Trulia Launches Rentals- What Does This Mean for the Industry

I was really excited this morning to see the big news from Trulia.  In case you missed it, let me give you the highlights.  Today Trulia announced the launch of their Homes For Rent Page.  This opens up an entire new avenue to both buyers and those in the real estate industry.  Landlords, property managers, real estate agents & brokers can all list their homes for rent on Trulia. Millions of homes for rent will be added making it the largest website for consumers for find homes for rent in their area. 

Why is this a big deal? According to the press release that Trulia released stated the following:

• 30% of consumers consider renting and buying at the same time and need more tools to help make better decisions (Internal Trulia Data)
• Home ownership levels are now back at the same level as 2000 and hit the peak in 2005
• Shift in consumer behavior – Hitwise data: Sum of the market share of ’sale’ terms declined slightly from 2.74 percent to 2.53 percent, while the sum of the market share of ‘for rent’ terms increased 46 percent, from 1.96 percent to 2.86 percent.
• One year ago only 3 rental sites were in the Top 20 for the real estate category and now there are 7 rental sites in the Top 20 according to Hitwise
• 60% of adults strongly/somewhat agree that renting currently makes better financial sense at this point in their life according to recent survey from Trulia/Harris Interactive

So what are some of the features? 

Rent vs. Buy Calculator- This is a great thing that allows consumers to decide whether buying or renting is going to be a better financial decision at this time in their life.   A consumer can simply input a purchase price, down payment, monthly rent, and a time frame.  They will get instantly a quick summary of what it would cost to purchase a home versus renting during that same time period.  Here is what the results look like:

Local Ratings & Information- Renters can also get local information on all types of things from cleanliness, safety, weather, & much more through an integration with Yelp & greatschools.net.  This way when a consumer is thinking of renting a home, they can make better informed decisions on the area.

Advanced Searching- This is something that is really cool to me.  It allows someone looking for a home for rent to search by keywords for a specific type of property.  So if you are looking for a waterfront penthouse, you can do so.  Not only can you search these homes while on the web, but you can also search homes for rent through Trulia's mobile website. 

Rental Alerts- Many times consumers fall in love with a particular area or community that they would love to rent a home in.  Trulia no offers the ability for a consumer to set up alerts to know when a new property comes available for rent instantly to their email. 

I think this is some really great news for consumers who want to know whether or not renting or buying is better in these economical times.  For those in the real estate industry, this is also a huge thing that allows you to publicize your rentals on one of the worlds largest real estate websites for FREE!

So make sure to go over to Trulia and check out their new For Rent Section.  Down at the bottom of Trulia's Announcement, "Trulia Launches Rentals" from this morning is the information on how to submit your rental listings.