Trulia, One of Three Most Important Real Estate Social Network Sites

Recently, I asked Frances Flynn Thorsen and Rudy Bachraty, both Trulia community evangelists, to weigh in on the benefits of using Trulia and, more especially, Trulia Voices. Here's what they had to say.

Frances...

Traffic - 5 milliion monthly uniques

Demographics - 70% of the home buyers who visit Trulia plan to buy a home in the next 12 months and 70% of those buyers are not yet working with a real estate professional. 32% of the homeowners at Trulia plan to list their properties in the next 12 months. (This part makes it a no-brainer.)

Suite of Social Media Tools - Robust profile page links to listings, FREE, easy-to-use blog (lots of built-in SEO), Trulia Voices Question-and-Answer platform, mobile applications, including popular iPhone app. Full-tme, handsomest Social Media Guru in the RE Net

Trulia Pro - Low-cost advertising opportunity gives listings featured placement in search results and offers geo-coded spotlight ads.

Community - 430,000 ... 50% consumer/50% real estate pro. Full-time Community Manager with editorial expertise ... new microsite "Surviving the Housing Crisis" http://trulia.com/voices/marketcrisis

In addition to what Fran said, Rudy added...

Trulia Voices: Our online community has active home buyers and sellers asking questions on Trulia Voices. We get approx 1,000 questions per day. Real estate agents have an opportunity to directly engage these consumers.

Trulia Profile: A completely filled out Trulia profile gives consumers who find you on our site a snapshot of who you are. All your questions, answers and blog posts are on display here giving consumers an insight into how you think. If they like what they see, they may call or email you.

Brand Your Listings: Add your photo and contact info on all of your listings. for free, receiveemails from active home buyers & sellers sent directly to you, get stats for sellers by showing how many people are visiting their listings every week and you can add your open houses too......

Trulia Pro: Featured Listings – Get approx 4x more page views Spotlight Ads - Target 20 Local Markets by Geography – Zip Code, Community or City and State Stats – Know which ads in which Geography work best Get more exposure for yourself, your clients listings and your brand!

Trulia Mobile: All your listings appear on mobile devices such as the iPhone, Blackberry, blackjack and more. Iphone is gps enabled so it automagically finds open houses within a radius of where your standing. All agent contact info appears on the listing on your mobile device and you can get step by step driving directions. Many agents are showcasing their presence on Trulia to potential clients during their listing presentations and are getting clients because of it.

My thanks to Fran and Rudy for their thoughts on the advantages of using Trulia. In the next post, Drew Meyers will tout the benefits of using Zillow..