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A question for Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Cimpler Real Estate, Inc. CA BRE# 01330941

 

 Mn behind laptop

                                                    Pete, did you really do that?

 

Are you familiar with Trulia Voices? According to the information on the Trulia’s website it is a place for “real questions & answers from people like you”. For last few weeks I became a frequent visitor to this site. I am a fan of Trulia as you some of you possibly noticed from one of my posts, “Who started Real Estate Revolution”.I was browsing through new questions section on Trulia Voices earlier today and I came across the following question: “Where is the best place to buy a new condo in SOMA? I heard some really good things about SOMA so I wanted to know what new developments should I be looking at or avoid. Any info would be greatly appreciated.”

I was just to start replying it, when I took a quick look at the name of a person asking the question. It read: Peter Flint – A home Buyer in San Francisco” followed by his profile “I am looking to buy in San Francisco and interested in understanding the real estate market in the Bay Area and across the US. I am the founder and CEO of Trulia.com and keen to hear any suggestions on how we can improve the service. Get in touch, I want to hear from you!”.

The reason behind the question seemed obvious - to bring replies about SF neighborhoods from clients and real estate professionals and to attract more clients to the Trulia’s website. A perfectly legitimate reason for a start up company.

And then…

But let me explain first, for those who don’t know Trulia Voices, how Trulia is enticing professionals like us to answer questions.  For every participant they keep scores including a number of first answers, a number of useful answers, a number of all answers provided and a number of questions asked and a number of BEST answers by a participant. Best in every category are featured in on the Trulia Top Voices page (check it up and you will see AR familiar faces there!). A nice bonus on a journey in search of clients, I thought.

And then I read the only two answers to Pete’s question at that time, one from “Jaime” and the second from Pete Flint himself – praising Jaime’s reply (by the way it was a mediocre reply at best). Next to the Jaime’s answer – I noticed the mark “BEST”. Frankly, I was taken aback by the fact that Pete marked the only reply as BEST. As it didn’t make sense to me, I looked to Jaime’s profile. It said (by he way, I copied this quote): “I work at Trulia, a real estate search engine, and have been working in the real estate industry for about 10 years. I spend a lot of time online and think that the Internet can provider people with a vast amount of information”. I looked for more information on the Trulia’s website and found out that Jaime is Trulia’s Vice President, Product Management.

As I am a little bit slow, I am still trying to understand what I have just discovered. A CEO of a new, revolutionary real estate company with $18 M of VC investment behind his belt is trying to boost his VP of Product Management as a real estate expert to make a Trulia Top Voices list? Pete? Is it what you are doing? 

I find it tacky. What do you think? Please share your thoughts.

 

 

Comments (12)

Liz and Tim Frangioso
Keller Williams Realty - Chicopee, MA
Hey, I guess everyone wants points these days.  In their defense maybe they where testing things out?  Trying to prove something?  I would send an email to him and ask.  It could not hurt.
Jul 24, 2007 11:58 PM
DAWN COX
Weichert, Realtors - Wayne, NJ
Broker-Salesperson, REALTOR, ABR, SRES, RELO, e-PR
Life, and the web, is full of "tacky" people of all job titles. The beauty of the internet is that no matter who you are, the skies the limit in your ability to reach people and move "up" thru the ranks. Embrace the endless opportunities!
Jul 24, 2007 11:59 PM
Al Maxwell
Keller Williams - Marietta, GA
Real Estate Agent
Thanks for enlightening us on this. I was unaware of how Trulia worked...
Jul 25, 2007 12:50 AM
New Jersey Real Estate James Boyer Morris, Essex & Union County NJ Realtor
RE/MAX Properties Unlimited, Real Estate - Morristown, NJ
I have looked at Trulia Voices but did not find it very interesting.  yet another way to spend time that we don't really have.
Jul 25, 2007 01:13 AM
Bryant Tutas
Tutas Towne Realty, Inc and Garden Views Realty, LLC - Winter Garden, FL
Selling Florida one home at a time
Interesting Artur, I just read an article last night in Time magazine titled "The price of anonymity". It was very interesting and addresses this exact issue. Seemingly, the CEO of Whole Foods (John Mackey) has been posting on Yahoo!'s finance bulletin boards for years about how good the CEO of Whole Foods is and also he was talking down the competitor Wild Oats. He was doing all this anonymously(alter ego rahodeb). Recently Whole Foods has made a $565 Million play to buy Wild Oats. In a nut shell, his game has been exposed and the FTC is seeking to halt the deal to investigate. Whay will these CEOs do next?? 
Jul 25, 2007 02:14 AM
Anonymous
Pete Flint from Trulia.com

Hey Artur – we’ve all noticed your participation on Trulia Voices and glad that you like it.   I’m not brown nosing here, but the way you’ve been monitoring your peer contributions helps keep the integrity of Voices and we really appreciate it.

