website.

We’re super excited to add the new and improved Home Roll widget to the growing list of Trulia widgets and tools for your website. These tools are free, easily embeddable on any web page and add great real estate content for website owners. There are live examples of our TruliaMap and TruliaStats widgets in the side bar of our blog.

Stay tuned for more free and easy ways to bring the Trulia search experience to your site!

Search engines are where most people start their web search and being ranked highly in search engines is a big deal. For any website, it is important to be highly ranked in search engines as this helps to drive more users. Recently, there has been some confusion or misunderstanding about Trulia in the blogosphere in regards to high search engine ranking. I think it’s important to address the concerns head on, so that you can understand Trulia’s strategy clearly, without distraction. It’s going to be a long one…and I hope this clears up what we do and where we stand.

Before I start – it’s worth clarifying a few things:

Read the rest of this entry »