Here are some neat things Chris had to say about our NEW! Local Ads product:

“I started using [a competitor's advertisement] about 1 month ago. I thought the results were very good until I joined Trulia’s Local Ad program a couple weeks ago! Not only do I receive almost twice as many hits from Trulia, the ad is larger (which gives me more room for verbiage) and the cost is around 20% less.

The hits are verifiable using Google’s analytics program. Our Trulia ad lands the potential buyer on a web page within our website dedicated to the area they are searching.

I also noticed that on Trulia you can hit the “next” button and proceed to the next listing. On [a competitor's site] you have to return to the “search results” every time you want to view the next property in your search. It makes me wonder how many people are exiting out of their site due to awkwardness of their search program.”

Here’s his ad:

This is an awesome testimonial Chris. Thanks so much for sharing! If you have feedback to share, please email us at pr@trulia.com.

Our conversation went something like this…

How did you hear about Local Ads?
I heard of Local Ads through a magazine that my company subscribes to and there was a promo where if I signed up for Trulia Pro, I could sign up for Local Ads. And so I did!

How long have you had Local Ads?
I’ve had Local Ads for a little over a month and I’ve already been contacted by two buyers. One directly called me after seeing my ad in Zip Code 75219. I’m currently in the process of closing a contract, tomorrow actually. We met the same afternoon the buyer contacted me and went into contract three days later.

How many markets are you in?
I’m currently in 5 zip codes. The two buyers who contacted me saw my ad in Zip Code 75219.

In his words:

I really like the idea of being able to buy 100% of my market and not have to worry that over time, competitors will come in and I’ll lose my market share. This is a really cool product and I’m super pleased with it!

Check out his ad below and see it live in 75219:

Do you have a testimonial you’d like to share with us? Please send it along to pr@trulia.com.

Last week I had the pleasure of catching up with my friend Tisza Major-Posner, who is a real estate agent at I.V.P.G. Realty and blogger at Route66Living, at the 2009 CAR - California Association of Realtors Expo in San Jose California. She shared a wonderful story with me about a client she met on Trulia Voices. She also shared some of her pet peeves regarding what is an appropriate and inappropriate way of engaging consumers on Trulia Voices. Bottom line - answer the consumers question directly and don’t try to over sell yourself.

Thanks for sharing Tisza!

At the 2009 MLSLI Tech Fair, John Reinhardt, President and CEO of Fillmore Real Estate in Brooklyn, New York, shared some insight into how his company has benefited from being on Trulia.

Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff is selling his Montauk oceanfront retreat with a two-story fireplace and panoramic views of the beach

$8,750,000 4bd / 3ba / 3,000 sqft

Previously owned by Tom Jones and Dean Martin, Nicolas Cage lists his Tudor mansion in prime Bel Air boasting hidden rooms and staircases

$17,500,000 7bd / 9ba / 11,817 sqft

Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter, and his wife are selling their Manhattan-style S.F. penthouse, located in the historical Heublein Building

$1,498,000 2bd / 2ba

Read the full issue here.

Heather Burns is a Mortgage Broker with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. I was reading a blog she wrote on Active Rain titled Why Should I care about Social Networking? where she mentions how she has benefited from being proactive on Trulia Voices - our real estate social networking community.

“Trulia offered me a forum in which I could respond to consumers and other real estate professional alike.  In fact, this past week, I responded to several questions with regards to Wells Fargo’s requirements for Jumbo mortgage down payments. Because I was able to respond in a manner that allowed multiple people to view, I was able to generate several leads, and a preapproval. Had I been working within more traditional methods, such as email or telephone with just one individual, I would not have had the opportunity to speak with others who were in need of my assistance.”

Thanks for helping real estate agents and consumers with their mortgage related questions! We wish you continued success.

photo credit: tuppaware_001

Real estate is a relationship business that is built on trust. Multiple parties rely on each other to reach a common goal. To reach this goal, teamwork and a steady line of communication is essential. Failure to communicate can lead to confusion, delays, errors or missed opportunities. So what does this have to do with Trulia, Twitter and Customer service?