Just to clarify, I did not ask the question to game the system (in fact, we discourage Trulians from getting on the leaderboard!).  What happened was we Trulians asked a number of real questions pre-launch in order to “seed” Trulia Voices with content…so our new visitors would know how it works.   Tim is right, when I chose Jamie’s answer as a “best” answer, it was a test. 

btw, while this is a test, the question is a genuine one, I am still in the market for a condo in the city and have my eye on the SOMA area! As the CEO of the company it is very important that I and all my team use the product and so expect to see me and other Trulians here. 

Thanks!
Pete

 

 

 

 

Jul 25, 2007 03:16 AM
#6
Anonymous
Pete Flint from Trulia.com

Artur,

Jamie just removed his answer to my question, so the best answer is open again.

Now, back to the original question, where do you think is the best place to buy a new condo in SOMA? Would be great to hear your thoughts over on Trulia Voices.

Look forward to meeting up someday in person, want to head over to Trulia HQ sometime for a coffee - drop me an email via Trulia Voices.

Pete

 

 

Jul 25, 2007 03:57 AM
#7
Artur Urbanski
Cimpler Real Estate, Inc. - Burlingame, CA
Helping property owners to maximize property value

Tim, I contacted Pete. I am waiting for reply.  Thank you very much for your comment.

Dawn, That's very true. AR is one of them! Thank you.

You welcome Al. Thank you for the comment. 

Hi Maxwell, you welcome. I like the company and what they are doing. However this is a silly way to hurt your credibility with agents and clients. Totally unnecessary. 

James, I found it quite useful. Someone from AR pointed me there and within 30 days I got some interesting leads. What is difficult about all the new things coming at us - that we have to fit it to whatever our business plan is.  It is very easy to become sidetracked. Thank you for your reply.

Bryant, a very interesting story (of the Whole Food CEO). I heard many stories about "seeding" viral marketing, but this one seems to bqe quite blatant. It certainly doesn't compare to what I mentioned as it is quite "innocent". A startup wants visibility, but where is the line?

 

Jul 25, 2007 05:26 AM
Artur Urbanski
Cimpler Real Estate, Inc. - Burlingame, CA
Helping property owners to maximize property value

Hi Pete, I like what Trulia is doing and I made it quite clear. Thank you for clarification. Initial seeding with questions is something what you guys have to do.  I buy "the test" reason (I would probably make it clear to users if I was doing testing. I appreciate your reply and the fact that Jaime removed his answer.

We all are on the watch, especially you guys - so I would make sure that you are "the model to follow" out there. Good Luck. 

I will submit SOMA reply later on - I have to run for a meeting now.

Jul 25, 2007 05:41 AM
Jason Smith
DreamDirt Auction - Mondamin, IA

For some reason I picture two guys in separate offices yelling back and forth to each other. "Hey I just posted a new question on the website can you go answer it?"  "Ya if you go answer the one I just posted" 

I also like Trulia and just signed up to use it today but have been looking at it for some time now. I've not found any success at Zillow so it can't hurt to switch.

 

Aug 13, 2007 12:27 PM
Adam Brett
The Adam and Eric Group - Fullerton, CA
The Adam and Eric Group, Fullerton's Finest
Well, regardless of what happened I am glad to see that Pete is a hands on guy.  Trulia is another great tool out there but what is the ultimate goal.  To build it for consumers, or get enough revenue to sell it?
Aug 13, 2007 01:51 PM
Artur Urbanski
Cimpler Real Estate, Inc. - Burlingame, CA
Helping property owners to maximize property value

Hi Jason and Brett,

It was a minor issue and Pete stayed on the top of it. I wish Trulia well, as they ("Trulians") provide a "breeze of fresh air".  I am really not clear on business model of, either Trulia, or Zillow, so we will see. Obviously the have not shown where they are going. As a matter of fact using Zillow to leverage your listing is a very good idea. Thanks for your comments. Impressive profiles!

Aug 13, 2007 03:32 PM