At Trulia, we proactively participate in social media in a variety of ways and on various social networks. Each network is slightly different as is the manner in which the community chooses to engage. Regardless of the network, one thing is for certain, we’re there to be a part of the conversation. That being said, one of the most important things we do is listen. We listen to what consumers and agents have to say - the good, the bad and the ugly.

Twitter is a social network that has become an important communication channel for us - especially for customer service. On any given day, I’ll have a conversation with someone about something Trulia related. Questions like -  How to submit a listing, What’s T.A.N, Can you fix my property address, How can I find an agent in my area, Can you help me sell our home faster, Is my MLS on Trulia to things like Can Trulia sponsor my REBARCAMP, Can you speak at our event and so forth. It’s a mixed bag really. All good stuff. In each instance, it brings us a little closer to our audience, customer and clients.

A couple of months ago, I met Erica Parpan - @realsupportva, a virtual assistant at RealSupport on Twitter. Initially, we exchanged a couple of casual hello tweets…sparked by my Trulia hat avatar of all things….

…and RT’s - re-tweets -  which helped build up our rapport…

Then, Erica had some questions re: one of her clients listing syndication feeds….

140 characters was not enough room to have this type of conversation so I asked her to email me the details. At that point, a customer service conversation that started on Twitter moved to email where we could exchange more details. After receiving the info, I relied on our great back end Customer Service and Engineering team to assist in fixing her clients issue. Together, with teamwork and an open line of communication we were able to resolve the issue expeditiously.

To read more details on how we helped Erica and her clients in this specific case and another via Twitter, you can read all about it from her perspective on her Active Rain blog titled - Twitter Tip - Building Invaluable Relationships on Twitter to Support Your Business.

I have many other stories like this but just wanted to highlight how a company like Trulia can use a non-real estate specific social network like Twitter for Customer Service. Are you using Twitter for customer service?

Today, we’re sharing a Trulia Testimonial blog post by Mark Wisterman, a real estate Broker/Owner of Realty World - Best Realty in Oroville, California. In his most recent Trulia blog, he talks about the recent success he and his office have had on Trulia.

According to Mark:

As a rule I am normally not a big ”endorsement” kind of guy. I am very protective of my reputation. I just feel that putting my reputation on the line to recommend a company that I do not have much experience with is not a good idea.

Today I am going to make an exception to my self imposed rule by telling you about my recent success with Trulia.

The top 5 takeaways are:

1. Featured listings showing up on the top of the first 6-7 pages for Oroville, California property results pages
2. Getting Quality Leads
3. Opened one escrow from a Trulia lead last week
4. One offer pending from a client who found Mark on Trulia
5. Mark’s office had 6 property inquires from Trulia in one day

Check out Mark’s entire - Thank You Trulia - blog post on his Trulia Voices Blog.

Thanks for sharing your Trulia experiences with us. We wish you and your entire company continued success.

Or, just click on the CNET Webware image above to Vote for Trulia.

Thanks to our Trulia fans, last year we won the 2008 People’s Choice Webby Award….With your help, maybe we can add the CNET Webware 100 Commerce Award to our mantle

Thanks for all your support!

This week we want to give a big shout-out to Tim White, Real Estate Pro in Hart, MI.  Tim recently heard of Trulia through a fellow agent and decided to check it out.

Here’s his experience as written on his Trulia blog:

“I jumped on-line, created my profile, and started looking around. I went to the Q&A section, and there was a post from a buyer looking for a couple acres of land in one of the markets I work in, and I replied simply:

‘Scott - Give me a call and we’ll see what we can find. All my contact info is available at http://www.timwhitehomes.com‘

Within a couple of hours, my cell phone rings, and I am talking to Scott directly! I asked him to provide more details about what exactly he was looking for, and collected his contact information. I told him I would start looking for some opportunities for him, and call him tomorrow.

I just got off the phone with him this morning! He has the day off today, and we are going to look at some properties this afternoon.

It took me all of ten minutes to create my profile on Trulia, and about 30 seconds to post my reply to Scott. I think that’s a pretty good return on my time investment! Best of all, it didn’t cost me a dime! Seeing the results so quickly was extremely satisfying, and I would recommend that every agent be using Trulia.”

This is AMAZING Tim! Thanks for sharing such a positive experience with us!  Please keep us posted on how everything turns out with Scott.